New-York tribune., 1900-11-04
FOOTBALL IN D4RK ROW,

The auspiciOuS opening of the football season
is fraught with peculiar interest to New-Yor
the chief football city in the world. Time
when NewYork was the scene of the great
Thanksgiving Day games between Yale and
Princeton and there may be some who regret
that such is no longer the case. These latter
are, however, in error for il is doubtless for
the welfare of the game and of the players, and
of the institutions which they represent, that
those contests should be held on college grounds
and it is really not an appreciable loss to New
York. This city still holds an indisputable pre-
eminence in the game, and would do We're
there not a single contest gridirOned turf
within its bounds. The daily, all the year
round game in Park Row would be amply suffi-
cient to maintain the title.
AS is befitting in so large a city, the game is
played a large and generous scale The
players not confined to eleven on a side
but often number eleven hundred, on the prin-
ciple of the eminent theatrical manager who
scOrned the idea of producing the Passion Play
with only twelve Apostles. Twelve nothing"
he exclaimed; I'D have at least fifty Of emf
There is no ball used. either. Why should there
be? MendeSsOhn wrote songs without words
MarcOni telegrapbs without wires and veal pie
is often kittens; wherefore nothing could be
more in keeping with the end of the century
than football without ball. Nor yet are there
any hVe-yard lines or side lines or goal posts.
These are "but the trappngs and the suits of
the game. The game itself is in the wild and
whirling rush, the thunderous impact the de-
lirious death grappe and all the ineffable lows
of strenuous physical contact conflict and con-
quest.
And that is what New-York behods and reveIs
in to the uttermoSt every day at 80 o'clock on
the City Hall platform Of the elevated railroad in
/ nl iC
comparable with It, There are, indeed abom-
Unable and dangerous crowdings on the surface
ears and. above all. on the BROOKLYN Bridge
But in those cases all are striving to 90 one
| way. II is the unique distinction and the abid-
ing joy Of the Park Row football field that ON II
TWO almost equal crowds, or rather crowded
streams OF hurrylng humanity are directly op-
posed 10 each other III the same space. That
Is, OF course. as ii should be on the football
held. They come together, the opposing legions.
the one bound for Darkest Brooklyn and the
other for the Wilds Of Harlem. with an impact
ana an energy that would make the fortune of
tie Tiger Cubs or the Sons of Eli There are
| line rushes, wedges, flying wedges. mass nIovs
| nigh tackle, low tackle. running round the ends
and Infinite buckings Of the centre There are
thousand Poes and Heffelingers in the field at
once. and never n single umpire TO check fouI
play or to call Time
1t is a great game. glorious game. n most
inspiring and ennobling spectacle, no doubt
when viewed from the splendid isolation of a
balloon But TO the average man or woman
who involuntarily plays the part of the fal,ou,
who is supposed TO have the ball it Is an ordeal
of horror and Of dread. To the countless women
in frail health, and the aged and infrm rrbo
dre compelled to run the gantlet it is an exna.
rience of gravest menace to limb and ufe ro
every self-respecting citizen who seeks to loon
his elbows from his neighbor's ribs. who vou1d
not voluntarily place his own toes beneatb his
neghborS heel, and who conceves II tn ho +ha
right OF a man 10 go through the world wI+bo,,+
being jostled and rushed and harred II 20
time and place of indescribable abomino tion.
or course, there may be certain sciept,eo d.,
terest in II. Men have long speculotcd unor
the effect Of the impact of an irresistihIe go
upon an immovabe body. Here the proh,er, ,s
The still more inviting one of the impact mon
cacE other of two Irresistible forces movino In
exactly opposite directions. But-ss tho o,rl
VINO started the fire with kerosene might have
SAID IL she had ever come back to earth-thare