The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-05-28
VIGOROUS ATHLETICS.
Break-Neck Sports Which Endan-
ger Human Life.
Disastrous Results of the "Gentle "nd
Joyous" Football Fight and the
Festive and Fetching Base
Ball Battle.

Sir Walter Scott. in summing up the
list of casualties which resulted from
the tournament in which lvanhoe car
ried every thing before him, says IN Ell
feet that, because only few knights
were MORALLY wounded and several
others dangerously hurt, the tourna-
ment passed into history and rhyme as
1.-THE gentle and joyous passage at-arms
of Ashby de la Zouche."
This mildly ironical expression is re-
called, says the San Francisco Chron-
icle. by the accounts of the recent foot
ball game between Yale and Princeton.
We read that one player moved down
half dozen Princeton men, that IN
rush King was badly hurt, but re-
vived sufficiently to go on with the
pame;" that "another player was re-
tired on account of injuries" and that
several of the players had to be car
ried off the field at the conclusion OF
the game" Surely this will pass into
the history of American sports as THE
gentle and joyous football match be-
tween Yale and Princeton"
In the National game, too, the list OF
seasons casualties is by no means
short one. Broken fingers, cracked
heads, bruised legs, spiked hands and
sprained ankles are some of the most
common Accomplishments 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
sort, but only to suggest that any game
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 are not in
nicted 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 sprained ankle.
With all our boosted civilization VIZ
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 regar'
for human feeling, or even 70
human life, as every reader of Greel
and Roman history knows. Whethe
this callousness was only an incident o
the decadence of Athens and Rome, o
whether it was an integral part of thci
downfall, is matter for argument. !
has been claimed. with much earnest
ness and plausibility, that the so-calle'
sports of Rome under the lesser Cesar
were an index of the disposition an'
habits of thought of the people and
forerunner Of the destruction whicl
overlook them; and it has been argue,
that we are showing signs of the sam
decadence which Slapped the lmperia
city and destroyed the mistress of tn
world.
But this is not a logical deduction
On the contrary, our growing fondnes
for athletics is favorable sign, tn
only danger being that we should ovcl
do the matter. We are like chill
with a new toy we can not gt
enough of our field games and open-ai
sports. At the same time there is
happy medium between the gladiato
and the Miss Nancy between puss-ir
the-corner and combats with the ces
tas. To show our manhood we do no
need to knock somebody down ever
time we go on the street, nor to show on
proficiency in manly sports do we nee
to play football in such a way as I
leave majority of each eleven cril
pied at the close of the game, Thcl
must be ways and means of playin
football which do not put the playC
into the category of what life-insuran,
people call extra hazardous risks, Il!
it is time that new rules be found {
made which shall eliminate the pc
sonal danger from the game witho
diminishing its interest
The question is certainly worth co
sidering. Fun is fun, and a workil
people like the Americans can harG
get too much of it, but when fun
Synonymous with wounds and bruis
and fractures and the like, it is time
devise some other kind of fun and
put some limits to the extravaganza
our athletic youths