The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-24
A New Use for the Oldest Language
in the World

already glanced at the religious aspects
Of football as viewed by some Of the
Evanston dons. Dean HoLaATH regards
football a. "a great help to religious
duty Prof. Coz finds it AN almost in
valuable aid to religion Addressing q
Methodist Sunday school at Evanston,
Prof. JAMES ALTON JAMES suggested
the useful application Of the football
chant to prayer meeting purposes:
think a college yell or football chorus would
lven things up In prayer meeting. A college yell
would not be 50 much out of place in . prayer
meeting as you would think. believe II could be
given without being offensive or inhsrmonious
with the surroundings. II certainly would have q
beneficial effect. Things would be stirred up. Tho
cheer Of the ro0ttr always has moral effect Why
should hot ,hi. effect obtain in prayer meeting'"
The fervcr ard vigor of the college
yell" speak for themselves. Given by
a well trained, husky" chorus, it pro-
duces more disturbance Of the atmos-
phere and volume of sound than any
other means Of noise. 1t rings and cuts
AS all the feaadh from heaven that fell
Had pealed their college cry and yell
1t is natural to ask, in accordance with
. well knowL question by WESLEY, Why
should the colleges have all the good
"yells'7 II football aud by natural ex-
tension othe, forms Of athletics, are
landmarks of religion, the musical ao-
compartments Of xthletic exercise may
properly be introduced into prayer
meetings. II Dean HoLoATB and Prof.
Coz arc right Prof. JAMES lie right. His
conclusion flows from their premises.
For tho benefit Of nervous temperaments,
however, the prayer meeting yell
should not be given, at least at first, save
at large open air meetings. The concus-
sion and repercussion generated by it
are tremendous, and serious problems Of
vibration, resistance and strength Of
materials will have to be considered by
architects if it Is to be used habitually
In interiors.
The college yell" deserves q curious
study in evolution, 1t seems to derive
Immediately from the Indian yell
which so curdled the veins of the early
settlers in the American Colonies. There
fingers much Of that old. sharp. savage
tomahawklike delivery. Like that cop
per colored predecessor, it possesses
something inhuman, the cry or yelp Of
the wild beast. 1t must have passed to
North America from Asia, for it has
strange, high Monaghan shrieks and
notes. 1t has salient analogies with
tho unintelligible archaic mutations and
sgonies Of speech used by medicine men,
powwows, angekoks, shamans and all tho
worldwide tribe Of sorcerers, witch doc
tors, soul-catchers and devil-driyers.
Tho magical formulas Of gramarye, the
patter of enchanters and conjurers, is a
sister speech or dialect to it. In the
Arabian Nights country or Theesaly of
the witches q band Of college yellers
would have been revered az probably
dangerous necromancers, and in the
East to-day they would at the worst, be
respected as Mnatics and touched with
inspiration. In the early centuries they
would have been exercised as demon-
acs. In the fifteenth and sixteenth Gen.
turtles they would have been burned as
wizards and confederates of him who
as roaring lion walketh about. In all
the gable attributed to the Black Man s
imps and devotees there is no queerer
abracadabra than this college yell"
But it goes back farther into the night
Of time than magic, that science of print
tive man. DR.. TEUFELsKIND of the Uni
versity Of Blocksberg, who visited the
United States in 1901, found in the COL
lege yell "the highest interesting phe-
nomenon':
Herr saw for the nrst time clearly what I had
long d,mly OWNED. The origin of speech. as of
poetry. was communal. collective Early men felt
within themselves warnings and the desire for
utterance. Only with labor and pain could they
force speech out Of organs not yet wholly special
lied and faint for want Of use like vER0IL's voice
in the Inferno Ultimately by watching one An
other by mutual effort and encouraging they sue
ceeded In emitting sounds sharp interjcctional. q
series Of monosyilsbic shr,eks or growis which
finally agglutinsted, though stl monosyllablc Int
the yell revere the yell Of the American
students. They have preserved. I know not how.
the earliest form OF human speech which was not
speech but yell o' paln. II hurt the nrst men
much to draw their speech as II hurts the modern
man 10 have a tooth pulled,
| have presented 10 the BIocksberG Museum
yob cylinders registering important cUiisosi6n Of
American student ycIis. II Is strange to md IN
new country m oldest ~ wing language"
And now this savage survival Is to be
turned to benehcent uses in Evanston.
The recent pract ical road tests OF the
automobile afforded by the runs to Boston
and Pitsburg have revived discussion as
to which OF tine three forms Of motive
power in common Use steam, gasolens
the Gasolene vehicles made he best rec
ord, but no other result could fairly have
been expected. for they outntunbersd the
others SO greatly as to make the tests seem
almost as II they were intended for gaso-
lene cars only But the steam driven We
hicles Also made ar excellent showing at
both trials. Unfortunately. steam and
electrical machines were not adequately
represented. II may be said. therefore,
that no absolute proof ~ the superiority
of any type Of machine was furnished
from thoroughlyrepresent endurance