Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/501

AMATEUR. undergraduates connected with any allied college athletic organization.

"2. No one shall be eligible to compete in any athletic meeting, games, or entertainment given or sanctioned by this Union, unless he shall be a duly registered athlete, a member of the organization from which he enters, and shall not have competed from any club in this Union during a period of three months next preceding such entry; nor shall any member of any club in this Union, or any club in any district in this Union, be allowed to compete in case he has within one year competed as a member of any other club then in this Union, except with the consent of such other club, which consent shall be filed with the Registration Committee of his district prior to such competition, unless such other club shall have disbanded or practically ceased to exist; provided, that the requirements of this section shall not apply to any athletic meeting, games, or entertainment, the entries for which are confined to the club or organization giving such meeting or entertainment.

"No athlete who has been released from a club which is a member of this Union, and who competes for another club directly thereafter, shall be allowed to compete again for the club he was released from for one year from the date of his release, except that the club has disbanded or ceased to exist.

"No person shall be eligible to compete for or enter any competition as a member of any club in the territory of any active member of this Union, unless he shall have resided within the territory of said active member at least four months previous to entering for competition; nor shall any person be eligible to enter or compete in any district championship meeting unless he shall have been a bona fide resident of such district for at least six months prior to the holding of such championship meeting; and no person shall be eligible to compete in a championship meeting of more than one district in one year. The restrictions contained in this section shall not affect the eligibility of an undergraduate connected with any allied college athletic organization who shall have been elected to membership in any club of this Union prior to November 20, 1899, to represent such club as long as he remains an undergraduate: nor shall these restrictions apply to an undergraduate competing for any college belonging to an allied body.

"3. No prizes shall be given by any individual, club, committee, or association, or competed for or accepted by any athlete, except suitably inscribed wreaths, diplomas, banners, badges, medals, time-pieces and mantel ornaments, or articles of jewelry, silverware, table or toilet service, unless authorized by the Registration Committee."

It will be noticed that this organization does not control golf, in which game amateurs may play in contests against professionals even for a prize; with this limitation, however, that if, in the open contest, an amateur win he must take the prize in plate, and not in money. The golf rules are formulated and enforced by the United States Golf Association.

In cricket there is no bar whatever to playing against or with professionals openly paid for their services or even hired season after season by their clubs: but cricket has been in existence so long, and its ethics are so well understood, that no harm results; the professional needs no laws to define his social position or the part he takes in a game which has escaped the eagerness so characteristic of the more modern games. In fact, in nearly every sport there are shades and differences in definition and practice. Notably is this so in bicycling, wherein the classification has been altered several times, and in football, where the rules of college games extend so far as to limit the contestants to those who have been resident pupils for such and such a time and are in such and such an educational grade. Other minute distinctions entitle a man to or debar him from the right to play, and readers desiring to be perfectly sure of their position on any given sport, in any given year, will do well to consult the actual rules in force formulated by the governing body of the sport.

Professionalism sometimes tends to elevate the standard of sports so far as records are concerned, and it is not in itself necessarily bad. But, although some of the truest sportsmen have been professionals, the nature of sport is such that its best uses, recreation and emulation, are in danger of being lost sight of by the professional whose aim is to make money. The record of baseball in this country is an instance of the harmful effects of professionalism on the spirit of a game. Bicycle racing, too, has degenerated into a mere gate-money exhibition. In England football is in danger from the same cause, while in America football is played almost exclusively by the colleges, and professionalism is practically unknown. Into some other sports the spirit of professionalism has never entered; notably is this so in lawn tennis, curling, quoits, canoeing, archery, polo, croquet, and its successor roque. These and a few other games have always been played solely by enthusiastic lovers of them. The amateur spirit is essentially a moral quality, and the games will retrograde, or otherwise, just in proportion as the moral code of the contestants is interpreted. Laws are next to useless where men are determined to evade them. Happily, the tendency of the times is distinctly toward a higher plane of interpretation, and a stricter separation of the amateur from the professional.

AMATI,;i-ma'te. A family of celebrated Italian violin makers, who lived in Cremona. Andrea, the eldest, born about 1520, was descended from an ancient family dating back to the eleventh century. He was the founder of the Cremona school of violin makers. His early instruments are so Brescian in character that he is supposed to have been a pupil of Gasparo da Salò. Few of his violins are extant. His model was small, with high back and belly, amber varnish, and clear though weak tone. Nicola, his younger brohier, made basses in preference to violins, and was his inferior. Andrea's sons, Antonio and Geronimo, worked together much after their father's style. Geronimo also made instruments alone, of larger pattern, and changed the shape of the pointed sound-hole. Geronimo's son, Nicola (1596-1684), was the most eminent of the family. His model is of extreme elegance. The corners are sharply pointed, the backs and bellies of beautiful grained wood, the sound-holes graceful and bold, the scroll of exquisite cut, and the varnish transparent and of a deep, rich hue. As a rule, he worked after a small pattern, but he produced some large violins, which are now called "grand Amatis," and are highly