Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-22
COMMUNICATIONS.
A Humble Complaint.

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Now that Yale athletics have cropped out so magnifcently, filling the streets of New York with joyous uproar and the choice temple of the "four hundred" with post prapdial elequence. I beg most humbly to call attention to New Haven manifestation thereof. In no spirit of fault-6nding, or criticism. Heaven forbid! My cuticie is anticipating so rapidly that recovery from body blows, contusions and punches is slow and uncomfortable. So must I be careful in words and wield deferentially fexed pen, dropping honeyed ink on sweet scented pages The manifestation to which timid- ly refer is the daily hurling of vast compact ed masses of cyclonic muscle through the streets of our town; filling sidewalks full with their thunderings; whirling in the dust before them men, women and children frightening horses, COWS, cats. ducks. hens and bow-wows out of economic and into ex- centric if not hurtful action, and shaking
 the foundations of State houses and churches
 with the concussion of mighty feet
 How is the ordinary individual to accus-
 tom himself to this state of things? He
 can't stop it. He can't oppose himself to it
 physically. He might as we'll brace himself
 against herd of bounding bison, or back
 himself against runaway freight train on a
 down grade. And if he be not wonderfully
 spry in getting himself out of the way he
 
 a suddenness to which no previous motion in
 his history can furnish parallel. Moral per-
 suasion is of course out of the question.
 No use in appealing to the college authori-
 ties. Hasn't Chauocy I. the Great, himself
 of the corporation, just stated that Hercules
 has been admitted to the faculty; not Apol
 To or Hermes, who united strength with
 beauty; but Hercules, the god of brute
 forcea And has he not also stated that along
 side the foundation stones carved with the
 revered names of Pierson, Daggett, Dwight
 and Woolsey other and more resplendid ones
 are to be inserted. ablsze with the names of
 Cook, Hull, Stagg and Stevensons And
 hasn't Professor Richards himself added that
 athletes are sovereign in their own activitiess 3
 Suppose they were to go off in body to
 Harvard or Princeton and force Yale to fall
 back on the scholarly and literary purposes
 for which it is still supposed by old fogies
 she was created! Where would she bea
 thing as in athleticss No, indeed! Muscle is king; all Yale men must all kiss the hem of his garments; and no one knows this bet
 ter than the faculty. There would be far less
 use in appealing to the town authorities. Good heavensi What are we townnies any, waya Where do we rank in the estimation
 of a Yale athletea Was not one of us
 pitched head over heels the other day right under the nose of the chief of police, who had sufficient self-control to smile and thus save the city the bother of another appoint ments Or is this myth invented by one of Yale's enemiest Other bodies of course, even when only marching, obey rules and take the middle of the streets. But no con- parison can be drawn, for instance, between the "Grays" and the 'tCrew." You would have to go back to the Eocene age to find the point of divergence. And if the town should dare-shades of Yankee Sullivan!-it would be knocked back into village hamlet the Grctr hat iS to ha if this thing continue and the worm does not turn there will be an end to the adage.
 How would it do to purchase by subscrip- tion large bowl O. virgin gold, fill it with diamonds, rubies, saphires and pearls and l let it be borne by four of the most beauti- l ful of New Haven's maidens to the palace of the king athlete, and there presented on humble knees with prayers that his majesty would graciously instruct his braves to leave l wee bit of the sidewalk for the towns use, l or would each morning cause to be pro- claimed the proposed routes of his human blizzards and the times of their setting out, so that traffic and pleasure could seek shelter I till the hurricanes were in bed again. Then, till the bowl were emptied, our dreams might cease to be of Patagonia or of the l savage islands of inland African seas, where l monsters run amuck and daily life is tremu- l lous with awful expectations.
 How sadly fare the fine arts in this wild refrain! Where is the culture and refine | ment of poetry and musiea What is Yale | doing to keep alive the thought that there
 may be something else than money, or even | athletic fame, worth striving fori The pure I and elevating delights of art and literature; I is no place to be made for them in Yale's futurea Are these most good, most comfort ing. most purifying, most elevating and most | lovely things never to have recognition! Is it true, as Chauncey Depew puts it, that | Yales highest mission is to prepare her sons l for the activities of commercial republic9 | Alas, so seems the sad truth of it