The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-13
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BILL ARP TALKS.
He Wonders What the College Athletes
Will do in the World.


VIII do in the World.
I'm fond of children-good children, and
| like snow, an occasional mild-temper-
ed snow, but when they both come to-
gether the racket is appalling. Here are
three little grandchildren in the house,
and one of them with birthday to cele-
brate. Their grandma wouldn't let them
go outdoors and so we turned them
loose in the Darkroom. For awhile they
played very discreetly, but by and by
began to take more liberties and got to
jumping off the center table and the bed
and playing circus and riding around on
the tricycle. and screaming like wildcats
and the old dog joined in the procession
and barked. Ever and anon the young
est one would get almost killed and my
wife would hurry in to be at the funeral
of the boy Sometimes they would send
committee to beg me for snow and
| would have to go out and get pan
FULL Then they played hide and seek
and it took both rooms for that and my
wife had to help them find new places
VIII they never get tired and settle down?
No, never
Yesterday while it was raining my wife
found three eornered hole ina window
pane in the upper sash and she began
to shiver so / thought she was going to
have chill: so | took the stepiadder and
went outside to patch the glass. | found
three-cornered piece that covered it
nicely and while ] was driving the tacks
to fasten it the old ladder creened to
one side and l fell whole quadrant of
circle onto a pile Of flower pots. But,
like a cat. lit on my feet and tried
it again. Next | went out to feed the
cow, for my wife said she YVES lowing
like she was hungry. ! had to cross some
planks that were covered with ice and
before | was conscious of either age or
infirmity | was down fiat of my back
with nervous prostration. Before / got
up | looked toward the house to see If
anybody was looking, but there was no
one. The back of my coat told on me and
they said they wished they had seen me-
| am too venerable to be bumped about
in these ungraceful attitudes, but my
female folks make sport of me just like
the Philistines did of Samson. L walked
down town yesterday to the postoffice and
the rude boys snowballed me with malice
aforethought. Lookout, old man." was
all the warning / got. / don't believe
old age is respected like it used to be. /
don't believe the boys have as much
! manners. The legislature is trying to
fix up reformatory for young criminals,
and that is all right but the parents of
the rising generation should start little
one in each family and then the big one
wouldent be needed. The main thing
now in raising a boy is to have him
graduate as a good football kicker. So
much Importance is attached to the de-
yelopment of arms and legs that I think
athletics should have place in the curri-
culum of the colleges and when the re-
port OF the boys standing is sent to his
parents it should contain his jumping and
running and pitching and kicking re-
cord, and this record should have weight
in fixing tie honors. While they are de-
veloping muscle it would be a good idea
to have a rail-splitting and a cotton
picking attachment in which the farm
ers' sons could compete so as to be ready
for business when the old man calls them
| home. The apprehension is that great
excellence in kicking a ball viii not meet
with proper rewards in after life If
we should have a war and the enemy
should kick balls at us we ought by all
means to be ready for Them but as Cen
eral Sanford remarked: 'They won't come
at us that way"
Samson was a yeryTnotable athlete and
slew lion and out run 300 foxes, but
we have no lions and foxes are scarce
I've been wondering what we can do with
these athletes when they graduate with
all their muscular honors and settle down
among their unpretending fellow citi-
zens. Bob Fitzsimmons and Tom Shar-
key and Peter Jackson and a few others,
| baun ali
their line. | had a very strong darby
once who could get under loaded wag-
on and hump it out OF q mudhole when
the team stalled, but we have good roads
now and don't need these strong men.
| But maybe we old men are a little jeal-
Gus over our fading laurels / was talk
ing to Commissioner Trammell about
this half kicking business and he said
with some emphasis:
1T is ought to be stopped; it is a non
sensical business and is dangerous. The
colleges have gone crazy"
But he frightened up when he began to
| tell of his own youthful sports and how
he could outrun and outwrestle any boy
at school.
| And George Adair is Disguised, too,
but delights to tell how far he could knock
the old-fashioned town ball and how he
used to get his ankles bruised and black
ened playing shinniy, and how many mar
bles he won at sweepstakes. II played
fair" he said, "and always toed the mark
but there was Jim Jenkins, who always
Judged and cheated, and he is Judging
and cheating yet As the school boy is,
so is the man."
| And Dragged some, too, for was the
boss at some things. So maybe we old
men had better take a back seat and saw
wood Nevertheless, I'm bound to say the
boys have run this thing in the ground.
BILL ARP.
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