The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1903-12-16

The papers state that up to last
Thanksgiving day, butnot including
that day, there had been seventeen
deaths in the country from injuries
received in playing football. There
we're no more deaths this year than
last, and no more last year than the
year before, so that we may safely
say that fully seventeen lives are
sacrificed annually on the altar of
football Taking this number of
deaths in connection with the num-
Der, running far into the hundreds,
of those more or less seriously in
jured, we may we'll ask if the game
is worth the powder.
How the matter is regarded by
the players themselves may be in
ferred from a remark made by one of
them after reading the above state
ment. He was student player, and
he said to some fellow students
81 see by the papers that in all the
foot ball games played this year, on
ly seventeen have been killed. "
This remark, taken in connection
with the general tone of converse
ton which followed, indicated that
the number was smaller than had
been expected, and that the players
were to be congratulated that only
seventeen had :been killed There
was nothing in the conversation
that indicated thatsthey thought this
number of deaths each year consti-
tuted too great a sacrifice, or that
the rules of the game should be so
amended as to eliminate the most
dangerous features. . They just
looked upon it in a matter-of-f
way, as though it was nothing seri-
Gus, or that could be,,helped if it
was serious.
The football teams of the different
colleges, universities and other ed
vocational institutions, are always
composed of the verysbest material,
from a physical standpoint, that
those institutions afford. In Drawn
and muscle they are the cream of
American manhood, and the pride of
their respective communities. Most
of them are also young men OF
brains. The future holds out gilt
tering possibilities for such, and
their untimely death by such means
is loss which reaches beyond their
kith and kin it is a loss to the
country at large. The injuries of a
player, if they do not prove fatal,
are hardly noticed by the other
players, or the adherents OF the
game, but they are sufficient to
cause some philosophical reflections
and vigorous head-scratching on the
part of parent who has to pay a
few hundred for surgeons, nurses.
etc., and the writer hereof is pre-
pared to speak on this matter with
the knowledge of Experience. In
view of all this, can weS afford such
yearly sacrifice ins the interest OF
football, or any other game? There
can be but one reasonable answer
The death dealing features of the
game should be cut out.
|
A few weeks ago an actress, the
leading lady of a company playing a
theatrical engagement in St. Paul
created a mild sensation by turning
out with a gang of men and cleaning
one of the business streets of the
city The affair. has been exten
sively commented upon by the peo
pie and press, ia and out of the city
and 10 some instances it was looked
upon as a rebuke to ST. Paul, as {
city, for the untidy condition of its
streets. But the event, like mos
others, has two sides.
In the first place, St. Paul is not
generally speaking, a 1dirty city
On the other hand, it is one of th'
very cleanest. Its streets are KEEP
as clean as those Of any city in tn
country, and cleaner than most O
them, while it's general sanitary con
dition, under the rigid supervision