The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-11-25
ISITADANGEROUSGAME?
A HEAD MASTERS OPINION or
FOOTBALL CONTESTS.
Now the Fad to Decry the Game But Ii
Has Its Mcrits and VIII Compare win
other Sports for Safety.

I VIII De read with interest
Ii is a dangerous game. Yes. II Is dam
| gerous to be alive. In that sense, ana
chiefly I'm that sense. is football dan
/ gerous.
Walking along the street n brick may
| fan OF a chimney and kill you. III you
set your body In motion to catch train
| TO jump a fence to sit horse. TO row
boat, TO shoot a gun, TO coast down
bill. TO wade a stream. to climb noun
tain. TO follow the hounds. that body mus
set In motion frequently comes to griei'
And yet for that reason shall we leave
| alone the train. the fence. the horse, the
boat. the gun. the coasting, the stream
| the mountains. the hounds?
IL SO. let mothers erect pile of white
sand on a spreading sheet in the parlor
and let their boys run their hands
through 1t for sport. But then. even
then. they might get some OF this sand
in their eyes,
a DEFENDER.
would speak in defence OF this much
baited game. Some ministers class il with
Mexican bull-fghters. and every thick
necked prize-fighter uses It as a justifi-
cation for his brutality. Now. to gain
further hearing from those who think
that no one comes out the same from this
game.
! would say here at St Adams during
the past four years our eleven played
match games against the strongest and
heaviest teams I'm the South. including
for three years the champion University
Of Virginia team, and i'm only one game
in all these years was a single substitute
needed-and that was because of a slight
sprain. The same eleven boys that be-
gan the game always finished it and were
all in good health. and spirits thereafter
That they played hard and skilfully the
scores will prove.
So timid mothers may feel that some
at least come back alive from out that
seething vortex Of arms and legs, More
over. here at St Adams for months at a
time twenty or thirty boys play football
each afternoon for an hour or two at a
time and come up from the playground
battle. eat supper and sit i'm the
study hall or I'm their rooms for
two or three hours AT night and
work away as II nothing had
happened-surely nothing in the nature
Of prize fights. bull-fghts or murder
Surely. so young. they could not 20
through such horrors unmoved No.
no. Gentlemanly boys can play the
game month in and month out and seri-
ously iniure no one.
SANDER UPON THE GAME.
Such popular denunciation Of the game
as is seen in some newspapers is SLAM
der upon the game and upon American
and English youth. II is not a game for
hoodlums. rowdies and toughs ! admit
that when brute or scoundrel gets i'm
game OF football and is anxious 10 DO
his opponent he has plenty Of opportuni-
ties to do some cowardly injury. And in
pie affect the game for whom IT was never
intended. But football is going through
winnowing process.
When this is, over It will have done its
part to educate gentlemen, and gentle
men only will be left in charge
Of the game. The game is not
suited to and cannot be played
by those who would treat an OPP
ponent unfairly and cOwardly. IL is
suited TO high minded generous. seli-re-
speeding boys. and when played by such
IL one OF the most invigoratng and skill
full Of sports. and to our certain knO"l-
edge one of the freest from bodlly
harm. II looks ten-fold roushtr
than il is. But in comparison with other
sports the statistics compiled by Mr..
Walter Camp are all on the side OF FOOT
ball.
Since 1894 the fatal accidents I'm various
branches Of sports are as follows: SWIM
ming 1850: boating. $50; hunting, ooi'
bicycling, 2Gi: horseback riding. o5j, ice
boating %. baseball. q; golf. 2; tennis T.
football. II. There is little difference
here in boys after an afternoon Of foot
ball practice, but after an afternoon oil
coasting or skating or bird hunting or
snow balling there are sleepy eyes, sore
limbs and neglect of work; and in the
experience Of ST Adams one week OF
ooasting or one snow ball fight has eN-
cec,lcI 81. years Of football in the
amour. Of harm done.
DANGEROUS TO BE ALIVE.
A. We said ia the beginning. II Is dan
gerous TO be alive but among sports
10y on the sTidron is safer than wheh
in tie. fields with a shot gun or on a
toboggan slide or on q pair of skates
or in swimming or breaking colts IN a
meadow or rowing a boat or even In a
game of baseball. For instance, let these
hysterical critics of football look close
~ at a game OF baseball and watch
boy stand up coolly at the plate and let
the pitcher send d hard rcck-like bdil
underneath his chin on thr in-cuINe
with ali the swiftness OF a catapuu' Is
not that dangerous? lst that "A niue
like William Tell shooting the apple
from off his boys head? Sometimes
that boy goes staggering from the plate
and there is need OF restordtivcs.
But the papers have gotten used 10
baseball and they do not puDlish such
accidents.
\ few years ago Keely of Atlanta, Ca
was run into while playing nrst base III
q game Of baseball ana d.ed soon after
wards I'm great agony. Did the hyster-
cal Georgia Legislature prohibit base
bah in the State? No, but now II Is
rad" 10 decry football. All sports are
dangerous Parents must take their
chances in bringing up boy souhd ana
1T Will not do to house them
M In a pale and s.ckly indction.
ANNIHILATES THE DUDE.
Football annihiates the society dude, |
and the cigarette worm. For TINS II LOT
nothing else ii deserves well OF the
State. There have been many eXcesses
attending the game and many shdmlul
things have occurred IA connection win |
il. We have gone at IL here IN America
"like French ialconers' with our usual |
Incorporate zeal. The game VIII settle |
down soon and become part ana parcel |
of our boyish sports. The English |
schools have been rearing boys on II Tor |
over two hundred years.
Let our American boys develop the no
Bile forms that God has given thtm III |
vigorous. elastic, outdoor sports ihere
are thousands Of feeble. abnormal, net-
yous men today IN our country Wh"
would be sweeter tempered 10 theil
wives anc more useful 10 thelr country
they had been rolled in the dust OF the
Ht..nU hot