Evening star., 1914-04-26
The Old Fan.

Athletics
The Old Fan.
He comes every day to see them play
Where the noisy bleachers shout,
From the first of May In the thick of the fray
You ind him day In and out.
He once had wealth and he once had health,
But they both went long ago.
He's lost his wealth and comes in stealth
To the game he used to know.
He works in the fall just enough to call
Together hundred or two.
That shall average all the days Of hall
And take him the summer through
He never is seen in the winter keen
From the day Of final fly
Til spring is queen and the diamonds green
And the crack of the bat Is nigh
He crceps out to the ground
And leans Ger the rail when tho flies they sail
And studies the bushmen found.
BY the first Of May. at least so they say
He begins TO get bis voice.
And ta'k Of the play in running way
And cackle about his choice.
His mini disturbed. he pcver is heard
Until that first of May
To utter a word. then his hear, is stirred
And hc shrieks at every play
So every spring We arc wondering
I'll! we see him creeping out,
II deaths dark wing has heen towering
And famed his life spark out.
He's shrvelins thin the spirit within
Is all that keeps him about;
When the home nine wins his cheek bones skin
Shows hectic flush without.
And often think thar a breath will wink
That frail life spirit out
And break the link at deaths near brink
II the home leans put 10 rout.
So here's to The Fan. to the also ran.
May he live on the bleachers here.
And stretch life'S and cheat deaths han
For still another year
of the Aero Club. said in his after
dinner speech that he had no hesita
tion in predicting that within a short
time aeroplanes would not only cross
the Atlantic and fly around the world
but would reach the north pole across
the polar basin. Lincoln Beachey com
ments on the across the Atlantic
trip with decided not yet" and
somehow one cannot help feeling that
Beachey's views are sounder than those
of Peary. Lord Northcliffe has Of
fered $4,000 for the first airman to
fly across the Atlantic. The Panama :
Pacific exposition has notified the Aero
Club that $4,000 in prize money has
been placed on deposit in the Anglo
and London. Paris. National Bank of
San Francisco for around-the-
world aeroplane race, and that $4,000
had been appropriated to arrange for
supply stations. 800 miles apart. along
the route of the proposed flight
Harry Atwood. another sanguine and
practical flyer, speaks confidently about
the stability of machines over the ocean
ard mentions the great advantage of
this flight over land flights in the total
iack OF dangerous. baff1ing air cur
rents. 1t Is his belief that a mile from
the coast it will make no difference
whether there is no wind or a bowling
gale.
He says the equilibrium of an airshp is
anected only by the sudden changes in
velocity of the wind. and that the most
violent extremes over the eXpanse of a
broad surface of water neither build up
nor fall off quickly enough to be serious
menace to equilibrium. He speaks prn-
cipally from his experience over Lake
Erie. Continuing further. he admits that
there would be some difficulty if the air.
man were Obliged to alight on the water
curing Dig storm when the waves We're
running nigh. Mr.. Atwood further says
the flyer may also encounter widespread
foss: he may be obliged to drop on the
ocean and look for steamer for provi-
sions or fuel supplies or possibly to make
repairs. These latter prospects are not SO
tempting. and 1t is certain that if every
plan went perfectly the airman would
have to sit for twenty-five hours. driving
through daylight and darkness exposed
to the elements and in the constant hyp-
motto roar of the engine. If he does give
conditions would seem well-nigh certain,
and fall asleep the trip will be at an end.
Meantime. at st. Johns. Newfoundland.
this summer Glen Curtis is going to make
SOME practical tests in conjunction with
the weather bureau. on the humidity of
the air at an altitude of from 5000 to
10000 feet. as he finds it extremely i'm
portant that there be plenty of moisture
in the air at that altitude if the engine is
to work properly. since it seems to lose
power when the air is dry.
Wright agrees with Beachey. and he
places definitely the reason in the inabil-
ity to carry sufficient fuel.
Prof. Ehler of the University of
Wisconsin. demanding direct faculty
control of all athletics. says: THE
regulation Of intercollegiate athletics
must cease to be inactive and must be-
structive regulation is based primarily
upon a recognition of the nature and
function of play as the fundamental
determinant in the growth and de-
respect to the physical organs and
their functions. intelligence and char
acter. Until this association goes con-
sciously and deliberately to the root of
this whole matter and enters upon a
constructive campaign actually to
carry into effect the resolution and it's
implications that were unanimously in
dorsed three years ago, all other ef-
forts to regulate athletics will be
largely futile and barren of construc-
tive results" Three long years and
nothing done yet. And boys all over
this broad land heedlessly continuing
without the control of the faculty to
use that fundamental determinant"
functions and intelligencew 1 apollo
gize to DR.. Ehler. I didn't mean that
TO sound as. critical as it reads. But