Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-11-17

scrimmages. The old questions as
to whether or not the game is brutal
and whether or not it should be
allowed to BE- played at our colleges
and various other institutions of
learning are again being discussed
by a great many people, and with
more or less heat under the collar
by those who wear one. Football
is primarily college game, although
I have never been quite able to
understand why this is the case.
A young man may enter game of
football one minute in perfectly
O. K. state of health, and then
leave it the next with his nose in
his vest pocket and set of teeth
imbedded in his left arm; and why,
say, game of this kind should be
more popular at seat of learning
than anywhere else is one of LIES
problems which I have never been
able to successfully diagnose. lam
not saying this in spirit Of harsh
criticism or through blind prejudice,
for / am a football survivor myself,
and during the damp season of
every year still wear meteorOlog
ical shoulder by which l am able to
foretell with wonderful accuracy
about anything from a thunder
storm to change in the price of
pork.
The shoulder in question was
stepped on by large, raw person,
weighing something like $50 pounds,
who, as he had grown from year to
year into blooming young man
hood, had turned out to be mostly
feet. / hold no blame against him.
however. He had secured posses
sion of the ball in the midst of a
skirmish or riot, which broke out
near the center of the field. He
declared that he was going to the
goal line, and a movement was i'm
mediately started to prevent it.
IN some way he succeeded in shak-
ing off all those who had climbed
abroad his person to take passage
with him to the goal line. He then
had a clelr field before him, with
one exception. The exception was
my shoulder. So he socked the inn
print of his heel and the power of
clairvoyancy upon it with all the
childish enthusiasm of his $50
pounds or more, and then journeyed
on to his destination. 1t is a little
annoying at times to be awakened
in the middle of the night by a
shoulder which desires to inform
me that it has just had PRESENT.
ment that the next day will be
rainy, with winds north by north
west, turning slightly colder about
milking time. Still 1 am proud of
it, excepting when the weather is a
little to fiuctuating and skittish,
and certainly bear no prejudice
either against football as game,
or against that popular style of
football player who has been more
signally and overwhelmingly sue
cessful in raising a large growth of
feet than anything else.
~
This brings to mind another
phase of the football question which
cannot be overlooked. I allude to
the tendency of football to make
popular and heroic that style of
student who has body like barrel
of pork and a head that looks like a
small growth of some kind that has
broken out just above his shoulders.
1t seems to me that the heavy draft
young man, with a forehead whose
timber line hits him about an inch
above the eyes, is hOnored more
than the patient student who sits up
far into the pulseless night in order
to ascertain how many Greek roots
grow in one hill. To me, the young
man with a slight forearm and
dandruff on his shoulder at all
hours. and who is willing to sit up
late at night and read Greek by the
light of a kerosene lamp, with a
bad breath, stopping every three
minutes to fool with the wick, &
more of a hero than the larger and
more muscular student whose great
est pride is to put carriage fender
oyer his nose and chest protector
over each knee, and then tear rapid
ly across the gridiron with cargo
of three players clinging to each
leg. 1 wish to state again that
this is not the result of personal
bias, and that my barometrical
shoulder is quite calm and quiet as
l write. A little later on in the
season I will be a able to detect
anything in advance, from a change
in the atmosphere to legislation at
Washington, but not now.