The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-12-14
CHAMPAGNE AND ATHLETICS.


sponsible journalism appears in the
Saturday issue of our contemporary,
the Star. With flaming head lines 1t
informs its readers that an Island boy
has received letter from a Yale friend,
in which it is circumstantially stated
that the Yale coach introduced with
wonderful success, the startling limo
walton" of training the football team
on diet, largely Of champagne, and it
is claimed that the signal success of the
team in the contest with Princeton,
was due to this liberal use of cham
payne at the training table" The
chief virtue of champagne, and of all
other liquors is in the alcohol they con-
tain. Champagne contains a little less
than 20 per cent. of it. The letter
which our contemporary deems worthy
of presenting to the football teams of
this place, states: LAS soon as any
player showed signs of his hard work
telling on him, his supply of cham
payne was increased, and he rapidly got
back into condition" The meals were
liberal, but the letter says, added to
this the champagne formed as liberal a
meal as a club man would have" 1t
is not the occasional use of alcohol
that is suggested, but it's use as part,
and generous part, of the diet is de-
clared to be the new departure. The
use of alcohol was tried at the
training tables of Yale, over so
years ago, and was abandoned.
But if the use of champagne or alcohol
in athletics is an important discovery
if it develops strength, if it develops
endurance in the games which de-
mand the best action of muscle
and brain, in the baseball, the
cricket and the boat rowing con-
test, then the trustees of Oahu Col
|lege, the trustees of the Kamehameha
School, the Board of Education, as SUI
pervisOrs of the athletics of the High
School and the patrons of the Town
and Regiment teams, are under solemn
obligation to make champagne, as free
as water, during the next season, and
If the supply is exhausted, to furnish
Even the youngsters in athletics must
take pint every day. If it's virtue is as
great as the Star correspondent indi-
Gates by publishing this extraordinary
stuff, the young mothers can best make
stalwarts of their male babes by
bringing them up on the bottle" (of
champagne.
The singular thing is that our con-
Temporary did not republish the ira
dition or common belief that in some
of the naval battles, 'sthe crews
were served with whiskey and gun
powder mixed, in order to make them
tight desperately" Why not feed that
to our athletes? The comment of an old
physician on this belief was that: ''the
mixture taken into a mans stomach
WOulQ make ulu HOWL anu uOuDle
him up with pain" Perhaps, however,
the constitutions of our athletes have
changed, and a whiskey and gun pow
der as we'll as a champagne diet is the
great need of the coming man. If SO,
our contemporary should advocate the
opening of training table, with free
liquor for athletes in some central spot
Perhaps our old friend, the trustee for
the stockholders of that paper, with
his usual generosity. will contribute
200 bottles for athletic charity. At
any rate, if alcohol has such wonderful
virtues in producing physical strength,
our contemporary should urge the en-
listment of the "old drunks'' on the
various teams. Marshal Brown can
furnish them in abundance from his re-
pertoire in Merchant street.
Our young men should wait for
the confirmation of this re-discovery of
an obsolete practice, before rushing in
to a champagne diet.
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