Gymnastics and Sports in Fin de Siecle France

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In No. 52 of the Olympic Reviewwe began to publish a study byMr. Eugen WEBER, "Gymnasticsand Sports in f in-de-s ic leFrance" . Here i s the second

part of this study.

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Gymnastics and sportsin fin-de-sicle France

by Eugen Weber

RISE OF CYCLING

If press and publicgradually became more knowled-geable about different sports,it was probably because of oneparticular pastime that wouldbecome particularly French, asport that, though partly ins-pired by English ventures, maywell be counted a French

creation: "Cours, vlo, coursdans ta lumire / Le progrschevauche sur toi!" sangDECKERT's "Ode au Vloce". The

tone had hardly changed sincethe first modern sporting pub-lications had sprouted in Parisand in the provinces around1868-69, all devoted to cycling,symbol of "moral and material

progress", means of regeneratingman by physical exercise.Edouard SEIDLER has brieflytraced the rise of a Frenchsporting press from uncertainbeginnings to 1894, when theweekly "Bicyclette" printedtwenty thousand copies and thedaily "Vlo", founded threeyears earlier, boasted sales ofeighty thousand (22). By thattime France boasted 132,000velocipedes of one kind or an-other. The sporting press thatcatered to their owners had

discovered and would reveal theclose relationship between acertain kind of sporting acti-vity, publicity and circulation

The first long-distancecycle race, from Paris toRouen, was held in 1869. The1870s and 1880s saw a greatnumber of competitions, withthe same race involving tri-cycles, penny-farthings, and

other models then in existence.Almost all were amateur compe-


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titions, and all were dominated

by English cyclists. Thus whenthe oldest of the great roadraces still in existence,Bordeaux-Paris, was first runin May 1891, four Englishmenled the winners (23). Itsoon became apparent that,properly handled, such enter-prises helped to sell news-papers and also cycles. It was"le Petit Journal" that pro-moted the great Paris-Brest-Paris race in 1891, and thesecond great sporting daily"l'Auto", launched the Tour deFrance in 1903 to promote itssales.

For a long time cyclingremained an expensive pastime.The bicycle itself was likelyto cost five hundred francs or

more, equivalent to two monthsof a lieutenant's pay or threeof an instituteur's. Regardedas a luxury, it was first sub-jected to direct tax; after1900 the bicycle was taxed in-directly through the require-ment of a license plate.Characteristically, the firstprophets, champions, and prac-titioners of the new sport were

fil s de famil le : the racer and

future trainer, Paul RUINART,was the son of a wholesale winemerchant; Tristan BERNARD, whoundertook the management of theVlodrome Buffalo in 1892, wasthe son of a builder and realestate man. A few years laterHenri DESGRANGES, who took overthe new velodrome at the Parcdes Princes in 1897 andlaunched "l'Auto" - destined tobecome France's major sporting

daily- was a notary's clerk,representing another socialgroup. His humbler origins re-

flect the relegation of the bi-cycle from luxury object - onewith which an arch-esthete likeRobert de MONTESQUIOU did notdisdain being photographed - tosolid investment accessible tomiddle and lower middle classbudgets. The change had beenswift.

Between 1889 and 1891 JohnBoyd DUNLOP's pneumatic tyreshad begun to replace solid rub-ber ones, inner tubes permittedAndr and Edouard MICHELIN todevelop detachable tyres, cycleprices began to fall (24), andcycle racing to attract morepopular attention. After 1891,cherished and publicised by thepress, cycling became the mostpopular of sports. The winnerof the Paris-Brest race,national champion CharlesTERRONT, had a place of honourreserved for him at the Operaat the gala performancehonouring the visiting Russiansailors in 1893. By 1897 H. deGRAFFIGNY's "Manuel pratiquedu constructeur et du conduc-teur de cycles et d'automobiles"

estimated the number of

cyclists in France at threehundred thousand. GRAFFIGNY

exaggerated, but what a Parispaper had once sneered at as"imbciles roulettes" h a dbecome part of the landscape.

