The San Francisco call., 1905-08-27

lifetime IS drained by the continual ex-
ertions that are incidental to athletic dis
tinction. and on occasion 1t gives out.
In the long run the athlete of college
days is not the strong man of middle
life. and an athletic youth is no pledge
of old age.
A sound mind in a sound body was the
ideal of the aneients 1t is what we most
need TO meet the demands of the mod
erns.
y weak. sickIy. effete body that can
endure no stress of weather. that is
like house out OF repair. with fall
ing chimneys and leaking roof, is to
be regarded as a great misfortune. 1t
is more than aecalamity. Always it is
an embarrassment. often it is sin.
In these days of advanced science
those who come into the world with
inherited tendencies to disease may tri-
umph over them if they will use the
means and live by hygienic rules. Air.
exercise food sleep are the remedies
nature provides gaifst feebleness~ and
frailty Nobody should. be ILL who can
help it. and much can be done to help
1t in most cases. We may be well II
we choose.
overexercise is as perflous as none
at ALL The strS1 gest swimmer may
abuse his skill The -Swiftest runner
may run too far.
Athletics have superseded to some
extent in some places the respectable
and less exciting business of work
ing around the house and door yard
The sons of the family, lads between
,-15 and 20, used to- do the daily chores
fiji the tanks that scalled forn siren
i uous pumpir s., drive the lawn mower,
chop the wood, groom the horses ana
weed the garden. They still lend
hama when the family finances COM
hut r1nR
more plentiful than once. it is less apd
less the fashion for boys and. young
men TO be Seryiceab BILE about the home
They do not see the necessity Econ
omy is not a popular vtrtue$ splitting
wood and attending to furnace are
not picturesque modes of diversion or
agreeable ways of taking exerc1set~ our
sons and for that matter some OF our
daughters. look with shy disfavor on
ho,nely household tasks, while they ex-
pend energy and fervor by wholesale
ON the games they care for
: Few mothers entirely approve of the
risks their sons take in sport TO
bring your boy safely through the reeIs
and shoals of early childhood, through
mumps and measles and chicken-poX
and whooping cough and then have
him maimed and disigured in football
is a heart-breaking performance Ihe
hoy carried off the field with a broken
. knee cap. is buoyed up by the plaudlts
of his fellows. but in the dreary days
on crutches those pldudits will BRING
hin, little comfort. The accidents that
march i'm the wake of athletics are ap-
spalling and the mortifying reflection
that they are to be set down on thes
balance sheet of life under the head
ing of absolute loss must come home to
most of US in candid moments
ia
Yet the question has two aspects.
Nobody wants his boy to be q mutt,
a coward, a Miss Betty. Every father
and every mother must prefer TO nave
sons who can hold their own. COME
what may The value of athletic sport
is in the training which gives cool
ness in the presence of danger ac-
curecy. of aim, quickness OF actloa-
On the football field man learns TO
obey: he learns the Invaluable lessoG
to accept defeat without outcry. 1t is
as honorable to be u good loser in -he
game, when loss is inevitable. rs to
he a winner The main thing anyway
in this world is to play the same
fairly. in accordance with the rules.
without meanness. or i'll temper, OF
self-seekinS.
To live covering over the hearth,
when there is manful work to be
done outside in the world. is to live
iGnobly Perhaps there must be PEE
centage of loss set over against every
gain. Certainly nothing worth nav
ing is ever acquired without some
sacrifice. Courage. fortitude. e1dUr-
ance, the basal characteristics of hero
ism, may be learned in the practice
of athletics What the greatest un.
versities foster and the preparatory
schools recommend. it is not for the
household to frOWn upon without
good reason.
A man in love with music declined
to let his daughters learn 10 row lest
il shopld spoil the suppleness of their
piano hand. A man who valued grace
and symmetry stood sduarely in the
path OF his sons through their child
hood lest they should get broken
fingers or enlarged thumb joints from
playing ball. For the reason that they
might stumble on the ice they were
not permitted to learn to skate. In
consequence. though they were schol-
arly enough. they arrived at adoles-
cence inferior in size. strength and
fearlessness TO others who had known
the rough and tumble of life. and they
had to make UP as best they could for
the drawback of too tenderly nur-
tured Juvenile career.
Athletics are here to stay. We owe
it to our juniors to give them gym
nastic training, in reason, Just as we
owe them the alphabet and all that
follows after A, 5, C.
Our own children are not the only
ones to whom we owe the physical
training that comes from athletic
sport. The understood. ill-fed, paIlid
children of the tenement. those to
whom fortune has been a step dame
and whom nature has lowered stingiIy.
look to us for a chance to improve
their condition. No more gratifying
sign of the times appears than in the
social altrufsm which leads a college
team to play against neighborhood.
settlement team, which brings the fell
lows who were born to the golden
spoon to meet as friends the fellows
who were born to no spoon at ALL
The most gratifying phase of recent
athletics is seen in the development
of manly brotherhood which makes
no account of rich or poor. but wei
comes all good comrades to play the
game.