Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-07-24
America Coming Into Its Own;
Athletics Is Only Salvation
BY Fred c. THOMPSON.

very flexible one. 1t is very
fortunate thing that such is
the case. Were it not flexible and
remarkably resilient, it long ago
would have been broken or lost.
The burden of meanings that it has
had to bear have been too many,
the trends of thought that it has
expressed have been too diverse,
for it to have lived, then, had it
not been of plastic texture and
adaptable to each newly arising de-
mand on its meaning and content.
Seventy five years ago the term
was so broad it specified nothing
definitely When recreation" was
mentioned the correlating faculty
would summon up a kaleidoscope
array of visions portraying every
thing from a Kelley cure to face
paint.
Resuscitation was recreation. SO
was strapping a wooden leg onto a
man. Anything under the sun that
could be lugged in under the ranks
of the 're"-and under the col
umns of the creation fitted The
word carried with it just about the
whole creation all over again.
But from the purely genealogical
meaning a sort of technical mean
ing seemed to fix itself to the word.
We find it. then, meaning a sort
of aimless leaving off of the work
that had grown uninteresting to
spend the time in anything indefi-
mite and non -committal enough to
throw the victim into renewed en-
thusiasm in the forsaken pursuits.
Disseminated Generally.
The idea seemed to be just a
general discrimination of every
thing until what energy there was
left would dam itself up until it
demanded release. And this pitiful
little squirt was the product of rec
reation, if you please.
Do you wonder that most men
preferred to die out quietly than to
sputter out in this hectic way? Col
orless, aimless and so, of course,
useless, the more a man was bored
the more he felt he was being re-
created And all this that much
abused word had to bear, and,
what's worse, it fitted conditions.
It's surely a wonder that we may
today drape about that lay figure
Gall words are but that) ideas that
are vivid and vigorous. But we
surely can do nothing else, for to-
day the term recreation denotes a
positive. intense thing
Contemporaneous with the
growth of this positive element in
the word recreation" has been the
growth in the interest in athletics.
Athletics started out as the child
of recreation" She has surpassed
the mother. In this way: Athletics
first as a very tame and unheroic
expression of recreative desires has
grown into a field and size I'M
dreamed of. And the field of ath-
letics as a recreative influence does
not stop with its work of revivify-
ing weary nerves and raising the
tonicity of fabby muscles. It has
grown until that is but a small
part of tsAwork 1t has worked
wonders with the individual man.
But its great work, or the major
part of it, is in giving us new
concept of what full rounded man
may be.
Despise Race Track Habitue.
The race track habitue of yes
terday is a despised creature, and
rightly The sport of but very
few years ago was a pasty faced,
we'll kneed vampire. Sport sapped
then. But the tout of good stand
ing a few years ago would now be
Stunned anachronism. He would
be freak-a creature on which to
satisfy ones most morbid curiosity.
And it is the clear-eyed, clean
limbed product of the athletic field
OF today that has placed the one
time sport at such low figure. If