The record-union., 1893-12-01
IS IT A MANLY GAMES

Harper's Weekly has made discovery
that there is after all practical usefulness
in the football game. 1t cites an instance.
A burglar broke into a New England res
idence. The housewife attempted to eject
him but he resisted. She called her two
sons to her aid; each lad had trained in
football team and bore honorable life
scars of service.
They responded to the call of this
Captain; one gave the burglar low
tackle and brought him to earth head
long, while the other son made dive and
landing upon the robbers breast knocked
the breath out of him and smashed few
ribs. The fellow claimed foul, but the
umpire, in the person of a policeman,
ruled against him, and the thief went to
the prison hospital as a result.
This is elephantine wit; the Weekly
seldom INDUCES in any other. But it
serves to show that the drift of sentiment
is setting against the game, for ridicule
has sharpened its arrow point for it. The
Captain of the collegiate team at the East
who was crippled for life last week in a
match game still claims it is manly sport;
but so did the prize fighters in the hey
day of their boom, and not more of them
were killed or crippled than have been
men of football teams. One Of this gen
try in criticising football adds senten-
tiously, 1--WE don't jump on man when
he's down."
New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin.
Michigan and California have each since
autumn set in this year contributed one
or more victims in the form of dead
youths.
The Adrian. Mich, case was one Pc
culiarly shocking. Carew had the ball
and downed to save it; three Toledo boys
dropped to save him. Thereupon the
whole Adrian team piled on. and young
Carew's neck was promptly dislocated,
his body paralyzed from the chest down.
and he died the next day.
One of the Toledo team was preached,
and permanent hernia is the result; an
other had his right leg so twisted that he
will 60 imping through life. Close upon
the heels of these accidents" came the
death of player at West Hartlepool,
England. due to injuries received in a
football match, in which his stomach was
so completely scrunched that it ceased to
be of any service to his body thereafter
Yes, it may be glorious game; fine for
truss-makers, excellent for surgeons,
and it promises to be profitable for man
ufacturers of artificial limbs and for un-
dertakers.
One difficulty with the game is that any
tackle whatever now allowed is liable to
plunge 140 or 80 pound man, while 60
ing at speed of fifteen miles an hour,
headlong to the ground and knock the
brains out of him. II that does not fol-
low the momentum with which he butts
mother earth, twelve or fifteen hundred
pounds of humanity jumps upon him
and knocks the breath out Of him. This
is done to prevent crawling"
Probably to reduce the tackle to halt
when the man is grasped, and to refuse
measurement for crawling, would knock
the life out of the game, in the opinion
of experts. But nevertheless such modi-
fication would remove pretty much ali
the serious danger that now distinguishes
the sport. If where the ball touches
when the man goes down is the measure
of gain, the need to fiatten the fellow like
pancake by piling upon his prone body
will be gone. If to tackle him without
throwing him is to fix the advance made
by a runner, fewer neeks will be broken,
spinal columns wrenched or heads
cracked.
But with devout thankfulness that
football without use of the foot upon
the ball is unknown to US in prac-
tice. though remembrance of partic-
ipation in football of equally as
exhilarating kind and greatly more
skillful order, returns to US from youths
sunny days, we do not assume to judge
the brainy young men of this era who