A young schoolteacherstarting out in the Normandycountryside remembers seeinghis first cyclist in 1890 andyearning for the machine that

would put the surroundingworld within easier reach than

walking, which was all he couldafford. But "in 1895 bicyclesw e r e s t i l l v e r y r a r e , i n 1 8 9 7t h e i r p r i c e w a s s t i l l i n a c c e s -

sible for me." Finally, in1898 help from his farmerfather, a loan from an unclewho was a village mason, andfifty francs in savings enabledhim to buy a second-hand bi-

cycle. It took five years torepay the loan, but it wasworth it. "Henceforth I was

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Start of a cycling race in 1896

king of the road, since I was squarely entitled itself "Vlo",faster than a horse." But he its rival ten years laterwas one of the privileged few: hedged by setting out as "Auto-"perhaps the only one of my Vlo" and had shed the secondclass to own an iron steed." term by 1903.(25)

The cycle was no longer inThe concrete economics of the forefront of progress. The

a major purchase indicate why late 1890s saw it become abicycles remained thin on the sport for shop assistants,ground, but also how - and why - whose kind accounted for fif-they ceased to count as objects teen out of twenty-sevenof conspicuous consumption. It founder-members of the Cycleis interesting to compare the Club de Bordeaux and nine outoriginal membership of the Club of twenty-one Cyclistes giron-vlocipdique de Bordeaux, dins. We witness the appear-founded in 1892, an obviously ance of clubs like the Socitupper middle class group, with des cyclistes coiffeurs-

that of the Cyclistes girondins, parfumeurs (1896) or the Unionfounded in 1897, several not- cycliste des postes et des

ches below the middle of the tlgraphes (1897) (27).middle class (26). It was Figures given by Jean FOURASTIE

scarcely a coincidence that the suggest a vertiginous fall in

first auto club in Bordeaux prices. The cheapest bicycle

appeared in 1897, the very year of 1893 cost the equivalent of

when cycling publicists like 1,655 hours' wages of a factory

Baudry de SAUNIER abandoned hand in the provinces. By 1911

velocipedes for automobiles. with hourly wages up and bi-

Those who could afford it were cycle prices down, a cheap

turning to more exclusive acti- model cost only the equivalent

vities. Where in 1891 the of 357 hours - almost half thefirst sporting daily had price of a sewing machine, and

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hence accessible for bachelorsof the working class. The evi-dence suggests that, for themasses, cycling remained aspectator sport (28). Yet,even so, its influence upon thefate of other amateur sportswas great. It first suggestedthe pursuit of sport forpleasure in social circles

where this was not normally en-visaged; numerically importantclubs not appealing exclusivelyto middle and upper classeswere formed around it; last butnot least, especially in theprovinces, cycling enthusiastscontributed some of the firstofficers and experienced mem-bers to the foundation of morebroadly oriented clubs (29).

ENGLISH INFLUENCE

Though touching smallernumbers, the great sporting re-volution of the eighties andnineties was less concernedwith cycling or with tradi-tional sports than with organi-

sed open-air games of the kindassociated with English publicschool education, particularlyrunning and ball games. And,once again, the English in-fluence is apparent from thestart.

The first Club des coureursfounded in 1875 by two youngParisians (one of them English)died within only a few months.

In 1877 Andr BERTHELOT (1862-1938), then at the Lyce Saint-Louis, gathered a few friends

eager to race each other andplay football in the Bois deBoulogne. Apparently passers-by assumed that they wereFrench-speaking Englishmen.This group also did not lastvery long. In 1880 the futurearctic explorer, Jean CHARCOT,

son of the great neurologist,then a fourteen-year-old pupilat the Ecole Alsacienne,started organised games at hisschool. But the Ecole Alsa-cienne was exceptional. Mostsecondary schools had neitherroom nor sympathy for suchgoings-on. Hence, in thecourse of 1881-82, a number ofstudents from Right-Bankinstitutions CONDORCET,

ROLLIN, CARNOT (then the EcoleMonge) got into the habit ofrunning impromptu races afterschool in the entrance hall ofthe nearby Gare St. Lazare.Joined by some veterans ofBERTHELOT's old group, theysoon founded the grandi-loquently titled Racing Club deFrance and began to organiseregular Sunday races in themore tranquil atmosphere of the

Bois de Boulogne.

