The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-12-04
Tho Passion for Athletic Sports.

At the football game between Yale and
Princeton on Thanksgiving Day the specta-
tors numbered about forty Thousand. The
Horse Show at the Madison Square Garden
q short time before was attended by nearly
one hundred thousand people.
These two exhibitions and competitions.
therefore. were by far the most attractive
Of the season for the great body Of the pub
lie. During the week Of the Horse Show
the theatres and all other places Of public
amusement suffered seriously. in attend
ance because Of its greater interest for the
people. The vast building in which it
YVES held was packed to the roof
with enthusiastic observers night after
night. No show ever before held in
New York had drawn assemblages SO great
during an equal period Of time. The foot
ball game on Thanksgiving Day was sort
OF athletic contest in which few years ago
college boys only were much interested;
but 1t attracted an eager concourse which
was as large as the population Of consider
able city. The crowd at the game was prob
ably greater than the aggregate attend
ance at all the theatres and other
shows OF the town on that holiday.
and the forty thousand people paid money
to witness the competition and travelled
far to reach it,. 1t was the one conspicuous
and overshadowing event Of the day in the
popular estimation. The chief subject OF
conversation through all the town and In
every circle OF society was this football con-
test Of the brawny college lads. The victo-
rious team were as much the heroes OF
Thursday as were the yictors at the Olym-
plan games for the Greece OF twenty-five
hundred years ago. and long before our
Christian era.
Nothing at this time prOvokes and stimu-
lates the popular enthusiasm so much as
these sports and contests Of endurance ex-
cept 1t be sharply fought political can
vass. and that has In 1t the element of
competition which explains the poplar In
terest In the others. 1t is fight. all man.
kind loves battle. But this deep al gen.
eral delight In athletic sports Is d new
growth with US. II has been kindi~i al
most wholly during the last generation.
and we must give the colleges the honor OF
having lighted the fame. They entered
with enthusiasm into these sports long be-
fore the outside public showed much con-
Germ in the contests.
dorV6rO auu lol0 btdTLeu C0e FASHION Oh
college athletics generation ago. when
baseball, football. and rowing matches were
crude and simple and boyish amusements
as compared with what they are now. Tho
whole evolution Of the games has come
from their early efforts and their persistent
energy and ureless search for improve
ments; and as they have gone ahead
with the development they have led
all the other colleges and stimulated
the formation OF independent ath-
letic associations until now there is
hardly young man or young woman
in the Union who is not equally enthusiastic
concerning the contests. They have made
the desire for athletic superiority popular
passion in every part OF the land. and un-
doubleday tho growth OF tho population of
the colleges during recent years is due
largely to II. The college lads spread abroad
the fame OF the colleges whose col
Ors they wear on the fields OF
their strenuous games even moro than
the learning and scholarship Of their pro-
fessors can do. The oldest and the most
conservative Of colleges are compelled to