Evening star., 1915-02-14

clear upon the point that 1t believed
the general playing principles of the
game were now SO satisfactory to the
public and to the players themselves
that it turned down fatty a multi
tude of suggestions offered that might
alter the actual principles OF the play.
The public may now rest easy in the
confidence that 1t will not be obigeo
to make a study Of the rule book in
order to adjust themselves to wholly
new game by next fall.
They have now comprehensive
knowledge of the rules OF fair ana un-
fair play, the legal methods for ad-
vancing the ball, the laws for the con-
duct Of players, and they will not have
to acquire any new information on
these points before vending their way
to the gridiron fields next fall. The
players will have no new code to learn,
and, in fact. the game is beginning to
crystalline with standardization. Along
the line of still further forcing cap
tains and teams to play their own
game without recourse to outside as
deprecating the practice of sending
in substitutes-not because a player on
the field was injured. but in order to
send out instructions from the side
make numbering of players manda tory.
it did pass vote recommending
this practice and it is probable the de-
mand of the public for this feature
which adds so much to the enjoyment
Of the spectator will be answered by a
pretty general numbering of players
in all the big games throughout the
country. :
President Eliot of Harvard, in his an
nual report few years ago, stated:
although foot ball has been made
more open, it still remains unfit for
college uses. affords demoralizing
spectacle and provides an opportunity
on a great scale for that variety of
gambling called betting. The popular
excitement is spread and maintained
for commercial purposes by news
papers. transportation companies and
hotels, which reap profit from these
assemblages. The English schools and
universities have never been afflicted
by these vulgar evils.
.lt is reasonable to expect that this
barbarous stage of college opinion con-
cerning athletics will pass away before
many years.
And now the Harvard Alumni Bulle-
tin frankly confesses:
"It would be an ostrichlke proceeding
to ignore the fact that the athletic and
especially the foot ball interest of the
| university, here as everywhere else,
| makes an overpowering appeal. The he
roes of the day, the men to whom 1t is
possible to give dinners attended by hun
dredS Of graduates, are not the scholars
| the wits. the leaders in anything but that
extraordinary union of physical and men,
| tai training. which produces foot ball
! team good enough to defeat the most
powerful opponents"'
| What Is the reason for all this? Why
| do we find foot ball. in spite Of all op-
position. even the opposition of noted
| men and men who unqueStionably have
| no thought ether than the benefit Of the
| race. progressing steadily in the hearts
Of the people? Perhaps 1t is because those
| who oppose 1t have never been really
| close enough to it to appreciate it's best
features. have noted only the externals
| as shown by single big game once a
year. For instance, who are the teachers
| to whom the boys listen most attentive
ly today? Who are the men intoxicating
modesty, good temper, hard work and
mental activity? Percy Hauehton. the
Harvard foot ball coach, at the meeting
of the National Collegiate Foot Ball AS
| sociation In Chicago, talked on the sub
ject Of mental training in foot ball. and
| showed how conceit, bad temper. and
slackness. not alone on the field. but in
habits OF work and unselfshness taught
daily by the various coaches Charles
Brickley. captain of last years Harvard
| foot ball team, on a visit to West
minister School. addressed the schoolboys
| there along similar lines. Frank Hinkev
to the foot ball men at the University
| Club, began his remarks with the can.
| tion about keeping up in the studies and
| how no man could believe-tfa he had a
position on the team ''cinched," but must
| work hard for his place. He dwelt es
peciaily also on the topic that If a man
couldn't make the place himself he must
play 50 hard and SO well and SO earnest. .
ly that the man who did make the place
| over him showed the results of that COM
petition.
This brings us directly back even to
Buddha. whose precepts were laid down
in the Dharma, for the words of