The news & observer., 1905-11-19
JEWS WIN PRIZES
They are the Best Deba-
ters in Harvard Con-
tests.
Football is a Fad at Harvard. The
Teams Cleared One Hundred Thous-
and Dollars Last Year and Mon
ey Went for Athletics.
pecial to News and Observer }


l expected today to be able to herald
the victory of G. r. Stephenson, of
North Carolina, in making the Har-
ward Debating Team, to show the
strength of the young Southern mind
against the Yankee, l failed to take
| into account the shreWdneSS of the
! young Jewish students mind. There
| is no other way to account for his
| failure to make the first three to
| meet Princeton To my mind. his
speech was at least strong enough to
put him in the first three. But the
judges thought otherwise, and curious
ly enough, the three winners were
| young Hebrews, while the three men
! remaining who make up the second
| team, are not.
This condition has been the his
tory of Harvard debating for many
| years. The Jews are beginning to be
a factor to be reckoned with in the
university wherever keenness of mind
counts. In the law school their
strength is apparent and in debating
they have had things their own way
for years. Last winter, only one of
the debaters was Jewish. but since
1898, the entire team has been of that
race. The only way of accounting
for this condition is that they seldom
it comes to debating, they throw
themselves into the work with We
hemence which the other fellows new
er think it necessary. They debate
like the football men ought to play
their game.
In the same connection, it has been
nearly a dozen years since the Har-
ward debating teams were composed
entirely of undergraduates. Since the
university assumed its immense pro-
portions of the present, graduates,
and hence, generally men who had
their college training in other pla-
ces, have been the debaters For this
reason. debating has lacked interest
with the undergraduate body.
Harvard has gone football crazy,
however, and nothing counts but the
eleven. Think Of SQUAD of 249 men
going out to make a team of eleven
men! That's what Bill Reid muster
ed this fall when he went to work.
He has now, after the squad has been
cut for the last time, enough men
to make five efevens. It is no Won
der then, that there is interest enough
| in this one branch of sport to make
possible the building of the stadium,
the biggest thing of it's kind in this
country at least. This structure, built
| of concrete and steel. seating 10000
people has already cost 100000 and
| there is yet $4,000 to spend. Yet
| the athletic committee is only $50, 600
in debt. This will show something
! of the scale on which Crimson ath
leticS are run. Every cent of this
money came out of the proceeds of
football. omitting all mention of eX-
penses in the teams themselves. Foot
ball pays for all the other sports, too.
There was $4,000 profit in the Yale
game alone last year, Through the
season the team clears over a hun
dred thousand, pays the deficiency of
the crew. the track team. and the
minor sports and improvements to
Soldiers Field which a few years ago
was q marsh.
This was the Longfellow marsh, So
called because the poet looked out
over it while he was writing in his
home on Brattle street. This swamp
of 40 acres has been reclaimed, an i'm
mense iron fence built around it, and
four football gridirons. five baseball
diamonds lacrosse fields, running
track, cricket fields gun club grounds
etc, erected. At certain seasons of
the year there are four or five hum
dred athletes of the various branches
on the field at once. to say nothing
of an equal number of tennis play
ers on field nearer the college
grounds, reserved for that sport.
L think the popularity of football
is largely fad up here 1t draws
as many ladies as men. and conse-
quently there is much display Of fine
millinery. For this reason, and to
crafty the hunger for hero worship,
there is much striving after invitations
to attend the games. l know from
close observation. that of the large
numbe of the women who go that only
a small number know the first thing
about the game. / like the game all
right and the picture made in the sta
dunn modelled after the old Roman
amphitheatres, filled with bright col
cred flags and dresses is a sight never
to forget. But there is another side
to the pictures that appeals to me.
| cannot but think of thetWo or three
/ cannot but think of the two or three
months of each fall out there on the
gridron driven by the coaches as
though they had not Vestlge of hu-
man Intellect mean either the
coaches or PLAYERS. They all under
go a regime that mighty few men
would stand for high pay. Every day,
all afternoon they strain, strive. risk
life-injury and possible death: what
for? The big H on q sweater.
don't believe there are half dozen
men on the squad who play football
now because they like it. They may
their ability recognized, they must
plav or be called unnat?Ioti,t by tie
College coli friends. All this IS more, or
less the history of colleges the coun-
try over | know. but it is in only the
three or four very big colleges where
such strenuous tactics are followed
1t IS the harder Just now IN Harvard
because Yale has defeated US tor four
years consecutively, ana WIN only
tvo ~, tbraa breaks for a dozen years
However there seems to be change
in siebt ere another year that will very
radically change the games which this
university will give its sanction to. If
President Elliott had his way it
would be given UP entrely.
n r. STEPHENS.
nv JANIrARy FIRST, FIRST-CLASS
cutlery salesman to handle ex-
1i, o,on1ete line of cutlery