The San Francisco call., 1896-08-09
Baird on Athlotics

| take it that 1t is as much the duty of
an adviser to warn as to encourage. A
| friend is as much friend when he re-
proaches as when he applauds. Pope says:
Trust not yourselves: but your defects to know
Make use OF every friend-and every foe.
Therefore | wish to lay aside the theme
of encouragement, and from the exper-
ience OF generation dwell upon the theme
of caution.
Caution is greatly needed in athletics,
and for two reasons: First, because the
sport is more or less interesting and ex-
citing, enticing person to excess. Sec
ond, because the votaries are generally
young, and often do not know better than
to go 10 extremes.
For instance | have q young friend who
is very fond of swimming. He is not sat
isfied with going In for twenty minutes or
half an hour, but he must stay in for
hours at a. time. Two or three times he
has had the cramps, and was glad to find
himself on shore. At other times he finds
himself weak and not fit for much the
next morning. Yet he does not take
these lessons to heart and is likely sooner
or later to suffer for his thoughtlessness.
Therefore excitement and inexperience
are likely to cause trouble if the young
athlete is not cautious
/ cannot too strongly advise young and
aspiring athletes about neutrality-suspicious.
larly cigarette smoking. Whatever may
be said about the harmlessness of full
grown men smoking it is generally agreed
that is terrible injury to boys.
cannot quote better authority than to
state that the United States Military Acad-
envy at West Point will not admit boy
who has been accustomed to smoke. Ten
years ago / visited that wonderful institu-
tion that produced the Grants, the Sher-
mans, the Sheridans and the Hancocks of
the war, and it was not difficult to see the
effect of the prohi bition of tobacco.
Such fine-looking lot of young men it
would be almost impossible to find, except
by actually picking them from our gymna-
Sums and athletic clubs. The color on
their cheeks, the elastic step and the
manly though not pompous bearing did
not all come from instruction and disci-
p line, but from freedom from the effects
tobacco and liquor as WELL
Let me assert most positively that wine,
beer, or liquor of any kind are unneces-
sary to an athletes success, and are used
for the sole purpose of tickling the palate
and bracing the nerves. commenced ex-
ercising eighteen years ago, and have
never drank glass of liquor in any form
in my life. AS to whether 1 have been
successful, will refer the reader else
where. Among the good results of total
abstinence, l will state that l have never
missed day from business in eighteen
years-no, not half day, through sick
ness AS for alcohol or any other lini-
ment after exercising, let me say that 1 do
not believe in it. As special thing it is
all right in its way, to ward off cold, or
after long and severe race, or something
special of that kind; but to make
practice of rubbing hniment of
any kind in the skin is wrong
If person believes in taking whisky for
a cold and keeps on using it until it be-
comes habit, of what use will it be for
cold? The system has become used to it.
The same law applies with liniment. The
skin gets accustomed to it and the alcohol
becomes ineffective. A friend recently
said that liniment took all the stiffness
out of the muscles after exercising Ny |
reply was that there must be something
the matter with the exercise if it required |