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Arnold Bennett - Your United States
restaurants of the great cities of America it is, I fancy, rarer than anywhere else.
VI. SPORT AND THE THEATER
I remember thinking, long before I came to the United States, at the time when the anti-gambling bill was
a leading topic of American correspondence in European newspapers, that a State whose public opinion
would allow even the discussion of a regulation so drastic could not possibly regard "sport" as sport is
regarded in Europe. It might be very fond of gambling, but it could not be afflicted with the particular
mania which in Europe amounts to a passion, if not to a religion. And when the project became law, and
horse-racing was most beneficially and admirably abolished in the northeastern portion of the Republic, I
was astonished. No such law could be passed in any European country that I knew. The populace would
not suffer it; the small, intelligent minority would not care enough to support it; and the wealthy
oligarchical priest-patrons of sport would be seriously convinced that it involved the ruin of true progress
and the end of all things. Such is the sacredness of sport in Europe, where governments audacious
enough to attack and overthrow the state-church have never dared to suggest the suppression of the vice
by which alone the main form of sport lives ...
So that I did not expect to find the United States a very "sporting" country. And I did not so find it. I do
not wish to suggest that, in my opinion, there is no "sport" in the United States, but only that there is
somewhat less than in Western Europe; as I have already indicated, the differences between one
civilization and another are always slight, though they are invariably exaggerated by rumor.
I know that the "sporting instinct" - a curious combination of the various instincts for fresh air,
destruction, physical prowess, emulation, devotion, and betting - is tolerably strong in America. I could
name a list of American sports as long as the list of dutiable articles in the customs tariff. I am aware that
over a million golf balls are bought (and chiefly lost) in the United States every year. I know that no
residence there is complete without its lawn-tennis court. I accept the statement that its hunting is
unequaled. I have admired the luxury and completeness of its country clubs. Its yachting is renowned. Its
horse-shows, to which enthusiasts repair in automobiles, are wondrous displays of fashion. But none of
these things is democratic; none enters into the life of the mass of the people. Nor can that fierce sport be
called quite democratic which depends exclusively upon, and is limited to, the universities. A six-day
cycling contest and a Presidential election are, of course, among the very greatest sporting events in the
world, but they do not occur often enough to merit consideration as constant factors of national existence.
Baseball remains a formidable item, yet scarcely capable of balancing the scale against the sports -
football, cricket, racing, pelota, bull-fighting - which, in Europe, impassion the common people, and
draw most of their champions from the common people. In Europe the advertisement hoardings -
especially in the provinces - proclaim sport throughout every month of the year; not so in America. In
Europe the most important daily news is still the sporting news, as any editor will tell you; not so in
America, despite the gigantic headings of the evening papers at certain seasons.
But how mighty, nevertheless, is baseball! Its fame floats through Europe as something prodigious,
incomprehensible, romantic, and terrible. After being entertained at early lunch in the correct hotel for
this kind of thing, I was taken, in a state of great excitement, by a group of excited business men, and
flashed through Central Park in an express automobile to one of the great championship games. I noted
the excellent arrangements for dealing with feverish multitudes. I noted the splendid and ornate
spaciousness of the grand-stand crowned with innumerable eagles, and the calm, matter-of-fact tone in
which a friend informed me that the grand-stand had been burned down six months ago. I noted the
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