The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1903-11-24
RANDOM THOUGHTS.

AAOOASS 10y td@V y Cui hCphSN 10
home from college with a broken
leg. How did it happen
MISS ELECTROMAGNETIC boy
says that several boys jumped on
him because he picked piece OF
pig-skin off gridiron and start
ed to run with it. This is all |
can get out of him. 1t puzzles
me; for know when his grand
father went to college he never
got punished for such trifes. but
there; there the boys today are
so violent.
Mr.. BRIGHT You innocent
dear The lad was playing foot
ball.
MIR. BLACK And he was for
tunate that he met no worse
trouble than q broken leg Many
boys get killed outright at the
game. They call it game, IL
call it ''gladiatorial display"
Some die outright on the field,
some die later, some go all their
lives MANNED and injured. They
call this higher education; | call
it calf education, and no higher
than that does it go. Such a
pass has education reached that
the popularity of a college is
often affected by the brainless
Drawn of its football team. The
meanness of it too, when you
realize the scrimping and scrap
ing-like your own, Miss Little
gray-which is endured to send
the boys to college for brain
development and then have them
slaughtered and offered to the
fetish of brutal sport.
Mr.. LITTLEGRAY:-Dear, dear!
| will not scrimp any more.
Rev. G. CLEAR Hold on there;
hold ON Brother Black is, as
usual, looking on the dark side,
and you need not yet regret the
sacrifices you have made. | adj
NIT the boy ought to have told
you how he was injured, and yet,
as matter of fact, he told the
technical truth. | admit sports
take up much college thought;
but that is only reflex from the
greater world where the strength
of the body and its health are
more considered than they were.
But let us look at the matter
sqnarely. BY the time we have
finished, believe Brother Black
will have no one to join with him
in his seedlings.
Mr.. BRIGHT AS for me,
though | believe there are just as
good men without college educa-
ton as there are with it, college
education is perhaps privilege,
but it is not an absolute neces-
sity. Still, that is an aside at
present.
Rev. G. CLEAR:-So it is, so
please keep it aside. Touching
now on football. No college, no
matter how great, has more than
two or three show teams. That
means fewer than fifty 'gladia-
tors" out of a population one
thousand or two thousand. They
are picked by a process of elm
ination, so that none but sound
fellows remain. They live on a
regimen that puts them in per-
feet physical condition, and
when they strive it is under rules
that must be observed; and even
those are being modified from
year to year to render accident
less possible. If Brother Black
is right, football is followed by
string of victims. Nothing Of
the sort Only here and there
is fatality. and for bruises and
bumps and even black eyes, the
youngsters are no worse off for
them. If they take their punish
ment like men; just as you would
expect under such training, they
are better men for it. The shin
pains and shoulder strains. and
whatever else they suffer, are a
gaod preparation for the brain
pains and heart strains they are
bound to meet if they strive out
in the world as men.