The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-20
VIGOROUS ATHLETICS.
Break-Neck Sports Which Endan-i
ger Human Life.
disastrous Results OF tho "Gcntlo ind
Joyous" Football Fight and tho
Festive and Fetching Base
Dali Battle.

Dali Battle.
Sir Walter Scott, In summing up the
list Of casualties which resulted from
the tournament in which Ivanhoe car
ried every thing before him, says in eff
feet that, because only few knights
wero mortally wounded and several
Others dangerously hurt, the tourna-
ment passed into history and rhyme as:
s'the gentle and joyous passagc-at-arms
OF Ashby de Ia Zouche."
This mildly ironical expression is re-
called, says the San Francisco Chron-
icle, by the accounts of the recent foot
bull game between Yale and Princeton.
We read that one player moved down
half n dozen Princeton mem" that Gin
a rush King was badly hurt, but re-
vlved sufficiently to go on with the
game;" that another player was re-
tired on account of injuries" and that
Several of the players had to be car
ried off the field Mt the conclusion of
the game" Surely this will pass into
the history of American sports us 1.-The
gentle and joyous football match be-
tween Yale and Princeton"
In the National game, too, the list of
a seasons casualties is by no means n
short one. Broken fingers, cracked
heads, bruised legs, spiked hands and
sprained ankles are some of the most
common accompaniment of baseball,
and it seems impossible that the game
can be played well or scientifically
without them.
1t is not intended to throw cold water
upon athletic sports or games of any
Enrf hut " To hot NV
which results in personal injuries and
often in Disagreement for life can be
called sport" only by an extremity of
courtesy which amounts to positive
misnomer The injuries arc not in
hicted Intentionally, it is true, but they
are none the less injurious; and all the
apologies in the world will not mend
broken leg or cure spraincd ankle.
With all our boastcd civilization we
are not much better in these matters
than were the Greeks or Romans.
Their games were not merely rough,
but in many cases cruel and brutal.
They seemed to have very little regard
for human feeling, or even for
human life, rs every reader of Greek
and Roman history knows. Whether
this callousness was only an incident of
the dccadence of Athens and Rome, or
whether it was an integral part of their
DOWNFALL is matter for argument. It
has been claimed with much earnest
ness and plausibility, that the so-called
sports of Rome under the lesser Cmsars
were an index of the disposition and
habits of thought of the people and a
forerunner of the destruction which
overlook them; and it has been argued
that we are showing signs of the same
decadence which sapped the Imperial
city and destroyed the mistress of the
world.
But this is not logical deduction.
On the contrary. our growing fondness
for athletics is favorable sign, the
only danger being that we should over
do the matter. We are like n child
with new toy-we can not get
enough of our field games and open-air
sports At the same time there is u
happy medium between the gladiator
and the Miss Nancy" between puss-in-
thc-corncr and combats with the cess
tas. To show our manhood we do not
need to knock somebody down every
time we go on the street, nor to show our
proficiency in manly sports do we need
10 play FOOTBALL III such way as to
leave majority of each eleven Grip
pied ct the close of the game. There
must be ways and means of playing
football which do not put the player
into the category of what life-insurancc
people call extra hazardous risks, and
it is time that now rules be found or
made which shall eliminate the per-
Sonal danger from the game without
diminishing its interest.
The question is certainly worth con-
sidering. Fun is fun, and working
people like the Americans can hardly
get too much of it, but when fun is
synonymous with wounds and bruises
and fractures and the like, it is time to
devise some other kind of fun and to
put some limits to the extravaganza of
our athletic youths.