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

I'd Muscle and Sure Eye Of the Athlete.
when the downpour of bursting shell
became too dlstracting,
Some historians assert that THE
Greek games formed the founsation
for the lucid thinking and the lofty
art concepts that made her product
classic. Yet the Olympian and the
Pythian games at their best AFFORDED
no such spontaneous, and at thu same
time intricate, interplay of muscle and
mind as baseball
Throwing catching, and running are
MS old as man; but 1t took thu Ameri-
can genius for play, no less dlstinc-
tive than the American genius for
science, industry, and comrerce, to
weld these motifs into a game that
puts a premium on skill, yet admits
of infinite variety; that rawest youth
or trained athlete may play and that
Presidents and Office boys steal away
to watch.
II the Greeks paved the way for
classic art by teaching adults to play
and Great Britain followed in her
footsteps with a more spontaneous
and democratic fervor, America now
appears as the most forward-looking
nation in her attention to children's
Fairgrounds There Is nothing arti-
ficial about the games taught to chill
dren on American play grounds. They
are products Of rich heritage Of
play tradition. Neither written history
nor the faint traces of prehistoric
times carry us back to a period when
children did not play.
Excavators in Central America
found tiny rattles of bone and clay.
as old as the pyra mids of Egypt, in
graves alongside baby skeletons. In
Attica's tombs were uncovered dolls
of pre-classic days. made of ivory and
terra Gotta Little Hlppodamla had a
miniature bed, with stats, for his
dolls, for boys formerly played with
dolls. Roman chiidren's toys were
held in such nigh esteem by their
elders that when the children grew
too old for them they were offered to
patron gods.
GdneA win tne BAH.
J Running, throwing, hitting, and
kicking are tae fundamental muscular
operations or Americas characteristic
sports-baseball. football, tennis, and
golf. The peoples of antiquity mani
tested all these instincts In cruder
form.
Luzon killmen. the Polyuesians, and
the Eskimo and Sumatra islanders had
games played by kicking ball.
Greeks played It, and the Roman
game, harpastum. derived its name
, from the Greek II seize." which ID
evidence that carrying the ball was
) practiced then. With shoes Of hide
the medieval Italians played game
which seems the direct ancestor Of the
: Angle-Saxon college sport. Gaelic
j scholars point to a football game In
I Ireland before the time of Christ. and
\ until comparatively recent times
2 Shrove Tuesday was dlstinctively ar
! occasion for football as Is our Thanks
D giving today.
: In old England football was ever
I. rougher than most sports Of those
3 hardy times. James thought It wa.
4 "meeter for lameing than making able
o the users thereof" Henry WIN ani
4 Elizabeth ruled against It. Edward +
frowned upon 1t for Its interference,
a with archery and also because of tn
d commotion 1t aroused.
? Likewise, one must go back to tn
= Greeks and Romans for the Origin
e OF tennis, which descended to Eng
& land by way to France. In the Twefftl
century a game with ball and plates
% gut bat was played on horseback
Il Then came LA boude." In which tn
l. horses were abandoned Henry VII
n of England was youthful devotet
while Louis xIv's heavy expense az
counts show salaries paid to cart
IT takers Of his courts.
N II tennis has royal lineage. goli
is which was later regarded as ric
rs mans game, had most piebeian b
b. ginnings. Contrary to Widespread
n f,elief. 1t seems lot to have originate
n | In Scotland, but In northern Europ'
1t Apparently II was first played on ic'
h. being one OF the winter sports adapte
Ii to the physical geography Of the Lo'
h Countries.
r. BY the Fifteenth century golf ha
Is attained such vogue In Scotland tbs
It threatened the cherished archer,
ns and It Is classed with "fute-ball" an
n. other sunproitabll sports by jaime
" Nv. That monarch. however, seems
he have .dlsregarded his own jefiet
,c- did enough other Seotchmen to kee
AZ the game xllYa