Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-12-11
Tho Anti Football Crusade.

The football season IS over ana tn"fc
will be comparatively little doing in in
iercoIlegiatc athletics until the base
ball games and track meets of the
spring There will be an occasional i'll
door meet. and basket ball. n truly
ladylike sport. will have its devotecs in
,herI Tssasmsium.a but these things
arouse, no. greafs public interest as d"
the undergraduate contests of fail and
spring. But though the foothanists
! have Goffcd their war harness and are
attending To their recitations and lee
lures with most commendable and
quite necessary strenuosity. the en-
emes of the game propose to take nc
rest. In the papers, in the pulpits. a
public gatherings and even on the floor
OF Congress are uttered the same OBJ
jections To football which have been
| heard for the past score OF years while
the game has grown to its present great
popularity. 1t continues to be as ,vcr
an aggravated case of blowing aGains,
the wind?
The papers publish the usual lists Of
fatal accidents, but to those who know
the game ami the facts of the accidents
| the list is not 50 very impressive.
| There are accidents and injuries in c'--
| cry branch Of sports. Even basket ball
had a fatal accident in New York. last
| week. Football is rot a sport for the
runy or anaemic. No player was ever
fatally injured in a big college game.
Among the hundreds and hundreds
who have played football in Maine col
| leces and schools, we recall but one IA
tai injury. and that was the case OF
Saco boy. two years ago. Football is
not a pastimc to be compared with
rroquct or tennis. but it is not too
! strenuous for healthy and well trained
benefits possessed; by no other branch
i of athletics which make it's enthusiastic
adh"rents forget its rough features.
Eut il is not alone from editors Who
never played = game or saw ono that
T he annual kick is coming. \ Philadc!-
phia doctor of divinity devoted the
morning hour last sunday. to an attack
on football 50 vigorous and sensational
that nc had his picture and sermon in
the next days papers. He declared that
one Of the chief wills "f the game IS
that the spectators, shivcriu, with the
cold often drink whisky while watch
ing The. contest. This argument against
football will deeply impress ali fair-
minded people,
At I'll" mouthl; meeting nC the ;"W-
,inin club in Boston. Saturday evening.
Prof. Arlo Bates ldmcntad the horrors
OF the barbarous game before half 4
hundred Of his fellow alumni \ cyli-
cal observer might suggest that l'rof. |
Bates Wow Of football is result "f
the slump il this branch Of athletics
at Bowdoin this fall, nut not So. IL
has consistently and persistentlv de-
cried all branches or athletics for years,
whether his Alma Mater was winning
| championships OF generously allowing
! division Of honors. II is gratifying to
note that ut th' meeting III question, i
later speaker was Prof. Bates former
| collag" mate. DR.. Dudley Sargent. noW
nf Harvard. who ansW cred the eminent
author and critic with solid shot ani
plainly had the gathering on his side.
And 50 We see editors. clergymen ana
scholars among the FOES Of the great
game. They are few in number, 10 he
sure. but they are Nocifcrous and tirt-
less ana just now their annual chorus
is in full swing. And they are not all.
4 statesman in Washington, deeming
canals. ship subsidies. reciprocity. AMI
all else Of less Importance. has found
time to draw up and present a bill in
Congress to abolish and prohibit foot
| ball. Probably it would not require
much argument to induce him 10 make
the bill stronger and have il also
abolish colleges and young men as well.
| or possibly his friends. having i'll mind
the dictates Of common Sense and the
| limitations Of the powers OF Congress,
| NAV persuade. him to modify his bill 80
that it will apply only to the Sovcrn-
| ment institutions at West Poin- alid
Annapolis. But in any case and what
ever the form OF the bill. in III" utterly
remote and unlikely contingency ot
its passage. we can conceive the very
greet pleasure with which Thcod"r"
Roosevelt would write his veto mes
| sage.
Admiral Sampson, who did not pri
! snuall, narticinate in thc haitlc NJ