Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-07-14

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Harvard last week. His subject was
college athletics, and his course of |
treatment was their exaltation above
:olleSe learning. He said that gen
Grafton ago, just before the war of |
secession, almost no honor was given |
to a young man because he was strong,
swift, courageous or enduring. THE
college hero of those days was apt
TO be young man of towering fore
mead, from which the hair was care
fully brushed backward and upward.
to give the full effect to his remark
able chronological development. His
cheeks were pale, his digestion pretty
certain to be bad. He was self-con-
sclous, interpretive, and INDUCED in
moods, as became a child Of genius.
He had warnings and aspirations, and
not infrequenty mistook physical las
situde for intellectually, and his dys-
peptic suffering for spiritual cravings.
He would have grayely distrusted his
mission and his calling had he found
at any time playing ball. He
went through moral crises and mental
lamentations which seemed to him
tremendous. From the gloomy recesses
of his ill-kept and unventlated room
he periodically came forth to astound
is fellow students with poor limitations
of Coleridge, De Quincy and Carlyle
or Goethe in translation
Mr.. Walker said that then a man
who was specially gifted in physical
proves was thereby disparaged in
public estimation; that affected no
about intellectually and spirit
lily had almost complete control of
the poular Thought" that "languor
and pallor were attractive, delicacy of
frame and limb were admired" At
that time, he averred, there was an
affectation of Indifference toward size
and numbers in national life; quality,
not quantity, was in the eyes of the
men of those days the sole test of the
''sublimeneSS and greatness of a peo-
pie This was due to the transcend
entaliSm and sentimentalism of the
last quarter of the 18th and the first
quarter of the 10Th century, which had
created false and pernicious opinions
concerning personal character and con-
duct" All such notions, said Mr. Walk
er, have gone.
The progress of science has changed
this. The men of today have generally
agreed that they are likely to live
long enough to make it wise to think
a hundred times how they snail live to
once how they shall die. THE present
generation has witnessed a wonderful
diminution of spiritual self conscious
ness and better physiology coinciding
with some changes in popular ideas has
driven away the notions about the
flesh as an encumbrance, a clog, q
burden, a snare" It has been dis
covered that criminals are not the
highly-developed, full-blooded animal
men, but the understood and under
vitalized creatures. The lesson of the
Elmira reformatory under Brockway
was spoken of, where Gymnastics,
regulated exercise and manual train
ing perform a most important part in
the development of the prisoners into
beings who, for the first time, can con-
troll not merely their impulses, but their
straight, and go straight toward their
object, and who, by being placed in
useful and helpful relations to the in
dustrial order, are relieved from a
large part of the temptations to which,
in their previous life, they have been
subjected" The war of secession, the
speaker said, showed how much no
bier are strength of will, firmness of
purpose, resolution to endure, and
capacity for action than are the quail
tiles Of the speechmaker and the fine
writer, which the nation had once
agreed chiefly to admire" There had
also been a change in political philoso-
ply, tending to the use and perfection
of political machinery, even to machine
ballot-boxes. Our nation had grown
more peaceful as it had grown more
powerful. We used to brag, and now
we don't Finally, after this review of
things, Mr.. Walker asked: rs it too
much to say that we have, as a COM
got down upon a sound, prac-
teal, sensible worldly basis of life,
much more promising for morality, for
a steadily progressive civiliza ton, for
enduring enthusiasts; aye, for worthy
aspirations and true spirituality,
than the unreal, morbid transcendental-
ism and sentimentalism of three, two
or even only one generation ago?"
And he proceeded to the inquiry
college athletics, as at present |
pursued, are more of good or evil, !
and other questions arising from that. /
He made the distinction that "gymnas-
tics are for individual training and
development, with health strongly in
view. Athletics take the form of COM
petition and contest; emulation is their
moving spirit, glory the aim. AS thus
in their primary objects,
athletics differ from gymnastics in
two respects; first by SPECIALIZE ton,
Is when a man chooses his line Of
work in athletics, whether that be
or hurdle racing, or row.
ng or pitching in baseball, or playing
a certain position in football, and
hereafter devotes his energies to work
ng himself up to the highest point
# efficiency int hat line; secondly, by
Excess in the amount of exercise over
what would be required or would be
,erformed without the introduction of {
he spirit of emulation. So great Is
his excess that it may not unfairly
1e said that athletics begin where
gymnastics leave or" Gymnastics are
means to an end; athletics become ]
In end In themselves The severer
orms of athletic competition are evil !