First of French sporting

associations, authorised by adecree of November 23, 1882,the Racing did not belie itsname. Its terminology and stylewere borrowed from the turf.Runners were divided intostables, wore jockey costumeswith coloured sashes and caps,sometimes carried horsewhips to

complete the pretense, idled inthe "pesage", ran under assumedhorse names in races whosetitles were borrowed from Long-champs and Auteuil and whoseresults were bet on by theassembled sportsmen and theirfashionable friends. ForRodolphe SALIS in the "ChatNoir" (Spring, 1882), here was" t h e l a t e s t c r e a t i o n o f i n -vading anglomania" (30). S o o n

Ferdinand de LESSEPS himselfaccepted the honorary pres-cidency. On July 6, 1884, he

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presented the winner of the the Union des Socits fran-Prix de Panama with a handsome aises de courses pied, fol-horsewhip. Very shortly such lowed in 1889 by the more com-influential connections secured prehensive Union des Socitsthe Racing a permanent home in franaises de sports athlti-the Bois, where running tracks ques (USFSA), which incor-were later joined by football porated tennis, cycling, foot-

grounds. ball, rowing, and similaractivities. Some federal

Meanwhile in 1883, stu- organisation was needed todents of the Lyce Saint-Louis, facilitate the internationalwho had been informally running encounters that began to takeand training in the Luxembourg place in the mid-1880s and togardens, moved first into the encourage sporting activitiesTuileries, then, with pre- and spread the sporting gospel,fectorial consent, to the organising national competi-Organgerie terrace. There they tions and keeping people infounded the Stade Franais, touch. "Les Sports athltiques"which became the Racing's great USFSA's weekly bulletin, pro-

Left-Bank rival. It was after vides a mirror of their activi-a cross-country race in 1887 ty, in which ball games playedthat the two clubs joined in an increasingly important role.

Parisian socialites crowd to watch runners of the Racing Clubde France in the Bois de Boulogne

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BALL GAMES

Football, at least, cameto France two or three yearsbefore it reached Germany (31).A list of provincial teams inthe "Almanach des Sports" of1899 confirms the Englishgame's predictable lines ofpenetration: the ports, the

north (and Lyon) with theirtextile connections, the high-way from Normandy to Paris,Paris itself with its largeAnglo-Saxon colony. Across theChannel in England, theFootball Association had beenset up in 1863, but it tooksome years to make up its mindhow the game should be played.

By 1871, however, Associationfootball and Rugby football had

become clearly separate andautonomous in England; aboutthe same time, the game enteredFrance through Le Havre, wherethe Havre Athletic Club (HAC)was born in 1872. Founded byOxford and Cambridge men, itscolours combined the blues ofthe two universities. It isnot very clear what game theHAC played, but its firstteams do not seem to have known-or cared about - the rulesfinally set up in England.They played a "combination"game probably close to ruggeruntil 1891, when the Clubfinally set up two distinctrugger and soccer sections -one of the first French clubsto do so.

For a long time Frenchfootball was dominated by theHAC, or, if not by the club it-

self, then by the Englishsailors, clerks, and students

who colonised both soccer andrugger until about 1914. WhenHAC won the French championship

in 1899, six of its playerswere English. All the earliestParis soccer clubs were alsostarted by Englishmen. TheParis Football Club (187984)lapsed for lack of rivals. It

was succeeded in 1890 by theFootball Association Club,founded by the personnel of twoEnglish firms. Then, in 1891,the White Rovers (inspired bythe Cup Final victory of theBlackburn Rovers) was foundedat Bcon-les-Bruyres, andsoccer clubs multiplied there-after.

