New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-11
In p. s. A. l..
G m e S l. a S {
We q r 3 s o.
600 Youths
Took Part.
BY John R. M'MAHON.

vF ANYBODY asked you what was the
worlds biggest athletic outfit you'd prob
l. ably find it a bit hard to make quick
answer. Let's NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
dive call it know what it is, but I can't
think And, say, 90 you include those Roman
,ladiator fellows. who fought in the arena with
,rinals2 There were a whole lot of them
r5,ing from the motion pictures that were
,t.1 on the spot, and talking about a ire
-.,dous number of athletes, somebody told
-. N. whole blamed Greek nation was ad-
di,,.d 70 games. and they used to hold EN-
every so often at a burg called Olympia.
guess either one Of those outfits had
worlds record for size regret to inform
vou nv dear sir, that you are poor guesser
and way of the mark The biggest athletic
outfit is not in a foreign cline nor in the past
It's right here in little old New York to-day
and its a safe bet that you see several hun
dr.ds or even thousands Of its members every
week. 'Safact According to figures which
can not and will not lie, there were 35OOOO
athletes last year who participated in the otn-
dal games and events. Shut your eyes, think
Of those figures. and then pity the unnumerous
Creeks Imagine an army Of $4,000 athletes
in knickies and pinafores assembled on one
vast field, all doing stunts at the same time
Il it makes your eyes ache to watch three
ing circus, what would be the effect OF watch
ing thousand circuses at once3
We are talking Just now OF the Public
Schools Athletic League of the City OF New
York. The name has to be little bulky in
order to give an idea Of the size Of the thing.
It's not a very cumbersome title, considering.
They might have called it the league for pro-
noting physical efficiency among adolescent
metropolitan kiddies, and that wouldn't have
been much Improvement The main fact to re-
member is that the New York school children
are banded together in an athletic league, and
hssthletic line. You may safely paste that IN
your hat and refer TO it when some one starts
an argument
The accompanying picture sort Of helps to
visualize the bigness of the New York young
Ssrs' athletic league. The youngsters seem to
Be fairly numcrous-in fact, they make you
nnk Of locusts, such is their multitudinoslty
they are spread out on a ten acre field IN
IsHtra Park-and yet those who are shown
constitute but a trifing fraction, less than
N cent Of the total membership OF the league
. ms demonstration included 10000 young ath-
"''s few thousand more would have been
present if room had not been lacking.
was quite d problem how to manGuvre
ne athletes who took part, since neither bugle
:" eather-lunged director could hope to reach
cars Finally pedestal was put up, and
~'n dressed in white to make him conspicu-
''s was set on the pedestal. The man had
~ and white flag in his right hand and blue
-'s IN his left hand With the flags he wig
'Ssed signals TO two other men, also robed
white and set on pedestals, some distance
'" By this means it was possible to have
%'Oo boys in black and white bend, swing,
uO"n and rise like one boy.
NOionei Roosevelt, who was present, gave
= 'achet Of his approval, saying it was one Of
An most wonderful sights he had ever seen.
Su'er spectators applauded the show, which
r'uuea with patriotic song and salute
we Is another fact in bgness. Since the
-, ~ was organized, twelve years ago, it has
athletic training to more than 100000