Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-18
Athletics and the Future.

In the March st Nicholas Gen
George ~. Wingate, president of the
pnblie schools athletic league of New
ycrk. has d word to- the boys on ath-
letics, He tells what it means of hap
ninass and success. He says that
brains and scholarship are most I'M
nortaant. but unless accompanied by
health and a strong body, they do not
produce the results which they should.
Life under modern conditions is hard
struggle. and to succeed in it requires
M, only education and intelligence,
hut the ability to work strenuousiy'
The only way TO obtain the physical
ability which will enable you 10 do this
continuously, as you will have TO do, IS
by developing your body and securing
a good healthy constitution while you
are young 4
The mereei daily enjoyment OF lie
which one receives who is healthy ana
strong. as compared with those VINO
are frequently gill and whose lives are
seldom free from pain, is indeserloable,
In addition, athletic exercises develop
beyond any other known method those
qualities of courage, promptness OF ac-
ton. keenness of perception. perser-
verance against obstacles, and force OF
character which constitute true man
hood ana are indispensable to success.
Few men of the day will disagree
with Gen. Wingate, but if is just as
generally understood that athletics as
we'll as anything else, may be carried
too far 1t is not the staff OF physical
life, but the sauce; it serves the pur-
poses of keeping the mind and body In
balance and of giving a broader per-
spective of life, building up of true
maniiness and honor. for the true ath--
lete is sportsmanlike, level-headed and
honorable. IN this connection we wish
10 call attention TO an editorial recently
published by the Philadelphia Tele-
graph. on 't'rhe Church and Athletics.
There is so much of common sense IN
the following that We ask our readers
t0seonsider it we'll:
Evidently not all the churches of the
city have a sympathetic understanding
of the motives of men like A. j. Drexet
Biddle and others who are employing
athletics to bring the boys and young
men into the church and Sunday
school The criticism of the Rev. DIR.
Steele of st Luke's Episcopal Church.
in which he was quoted as saying that
the threshold OF the church is rarely
crossed by those who use the church
mnasum and few who are attracted
into the church organization through
athletics become communicates, is typ
zeal of this attitude.
There is nothing truer than that the
greater handicap of the modern church
is the lack of sympathetic under
standing of the average boy particu-
larly the boy of the street, whose fam
lily is not connected with the church
That boy or a young man, except
under parental compulsion, will not go
where he is not interested is true
enough to be an axiom. 1t is rartic-
ularly applicable to our churches. Ev-
cry observant person knows that the
ma jority of our churches every Sun
day have q conspieuously large num-
her of empty pews, and that the con-
gregations aru-Ha1e@ sup for the most
part of men and women past the age
OF thirty years. with the women in a
dacidef1 ma aoritfsst sS&k@&
The great problem, therefore, of the
modern church is to reach the boys and
young men, TO interest them sufficiently
tornnake theng the. church and
Sunday school. :. The most effective
means to accomplish this yet found is
the employment of clean athletics, and
that church makes a fatal mistake
when ii scorns or neglects such pow
erful aid. IT has been demonstrated
time and time again that system of
athletics supported and supervised by
men who thoroughly understand boy
life will bring the boys and young men
into the church. If the preachers and
church officials cannot convert this au-
dience the fault is not with athletics,
but with the preachers and the church
itself. Let the clergymen do their part
and organize this vast army of boys
and young men brought to their doors
through the medium of clean athletics.