Evening star., 1902-08-09
OVERDOERS

ihto the sround-hoW We PICK up Iao ana
tear 1t to tatters in no time and then throw
1t away and forget all about it?
Take us in our attitude toward sports, for
example. 1t is easy to remember the time
when base ball was simply a wild and tu-
multuous passion with the great bulk of
American men, young and old. The papers
were jammed with base ball news. pictures
Of the players, comic coloquies of the
captains, jokes about clerks framing up
dead-grandmother excuses to sneak to the
games, and all that sort of thing. The ar
got of the game was in everybody's mouth.
The young women and the married women
got to know the fine points of the game
and learned to root hard as their broth
ers and husbands. Well, base ball Is still
being played, Of course, but can it be truth
fully said that 1t fills one-tenth the space
in the public eye now as it did in the days
of its glory?
Member the tremendous vogue the
roller-skating business had In this country
about twenty years ago? How there were
rinks all over the big cities and at least one
rink in all of the small towns? HOW the
fancy skaters on rollers were lordly 1ndl-
viduals with large incomes? How the roller
skating instructors got to eloping with the
rich young heiresses all over the country!
How so much scandal and deviltry resulted
from the roller skating business that the
newspapers got to knocking the sport,
finally knocking it out entirely, with the
aid of the ministers and other Mortified in
dividuals? A roller skate nowadays is an
actual curiosity. There never was any
thing actually wrong about roller skating,
and 1t is still practiced considerably by
young men and women in Europe, but over
here in America We went at 1t with so
much deadly earnestness-just ate it up,
as the saying goeS-that We knocked 1t into
a cooked hat within a very short space OF
time.
81 can easily remember the time long be-
fore the roller skating fad when there was
a croquet mania in this country. Every
body played the game, and croquet sets
were as common articles in the windows of
sporting goods stores as bird guns. Who
ever plays croquet now or so much as ever
sees a croquet set? True, there are lew
experts who play away at tremendously
more difficult game founded upon croquet,
but that's about all. And yet croduet was
a nice mild little old game, well calculated
to afford gentle exercise, and it would have
been in vogue today if we hadn't gone at 1t
with such vim as to make it certain that
we'd get sick of it in accordance with our
well-known mercurial temperaments.
."Then there was a tennis fad. Everybody
that had yard space big enough for ten
mis- court played the game, and there was
vast interest in the crack matches between
high grade amateurs and professionals. ct
tennis is a mighty moribund sort Of a game
today 1t was overdone, just as We overdo
all sorts of things in this country, and II
passed gradually out If we'd gone at ten
mis- less tremendously 1t would be still with
us. and the tennis player wouldn't be
looked upon as a somebody way behind the
times, as tennis players certainly are re-
garded nowadays. ,
'',Then there was the time when the we'll
to-do girls all over the country were per-
fectly wild over archery. How long mas lt
been since you saw an archery target! III
bet that if my eghteen-year-old daughter
saw an archery target tomorrow she would
I,o do lot of p
could make up her mind what Its use hap
pened to be. Yet archery was fine sport
for young men, we'll as for young Wo-
men, and archery would have fingered
along to this day had it not been oVeroone'
as we overdo everything.
''And then, take the bicycle craze. That was
about the most monumental mania that ever
hit the country. There were literally millions
upon millions of bicycle riders in this coun-
try. The streets Of all the cities and towns
were almost impossible with them, ana
there were almost as many girl ana women
bike riders as men and boys. tast-hyins
midgets of professional bicycle riders were
the mogus of the land. People talked
nothing but wheel, wheel, wheel all the
time. Bicycle factories sprang up like
mushrooms all over the country. DO you
recall how many bicycle sales shops and re-
pair shops there were in Washington alone?
And yet. whenever l see bicycling Wo-
man, for instance, nowadays, the spectacle
really seems bit strange to me. Inc 1ao,
rapidity The bikes were re!egated way to
the rear The great bulk Of the bike riders
that you see nowadays are men VINO use
the machine strictly for business purposes,
as an aid to their getting about quickly,
easily and inexpensively. 1t never had such
a sudden rise nor such sudden decline
abroad, bicycling. Men and women still
ride for pleasure in vast numbers IN Eu-
ropean countries. But we simply took hold
of the bicycle fad over here and gorged
ourselves with 1t to such an extent that We
were bound to become sick of 1t as chill
dren become sick of overworked toys
Golf came along-the best game Of them
all. 1t had been played for hundreds OF
years In Scotland and England, and VIII
probably be played there for hundreds OF
years to come. l doubt II 1t Will survive
many years in this country. When 1t
crossed to thds side the rich society folks
first took it up but it spread like prairie
fire. Inside Of a couple OF years every
sizeable summer and winter resort in the
country was advertising golf links as
feature. Everywhere you'd see men and
women In golf clothes and bags of goif
clubs repairing to the links. The papers
were full Of golf. The inevitable band OF
experts grew up and f1ourished. The golf
girl became the real thing. The country
really went golfmad. There are perfectly
perceptible signs now that already the pass
Ing of golf is well under way. Interest In 1t,
except among people who love the game chief
ly for the exercise it affords them. Is fast
diving out. The SWellS lncluulng tne SWel
girls, began to abandon it for automobiling
several years ago-as soon, In fact, as the
game began to grow common.
Even automobiling, they say, Is grad
ually losing its grip upon many OF those
who were enthusiastic over 1t when the
horseless carriage sport first got into Its
swing in this country. The automobiling
sport is bound, however, to last longer
than most fads on account Of its practical
features, and because. too. the nature OF
the game prohibits any but the well-to-do
to indulge in it, but it seems to be pretty
certain that the motor rigs will gradually
become more and more the mere tools or
business, instead of pleasure and sport.
''Ping pong, too 1t had its little flash
In the pan, and the excitement over 1t is
about at an end already. We went at 1t
with all our might, as usual, and cleaned
up its possibilities in a very small space OF
time It's now, at this early stage of its
Introduction, on It's way to a back seat.
and inside of a year or so I doubt If it
will be played in cities at all
Were just natural-born overdoers, that's
all. It's not In sports alone that we over
do everything Even in the matter of our
apparel we go wild over a fad. Take the
Panama hat. Only a short time ago
Panama hat was a real curiosity in this
country. Then the fad was suddenly
sprung-and look at the riot of Panama
hats now! Who hasn't got Panama hat?