The USFSA - addicted torugby, which was "more highlyregarded in the upper classesof (English) society" - reluc-tantly admitted the existenceof Association football. Aftersoccer clubs had threatended tosecede, the USFSA organised anational soccer championship,won in 1894 by the StandardAthletic Club team, comprisingone Frenchman and ten English-

men. In 1895 James GordonBENNETT, editor of the New York"Herald", donated the silvercup that would henceforth re-ward the winners of the Associa-tion football championship. By1899 Association footballboasted some three-score clubsin the Paris area alone, andFrantz REICHEL, one of thecity's great rugby players,noted that soccer - less vio-

lent, brutal, and dangerousthan rugby - had spread consi-derably in France: "Which is a

p i ty , f o r i t i s n o t w o r t h a smuch as rugby from the edu-cational point of view." (32) .

By the turn of the centuryFrench teams began to parti-cipate in internationalcompetitions, and these, espe-cially against the English,tended to end in catastrophicscores: 15-0 in 1906, 12-0 in1908, 11-0 in 1909, 10-l in

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Monge school ' s athlet ic association's football team

1910. In 1911, with a loss ofonly 3-0, the wind began toturn and, by 1921, French soc-cer could mark up its firstvictory against England: 2-1.

The trend probably re-flected the gradual acclimati-sation of the game and thegrowing number of native clubsfrom which a truly national

team could select its players.We shall see that the slow pro-

gress of soccer with its narrow,foreign base contrasts with theswifter adoption of rugby,introduced less by foreign resi-dents than by French schoolboys.It was only after 1919, withathletic sports no longer apreserve of upper class teen-agers, that the spread of ballgames at the popular levelmeant the spread of soccer,which is not only easier to play

and demanding of less effort,but easier to play informally

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and without getting as dirty asone necessarily does in arugger game.

RUGBY AND FOOTBALL IN FRENCHSOCIETY

But this was still in thefuture. For a long time the meninvolved in football (or othersports) were very few in numberand considered themselves anelite. "The Grand Prix atLongchamps," notes a sportinglyce professor in "Les Sportsathltiques", December 12, 1891"attracts over f i f ty thousand,a football match hardly fivehundred." This remained true

for ten or fifteen years. Theconcomitant elitism may havebeen a compensation, at leastin part; a spurning of grapesless green than out of reach.But elitism, whatever themotives behind it, was a cru-cial element of contemporarysporting effort. The Racingaccepted only amateurs, as de-fined in 1866 by the EnglishAmateur Athletic Club in aformula that banned profes-sionalism or the possibility ofgain, stressed the fact that

the amateur is a "gentleman",and excluded "mechanics,labourers and artisans." W h e nthe first article of theUSFSA's rules barred all butamateurs from membership, iteliminated not only any athletewho had ever competed in anopen race, or for money, or for

pay, or for a share of the gatereceipts, or against profes-sionals, but also specifically,

anyone "who has ever been, atany t ime in his l i fe , a paidteacher or monitor of physicalexercises." The latter wereprofessionals, hence barredfrom activities that gentlemennot only pursued but regulated.The true sporting spirit, asthe general secretary of the

USFSA explained to a provincialprefect, consisted in opposing"professionalism, money prizes,bett ing, in a word all that

paralyses the beneficente f f e c t s o f s p o r t . " ( 3 3 )

No man could devote muchtime, let alone his life, tosport without a private incomeand not be somehow a profes-sional. But the pioneers of

pure sport addressed themselvesto an audience who did not needto face this problem. Theirdetermined stand against pro-fessionalism would play itspart in the rival fortunes ofRugby and Association football.

Article 51 of the USFSArules, concerning football com-petitions, declared that thenational championship will beplayed out "in two series ofmatchs (sic) played accordingto the rules adopted by theRugby Union." The first numberof "Les Sports athltiques"(April 5, 1890) devoted twopages out of six to "Football".

