The Oskaloosa herald., 1901-04-18
ABUSE OF ATHLETICS
Some Straight Talk From Rob
ert Meredith.

This is the first law given to mar
after the fall. BY most people it II
considered curse placed upon III
because of sin. But by careful
study of the designs of the Creator
we will find that it was given for oul
highest good and they who obey II
are rewarded with the choicest o.
blessings and they who disobey II
are punished with grevious plaques
Man, in his healthy and norma
condition can perhaps stand more
hardships and physical endurance
than any other animal. AS to eli
mate, he can endure the torrid suns
of the tropics or the frigid zones oil
the north almost as far as animal
life can exist. He can maintain his
strength and vigor until three or
four generations of most other ami
mails have ceased to exist. He can
digest, assimilate and grow strong
on greater variety of food than any
other animal, yet with all these en-
vor man has become the most sickly
and dwarfed of the animal kingdom.
1t is law of nature that what
ever is oflno use is lost. So the fish
in the Mammoth cave have no eyes,
and the animal that ceases to use his
strength loses it.
1t is another law of nature that
every individual animal except man
has to seek it's food and maintain its
existence by its own exertions. Every
bird has to catch it's own caterpillar
and every lion has to prowl the jun
gle for its own prey and fight for it
against animals of its own kind and
others.
But to man, who is the only ami
NAL that is capable of violating a
rule of nature, was given an intelli-
gence and a reasonable law: "By
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread" 1t takes a certain amount
Of hard and dirty work to make
every man comfortable and justice
would say that it should not be laid
upon the back of another,yet it has
been the great study of men in all
ages to shift their burden onto some
one else. This has been the cause
of most of the wars and oppression
in the world. 1t has always been
the ambition of men to arrive at a
state in which they could cast onto
others the onerous burdens which
belong to every ones existence. And
after all the learning and advance
ment of the last century the best and
wisest of men have not learned but
what it is ones Christian duty to so
cultivate their intellect as to be able
to cast their burdens upon others
who are less fortunate.
So our schools and colleges are
crowded with young people who are
striving after some kind of intellec-
tual development that will enable
them to slip through the world with
out manual labor. You can hardly
fiud a boy with any ambition who
does not aspire to the learned pro-
fession, who does not want to go to
some business college and learn to
gamble on the products of other
meme labor and thus avoid the &C.
tual earning his bread by the sweat
of his face.
Among all the great advancements
a I'd improvements of the 10Th GEN.
fury there has been little progress
towards the proper distribution of
labor. But, on the contrary I'VE have
only succeeded in relieving the many
of the actual burdens of life and put
ting them on the few. The whole
teaching of the age inculcates the
idea that it is the honorable thing
to do, and even ones religious duty,
to strive to arrive at state In which
one will not have to live by manual
labor. Even the poorest Iaboring
men hope to some day be able to
rise above their present condition
and be able, along with their more
fortunate neighbors, to violate this
great law of God: "By the sweat of
thy face shalt thou eat bread" Nor
is this strange when nearly all the
teaching and preaching of the day
tends to extol the calling of the pro-
fessional and business man and pass
es by the calling of the laboring men
with either silence or contempt.
Our preachers and Christian asso-
Citations have many called meetings
in honor of business men. But we
never hear of meeting for the es-
pecial benefit of the poor laboring
men who have to shovel coal all
Sunday night in order that their ia
vored business men can take an
early train next morning to ply their
calling.
But let US get back little nearer
to the subject of the college boy and
the athlete.
With all the combined wisdom of
our college professors, preachers and
statesmen they have not yet dis
covered the danger to the race of the