The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1895-02-28
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FOOTBALL IN FRANCE.

FOO DALI in fnANS6.
The French View of It-Never Brutal Ex-
oepe When Played by Brutes.
The game Of football, according to
the Rugby rules, is now officially en-.
throned in France It Is the great win.
ter game Of our athletic clubs and Of
our colleges Although it's adopts are al
ready quite numerous, many people
don't even know what the game really
Is, and few know anything of its origin
or its rules. Those whose idea Of the
game is formed from the legends that
have been scattered around it fancy that
it is brutal scramble, which is associ-
Ated with serious and even fatal acci.
dents
Certainly it is not game for dudes.
The shock is rude, and the rushes and
collisions are too frequent to present q
chance to measure their force. But aft
or all there is no evidence to show that
the accidents are more serious or more
numerous in football than in other open
air sports, such as riding, bicycling,
fencing and boating.
As in all games in which emulation
and the desire to win form the princi-
pal features Of the struggle, the chances
of accident exist in football; but, judg-
ing of it by the amount of success which
it has received in France, we can sim
ply say that it is exciting, and by no
means so terrible as some people would
have US believe it to be.
Certainly it used to be dangerous, but
that was in the days when the rules
which governed it were not 50 firmly es-
tablishsd as they are today. In the time
of Edward II Of England, for example,
In 1914, it was unlawful to play it in
the streets Of London on account Of the
frequent accidents which it caused. It
was also dangerous in Brittany, where
1t was played under the name Of soule.
III fact, it was then moro of fight than
a game 1t was dramatic and hot ;af-
fair, in which there were boxing, stran-
.glis:s and breaking of heads It was a
game III which man could kill his en-
envy without neglecting Easter duty,
provided he could do so apparently by
chance.
fortunately souie is NO longer played
m oUr rural localities and the football
which is now played i'm France Is moth
ling more than the national English
igame toned dowu by the rules of Eng
ilish schools and introduced into Frnce
Thy Messrs g. de Saint Clair and Saant-
tChaffray, the authors of a very inter.
testing pamphlet ON the subject, dealing
with the progress Of thegame in France
This progress appears all the more re.
,markable when we consider the number
of the enemies Of the thing, .inctnding
those who don't understand lit, those
who cannot possibly play it and the
.chauvins, for whom 1T liz an insult to
attempt to introdEce an English game
into this country. .g
Moreover, football arrived he1e.on the
heels Of the heartmending statistics of
its killed and wcsmded, taken tffom an
English sheet and I'm all appearance
quite authentic. But I'm these figures
two Indispensable elements were want
ing-the total number Df the players
and the precise aocalities where the ae.
cidents occurred. In around numbers the
army of foothallms count 100000 men.
. and this Of course reduces thu proper.
tion Of accidents enumerated in the
famous list And. moreover, these acct
dents have occurred in the mining dis
tricts of the north, whose trough and
brutal population ignore the distinction
and courtesy SO necessary.
When played by well bred young
,men. football is not dangerous, and the
yproof of this assertion is to he found ia
the five years of its existence on the
programmes of cur athletic clubs and
college games. During that five years
mot one serious accident has happened
lat football contest In this country.
The figures referred to above were
well calculated to frighten aohoolteach-
eers and parents, but now the fathers oil
oour boys, hostile to the game at first,
encourage them to play. and the pro.
fessors favor it because itschief charao-
'teristics are discipline and self denial
Figaro.