Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-10-06
uafrhmau &c gaurnaL
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER Q, 1875.


4 report has been travelling in the papers
Tor some time, that the president Of one Of
the New England colleges has advised his
students to the formation Of a rifle team, for
the practice Of the sport OF competitive tar
get shooting as one less expensive and quite
as useful as boat racing We have taken
advantage Of former occasion to allude to
the subject Of college recreations, and discuss
somewhat at length the question Of modern
Olympics, and would use this official utter
ance to say few words more.
We have no objection in the world to
boating, either by college students or any
other individuals. II is a fine, manly recre-
alton, and one in which it is a pleasant and
useful thing to be an adept Nor have we
any manner Of objection to hunting. fishing,
shooting. or amy other hnalthful and manly
sport or exercise. Nor have we the slight
est wish to dictate what sports young men
or old men shall adopt What is recreation
TO one man may bo work or folly to another,
and therefore each man is rs much al
liberty 10 choose what play be will have, a.
to choose what work he will do, or what
profession he viii follow. These regions Of
work aud play. subject to such moral limta-
tons as all our actions require, are strictly
within the sphere OF individual choice
There are no recrcations we know Of that
are in themselves wrong or preudicial.
There are games that have been shamefully
abused to purposes Of gambling and uulaw-
iul gain, but even such games are not NM
lawful per Sc, and may be enjoyed under due
restrictions. Once a student was expelled
from college for playing in bowling alloys,
or rr~ortug to the billiard room, or sitting
down to game Of whist. But now these
games are not only allowed. but in some col
lcgas are provided for and the students now
do. under law. what was once forbidden by
law. The evil Of these gaines was not in
themselves. but in their associatons-in the
proiane rahble they brought together in the
excitement and dissipation, aud drinking and
gambling propensities they developed But
rs soon as they were placed in good com
pany, Invested Of their evil associations they
became permissible and healthful recreations.
The evil of college sports Of base ball,
boat racing. regattas, rifle teams et ii omno
genus is not, then, in themselves They are
well enough If practiced wisely and with
just limitation, but the trouble is in their
adjuncts and associations. It well enough
for the students Of Dartmouth to run boat
races and hurdle races, aud tie themselves
up in sacks and tumble aud roll across the
campus it is well enough for the under
graduates Of the University to beat the
waters OF Lake Champain with their oars,
or for the scholars Of Middebury to aim at
the bulls eye in their target practice so long
as these simple sports are confined within
certain healthful moral limits But when
they are made competitive, like the games Of
the Olympiad, when club challenges club in
rival colleges when team throws down the
gauntlet to team and an annual regatta or
match stirs the blood all through the year.
and fills the college with the din Of prepa-
ration for sport, and takes away the stu |
dents from their studies, on expensive ex- |
cursions to test their powers and prowess |
with other clubs, and then surrounds them |
with the excitement of betting and gam
bling, with the temptations TO excess, to |
drunkenness and TO sensuaty, then these |
healthful and legitimate sports, when taken |
fairly and wisely. become pernicious and Of |
ten destructive to the industry, the studous-
ness, the moral habits and the life of the young
men. With our present convictions of the |
evil influence and effects of these college |
sports, when they have left the region of in |
diyidual. private practice and enjoyment,
and become public, competitive and exhaust
i've of time, money and moral strength, We
would not advise any parent TO send his
son to an institution that encouraged aud
upheld them. An excitable aud adyentur-
Gus boy would easily sacrifice all the adyan-
tiges Of a college course to these unwhol-
some, exaggerated disspating recreations.
Often the brightest aud smartest boys, those
most capable Of shining in their classes il
they devoted their time TO study, would be
attracted by these exciting and competing
sports, and would become sacrifice TO
system which it seems to us the officers of
college ought most decidedly to discount
cnance.
Considerable and wise parents do not send
their sons TO college TO learn to beat the rival /
beat clubs OF other institutions, to throw,
catch or beat solid ball, to hit the center
Of a target in a shooting match, but they /
send them for intellectual and moral culture,
for the development of the higher aud not .
the lower elements of their being, for help /
in coming out of the natural into the spirit |
ual, and so make them wiser, stronger better |
men, able to take the lead in society, and to .
bring greater force TO bear on the upward /
movement of our Christian civilization. The
physical contests of Greece emasculated her
civilization The Olympiads gave that SPLEEN
did nation wrong and fatal bent which was
not discovered till it was too late TO remedy the
disastrous results. And it is the last thing
our Universities, founded to nurture our youth
in science morals and religion, should do, to
lengthen the lever by which the physical and
sensuous elements in our race dissolve and
disntegrate the intellectual, the moral and
spiritual.
There is just as much propiety in the or
ganization of boat club and regatta, in the
formation OF an order of base ball, or a rifle
team, by achurch, as bya college. A church
has no objections to its members INDUCING
in healthful reereations and sports as they
may need, but ii would hardly be wise for it
to connect boat club or rifle team with
its organization. The adjunct might speed.
lily give its tone and quality to the church
itself. 80 college need have no objection
TO is students hunting or fishing or boating,
as their necessities may require, or their
studies admit, but it is not wise for it To al
low its pupils to organize into associations
for sports that divert them from study,
tempt them to dissipation, and kinde emu
lation in the very lowest elements of their
being. The tendency TO physical indulg.
enoes, sports and contests, is fire that does
not need much blowing. II is certainly not
necessary that college whose ayowed aim il
is to give direction and force and culture to
the higher faculties Of the mind and soul.
n. AL.