St. Paul daily globe., 1895-10-21
GAWEOF FOOTBALL
SECRET OF IT'S FASCINATION
TIPPED OFF BY AN OLD
PLAYER.
STRONG ON GRAND STAND.
PARENTAL PLEASURES IN SEE
ING THE ROYS STRUGGLING
FOR SUPREMACY.
FINAL REWARD OF PLAYERS.
They Usually Find Rich and
Good Wives but Seldom
Achieve Fame.

The football season is hard upon
us, and we old fellows who used to
play are beginning to grow enthusi-'
aStic over the games which will be
seen on the gridirOn this fall. We
have other matters to think of now,
and for that reason cannot play any
game. We have TO think of bond
sales, railroad consolidation, and
trust manipulation, to keep the
young rascals at school until they
can win championship games. We
played football when we were boys,
and now We expect to enjoy it
through our sons. Some of my class
mates would rather see their sons
on the football eleven than in con-
gress. The practice of cultivating
long, thick shocks of hair has lost
none of its popularity this year,
which means that the boys are pre-
pared for battle. 1 have often Won
dered why some Yankee does not in
vent a head protector. A mop of
asbestos encaSed in the finest springs
would no doubt answer for a game or
two. 1t is the custom among GER
tain men to get themselves up in
masks and tenders of all kinds to
protect their precious physiOgnOmies.
Some are particularly careful of
their noses others wear p2ds on their
noble brOwS, still others pack their
chins in cotton, and a few are not
going to give the other side a
chance to pull their ears off. Nearly
all brace their legs with splints,
wear knee pads and breeches stuffed
before and behind. The modern
football man in full regalia recalls
the old county fair, where the trot-
terS from the surrounding farms,
most of them trained with a plOw
line, ambled upon an improvised
track all belted, booted and padded
TO win a purse of SO from the neigh
bors and the championship of the
county. Time. 2:90.
The whole interest in football CEN
tiers, as far as l can see, in the
fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers,
SweetheartS, cousins and auntS of the
young men who compose the eleVens,
and the same relatives of the ad
mirers and supporters of such COM
pOnent parts. Football with us is
entirely a family matter and col
lege matter. The game played pro-
fessionally before the general public
for money would attract nobody.
We go to any trouble and incOn-
venience, and will spare no eX-
pense to see our boys in the game. |
Every family that has been repre-
Sented at Yale, Harvard, Princeton |
or Columbia or for that matter at |
any leading college in the land, is an
enthusiastic partisan, and PARTISAN
ship runs high when the big uni
Versities get together on the field.
Every man and woman who sees
the game, be he or she young or old, !
pretty or ugly, rich or poor, is fight
ing for one side or the other with all |
possible spirit. Partisanship makes |
the game what it is.
At no other spectacle in this coun- |
try do we see so many evidences of |
warm personal interest. The young |
men cheer themselves almost into |
Spasms in the effort to encourage |
their side, while the young women |
deck themselves gaily in the colors of |
their favorite college.
Football attracts a greater pro- !
portion of respectable people than |
any other sport. The best people |
in the community support the uni |
Versities; therefore they also sup |
port football. The football season |
is short. 1t does not last long |
enough to become bore to either the |
college boys or their many admir- |
ers. The public are sometimes drawn |
to a great contest, but as a, rule they |
ing or base ball.
Moreover, in the effete East where
the interest is greatest, it is an eX-
pensive pleasure, if one would see
the game from the best point of
view
Tickets are sold at great pre-
MUM. The Yale, Harvard and
Princeton elevens have made large
sums of money out of their annual
games. Tickets have sold for as
much as $25, and it is not unusual for
the gate receipts to amount to $35, 900
or 900 at the deciding game of the
series.
I do not regard football as of great
er interest to the uninitiated spectator
than many other sports which could be
named. The close or in-play in the
game is disap appointing because the eye
is not quick enough to follow the move
qnent of the ball. If it were it would