The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-09
THE MARCH OF FooTBALL.


Great Britain, the cradle of the game.
But it has survived the early unpopu-
) iarity until today no college or school IL
supposed to be up-to-date without a. foot.
ball team and not even Patti or Irving
Corbett or Fitzsimmons, Bryan or Hanna
can begin to draw the crowd that two
mat-headed elevens with a pigslzin can
bring together on cold benches at high
prices
On Franklin field in Philadelphia on
recent afternoon $4,000 people congre-
gated to witness the West Pofnt-Annapo,
lis game, and no person got into the en-
closure without a ticket On Marshall
field, in Chicago, and Northrup field in
Minneapolis, crowds of 1900 to 10000 are
gathered on any football daX of the
season at the highest theater and opera.
prices. It is questionable if the most
successful grand opera troupes Of the
century, with the highest vocal art and
genius known to the history of music,
are able to draw the paying audiences
that witness the sanguinary contests Of
the football eleven whose genius is beef
and whose art is year Of team drill.
James III. of Scotland, prohibited foot
ball by royal edict. But today the divin-
ity school of Princeton is not less cele-
hrated for it's achievements in the foot
ball arena than for its orthodox theology:
Wf1iIo prpSi6o-,F IQ,i5
Methodist school at Hamline, in this
city, celebrates the victories of the Ham,
line eleven by banqueting the boys at
the Ryan.
Prize fighting, which kills and mains
one person to 100 injured at football. has
been tabooed by the statutes of state
after state, while the various church
schools and colleges of the country vie
with each other in the ardent ambition
to produce a football eleven that can
out-butt, out-wind and out-sIug the best
of EN- in a contest that. strictly on its
merits, cannot be compared with the
sparring match for either science, skill,
courage or gentlemanly conduct of the
game.
Bull-balting in the palmiest days of the
Spanish ring has taken the lives of as
high as 1000 bulls and 5000 horses in a
year; but SO far as human life and limb
is concerned the Spanish bull ring could
plead not guilty 1t did not require the
corps of surgeons and helpers so essen,
tial to the successful operation of a
modern football contest. The bulI-bait
ing game paused as successive animals
suffered sanguinary pangs. but was never
brought to a standstilI because of the
manning or Inconsistencies of the
human participants.
The very college and church authori-
ties who have Joined so Justify in the
popular disapprobation of prize fighting
and bull batting, as brutal spectacles,. be-
cause of the blood spilled and the lives
and limbs endangered, appear to be the
mainstay of the often more sanguinarv
football In the recent Minnesota-u-
l1nols game six of the Illinois eleven
were disabled and compelled to retire
from the game before the finish and give
place to substitutes. Knockout i'm
pacts resulting in the temporary stop
ping Of the contest until one Of the men
recover his senses are common accom-
paniments, while in prize fighting the
game ends at the first knockout" and
9otiNS
ger the limb of a contestant. In fight
ing by Marquis Of Queensberry rules
there is no hitting below the belt, no
smuggling with elbows, shoulders, knees
other irregular tactics requiring an ar
mament of pads. All is reduced to pre-
else parliamentary rule, and he who
violates a rule forfeits the contest But
the college president, who is the stanch-
est champion Of the sanguinary Rugby
bout is often the stiffest opponent of
the more scientific and parliamentary
Marquis of Queensherry tourney.
This demonstrates the triumph of
football over the popular mind Foot
ball has conquered the country. 1t owns
the schools and colleges and the press.
1t holds among its devotees public Of
ficials Of all stations, and men, women
and children in all ranks It beats the
theater and opera and vies with the
circus in levying upon the pockets CT
the community, and in popularity with
the betting fraternity it holds its own
with the prize fight and horse race, and
even at times with the grain deal.
The fact is, man loves contests, and
so does woman. They love human con-
tests. Love of contest is in the blood
of the Saxon, the CeIt, and the abor-
igine. Intellectual combats, as debate,
chess, whist and politics, or the contests
of industry and trade, appeal to this
man or the other. But the physical
contest, which gets back to primitive
animal endowments and appeals to
physical courage and skill and to local
or personal patriotism, reaches every
body without regard to age, sex, color
or previous condition. The football field,
therefore, has larger clientage than
the forum, or the stage. 1t appeals to
100, where debate appeals to ten, and
chess or whist appeals to one. It has
an animal basis, and the animal is uni
versal. while the man of thought is not.
Then football advertises an institu-
tion-a fact which the college manager
was not slow to discover, and it can be