New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-12-27
NOTES FROM LONDON.

ROsEBERY AS HUMORlSTS. CON
SCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
MRHALI. GAME on STAGE
MORALS-MR. TREE AND
ais DAUGHTER
London. December IL.
# is astonishing hs~ quick the English to
eject the mote ~ thc'r neighbours eye. The
neishbor on this occasion is American. and IL Is
in the practice Of the game OF football tnat the
American has attracted the rather malevoen al
,tnt!on u his elder cousin. 1t is a cousin
iourn.ng In America who kicks off; somebody
signing himself Cant0D. and writing from Colo
RADIO TO The Times" This gentleman has taken
seriously. the fashion Of such gentlemen is the
humorous cxaggera tons of one or two Of the
papers which described the recent Yale and
Harvard football match. The Times might
have been better employed than in publishing
these stories: but it does publish them. and
forthwith the evening papers reproduce them
and comment on them, holding high theirshan
in horror.
..Be IL observed that the accounts came from
al American paper" remarks one journal sagely.
and must not be set down to English preju-
dice" We'll. they may or may not come from an
American paper. Cantab does not give his real
name nor name the American paper from which
he takes his blood-curding story. oxford and
Cambridge" remarks another. not less sagely
twill probably be content to let Yale and Har-
ward fight their sanguinary battles among them
selves" Then hear of a New-York sheet
named this time-which publishes CHASTITY
pcture Of the Heroes Of the Battle. Before and
After" in which half the bandaged
hound and strapped as If after real battle"
This too IS taken seriously and the honest
Rriton. himself incapable of imaginative exag-
garation stolidly accepts II all literal record
OF actual fact
sunnose it were Since when has football in
Great Britain ceased to be sanguinary strug-
g.e? How many years in succession have the
E,s,isb nress AT the close OF the football season
published butchers bill" Has there ever
been a year free from fatal accidents in the FOOT
bali field? Was there fatal accident at SPRING
field? Is the Rugby" game notorious Tor 'io-
lence. or not? And If all these questions must
he answered in one way. why is the American
game held up to eXecration or why are TWO
American universities singled out as examples
If brutality? The only explanation is the clear
ness of the English vision for their neghbors
fauts coupled with an occasional blindness to
their own 1t is. nevertheless. unworthy OF the
journal which starts this cry, and it is to my
mind mistake from any point of view
There is a strong dash of sentiment ana OF
excessive sensbility TO human suffering In these
later years of an expiring century. we are
after all, fighting race; English and American
alike. and evil will be the fate OF either II
either ceases to be fighting race. But now III
these days of peace sitting under her olive is the
spirit Of battle to be kept alive II all games are
N he peaceable and all sports devoid Of danger
I express no opinion what happened at
Springfield for do not know what happened
hay
called for But football is a rough game at pest
81 long ago as the early fifties, when II was
plaved on the Green in NeW-Haven, in 'front.' Oh
the colleges il was rough Freshmen ana sopho-
rnores fought IT out between them nave seen
men carried off that field, and no noise maze
about IT, and no illustration in the sensauohai
press TO carry pangs to the breasts OF fernae REL
atives Of victors and vanquished we were ho'
much the worse. The wounds healed. But ooy
who shirked the contest from fear OF t"ls'eu
> ankle or a broken collar-bone would have been
despsed by his comrades. and rightiy oespiseu'
hope we shall never think sport is to be con-
demned merely because 1t Is dangerous Inc
danger is an element-a good and useful e.e-
,nent We don't want our boys 10 grow up MIX
sons any more than we want them To grow up
-ufians We want them 10 be manly able 10
fare merrill able TO bear pain. willing to surfer Tor
a good cause: and the ca Use Of Yale or Harvard
is A good cause even il the rivalry between theih
takes the form Of football.
What really thought deplorable was the state
mcnt-I hope it was not true-that the nghtihs
IN tho field was due &c ill-feeling between the
two teams and the two universities. II mat
have any foundation. IL tends to coniirm the ac-
count which l quoted some months ago from al
American correspondent who wrote me al'eT the
Oxford-Yale athletic contests. He said then mat
there was ill-feeing and that the youth OF the
,wo universities. and Of other universities. had
not armed to take a beating In gooo part
honed somebody would contradict him. but no.
,od,, Ala Ru, half the interest and use OF these
contests are gone If they leave resentment ana
v,nd,ctIyeness behind them. 1t does not matter
very much whether Yale or Harvard WINS. WAT
does matter is the effect OF these rivalrles upon
character That is the test. as II Is the tese Oh
ali education. Rivalry 10 any extent out gem
erous rivalry. There perhaps, we nave soihe-
thing 10 learn from our cousins on THIS SIZE III
England YOU almost never hear OF any soreness
following upon defeat oxford and Cambridge
are lust as keen, each OF them, TO win as har-
ward or Yale but the victor does not unduiy
exult and the vanquished do not sulk. nope
they do not in America either.
II ,s becoming quite clear that Birmingham Is
not the home Of humor nor OF a sense OF hunor,-
that IL f. in truth, place where soienhity
reigns undisturbed. The most distinguished clu-
zen 0, Birmingham is, beyond dispute Mr. Cham-
berlain He is also the citizen who has had most
opportunities OF acquiring a knowiedge OF t"e
world op,side ~ Birmingham. Yet even he lives
and moves in an atmosphere OF such seriousness
no; 10 say density. that joke seems lost on him.
n. sometimes makes very good ones himself IL
Is when he is called on to those OF others mat
Ne break. down Lord Rosebcry said at Devon
port on Tuesday:
mr.. Aa.A w. arainst us? Almost ali the