The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-28
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

much space to sports. It is true that most of the big dailies feature them. and from my standpoint it is proper for them to do so.
 I am not here going into the value of sports to the boys. youths and young men of the nation: but will remark that if for just one season the various athletic games were called off there would be deteriora- ton in the mental, physical and moral stamina of the pupils in the private and public schoois and colleges of the land.
 
 And just because some one rose up to kick about the attention given in the American papers to baseball. I went through the pages of the Times. known around the world as "The Thunderer." and the most conservative journal printed anywhere amongst the English-speaking peoples. to see if it frowned on sports. or treated them gingerly or favored them and gave them generous space. 1
 I chose a Mondays issue purposely, for it is always lean one when it comes to sports, as in many countries there is taboo on Sunday games. found three pages given to sporting items. It was interesting to note that the staid old newspaper did not break it's dignifed rule in regard to quiet headlines, even on it's sporting pages. When it comes to style in heads. The Age-Herald wins over it's English contemporary.
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 l I read closely the various reports to see if the writers had developed a sport ing style which characterizes the bright young men who handle sport matter in the American papers, but could find no trace of the special type of Journals in | the Times Each article was written in correct English without any slang what ever; in fact, the style was as flawless as a parliamentary report I am not ad- vocating that our reporters adopt a sim liar course, for should they do so, a howl would go up from the fans all over the land.
 The sporting editor of The Age-Herald whose desk adjoins mine, leaned over the other morning and said, Doc, do you think there is much interest in horse racing in Birmingham" He has only recently come into our midst and wanted l to get a line on the taste of the public 1 may have answered wrongly, my reply being: Not as any one can discover" Time was when there was a great interest in it. but so far as I have been able to kepe in touch with the situation. it.s a dead issue now
 But this is not the case in England. for racing came back with such fervor after the war as to be surprise to even l th& most ardent turfmen. It has enjoyed for many years the favor of the King, ana the royal stables. together wrtn v-.ose of the nobility, have been seen on many lof the tracks. To own the winner of the derby was to be a marked parsonage, not only in court and society circles, but in the eye of the man in the street" l was not surprised, therefore, to see more than a couple of columns devoted to the sport of kings
 There has been much ridicule heaped on the curious names bestowed on Pull man cars, and rightly so, but in running my eye down the entries on the Noting ham programme, I found the following equine ones: Prolific, Simon the Cellarer, Greece Paint, Italian Lass, Rocksplit, Lady Rheims. Midnight, Pocket Book, Self Sacrifice, Medicine Man, Greedy Girl, Heroines Dream, Poker Plant, Sleepless Night, Wild Honey, Chase the Ace, Stroll ling Saint, Sanitarium, Parisian Diamond. The Moon, Love Letter, A Sitter, Be Wise and scores of others. But the one which struck me most was Billy Sum- day.''
 l Under the head of "Billards'' found out about some interesting matches. Lawn tennis came in for quite share of cof7f- ment, reports coming from the Cannes ltournament. It was quite natural to find (that golf was featured in more than a column. Football came in for a lion's S share, for many games were reported, both the Rugby and the Association matches. Cricket, with university sports. covered much space was unprepared | to find column devoted to hockey. T was amused at the following items: 1 Sport with salmon has been met with in the Fay, Dee, Esk and other Scottish rivers. The Thames is in good ordor for 1 the opening of trout fishing" For the Ebenefit of the local Isaak Waltons I will state that Village Creek is still flowing down 'Possum valley.
 But the thing which held my attention the closest was an account of the boat traces between Oxford and Cambridge It was the seventy-second university con- test between the two famous English universities. Cambridge won by four lengths in the comparatively slow time of l2l minutes and II seconds. the champion ship course from the university stone at Putney to the ship at Mortlake being four and a quarter miles. The record now stands at thirty-nine successes for Oxford and thirty-two for Cambridge with one dead heat.''
 searched for a long while in vain to find something approaching the riotous loutbursts which come after one of our football matches I was at last reward led in little story under the head of After the Boat Race Here it is: "The lyoung and robust had further excels lent excuse, in fact three excuses-the cup tie at Stamford Brfdge, the boat race and the university sports-for making