The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-06-30
AN HONORED:GUEsT
CONTINUED from First Page,

There are, however, two points in
the undergraduate life of Harvard
about which / think we have a right
to feel some little concern One is the
growth Of luxury in b university. I
do not know whether anything we can
say will have much effect on this point
but just so far as the alumni have
weight | hope TO see that weight felt
in serious and sustained effort against
the growing tendency to luxury, and in
favor of all that makes for democratic
conditions. One OF our number, the
one whom / think the rest of us most
delight to honor-COlonel H~igginson-
has given to our alma mater the Har-
ward Union, than which no better gift,
no gift meeting a more vital need,
could have been given to the univer-
sity. 1t is neither possible nor desir-
able to try to take away all social diff
ferences from the student life: but it
is a good thing to show how unim-
Itrtant these differences are compared
tG the differences of real achievement,
and compared also to the bonds which
should unite together all the men who
are in any degree capable of such real
achievement, bonds, mofevore. which
should also knit these capable men to
their brethren who need the help.
The second point upon which l wish
to speak is the matter of sport. Now
[ shall not be suspected of a tendency
unduly to minimize the Importance of
sport. I believe heartily in sport. /
believe in outdoor games, n | do not
mind in the least that they are rough
games, or that those who take part in
them are occasionally injured. 1 have
no sympathy whatever with the over
wrought sentimentality which would
keep a young man in cotton wool, and
| have a hearty contempt for him if he
count a broken arm Or collar bone as
of serious consequence, when balanced
against the chance of showing that he
possesses hardihood, physical address.
and courage. But when these injuries
are inflicted by others, either wantOnly
/ Or of set design, we are confronted by
the question, not Of damage to one
mans body, but of damage to the other
mans character. Brutality in playing
y game should awaken the heartiest
and most plainly shown contempt for
the player guilty of it; especially if this
brutality is coupled with a low cum
ming in committing it without getting
caught by the umpire. 1 hope to see
both graduate and undergraduate opin-
len come to scorn such 4 man as one
guilty of base and dishonorable actor,
who has no place in the regard of ga
liant and upright men.
1t is a bad thing for any college man
to grow to regard sport as the serious
business Of life. It is a bad thing to
permit sectiOnalism. and hysteria to
shape he development Of our sports.
And finally it is a much worse thing to
permit college sport to become in n
shape or way tainted by professional
ism, or by SO much as the slightest sus-
picion of money-making; and this is es.
p~ecially true if the professionalism is
f~urtive, if the boy or man violates the
spirit of the rule while striving to
keep within the letter. Professional
sport is all right in its way. l am
glad to say that among my friends I
humber professional boxers and wrest-
lers, Oarsmen, and baseball men, whose
regard l value, n whom in turn l re-
gard as thoroughly good citizens. But
the college undergraduate who, in fur
tive fashion, becomes a Semi-prOfes-
sional is al unmitigated curse, and
that not alone to university life and
to the cause Of amateur sport; for the
college graduate ought in after years
to take the lead in putting the bust
"Ncc IuoldIl VI lu1S GUILTY. Ou d
proper plane, and he can not do it if
in his own college career his code of
conduct has been warped and twisted.
Moreover, the spirit which puts 81 ex-
cessive a value upon his work as to
produce this semi-professiOnal is itself
i unhealthy. / wish to see Harvard win
a reasonable proportion of the contests
IN which 1t enters, and | should be
heartily ashamed Of every Harvard
athlete who did not spend every ounce
| there was in him in the effort to win,
provided only he does it in honorable
and manly fashion. But l think our
effort should be to minimize rather
than to increase that kind of love of
athletics which manifests itself. not i'll
| Joining in the athletic sports, but III
crowding by tens of thousands to sec
other people indulge in them. 1t is a
far better thing for our colleges to
have the average student interested in
some form of athletics than to have
them all gather in a mass to see other
people do their athletics for them. ,
So much for the undergraduates.
Now for the alumni, the men who are
at work out in the great world. OF
course the mans duty is 10 himself and
to those Immediately dependent upon
him. Unless he can pull his own
weight he must be content to remain
a passenger all his life. Bue we have
a right to expect that the men who
come out of Harvard will do some
thing more than merely pull their own
weight. We have a right to expect
that they will count as positive forces
for the betterment of their fellow
c~ountrymen: and they can thus count
only if they combine the power of de-
votiOn to a lofty ideal with practical
common n in striving to realize this
ideal.
This nation never stood in greater
need than now of having among its
leaders men of lofty ideals, which
they try to live up to and not merely
&c talk of. We need men with these
/ idoalS in nallalio lifo and Ho noad