Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1922-08-04

Hawaiian Fishermen Need the Trains
prepared by the National Geographic
! Society. Washington. d. CO
i Now that vacation days are bring
ing play to the fore for old and young,
1t is worth recalling that sports and
games ever were, magic toucbstones to
geography land to those allied sciences
which provide the surest clues to how
peoples live, and work, and think.
In, countless ways science has
learned about climates, and products,
and customs, and peoples of the past
| from toys, games and sports. An en-
tire new field Of investigation was
opened by the discovery that back
CANNON, as played in Burma, also was
known to the Columbian Mexicans.
| A new light is shed on an ancient
civilization when we learn that there
| was a law amnog the Persians by
which all children were to be taught
three things, horsemanship, shooting
with the bow and telling the truth.
Carthaginians and Phoenicians owed
something of Their maritime glory to a
| love of swimming, the sport by which
| they first mastered their fear of the
| sea
| Equally significant in the history Of
nations is the decline Of their sports.
While the Persians observed the rigid
regimen of the chase, as prescribed by
| Cyrus, their armies were victorious.
While Spartan youths followed the
rigorous discipline Of Lycurgus. their
city was inviolate. Led by Alexander
exercise, tire Macedonians were in
vlncible. The Romans extended their
civilization so long as their gymnasia
prepared youths to endure long
marches ard bear crushing burdens.
1t is fairly obvious that coasting is
q sport Of the zone where snow falls,
and reasonable that those peoples
most generally proficient in swimming
should be found in the equatorial
4 islands, where llmpid waters invite
] surcease, from the scorching sun, but
less well known, perhaps, that card
and board games developed in south
ern ASIA where zest for play is just
as keen but temperature dampens the
ardor for exertion.
The reactions of geography and
sport are mutual. To the Netherlands
are traced the silt and the skate
which even yet have their work-a-day
use in flooded and frozen areas, but
are playing for the rest of the
world.
Sometimes sports spread beyond M
tionaI boundary lines and express thu
common ideals Of an age. Thus tht
i tournaments of the middle ages wer,
the normal symptoms of the adven
turous spirit reflected In the quests
for the Holy Grail.
Games and the Individual.
Games invariably adapt themselves
to the individual need for balances
life, mental and physical. This fac
was, illustrated by comments of civilian
writer's in the fighting zones durinI
| the World. war, who told how English
men and Americans sought diversion
In active play, while Frenchmen re
Taxed in more quiet misunderstanding
reading, }or day-dreaming by the sid
Of a welcome fireplace. Many note
: this as a contradiction, In view of tn
supposed sprightly temperament o
our Gallo cousins. so
But as sporting writer, in al
! article printed years before the Worl
, war. put 1t, 1.-THE Englishman, phlet
, matte during his work, seeks excite
, | ment as a relaxation, while the NOR
animated Gaul needs quiet during hi
!, 1 LEISURE
Just as the individual adopts game
which meet his bodily need, 10
! seems that national pastimes are mod
f,ed to foster and fortify the people
who play them. ss's
A M influence Of Enstand's Sports.
4 Right up to 1914 It was almo'
: bromidfc 20 laugh at the EnRiishma
for putting his recreationA in h
] "Who's Who" alongside Of matter
considered more weighty. an6 for pul
lishtng massive tones and cfclopedis
: Of sport. Now the world knows thu
the Derby at EPSON, the cricket
Rugby, and the fox-hupts OF Mort
aInptonshire had everything to do wit
}. the bulldog determination with while
e he scarried on" one heartbreakin
d summer after another against vicio'
: Hun onslaughts in Flanders.
8 But even the sport.loving Britol
a are said to have admired and wo
n dered at the American dough-bo
II whacking out three-baggers amid Il
I booming Of Big Berthas, issuing 9
casional rain-cbecks in midrinniI