Norwich bulletin., 1918-01-23
ATALEvc CONTRASTS.
By SOL METzsER

By SOL MErrzsE
 It is obvious that sport, especially the most strenuous kind, has a place in our life even in these most stren-
 uous tines. Not long ago Ed Thorps
 a former college athlete who is in the sporting goods business representing
 one of the oldest houses in this coun
 try, told me that last fall he received an order for complete football equip
 nlent from some Belgium officers at
 the front. These men had seen Amer
 ican troops play the game and they
 immediately went in for it.
 What a strange contrast is the atti- tude of these Belgium officers who have passed through more severe i test than the men of any other coun- try, within the memory of man and in fact, are still meeting that test, to the attitude of Yale, Harvard and Prince ton toward this same game? Play of 1 of the most rugged sort is as much d need of the soldier at the front as is food and drink. To the vast majority
 of college men the same holds good in ] the abnormal collegiate existence of today. Enough saidt
 Down in Florida approximately forty golf courses are receiving their last i grooming preparatory to the annual 1 exodus of northern visitors. There is 1 the winter play ground of the more well to- do. Sunlight, warmth and surf bathing vie with golf as allure
 merlts to anyone who has the price One rluss.pay heavily for a place in Florida sun Nothing comes free in i that Land of Promised Youth. Yet the l game is worth the cost and the golfer 1 who wishes can soon get his start ] ing time for golfing under ideal contli- 1 tions. Mother Nature, Donald Ross and a host of lesser golf architects ] have combined to make the ancient
 game ideal in Florida
 Up north golf clubs have generally 1! closed iIi order to conserve fuel and ! co,;ntly club life has been dealt a 1 tough blow by Kaiser Bill and General ! Eon Bshindburg There are but two
 Courses open to the devotee of the links. He must either hie himself to i the land Of sunshine and take his I; chances with train service or hie him
 self to France and take his chances l with the submarine. A great many have chosen the latter course. All of {, Wiiitf. goes to show that the kurious 1 life of our winter and summer re- l sorts has dealt American man pow l CT no dastardly blow, as we have some ! times been led to think.
 | Managers of winter golfjng resorts 1 in the south have been quick to meet new conditions. Those elegant tro- phies of former years have been i scrapped and the mug hunter who saw 1 visions of returning with trunk full of siiverware because tlie younger
 players would be absent will find con ditions not to his liking. Entrance
 fees to the various and numerous tournaments have in many cases been elevated, the same to go to the Red l Cross, and the winners are to be giv- i en medals bearing the sign of the Red I Cross. Golf in the South this winter I will be more of an old mans game SC I far as the male is concerned. In the I more popular centres Pinehurst, Palm
 Beach and Bellajre--this will make ii golfing much like it should be-
 Il Of recent years so great has beer
 the popularity of the game a, tthese
 resorts that all links were cramped
 and overcrowded. The public course ai
 Van Courtlandt Park, New York City
 on Saturday or Sunday, in summer II had nothing on the aristocratic course l at Palm Beach in winter. The pas .t few Februarys saw as many as fivs hundred golfers doing the eighteen a q Palm Beach in one day. Our million.
 aire never liked that sort of crowdini
 and a lessenging in golfing partici
 pants will be pleasant news to him ] He assuredly cannot object to higi taxes, inconvenient train scredules ans the many patriotic donations wficl
 will be asked of him-n he ever did
 now that he can play golf without be
 ing rushed.
 .l George B. Vincent, President of tn, General Education Board made splendid address at the recent meetin,
 of the National Collegiate Athletic As 5 scciation, in which he pointed out tn : great advantages in the mass dril which is a part of the general schem
 of physical education of Denmark H { also jet 1t be known between the line that he regretted our colleges gay : little opportunity for such physica { Etraining and that intercollegiate ath $ letics might be held responsible fo i. this. He had much good nature sport at the hands of Alonzo Stags < the Chicago University coach. who 1 < 3 warm personal friend of his
 ll Professor Stagg replied. He first re I gretted very much that the good LOT s had not endowed him with power c
 oratory Then he referred to the day s when his friend George had been a q Chicago and especially bemoaned tn z fact that George, while at Chicagt ss had not been taken advantage of th 6 J massed drill, which is a daily portio < of physical training at that uniyersi :. ty. The ''Old Man" as Stagg is .calie z by everyone who ever went to Chi Z cago won his point in a friendly an $ amusing bout of words.
 < Stagg. like a great many otht x trainers and coaches, wants mor { general participation in athletics b college men than Is now the case. remains for someone to show the va,
 George E Vincent, who is a Yal < graduate by the way. believes that " must first adopt another standard athletics than the one we now folio
 in our colleges to accomplish this de
 sired result. He leans toward th
 foreign idea of mass dri1, yet | 7 recognizes that our scheme of thing