The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-09-19
WOMEN
AND THINGS

It seems that my story on the Eng
lishman's love of fair play met re-
sponsive chord, and it tempts me to go
bit further into the subject Of the
value of sports in bringing up the
moral as well as the physical man.
1 spoke of the surprise expressed by
the French marshal because an Elton
boy who took the place of disabled
one on the rival football team played
his best Just last week 1 saw a game
of baseball between two mining camps,
and the same thing occurred One of
the players playing against his home
nine starred. 1t never occurred to him
to throw the game.
There was a time when horse racing
was the sport of kings. There was a
time when races in this country were
on the square. OF all sports those con-
nected with the horse come down with
the halo of a past chivalry and the
cavalier" but as an Eng1ishman puts
it, "the intrusion of money interest
caused it to degenerate" and today it is
practically on the blacklist in every
state in the union.
I can't imagine any man not taking
an interest in seeing two or more
horses in trotting match, and am
sorry for any well man whose blood
does not begin to race through his
veins when he looks out on field Of
running horses straining to be first
under the tape. Betting and throwing
races put horse racing on the tobog-
gan.
This is why have always fought to
try and keep baseball free from the
gamblers I have seen the English play
cricket on their native heath but
somehow, although I was out to kill
time, I never felt that 1 had sufficient
leisure to watch a game through. /
can't say I ever saw complete game
have been at the opening and at the
close, but somewhere in between times
have played hockey. Baseball is the
greatest of all exhibition games, and
If any one asked me to describe the
difference between the English and the
Americans I would say it's best seen in
the difference between cricket and
baseball
In the old days before the Birming
ham papers had special sport writers
used to perform this function along
with that of police and social matters.
and it fell to me to give an account
of the game in which Ross made his
famous kick, and for more than
quarter Of century I have kept in
touch with the gridiron. 1 saw the
which broke up the relations between
the two universities. 1 also saw the
famous game between Yale and the
University of Pennsylvania that caused
an arrangement.
When 1 was doing some special work
at Yale l kept in close touch with the
big teams, and I know all about what
it meant to go to New York for the
on the night after the game. have
seen the games in Atlanta, Nashville.
Montgomery and here There have been
times when I feared for the game on &C
count of the hangers-on who were too
boastful in their challenges to bet. 1
make great allowances for the exuber-
ance of youth, But 1 am firm against
permitting football or baseball games
to be the means of turning the student
body into set of amateur gamblers L
believe that those at the head of our
southern colleges want to keep down
betting as much as possible
.,
I have in mind now the outdoor
sports. A man who is the member of
baseball nine, or a football eleven.
learns first of all to put the team first,
and so the word team play" means
that all the commandments of the
game is compressed into these two
words. This is one reason that college
men, that is those who have made the
teams, make good soldiers, for they
have learned to lose themselves in the
whole and had rather win for the team
than to get individual honors.
have played many games, but be-
lieve golf Is the most searching in its
demands on the players to be fair than
anything I have ever run up against.
A man who will cheat at golf will
cheat at cards, but the unfair golfist
has more chances to be unfair and is
less liable to be caught than is the
card sharp 1t is a testimony to the
golfers that so few have had to be sent
to Coventry because they were guilty
of cheating.
There is a temptation that comes to
test every golfist / know there are
few so upright that they never feel
it. at least / know they claim they do
not, but the average man is mighty
human If you don't believe it or have
forgotten it, just recall the days of
your boyhood when you played mar
bles and just couldn't help Judging"
Any man who will stand up and say
he never did such a thing as lad
can easily be unanimously elected into
any "Ananias club" In the land.
Just let's do bit Of imagining. A
golf player keen to win match, finds
himself standing alone before his ball.
badly placed in small hole, out OF
sight of his opponent and others and
his caddy way ahead, and yet not for
one moment thinking Of moving his
ball a half inch into better position