The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-12-13
IT is OLD AS CIVILIZATION
Foot Ball Was Played When His
tories Were Not Written.
Ancient Greeks in Seeking Rccrea.
ton From Study Played it,
Caesars Columns Took
IL Into Brittany.

game OF foot ball think, when he dons
padded canvas arrnor and enters the
arena to battle for the possession of the
ball and victory, that he is W%orshipiny
the sun according to the practice of his
ancestors hundreds Of years before his
day. Yet this is what he is doing. Long
ages g his forefather entered the con
test with as much spirit as his descend
ant does now, but he called the ball a
sun, and in honor of that great lumi-
nary fought and sometimes died.
The origin of foot ball is unknown. 1t
reaches so far into the past that it has
been hidden by the Veil of ages. OF one
thing, though, we are certain-it came
to life amid the rough and sturdy sons
of h north. The south, more used to
ease and dalliance, besot cricket II the
gentler forms of ball playing.
The first we hear of it, the Greeks,
needing recreation after learned labors,
are engaged in playing "~episkyres," SO
named from "slSyron," the line which
divides II two sides. They are using
a large ball formed by initiating a skin
or bladder, which they called a %"follis."
This they were trying to force into each
others goal. and so win, and, doubtless,
when this is accomplished they will
shout as long and as loud as we of more
modern times do over victory.
o let US pass to the Campus Mar
thus, II here we will find the Romans
Intent upon an exercise of h same
kind. 1t is called "harpastum." The
campus rings with the shouts of the
striving players, giving some slight idea
of the sound during a modern contest.
Now we find the game played in Brit
tany, a province Of France. Here we
find that the mass of struggling human
ity are worshiping the sun. They are
playing with a ball about a foot in di-
.ameter, stuffed with sand or shavi><:.s,
which is propelled or carried in any
possible.
h they called %a"teule,' which is
Synonymous with the sun; they hem
selves are called ''teuleours," or wor-
shippers of the sun. Most all adorers of
heather gods show their reverence of
the deity by undergoing some kin #
an ordeal, and this game of ''teule" Was
the test of the I3retons put themselves
to.
1t is an exceedingly rough and cruel
game generally played between TWO VIII
lagos, in each of which was a goal. and,
this being the case. of ours- the dis
tance which the ball had to bc carried
was some three Or four miles. Upon a
AdtS IN w -lltiltlielS Mbuitl fSStlii-
BILE at some point midway between the
goals. A neutral party would cast the
ball straight into the air. and Then the
half naked men of the two sides would
struggle for it and try To forcef it into
the enemy's territory. Meanwhile the
women, who always went along. would
cheer the comhatants with shouts of en-
couragement There We're no rules, no
umpires; the one object was to force the
ball by any means Whatsoever. and it's
course could be traced over the fields
and rivers by the dead left behind The
contests We're nothing eXcep. battles.
and the previous one made the combat
ants eager for the next; for the friends
of him slain in this game would remcm-
Der the murderer. and in tn" next. il
possible, take summary vengeance.
Even in our own day we see the sun
wOrshiped as the ancient Bretons did.
Among some of the tribes of Indians
Still living in thisc n a game very
similar to our foot ball is played in hon-
or of the sun 1t is also an ordeal. The
tribe of WaShoes, of Nevada, are nota-
bly, fon of this game.
And now passing fram Brittany over
to the British Isles we find that
Caesar and his army did something
more than conquer the land. His sol
'diers were so With harpas-
tum. which doubtless came to them
from the Greek episkyroS. hat they
played it in The strange and The ma
tiVes saw 1t, We're pleased, and adopted
At for their own, and from that time to
his 1T has been much loNed by the in
hab.tants of the Albion Isles. This is
held to be it's origin in England by
some, while others say it was Il native
sport which sprung UP in the land of it's
own accord.
1t is very probable that the game was
played before Caesars tut
the writer of this article thinks it did
not originate there, but was introduced
by the Bretons, who doubtless often
visited their neighbors across the Chan
Oel.
The first time this pastime is dis
flnctly mentioned as foot bali is found
in a =" History of London" written by
William Fltzstephen, and published in
1175. In England it was nothing like
as rough as played in Brittany, yet a
death or SO resulting from a contest
was nothing unusual, while minor in
jurles We're numerous. Shroye Tuesday
was known as foot ball day, just as
Thanksgiving is becoming to be thought
~ Ny N9, dAAA lC Sdlle SCllGI dllS DCSdll
at 2 o'clock and lasted the rest of the
day, sometimes extending into the
night. We know hat at Roo9ee, in
Chester, games We're played annually
until 1910. A description is given of a
game played in Derby in 1916, and from
a brief glance at it we can form some
Idea of the contrast between it and the
Present game.
AS it neared the hour OF 2 on the
Shrove Tuesday Of this year. the mer-
chants could have been seen putting up
their shutters and preparing to close up
shop. When the our arrived not a
}tore was open. and all the people had
gathered in the market square, which
was midway between the goals, one of
which was the wheel of a mill situated
about a mile and a half out of town,
while the other was the gate of a nur-
sery equally as far from the center in
the opposite direction. A goal vas OBJ
tanned by touching the ball against one
of these objects. AT 2 O'Clock a globe Of
skins about a o o IN diameter filed with
cork, was thrown into the market place,
81 A. H. :.