Arizona silver belt., 1895-11-09
FOOTBALL ARM0R.
Accoutrements for Playing a Very
 Dangerous Game,
Contrivances Which Are Intended for the Preservation of the Players Features and Limbe, Hut Not to En-
 hanoe Hts Beauty,

As base ball goes out football comes in. It is an interesting game, and an" nually attracts increasing crowds of spectators, but 1t can never be so pop ular as baseball for several reasons.
 The football season is very short, two months as the best, as before De- tober the weather is too warm for such violent exertion, and after the close of November although not too cold for playing, the weather is too frigid to permit any but the most ardent enthu- siast to sit for two or three hours watching the sport,
 For another reason, football is the most violent exercise known under the name of sport, and it would be abso- lutely impossible for team to play day after day like professional club plays baseball. Then again, it is dangerous sport. It is all very we'll to say that it makes boy manly, or to taunt pru- dent boys with being cowardly, be- cause they shrink from the rough-and- tumble encounter, but no amount of public praise can make amends for cracked head, dislocated collar-bone, broken leg or even fractured rib. So it is no wonder that the vast majority of boys and young men-even col legians content themselves with looking on and cheering their side to victory.
 That football is a rough and dan gcrous pastime is recognized by the numerous devices which have from time to time been brought into use to soften If not prevent the injuries which the football player has come to regard as matter of course.
 Nowadays the player is almost en- cased in armor. First came the rubber mouthpiece, which gives the player something to bite and clench his teeth upon to save his tongue and the break ing of his teeth by the shock of being suddenly downed.
 Next nose mask was worn-a stout rubber cover for the nasal appendage, held in place by strap around the forehead. Then came the padded guards for the ears, which seemed to suffer good deal in the rushes Final ly the mouthpiece, nose guard and ear guards were combined into piece called head harness.
 Quilted canvas knickerbockers pro- tect the thighs and a quilted canvas jacket encsses the body, while the shins are protected by combination of can vas and whalebone.
 For the protection Of the abdomen an ingenious arrangement of wire, cot ton and chamois skin fills a long-felt want Of minor protectors there may be mentioned elastic caps and support CTS for shoulders, elbows, forearms, kneecaps, ankles and wrists.
 A team equipped with these eontriv- ances is laughter-provolIing sight, and suggests that game which needs all these precautions seems to require considerable modification of it's rules. As played now it is more dangerous than prize fighting.
 Even with all these protectors every game of football is productive of score of injuries, the majority trifing, of course, but enough are serious to give rise to the apprehension that any minute may produce fatality.
 Surely there must be some way of making football an interesting and cx- citing game, and yet leave it compara- lively harmless. Until this is done it can never be really popular, and will be confined to colleges where transient fame is regarded as far superior to the danger of a broken neck. k.-Golden Days.