Last year in the GUIDE it was the pleasure of the editor to call
attention to the fact that the Japanese had so thoroughly grasped Base
Ball that they were bent on some day playing an American team for the
international championship. It is not probable that such a series will
take place within the next five years, but not improbable that it will
take place within the next decade. When the Japanese learn to bat
better, and with more effect, they will become more dangerous rivals to
the peace of mind of the American players. They have grasped the general
theory of the game amazingly well, and they field well, but they have
yet to develop some of those good old fashioned "clean up" hitters in
which the "fans" of the United States revel.

This season it comes to the attention of the editor of the GUIDE that
more progress has been made in China in regard to Base Ball than in any
fifty years preceding. True, there was not much Base Ball in the fifty
years preceding, but now there is. There is a league at Hong Kong. There
are Base Ball teams at Shanghai and other cities.

Dr. Eliot, former president of Harvard, who recently returned from a
trip around the world, holds that Base Ball has done more to humanize
and civilize the Chinese than any influence which has been introduced by
foreigners, basing his statement on the fact that the introduction of
the sport among the younger Chinese has exerted a tremendous restraint
upon their gambling propensities.

It is a rather queer fact that where the civilizations are older in the
countries of the Occident there is a greater tendency to gamble,
especially among the young, than there is in the newer America.
Doubtless this is largely due to the lack of athletic pastime. The young