Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-06-12

William H. Page, president of the
New York Athletic Club, has written
en- sports for the Yale News, in which
he says in part: 81 strongly believe
competition in athletics long after the
termination of the school or collegiate
period of his career. Tennis and golf
are too generally INDUCED in to admit
Of question. Olympic and national
contests and football are to be ex-
cluded because of the requirements of
time and the fact that successful par
ticipation in them is limited to ages of
comparative youth. Rowing, baseball,
track and field sports, as we'll as box
ing, wrestling, and fencing, are direct
ly to be considered. Impossibi!ity by
reason of age is not a barrier. Men
wrestle and win up to fifty years. In
fencing they 60 beyond that limit. In
polo, boxing, baseball, and Marathon
runs they 60 to forty and beyond. In
rowing, champions retain their rivalry
up to sixty years, and in walking to
the age OF seventy and more.
No Chance.
opportunity or rather the absence
of it is no longer an obstacle as in the
past has often been the case, for the
widespread development OF athletic
AID country clubs throughout the COM
munities Of the country and the in
crease OF transportation facilities has
made access feasible to the fields of
activity in all populous' portions OF the
country. Practicability Of continued
activity in track and field contests,
and particularly in rowing, is best H.
Illustrated in England, where for years
after graduation at college men con
tinue to enter in rowing events, not
only of mediocre, but Of the Henley or
highest class, which attract the best
talent in the land. 1t is an example
which Americans are increasingly be-
ginning to- follow. 1t may here be OBJ
served that whatever may be said of
Engllshmen not figuring overccnspic-
uously in the Olympic games and apex
records Of performance on the track,
they are second to none il the pleas.
ure they derive from athletic sport.
Length Of Life. @,-.".
Longevity may next be considered.
Assuming aeman does keep up comp
etitive efforts, is he in consequence
likely to live for a longer or for a less
period of time? Here the lines of
argument diveree. William Cullen
Bryant and William NJ. Evarts both
lived to be we'll over eighty years.
OF them it is said that the former prid-
ed himself on running up six flights
of stairs and two steps at a time to his
office in the Evening Post Building
each morning. The latter prided him.
self on never having progressed at a
faster rate, of locomOtion than a walk,
Both died in the fulness Of years and
of domestic and professional hap
piness. / Examples of this kind r SO
numerous that I doubt if a prepo1der.
ance Of proof can be found on either
side of the question. -
Has Drawbacks.
Indulgence in competitive athletics
within reason, during the educational
period is. nevertheless, not with
out drawbacks. The man who
has INDUCED in strenuous ath'
letics. in college assumes the
obligation Of continuing them in
some form afterwards and their aban
donment, unless by degrees. will be al
his peril. Our constitutions. like Ell
gines were, not made to be run under
one amount of pressure during fou1
years at college with an immediate
! drop to o%ne-fourth of it in the veal