Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-03-21
IN FRANCE
The French View of It-Never Br4ItaE
Except When Played by Brutes

Paris Figaro: The game of football
according TO the Rugby rules, is nesSr
officially enthrOned in France. IL is
the great winter game of our athletic
clubs and of our colleges. Although its
adopts are already quite numerous.
many people don't event know whaE
the game really is. and few know any
thing Of its origin or its rules. Thctsa
whose idea of the game is formed
from the legends that have been scat
tered around it fancy that it is =
brutal scramble, which is associated
with serious and even fatal accidents
Certainly it is not a game for dudes
The shock is rude, and the rushes ana
collisions too frequent to present a.
change to measure their force. Bias
after ali, there is no evidence to show
that the accidents are more serious
or more numerous in football than tx
any other open-air sports, such as rid
ing, bicycling, fencing, and boating
As in all games in which emulation
and the desire to win form the prIu-
clpal features of the struggle, the
chances of accident exists in football
but, judging of it by the amount OF
success which it has received in
France, we can simply say that it is
exciting, and by no means so terribI6
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 81
firmly established as they are today
In the time of Edward III. of Eng
land. for example, in 1914. it was un-
lawful to play it in the streets OF
accidents which it caused. 1t was also
dangerous in Brittany, where it WAS,
played under the name of sOule- In
fact, it was then more of a fight than
a game. 1t was a dramatic and hot at
fair, in which there We're boxing
s~trangling, and breaking of heads. Is
was a game in which a man could XIII
his enemy without neglecting Easter
duty, provided he could do so appar-
emily by chance.
Fortunately, soule is no longer
played in our rural localities; and the
football which is now played in
France is nothing more than the ma
tional English game, toned down BY
the rules of English schools, and in
troduced into France by Messrs. G.
de Saint Clair and Saint-C haffray, the
authors of a very interesting pamphlet
on the subject, dealing with the pro
gress of the game in France. This
progress appears all the more remark
able when we consider the number of
the enemies of the thing, including
those who don't understand it, those
who could not possibly play it, md the
chauvins, for whom it is an insult TO
attempt to introduce an English game.
into this country.
Moreover, football arrived here or
the heels Of the heartrending statistics:
of it's killed and wounded, taken from
an English sheet, and in all ppear-
ance quite authentic. But in these
figures two Indispensable elements
were wanting, the total number of the
players and the precise localities
where the accidents occurred. liz
round numbers the army of fOOtballere
count 100000 men, and this. of course
educe the proportion of accidents
enumerated in the famous list. And,
moreover, these accidents have oc-
Cured in the mining districts of the
north. whose rough and brutal popI--
lation ignore the distinction. and >
courtesy so necessary.
When played by well-bred Young
ment football is not dangerous. and
the proof of this assertion is to. be
found in the five years of it's exist
ence on the programs of our athletic
clubs INC college games. During that
five years not one serious accident
has happened at a football contest liz
his country.
The figures referred to above were
we'll calculated to brighten school
and parents; but now the
of our boys. hostile to the game
at first, encourage them to play, an1
The professors favor il because it's
chief characteristics are discipline ana