The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-01-28
.ATHlETEsAND
Principal Features of President EliOt's
Report of Year at Harvard.
George F. Fabyan Endowed
} Pathological Chair.
Dean Briggs Compares Scholars and Football
Players

Cambridge. Mass, Jan. 2S.-President
Eliot's annual report contains two very
interesting chapters. One deals with
athletics and the other is testimonial
to the life and work of Louis Agassiz.
Little space is devoted to the discus
sion of sports. but the following pas
sage on the entertaining for games.
seems to be exactly In accord with the
ideas of many Harvard men, who have.
for several years. been lighting to
eliminate this evil from the training
systems. President Eliot says:
The conduct of intercollegiate sports
during this year has proved afresh that
the management Of these sports at Har-
ward has been for some years intelli-
gent, and, for that reason, unsuccess-
full. The evils of entertaining and ex-
cessive exertion on the part Of the mem
hibited In high degree. A fundamental
defect in the athletic organization has
been that coa1 hes Of limited experience,
who may be either unobservant or OBJ
tuse, can override OH the spot the ad-
vice of the trainer and physicians. The
result is that the principal players of
football are almost all more or less In
jured early In the season, and are then
brought into the principal games in a
crippled and exhausted condition, while
the crew comes to the final race less
capable of endurance than they were
month earlier.
The remedies are the subordination Of
coaches to an expert in training or to
q medical adviser, and the general
adoption of more reasonable views
about all training for athletic sports.
1t must be perceived and admitted that
training which goes beyond pleasurable
strenuous exercise is worse than use
less, and that so-called sports which
require a dull and dreaded routine of
hardship and suffering in preparation
for q few exciting crises, are not worth
what they cost. They prevent even
courage and self-sacrifice. because these
high qualities are exercised for no ade-
ouate end.
Outside of President Eliots criticism
Of athletics, perhaps the most striking
thing in his report is the glowing tribute
which he pays to Louis Agassiz. 1t is,
in part:
1t will be 30 years next September
since Louis Agassiz was elected profess
sor in Harvard university. The mu-
scum he founded i'm 1859 has developed
into an establishment which has cost,
for it's building, equipment and collec-
tions, more than 81, ,000, 900. and possesses,
also, an invested enuoWlileIlt VI fDcVVON
All education in the United States and
all American science are under the deep
est obligations to AgassiZ. He intro
duced here in 1S4I the laboratory meth
cd of teaching science. Properly COM
bined with lectures, 1t was the only
method now considered satisfactory or
even justihable.
He was endowed by nature with an
extraordinary personal influence over
friends, neighbors and even casual ac-
quaintances. and, with prodigious en-
ergy In travelling, exploring, collecting
and teaching, he aroused new intellect
ual interests all over the country, raised
the popular conception Of a man of
science, introduced on great scale I'M
proved methods of teaching the sciences
dear to him. and gave new meaning to
the word teacher.
President Eliot goes on to point out
the need of further extension and en-
dowment Of the museum and the real
need Of further financial help, on ac-
comm of the decrease Of the endowment
funds. III Consequence Of the universal
fall of the rate Of inscrest on invest
lnents.
For the first time, II is now known who
was the giver Of the professorship es-
tablished in the medical school last July
in comparatively pathology. The gift
vas by George F. Fabyan OF Boston,
800 900 being the sum OF the .endow-
ment.
The report of the college by Dean
Briggs states that in the past year three
students were suspended for dishonesty
in written work and one for lying, and
that withdrawal was made by one Sc
nior, two juniors. seven sophomores and
four freshmen, "all of whom had shown
that they belonged elsewhere" Dean
Briggs also makes some interesting al
lusions to dishonesty in college work
and the state of college morals. STU
dents jealously demand to be treated as
men," he says, take advantage OF the
instructors who treat them so, and then
excuse themselves on the ground that,
after all, they are only boys"
Speaking OF the lack Of fame which
accrues to the scholar for high work,
and the prominence OF the athletes, he
says: These scholars lead quiet lives,
and cannot aspire to the notoriety OF
a youth who, before the eyes OF 10000
men and women, breaks his collar bone
for his alma mater. The scholar of 20
cannot, and should not, be a great pub
lie character: this fruition comes later"
President Eliot points out q curtail-
ment OF the income on investments by
the decrease of the rate of interests. In
1876 the average rate of income wns
7.5s per cent and This rate has steadily
fallen OFT until that of 1896 was but 4.73
- 1850