New-York tribune., 1876-05-31
4 FEAST OF THE ATHLETES.


held its annual meeting at Mott Haven, the
members engaging in divers muscular con-
tests-jumping, walking, running, putting the
shot, and throwing the pOnderous hammer.
The gentlemen composing the different asso-
ciations represented, believe in the cutiya-
ton of the body as well as of the mind,
and that every college should have gymna-
sium as well as class room or library.
That health is better than dyspepsia goes
without saying. That man with the noblest
motives may study himself into the grave. is
too well known to require testimony. That
care of the body is a religious duty Is as true as
if it were declared to be in the Creed or Com
mandments. But it is not quite so well under
stood that physical exercise to be of much value
should be social and of an amusing and recrea-
tive character. There are honest young fellows
who fancy that they have only to purchase
pair of dumb-bells and practice with them so
MANY minutes by the watch every day in their
dormitories; there are others who put their
faith in the solitary constitutional walk, Just so
many miles out and so many in. Saving wood,
the least enhancing exercise III which human
beipg can engage, used to be in high favor
with the yotares of Hygeia-sawing just so
much, with perhaps the variation OF little
shifting. and then back to the books again
All this while, in most cases, the seeker OF ex-
erclse and rosy health kept up his thinking.
There was no rest for the tagged and failing
brain, which continued to do its work slnlulta-
neously with the work of the body, and so re-
mained as weary as before, while Indigestion
still reigned the torturine tyTant. of the
stomach and the situation.
The best recommendation OF the sports
which have received respectful recognition
in our colleges and in general society is
that they are gregarious. There is not
only competition but good company, nor
does rivalry appear to render the con-
testants ungenerOus or enviOus Nothing Is
more encouraging than tho absence OF serious
ill-feeling. There are tif1s and disputes, and
some loud talking, but few misunderstanding
fatal to good fellowship. On the contrary
these meetings create new intimacieS, cement
old ones, and make men of culture better
acquainted with each other. They remind us
of the old French colonel in the play, who
never liked a man SO well as after he had
fought with him. There was something of this
generosity even in puSiliSm before it fell into
a degradation perhaps inevitable from its
peculiar character. Before the buffers began
to pound each other they always shook hands.
We believe that they go through with that
ceremony now, but we fear that it has degen-
Grated into a mere form with no heart i'll it.
The Greeks not without reason invested their
annual games with something of sacred
character, invoked the gods to preside over
them, and paid handsomely the poets who
sounded the praises of the victors. Bodily
ability is q good thing in itself, but above all
this good jumper will get certain degree
of morality out of his jumps Sir Walter
Scott insisted that his daughters should use
horseback exercise because it would teach
them to speak the truth. One does not expect
anything great of valetudinaran and the
mind which keeps its normal balance in spite
of physic and the doctors, is an exception en-
titled to and receiving our special admiration.
The spirited members of the Athletic Club
being resolved upon an independence of ply
sicians, we have only to hope that they may
have as little need Of surgeons, with no