The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-18
THE FORD TRAGEDY.
The MurderOus Brother Seems to Have
Missed Home Sympathy.

Springfield Republican.
Ones thoughts turn to the murderous
brother at such a time In the effort TO
find some working explanation of his ter
rible deed. Into family history and fam
lily troubles no one would pry. 1t is diff
cult, however, to avoid the feeling that
the roots of the tragedy are TO be found in
a phase of educational training which is
not without its relations with certain
marked developments of our modern life.
Malcolm w. Ford was, in his line, a wide
Unknown man. He had very unusual pow
ers as an athlete, and these he took the
keenest pleasure in developing from the
earliest years of activity in boyhood. This
was his special gift from nature. as much
as the gifts of music or drawing are to
others highly endowed. 1t was as natural
for him to run and jump and wrestle as
for a duck to swim. Under the circum-
stances of his life. the special endowment
that Malcolm had received was perhaps his
greatest misfortune. The family was high
ly literary and scholarly in it's atmosphere;
and the father, a very learned and Gull
tured man. There was no sympathy, it
appears, with Malcolm's passion for ath-
letic prowess in the family circle, nor were
his superb physical powers rated as some
thing that might, in the absence of con-
spicuous tastes leading him in other di-
r%ectiOns, open up to him a special work in
life. At fifteen the lad was taken from
school by his father and placed under pri-
Vate tutors in order that his athletic ten
denotes, already so manifest, might be
checked. That the boy, in the years that
followed, persisted in pursuing this bent.
proved bitterly disappointing to the father
wit the final result of a breach between
them and the humiliating disinheritance of
the son in the fathers will.
There appears In this history of the edu-
caional training of Malcolm Ford a prob
lem. Ought such a youth to be altogether
discouraged from developing in athletic
lines If his tendencies that way are so con-
spicuous as TO really dominate his nature?
1t may be that the modern emphasis placed
upon physical training as a part of educa-
ton, in all schools and institutions for
learning, would have modified the course
or the elder Ford toward the athletic son
had he been in touch with it. The great
development of athletics in these days, so
unforeseen by the generation of half a
century ago, has opened up a large field for
physical instructors and specialists in
schools, COLLEGES, clubs and associations.
and the work which they now perform is
highly valued. 1t would, therefore, be moth
ing unwise. or wasteful of a future career,
If a youth displaying exceptional powers
Tor sports and a consuming interest in ali
forms of bodily activity. were intelligently
and sympatheIically guided into the pro-
fession of instruction in athletics and physi-
cal culture.
The great danger to a youth so powerful
~ inclined toward physical culture and
competitive sports as was Malcolm w.
Ford is that he viii miss the nobler phases
of this line of development and fail TO
grasp it's higher possibilities of service TO
ones fellow-men. Any man of Ford's posi-
ton in life, so splendidly ecdowed and so
finely developed that he may at an early
ege become famous and unrivaled as an
athlete, or an exponent of any prominent
sport, is in peculiar peril of sinking into a
Tere commercial professionalism or finding
a level at last among a class Of sports
who touch nothing without degrading II.
Cur leading college athletes face this dam
ger constantly. There are many instances of
university players who have injured their
lives by entering professional arenas I'M
der the great allurements OF public no.
toriety and high salaries. On the other
hand, the young man who, being drawn in
this direction by exceptional powers, pur-
sues the course which Mr.. Stagg, now the
physical director of Chicago University, fol-
~lowed-such a youth. instead of wasting
his energies upon unSubstantial things de-
votes himself TO a high vocation in life.
These reflections, which are merely sug-
geSted by some apparent aspects of the
tragedy in the Ford family, indicate the
supreme Importance Of a proper education
for youth of special types, and the vital
need of parental sympathy with conspicuous
talents in children, and an intelligent guild
ance of the wholesome and natural develop
ment OF those talents. be they largely intel
lectual or largely physical in their basis.
There are few honest gifts from the AL
mighty to mankind which cannot be put to
good use. But if the attempt be made, with
however good intentions, TO thwart nature.
the ultimate results upon innocent persons
may be shocking beyond all EXPRESSION