The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-02-23

been heightened by the addition of
several congested brains and broken
| ankles.
Within few days notab BILE contribu
tion has been made to the literature of
the subject by President Eliot of Harv-
ard College AS President Eliot has had
exceptional opportunities for observing
the tendencies of foot ball, far more op-
portunites than the undergraduate, and
has used them, his teatimonyscau hardly
be sneered away with the suggestion
that he doesn't know what he is talking
about. We wish it were possible to
publish in full all that President Eliot
has to say on the subject Of athleticssin
our colleges 1t is so clear, so pertinent
and SO obviously true, that every parent
who has boy in college or thinks of
sending one there, should read it. and
have it in mind to check the youthful
enthusiasm of his son. But as this is
impossible at present we must content
ourselves with what he says on football,
which is as follows:
The public interest in baseball has
made it easy to collect large sums of
gate-money, both on college grounds and
on public grounds convenient to New
York and other cities The money thus
easily got is often wastefully and inetfec-
lively spent There is something ex-
qusitively inappropriate in the extrava-
CANT expenditure on athletic sports at
such institutions which nave been pain
fully built up by the selt-denial, frugal
jty ana public spirit OF generations that
i,,1, n 1ooE bvCJca1 and moral
courage, endurance.and toughness yet al
ways put the things of the spirit above
the things of s: nse AT these universities
taere must be constant economy and
inadequacy in expenditure for intellec-
tual and spiritual objects; how repulsive
then must be foolish and pernlclous eA-
penditures on sports.
Again, an unwholesome desire for VIC
tory, by whatever means, in inter
collegiate football has perverted the
iudgmen of the players, and the college
public concerning the propriety OF
"tricks,D surprises ard habitual viola
tions of the rules of the game as means
of winning victory. In war, stratagems
and surprises are consistent parts of that
supreme savagery; but in manly sports
new tricks" practsed in secret. sudden
novelties and undetected violations OF
the ruIs should cloud the joy of victory,
and aggravate the modification of de-
feat.
| Finally, in. the game of. football,
which at present interests the public
more than any other, the same eagerness
for victory by whatever means has dur
ing the last five years added , to. the risk
of bodily injury incurred by the players.
The players have been forced by public
opinion, and the immediate pressure of
young graduates employed as coaches,
to overtrajn and overwork; SO that they
~ to6 for n,
GUS strain, and are brought to arduous
contests, not as the public mas supposed,
in the highest physical condition but
in an overweight and even NOR bid
state, from which the return to normal
life is difficult. In other manly sports,
in which courage, presencesof mind, and
promptness of decision arctic be cultlvat-
ed, such as sailing, riding, climbing
mountains, hunting. and the like, the
risk of personal injury is always studi-
on sly reduced to lowest terms, and the
sportsman who takes unnecessary risks is
regarded as sfoolhardy or incompetent;
but in football, the recent development
of the game has made it more and more
dangerous, without making it more
skilful or more interesting. The danger
toslife in this country is not yet great,
though increasing: but the exposure to
asclass of injuries which diminish the
serviceableness-o of the body throughout
life has decidedly increased. Such in
iuries are sprains, wrenhces, ongestions
Of the brain, the breaking of bones, the
loss of teeth, and the enlargement or
stiffening of joints. 1t should be said.
however, that the injuries Sustained by
football players are always incidental
and non-essential whereas in prize-6ght-
ing-with which football..ha been I'M
Justly compared-the victory of one COM
Blatant is only to be obtained by the
ilx,; ,,i1 IF a nfhar More
over, it should be distinctly understood
that the objection to football in this re-
gard is not that it involves some risk,
but that it's risks are inordlnate or ex-
cessive. In every manly sport there is
some risk of life an limb.
Every count in the indictment which
we made against foot ball is sustained
by President Eliot's report, except posi-
bly, the one which alleged brutality. And
that one, we think, is amply sustained
by the descriptions of the intercollegiate
games that were published III the news
papers when they occurred, and which
were intended to be. and doubtless were.
faithful. Of course the brutality of
foot ball differs from the brutality of
prize fights in that it Is not deliberately
DlaluGU, LII dIlSCD IIOl1 buC IAuCuoO CA
citement of the game which frequently
causes the player to close his head" and
hurl himself upon his antag-
onist without any thought of
the consequences. 1t is kind
of brutality which is more dangerous
than that of the prize fight, for the very
reason that tits not deliberately planned
and is therefore unlimited. While the
prize fighter seeks victory by the severe
bodily injury of his adversary, the in
Jury is carefully limited to parts of the
body where it is not likely to be danger
GUS to lite or to produce permanent disa-
bility, while the brutality of
football, being the outgrowth
of a complete loss of self
control, is just as likely to attack the
parts of the body that can offer little
resistance, as any other and is therefore
more liable to infiict permanent injury.
ANCIENT. PEMAQUID.s
=uor., 1o+arast in tho Promised Monument