Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-09-23

is greatly in his favor, and that without
the shghtest animsdversion upon Judge
to public service, and who has, therefore,
had fewer opportunities for distinguishing
himself and acquiring experience. There
Is choice between the man who has DEM
onstrated his ability to serve the public by
years of good and universally satisfactory
service performed for the public, and the
man who has had little experience in pub
lie affairs. And the choice leads to Gen.
ersl Merwin.
The Abuse OF Athletics.
(From Chambers' Journal1
1t is the glory and the pride of the Eng
ish-speaking race that they are the out
door-game people of the world. There is
much solid truth in the saying that Water
loo was won on the playing fields of Eton.
Englishmen owe their unrivalled ply
sique, health, mental and bodily vigor,
pluck, endurance and good-nature largely
to their fondness of outdoor exercise,
without which it would be vain to look for
such result even in so happy fusion of
the Briton, the Saxon, the Norman and
the Dane. The Frenchman laughs at
cricket and ridicules football. The result
is national character brimming over with
eclat, but deficient in stamina. The Span
lard, the Italian, the Greek, have all the
lazinsss OF the Gaul exaggerated, without
even his fitful energy. Their complaint is
Pecksnifianeit is chronic In his Irish
a1a amt fha prsS h.p all II
dash of the French: while from his slight
ly phlegmstic mixture of English and
Scotch blood he has derived something of
the intrepid and long sustained persever-
ance of the North American Indian It Is
this unique combination, applicable at
once to the intellectual and the physical
part of his nature, that won for the Eng
ishmen Crecy and Poitiers, that made the
| epic Westward Ho! possible, and packed
| the would-be despot of the nineteenth
century off to St. Helena.
But there is a danger which has lately
| become more and more evident. English
men ought to profit by their glorious his
tory, and to have a care that what has
been in the past a source of strength shall
not become source of weakness. It is
| very necessary to guard against any abuse
of athletics, for there is disposition
abroad to allow them to usurp the position
| of an end in themselves, instead of re-
manning only an important means to q
useful end. Too much produces similar
effects to not enough. In avoiding the
Scylla of abstinence from games, English
men are falling into the Charybdis of ex-
cess. Field sports are desirable part of
| perfect education, the progress of the
whole man, soul and mind and body. II
is natural law that when a faculty or a
Ia er.1 h.. \.
impaired, and may ultimately become
hopelessly paralyzed. And the converse
is Just as true, and hardly, IL at all, less
disastrous in its effects. When an organ
is unduIy developed the balance of nature
is disturbed. The abnormal is always re-
pulsive; witness the top-heavy appearance
of the prize-fghter, whose shoulders,
chest and arms have been developed at the
expense of his legs. In the same way the
unnatural growth of the physical is to be
deprecated, because it implies the stunting
of the spiritual and the mental. Blu.
viewed only from a severely physical
standpoint, over-indulgence in exercise
produces most baneful results. The pro.
per function of athletics is not to make
athletics, but men. The perfect man, ii
such there be, is he who preserves a just
equilibrium between work and play. Any
preponderance of the one or the other
must inevitably be accompanied by unde
sirable effects. When play becomes |
business it is at once prostituted. Blu
] apart from professionalism pure and sim
pie in games, it is an unmitigated abuse b
make toll of pleasure. The extent h
which it has become SO has evoked warn
ing protest from an eminent physician
Says he: "Play, with millions, has be
come the chief thought and business o
life. 1t is no longer relaxation or recrea
tion-it has developed into a most danger
Gus, a most pernicious over-exercise o.
heart and muscles, profigate expendi
ture of the vital surplus-force of the franz
required for mental and moral uses, ant
which, so wasted, will in few years rea
ize harvest of death through heart-dis
ease, and, in the future, entail a lesseneS
constitutional power upon the children
Fatigue and violent exercise not only in
jure the body, they load the system witt
waste matter and lessen the energy of tn
brain. ~
All this is largely brought about by ig
norance of the true province of recrea
ton, which is to develop those muscles
, and faculties least brought into play in tn,
pursuit of a daily avocation, and to main
tain constitutional rather than physics
strength. The most suitable form of re
creation for the manual laborer, the car
= penter, the mason, the artisan, the me
chanic, whose labor, if not purely physi
/ cal, is mainly so, is not boxing, rowing
cycling and football, but an exercise O
those mental qualities with which the,
have been endowed, and which will other
, wise become the victims of dry-rot throug
: disuse. The recreation for these is read
ing, science, geometry, chess. But to th
tired brain-worker such pursuits would b
!, no relaxation, no recreation, but only a
l s,E =. l,a- 81
! es to turn his leisure to good account
will walk, ride, run, jump, row, play foo
0 ball, cricket, tennis, enter the gymnasium
q the swimming bath and cycling tract
t What is wanted is a change in the kind {
occupation. 1t would be as ASSURE as
n would be unfair to deny 10 the head-worl
: er all the pleasures of literature, or to r,
quire the worker with his hands to foreg
all the delights of outdoor games. Br
A enough has been said to indicate the dires
: ton which the recreation of the respectiy
n classes should take. No hard and rigi
r line can possibly be drawn if it were onl
for the reason that many employment
partake both of the character of manu-
: and of mental labor.
Even when the surplus energy is direc
o cd into the right channel it is necessary
. guard against an over-use of it. I'll
competitive spirit has infected sport to {
y unparalleled degree. In place of the 10y
=, ly disciple of Izaak Walton enjoying vii
placid delight the landscape and the pa
10 toral calm, and satisfied with few fish
they come, many anglers engage in q fer
n struggle for re-eminence and renown
at tally foreign to the genius of the al
r. Football players and cricketers play, n
ri for amusement, but to win challenge CUP
ne The primary object now is to beat the n
8. ord. To coast gently down decline I
an ordinary bicycle, with the fragra
re zephyr kissing the receptive cheek a
er playing hides -and-seek with the ringlets
ed the fair trieyclist, is not enough. 1t
IS voted tame by common consent to dril
D. in the view, It is imperative to tear do,
s. the hill on the ungraceful Rover, or {
Journey from Lands End to John
al Groat's House will have been in vain,
T cause it has occupied a quarter of an no
a longer than the best on record. Her
the prospect for the rider is strictly him
,s. ed to the portion of road exactly benes
- his eye. This is not pleasure; it is ha
IA work, producing an inevitable reaction
at fiaccid tendon and aching limb, VIC
which would be severely kicked again
bt and Justly SO, if demanded by an empls
ed er. The right spirit which SO many
II quire to have renewed within them, a
that should pervade athletic as well as
tellectual education, is not the desire
cover SO much distance or acquire so mu
knowledge, but 80 to conduct affairs bo
ly and mental as to preserve sound mi
gu in a healthy body. The man of the
be ture, ''the improved man, viii doubtl.