The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-11-30
The @lessengrr.
An UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS
LIMPING LOGIC


nnl1 wounded Is enough to make
parents and guardians everywhere to
the seal OF condemnation upon it.
When prize fighters condemn it be-
cause OF it's b%rutalities it is time for
folks to consider 1t we'll and act
M humanity and morality demand. In
several colleges it has been banished
In some large cities an effort to squelch
r. has been made. If the game is to
he played hereafter as it has been
Mayed this season it will be suppressed
I'm spite of it's enthusiastic endorsers
and participants. III New York Sun
reports as to the las game between
nnrthern colleges, that Harvard and
Princeton had players put on the hos
p5tal list and that Yale men escaped
without scratches convinces students
at the game that a had more
strength and power to Withstand hard
work than her opponents. Foot ball
players OF experience contend that the
.s,nly way to play the game is to be ag-
u~essive."
The strangest freak is that President
Hchuman, OF Cornell, and President
Eliot OF Harvard, indorse and defend
the game. In Spain and Mexico bull
1xxhting Is national and Of universal ap-
urUval. It Is dangerous, but not one
tenth so dangerous as DOT ball. In
England the prize ring is popular and
R1ronized by all classes. What do
these things show? They indicate a
aog standard of morality n a brutal
nature.
The reason given by DR.. Eliot is
really pitiable and Juvenile. Foot ball
Hs all right because other games are
dangerous borrowing, sailing, boxing,
fencing. etc What Is the reply? We
remark that if these exercises and
sports were as brutal and savage as
mot ball shows itself to be they would
he bznished from all we'll regulated
homes, communities and institutions of
learning. We examining DR..
ESot's thin sophism when we saw the
following in the able New York Even
fng Post, that is doing most faithful,
&IftAINA6 III ohO"lA6 uP tAO
enormities of the game as played. It
replies to the sophistical Harvard presi-
dent who ought to be ashamed of him
self for attempting to mislead with
such insanity and to stile conscience
with such a thin decoction. The Even
ing Post says
"But there Is an obvious fallacy in
this analogy. Base ball, boxing, fenc-
ing. rowing, and sailing are none of
them directly calculated to produce in
iuries. When injuries occur in them,
they are the result of pure accident.
No one in base a tries to hit other
players with bat or ball. No amateur
boxer boxes without gloves. Fencers
fence with buttons on their fOils. Row
ing n sailing are undertaken for pure
pleasure, not for personal encounter"
There is not one Of these sports, ex-
cept boxing, in which women cannot
and do not share. But when an injury
occurs in hand ball. it is a natural
consequence Of the game, which may
fairly be looked for. When a big heavy
man falls on a small one with all his
weight, or seizes his leg when he is
running hard, or "slugs" him in the
nose or under the ear, the disabling of
the small man is a consequence which
it is natural to expect. Nothing but
the strength of his physique saves him.
The enjoyment Of the scene by the
spectators does, not affect the moral
aspect Of the case. They would enjoy
still more a duel. or hanging, or a pugi-
IiStic encounter"
College officials are indeed extreme
Iy hard UP for a defence when they can
get up nothing more logical and salts
factory than President Eliot n some
other college heads have paraded.
stuff cannot deceive a simpleton.
The fact remains that scores of men
are seriously injured and some killed
every season in foot bail, and it is a
positive result Of the plan Of the
game, success being based On kicks,
Bruises, conclusions, slugs and dislo-
cations. It is really without excuse
or defense. It would be better and
wiser to make no apology for or de-
Tense OF the bad game than with such
purerile sophism as Harvard's man
gives.
The other day a boy was sent out
from h university of North Carolina
with a broken collar bone received in
the practice of the team. If such
things are done in the green tree what
may be looked for in the dry? That
Toy will lose weeks from study in addi-
xlon to sufferings. And 81 it is in all
the colleges where the wicked game is
allowed. Time for study lis lost. 1t
e. the education of the body rather than
che head. We notice a lady in Norfolk,
<Va.) writes to the Pilot from a wo-
mans standpoint" We make a sug-
gestive extract or so and commend it
TO the rejecting:
1T is with me as it is with many
other mothers; we woul like to know
what boys are sent Off to school
fnr?
We find the girls forging steadily
Ahead, fearful Of losing q lesson from