Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-07-05
Only Best work Counts.


distinguished from sham success. In
productive scholarship, in the scholar
ship which ads by its work 10 the
sum Of substantial achievement with
which the country is to be credited, it
is only first class worI, that counts. In
this field the smallest amount of real
~ first-class work Is worth all tae sec
ond-class work that can possibly be
produced; and to have done such work
is in itself the fullest and a.nplest re
ward to the man producing it. We
outsiders should according to our abil-
lily aid him in every way to produce it.
Yet all that We can do is but little
compared to what he himself can and
must do. The spirit of the scholar is
the vital factor in the productive
scholarship of the country
College Luxury Dangerous.
There are Two points in the under
graduate life of Harvard about which
| think We have a right to feel some
little concern. One is the growth Of
luxury in the university. DO not
know whether anything we can say
win 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 demo-
cratic conditions. One of orr num-
Der, the one whom think the rest of
US most delight to honor-Colonel
Higginson has given to our alma mater
the Harvard Union, than which no bet
ter gift, no gift meeting a more vital
need, could have been given to the
university. 1t IS neither possible nor
desirable TO try to take away all social
differences from the student life; but
it is good thing to show how unim-
portant these differences are COM
pared To- 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; bonis,
moreover, which should also knit these
capable men to their brethren who
need their help.
The second point upon which | wish
to speak is the matter of sport Now
shall not be suspected of tendency
unduly to minimize the importance of
sport I believe heartily in sport.
believe in outdoor games, and | 10 not
mind in the least that they are rough
games, or that those who take part in
them are occasionally, injured.
have no sympathy whatever with the
overweight senuimentality which
would keep young man in cotton
wool, and l have a hearty contempt
for him if he counts a broken arm or
collar bone as of serious consequence,
when balanced against the chance of
showing that he possesses hardihooi,
physical address, and courage. But
when these injuries are inflicted by
others, eithe,. wantonly or of set de
sign, we are confronted by the cues
ton, not of damage to one mans
character. Brutality in playing a
most plainly shown contempt for the
player guilty of it; especially if this
brutality Is coupled with a low cunning
in committing it without getting
caught by the umpire. | hope to see.
both graduate and Undergraduate
opinion come to scorn such a man as
one guilty of base ami dishonorable
action, who has no place in the regard
of gallant and upright men.
1T is bad thing for any college
man to grow to regard spot as the
serious business of life. u IS a bad
thing to permit sensationalism and
nysteIia to shape the development OF
our sport. And finally it is much
worse thing to permit college sport to
become in any shape or way tainted
by professionalism, or by SC much as
the slightest suspicion of money-mak
ing: and this is especially true if the
professionalism Is furtiVe, if the boy
or man violates the spirit OF the rule
while striving to keep within the let
ter. Professional sport is Ill right in
its way 1 am glad to say that among
my friends l number professional
boxers and wrastlers, oarsmen, AMI
baseball men, whose regard | value,
aad whom in turn regard as
thoroughly good citizens. But the col
lege undergraduate who, in furtive
fashion, becomes a semi-professionaiI
is an unmitigatei 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 business NOR
atty of this country on a proper plane, !
ana he can not DO It If in MS own col I
Iege career his code of conduct has
been warped ana twisted. Moreover, l
the spirit which puts so excessive a I
value upon his work as to produce 7
this semi-professional is itself TN j
healthy I wish to see Harvard win a I
reasonable proportion Of the contests [
in which it enters, and | should be ,
heartily ashamed Of every Harvard I
athlete who did not spent every ounce /.
there was in him in the effort to win,
Only he does it in honorable I
and manly fashion. But / think cur ef-
fort shouli be TO minimize rather than
10 increase that kind of love of ath-
letics which manifests Itself, not in
jc,ainc in the athletic sports. but ia
crow,iing by tens OF thousands to see
other people indulge in them. 1t is a
far better thing for our colleges to
have the average students interested
in some form of athletics than to have
Them all gather In a mass to sac other