The morning call., 1892-12-19
THE FOOTBALL GAME.

Ten or fifteen thousand people went to
the football game on Saturday and ap-
peared TO enjoy it hugely. 1t was a new
sensation, for there is rather more excite
ment in football than in baseball. At the
latter skill alone commands victory, whereas
at the former thews and sinews are of more
consequence than address. The team which
can make the strongest rush generally wins.
on the Napoleonic principle that fortune is
on the side OF the heaviest battalions The
game is called football because it is not
allowable 10 use the feet in it. If Ajax stlll
lived, and could enlist four men of his size
and muscle TO guard him. he would become
the champion football player of the day.
No one could resist his Tushes. and when he
got the bail the enemy would merely dash
themselves in vain against his stalwart
frame in efforts to take it from him.
For the idea Of the modern football captain
is 10 fling such a force upon the holder of
the ball that he shall be knocked down, and
probably knocked senseess, then to carry
off the bail without meeting with the like
experience from the opposite captain.
Football has become, perhaps, the most
popular Of our college athletic sports. be-
cause 1t exacts more endurance and espe-
cially more pluck than any other. Rowing
muscles, but none upon the virle grit. A
man may be the veriest poltrOon and yet
may be able TO Outrow champions. and to
pitch so as to distress the most deXtrous
batter. But a football player must have
pluck. He can never reckon out in adj
vance the net results of the shock of his
charges. he may be knocked so senseless
that 1t may bother the doctors to restore
him. or he may be crippled for life.
These chances he must take, and he
who takes them gayly, for the fun
and glory of the thing, would lead a
squadron OF horse upon battery
with a smiling face. As courage is an ac-
quiTed attribute, which is born in few. but
can be learned by experience like the small
sword exercise, football commepdS itself as
an apprenticeship TO one OF the most valu-
able qualities possessed by civilized men.
In the old days Of the war it was found that
the boys WHO had teen the most proficient
at athletic games, involving more or less
dang er to limb, made the best cavalry eff
GERS. They were often stupid as owls. but
set them on horse and show them a bat
terry and it WAS odds they were presently
seen saberpg the gunners.
In the last generation the fault OF an
Am eriean collegiate education was that 1t
neglected physical development. few
scholars were evolved. but much fewer men
Of muscle or men Of pluck. In England
they were wiser. College authorities
winked at the chronic warfare between
town boys and gown boys, and when the
latter were drafted into tie army hard
fighting came natural to them. Some thirty
years ago the war disclosed our mistake.
and ever since the leading colleges of the
country-Harvard, Y ale, Columbia, Cornell
and Princeton-have been careful 10 educate
the eombatye instinct of their scholars.
Our own Berkeley was quick TO follow the
example. Now, if trouble befall. excellent
material for officers would be found in the
ranks of college graduates and especially
among the accomplished football players.
So we drift back to first principles. The
old Greeks drew slight distinction between
physical and mental supremacy. Tie man
who was invincible in the palestra ranked
with Sopboeles, Alcibiades was as famous
for his triumphs in athletic sports as he was
for his Oratory and his philosophy. At this
leveing Of mental and physical excellence
Cicero speers. Tut if he had himself been
educated to give and take hard knocks in
rough and tumble games be might not have
displayed such pusillanmity in the hour of
danger. Man is composite creature and
between all his attributes there is a subtle
sympathy. All great scholars are not also
athletes, but it is generally found az the
colleges that the young men who exhibit
most mental vlgor have thews and snews
as well. and what gives tothews and sinews
their potential energy? Fearless courage.
1t is hard 10 find in Boston a dozen DULLES
who could hold their own against half
dozeE of the bigh-mark men among the
sen lors nf Harvard