Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-01-09
ESSENTIAL EXERCISE.
NECESSARY TO MANS HAPPINESS
AS OIL TO MACHINERY.
The Human Mind Is So Constructed That
1t Requires Periods of Mental and
Bodily Relaxation The Part Games
Play in Afrording Needed Relief.


Bodily Relaxation-The Part Games
Play in AfIording Needed Relief.
All men feel the necessity Of beguiling
the hours The veriest sloth will soon fall
out of his senses if be does nothing but
count the ticks of the clocks. So man has
invented for his solace an infinite variety
of deliberate pastimes-artifcial work of
head or hand-which lull his perception of
the slipping sands as well as productive
labor does that of the artisan. The energy
which has been cited to show that there
are no signs of decrepitude or senility in
the world-socety, mankind as mass-is
nowhere more manifest than in the elab-
crate and costly preparations for amuse-
mentor sheer pastime-which ensue as
soon as people get respite from the task OF
breadwinning.
A notable and somewhat unsatisfactory
feature in this mimicry of work is that the
professional is coming more and more to
the front, to the encouragement of the
amateur. To excel in billiards, in cricket,
in golf, tennis or any of the myriad games
played with balls of various size and ma
terial more time must be filched from
serious business than can by any means be
afforded by those who have to earn a liv
ing. To become proficient in the spot
stroke postuiates an apprenticeship at least
as severe and as prolonged as that of any
skilled handicraft, and the extraordinary
perfection attained by those classed as
gentlemen" cricketers, as distinguished
from players" implies that for them it is
the business Of life and not mere relaNa-
alton. The tendency of all games in this
age of wealth and leisure is to turn play
ers into athletes, and in these, as in serious
work, amateur" is Synonymous with
immature"
Yet games are OF such excellent use in
themselves, not only as recreation from
strain, but as safety valves for the danger
Gus or mischievous forces in human ma
ture, diverting the thoughts from I'M
healthy tendencies and Christening the
frames into symmetry and grace, that it
were a pity if room were not kept for PEG
pie who can never aspire to professional
proficiency. They are potent safeguards
against two of TIE most deplOrable desornl-
tiles to which human nature is liable
dullness in the hard worked and vanity in
the idle, each of which brings many a man
and woman into a tragic degree of ridicule.
Some Young people are so constituted as to
feel no inclination to games, but very much
the reverse; their minds are of such fiberaS
to retain elasticity without having re
course to systematic diversion. That they
are not characters of small capacity which
exhibit this trait may be shown by quoting
two well known instances of men highly
distinguished in widely different careers
The Duke OF Wellington could never he
induced when at school to throw any spirit
into the sports Of other boys. He preferred
wandering about alone to the Cugro~Sing
occupation of football or cricket. Rous-
seau consumed days and nights in close
study in an attempt to master the game
of chess, but though he perSevered in re
peated endeavors they all came to nothing,
for as often as he sat down to game all
that he had learned went out of his head.
But such instances are exceptional. and in
most characters hard work unrelieved by
competitive games is apt to produce
''grooyiness" and superhuous leisure stu
pidity
1t is difficult to imagine young woman
fond of lawn tennis falling a prey to the
morbid self consciousness which consumed
the Comtesse de Senecterre, whom Tale
mant des ReauX describes as a beautiful
but very foolish woman. One of her fan
cies was to have pillows of every size in
her bel-even for her thumbs-for she
prided herself on her beautiful hands and
slept with them open to keep the joints
small. Athletics, it is true are peculiarly
prone to vanity, but the form that vice
assumes in them is that Of the pride of
life, by many degrees more pardonabie
than the deliberate self love of Incidence.
1t is long descent from games which
exercise mind or body to those of pure
chance, yet these have as firm hold upon
human inclination as If theE possessed
merit in themselves. No more piteous I'M
reflection than is left by visit to the
tables at Monte Carlo. Hour after houc,
day after day, year after year, the same
crowds gather round them, bind to the
beauty of sapphire sea and glorious sun
shine, content to swelter and scramble and
wrangle-for what? Well, they are under
the thrali of one or two motiVes-two de
plorable motives-one the lowest the other
the sadoeSt, that can be conceived, for
the first is avarice-of all lust the most
obscene, of all passions the most disas-
trous
Valor, self devotion, truth, humanity,
may $50 complex is human nature) coeSist
with much that is evil in a character, but
avarice taiuts the whole being; unlike
other desires, it is never satisfied; it is
never at rest; nothing sweet can flow from
the source which it has polluted Let there
be no mistake or palliatiOn about this:
Avarice is the primary lure to the casino.
Take away the gold, and who would be so
childish rs to play for counters and sweet
meats? The other and subsidiary motive
which collects a crowd around the tables
is the desire of idle men to rid themselves
of that most precious possession, time,
which once it is gone can never be recalled,
the loss of which is ever the cause of fruit
less regret
knowledge comes, but wisdom tarries,"
but here even knowledge seems to be set at
contempt. Crowds of educated people,
with ready access to all the stores of
knowledge laid up through the laborious
ages for present use, affirm the contempt
ihle creed of luck. Never was there god
so false, never one before whom so many
bowed the knee in profound and ignorant
faith. 1t would be lost labor to combat
the belief-almost universal and wholly
ineradicable among gamblers in an in
scrutable influence upon human occasion,
capable of being offended or propitiated 1t
differs in no rpSOpct from indplatrv for