The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-07-12
M i 8 ella m @ O u 8.
For The AEgis DC Mteliigencer
Bring OH Your Athletes!

We most heartily concur with the views
given in the Democrat Of last week as to
the propriety of atfording the young men
(and the older ones, too, if they wish it,
an opportunity to exhibit their ''musclo"
at the County Fair. Indeed, we have been
intending for some months to give our views
on the subject.
Some will ask, "What in the deuce have
athletic sports to do with az .icultural mat
ter ?" 1t would not be difficult to
answer this apparent 'poser" in more
ways than one. We might, for instance,
adopt the Yankee mode, and answer it by
asking another question, to wit: "What
in the deuce have merry-go-rounds, and
mountebanks, and pistol galleries to do
with agricultural fairs To say nothing of
sack-races and wheelbarrow rolling. But
being neither Yankee nor an enemy of
such innocent sports as those just named,
we will answer in no such way, but main
tain boldly that athletic sports have much
to do with agricultural fairs. In all con-
ceivable kinds of farming operations, are
not human muscles, aided and directed by
human brain, absolutely essential 2 Such
being the case, it follows that the more
perfect the muscular development, the more
easily are the bchests of the brain carried
out. In other words, the man who is pos
sessed of the greatest strength, activity,
and ndurance-qualitics which it is the
especial province of athletic sports to I'M
part or improve--Can, with the same
amount of brain and experience, do the most
work.
Do not our farmers flock to the fair every
year, eager to find the most perfect reaper,
or cob-crusher, or stump-pullcr Yet
what would the utmost attainable perfection
in these machines avail, if the running gear
of the human machine-more fearfully and
wonderfully made than any of them, and
on which their operations depend-should
be at fault 1t may, however, be said that
mot one in ten of those who would
contend in athletic sports would ever
do a days work on farm" That may or
may not be true. AS Dundreary would
say, it is one of those things that no fellow
can find out. But if such sports be exclud-
ed upon this principle, would not consisten-
cy demand the exclusion also of racing,
which is conceded to be not only the most
attractive, but one of the most useful
features Of the tair9 For certainly but
few of the horses which are brought on the
track TO prove their speed and bottom ever
did "a days work on farm"
Fondness for athletic exercises seems to
be natural to the human race, having pre-
vailed, in some form or other, in all ages and
among all nations. The ancient Greeks,
who, in both body and mind, were the most
perfectly developed people that ever exist
ed, cultivated such exercises with u scrup-
ulous care second only to that which they
bestowed upon their religion. So also did
did their worthy successors, the ancient
Romans. And although during the middle
ages gymnastics seem to have suffered an
eclipse, yet even then mans natural passion
for something of the kind found vent in
archery, the tournament, and other exer-
cises that tended to promote such knightly
accomplishments as were most in demand
at that time.
Homer's redoubtable heroes of three
thousand years ago were much addicted in
battle, to hurting rocks; and in order to
make themselves proficient in this manly
art, they practised it assiduously during
the very brief periods of peace which they
were wont to have in those good old DAYS.
The power of such warriors in hurting these
terrible projectiles may be supposed to have
DccH cqud W uDOutru Ddll-uOZen OF the
catapults of somewhat later period, or to
six-gun battery Smooth bore of the
nineteenth century. By the way, those
old fellows would have scorned to kill
Goliath with pebble, and would no doubt
have looked upon David as degenerate
rascal for resorting to such means in a field
where boulders must have been PLENTY
| For our part, we never could see why those
huge flying rocks which Homer speaks of,
could not have been lodged" by merely
exercising the skill which our average
school-boy displayes every day in the
"mush-pop of "corner- ball" But perhaps
dodging was against the code that was in
force at that time. May be each fellow had
to stand up square and "fend off" whatever
came at him. This rock throwing was, OF
course, practised only upon fields where
nature furnishes the ammunition- more than
one such rock in each hand being rather
inconvenient in transportation, and neces.
sarily excluding all other means of combat
Taking this rock flinging for all in all, how
ever, it must, in spite of its lack of civiliza-
ton and good taste, have been far prefer
able to the miserable mud-slinging" so
prevalent in these too much vaunted days
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