Closer examination shows thisto have meant rugby untilDecember 1893, when, soccerhaving been admitted into theUSFSA, the football rubric be-gins to appear with two separ-ate subheadings: "Rugby" and"Association" - the latter onlyhardly and very briefly men-tioned for several years more.Revealingly, the bulletin ofthe Club nivernais d'amateurs,founded in 1895, was entitled"Le Rugby" and continued underthat title until the eve of theFirst World War. When in 1894a leading figure of the USFSA,Georges de SAINT-CLAIR, pub-lished "Football (Rugby)", it

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Georges de SAINT-CLAIR, Presi-dent of the French Sports

Athletics Union

is clear that the subtitle wasthere only as an afterthoughtand that, for his friends ofthe Racing and the Stade Fran-ais, football was rugby. Soc-cer, tainted by English pro-fessionalism, carried too manyvulgar associations. Rugby,even when played by the lowerclasses as in England, allowedfor distinctions (34). Indeed,explains SAINT-CLAIR, referringto possible dangers of the game

likely to arouse parental con-cern, most accidents (inEngland) occur in those"northern mining districtswhere the population - veryrough and brutal - does notbring to the game the desirabledistinction and courtesy. When

played by young, well -bred men,football i s not dangerous."(35)

The favourite game ofEnglish public schools, rugby

was the form of football thatmost students adopted, espe-cially in Paris. It is stri-

king to find Charles PEGUY,who in the early 1890s hadintroduced Association footballin his lyce at Orlans, movingto the cagne at Lakanal andthere taking up rugby becauseit was the game that Parislycens played (36).

Thus rugby spread, carriedby the hazards of student life,to university towns and some-times to other areas - likeNantes, where Parisian in-fluences inspired the StadeNantais as early as 1886, orPerpignan where, in 1889, a boywho had played the game at theLyce Michelet in Paris foundedthe Union athltique du Collgeperpignanais, seed of the greatCatalan rugby school (37).

The strongest impetus forsport in the southwest camefrom Bordeaux. The chance pre-sence of a dynamic personalityhad made the city the firstcentre of athletic activitiesin the provinces, through theLigue girondine de l'ducationphysique, founded in 1888 byPhilippe TISSIE. Author ofnumerous articles and pamphletson gymnastics and hygiene, Dr.TISSIE was one of the manymedical men whose patriotic andsanitary concerns turned theminto militant missionaries ofsport. His energy, his in-fluence, and that of the Liguehe founded, gained the supportof the regional rectorate. Asa result, the directives ofthe ministry of education,

largely ignored in other areas,ware applied in Aquitaine,

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where most secondary and agreat many elementary schoolsmade sports and games part ofthe regular curriculum. Off-spring of modest homes, fami-liarised with running andgames in primary school, could

be found practising sports inassociations of their own or inthe Stade Bordelais, whosefoundation in 1889 was a directresult of the enthusiasm gene-rated by the Ligue.

Thanks to this groundwork,the first USFSA regional commit-tee had been set up in Bordeauxin 1893. Regional committeesfollowed in Toulouse and Lyonfour years later. Meanwhile,Bordeaux became the first pro-vincial city to play an im-portant role in the nationalrugby championship, the StadeBordelais winning it in 1899,playing in the finals for thenext three years, and retainingthe cup from 1902 to 1907. Al-together, after 1899, all butsix of the national pennantswere won by clubs from south ofthe Loire. The south, above allthe southwest, remained rugbycountry, partly because of theUSFSA's prejudices, partly be-

cause of the English influencesradiating from Bordeaux,Bayonne, Biarritz and Pau.

Soccer appeared as a kindof Cinderella: "Latecomer,

faced with a cold recept ion . . .The wealthy clubs showing nointerest , there was no publi -c i t y f o r i t s m a t c h e s . . . S c h o o l

c l u b s , t h a t i s t h e b o u r g e o i s i e ,keep away for ten years. Rugbyalone seems noble , fascinating"

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(38). When, in 1909, theDouanier ROUSSEAU painted his"Joueurs de football", theplayers were obviously rugbyplayers, and so were those of

later painters who depictedball games, like Andr LHOTE,

Albert GLEIZES and RobertDELAUNAY. Equally revealing,

the illustrated cover of the"Revue des jeux scolaires"showed two young men in sportscostume, one wearing cyclingknickers, the other footballshorts and carrying a rugbyball under his arm. "It seemsa s i f A s s o c i a t i o n f o o t b a l l i sessentially popular, and rugbyt h e p r e s e r v e o f a n e l i t e , " muses an observer, adding thatrugby's future depends whollyon how it does "parmi lesm i l i e u x s c o l a i r e s " ( 3 9 ) . R e -marks such as these suggest apartial explanation of theintriguing hold of rugby onsouthern and most especiallysouthwestern France.

By 1900, when Associationfootball appeared south of theLoire, established clubs were

controlled by rugby players,and a local tradition had grown

up. Soccer teams and clubswere set up and, in the biggestcentres, flourished. Associa-tion football became the greatspectator sport of industrialurban centres, drifting to pro-fessionalism as a direct resultof the role it played, the mas-ses to which it catered, andthe resources it commanded.

But the small towns and smallurban centres of Midi and Lan-guedoc, which lacked both theindustrial concentrations thatfurnished the public of pro-fessional soccer and the re-sources for a variety of sports,remained faithful to the amateurgame with which they identified.Cities almost without industry,without an industrial proleta-riat, an urban network whoseevolution in the 1960s can becompared to the stage reached bythe industrial regions of the


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north and east at the end of the

nineteenth century, go far toexplain the provincial con-servatism of a region where theglories of amateur rugby gohand in hand with economicstagnation. The greatest teamsof the twentieth century appearin centres like Narbonne,Lourdes, Pau, Bayonne, Dax, andPerpignan. A lawyer from Agen,a town of forty thousand whoseteam was three times Frenchrugby champion in the 196Os,recently declared:"Agen mustgrow, prunes and rugby are notenough" (40). Yet it wouldseem that Agen's rugby flouris-hes best while its economyrests on prunes. "Sportd'amateurs . . . cole de volont ,d 'energie," rugby, once favou-rite of the better off, endures

as the game of more backwardregions, of communities that,unable to subsidise profes-sionals, continue to play itthemselves.

NOTES

(22) "Le Sport e t la Presse " ( P a r i s , 1 9 6 4 ) , 1 4 - 3 5 .

(23) Incidentally, the "VloceSport" of Bordeaux, organisersof the race, convinced that noman could pedal 572 kilometersat one go, organised a dormi-tory at Angoulme, 132 kilo-meters from the start . None of the twenty-eight runners

stopped. By September 1891, 211competitors faced twice thed i s t a n c e : t h e 1 , 2 0 0 k i l o m e t e r

stretch from Paris to Brest andback. That race was won byFrenchmen.

(24) Baudry de SAUNIER shows anadvertisement for a cheap modelse l l ing at 375 francs . A goodquality model cost f i f ty francsmore. "L'Art de bien monter enb i c y c l e t t e " ( P a r i s , 1 8 9 4 ) , 2 1 .

(25) Autobiographical sketchquoted in Jacques OZOUF, "Nousles matres d 'cole " (Par is ,1967) , 122-23. A sound socialhistorian, Pierre PIERRARD,

finds workingmen beginning tou s e b i c y c l e s i n 1 9 1 4 . " L i l l ee t l e s L i l l o i s " ( P a r i s , 1 9 6 7 ) ,249.

(26) AD (Gironde), Socitssportives , Bordeaux. The Club

vlocipdique counted fivewholesale merchants, threeuniversity professors , a doctor ,a dentist , a chie f engineer , abuilder, and a shopkeeper; LesCyclistes girondins , presidedover by the owner of a bicycles t o r e , l i s t e d a p r i n t e r , s i xshop ass is tants , three coi f -

feurs, and a student, but also

a caft ier , a nickeleur , abaker, an ironmonger, a sta-

tioner, a sergeant-major and anarmorer-corporal.

(27) One may note that inBordeaux, at any rate, the

postmen's union was set up in1905, e ight years after the

founding of the cycling club.

(28) Relative prices based onfigures in Jean FOURASTIE, "Le

Grand Espoir du XXe sicle",( P a r i s , 1 9 6 3 ) , 1 7 1 . F o r c l u bmemberships, see AD (Gironde),

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Gymnastics and Sports in Fin de Siecle France

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