The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-08-31

u ACH recurrence of the Olympic
r. games shows growth of the
L. play spirit among the nations
and q greater recognition of the
value of games as a training for life.
Games played big part in main
tanning the morale alike of civilians
and soldiers during the World war
and from this experience has come a
renewed realization that the sinews
that win wars are just as needful for
the vigorous, bloodless battles of
peace.
Back home, before the war, America
had contributed two new things to
sport: baseball and the city play
ground.
1t has been noted that sports of a
nation afford an almost invariable
barometer of its progress in civiliza-
ton. Baseball is one of the most
complicated and highly organized
pastimeS known 10 any people. 1t is
q yeritable instrument of the most
delicate precision in the world of
sport. A South Sea islander no more
linotype machine or deftly handle the
paper money in b; nix teller's clge.
Yet the instincts baseball satisfies
the zest of racing to goal ahead of
the ball, the deep satisfaction of d.
verting a swiftly moving object to
serve his own ends, the mere impact
of the speeding spehere against the
instrument he controls, bagging the
spheroid as it lies afield, the sus-
pense OF nine men as they await the
batter's fate-each and all find their
counterpart in play as old as animals
that walk on two feet and We
enough gray matter atop their spinal
columns to control natures laws for
their human purposes.
The foOt-race ever was the most
popular of the "a Olympian events.
The Romans batted balls with the
forearm swathed with bandages, and
the Gilbert islanders wrap coconut
shells with cord so they will rebound
to a blow from the open palm; Ho-
mer's princess of Phaeacia is repre-
sented in the Odyssey as jumping to
catch a ball tossed by her maids of
honor; and the Chinese had a game
in which a suspended ball was kept
hurtling to and fro by blows from the
players.
America has been among the lead
ers in her attention to children's play
grounds. In fact, Fairgrounds for chill
Zrov, paov bo onpc;dorad tho
contribution of this country to the
worlds play.
Fairgrounds in Cities.
To gather statistics Of play Is like
counting the sands of the sea or the
children of the nation; but it is sig
nifcant of the awakening interest in
play to note that even by 1918 more
than 400 cities maintained nearly 1000
Fairgrounds, and the children who
found relaxation on $40 of these play
grounds from which reports were had
on any one day would have numbered
scarcely less than the total popula-
ton of Boston. Each year since has
seen an increase both in the cities
having Fairgrounds and in the total
of play spaces.
Moreover, this is but fraction of
the opportunities for normal play,
for it does not take into account the
thousands of boys clubs and provi-
sions for their special clientele which
churche:, parishes, private schools
and organizations like the Y. Nj. G. A.,
Boy Scouts, Knights of Columbus and
numerous others make. One of the
most characteristic adjuncts of the
American school, city, town or coun-
try district is it's playground; and
few are t. city parks where the old
keep Off the Grass signs have not
been superseded Dy invitations to
play, and special provisions for games.
For one who would study the deriva-
ton of games, the average playground,
no matter how crude, is veritable
museum of archaeology. Tools and
weapon. of one age frequently become
the playthings of the next; and CEN
turtles later, when adults have desert
ed the sport, children adopt 1t.
Game-hunting marked an important
development in the life of primitive
races. The Indian who stalked deer.
the Semang black man who tracked
snakes, the naked savage who hunted
the rhinoceros, shared wild birds at
their drinking places, and trapped the
tiger were not out for a summers
sport.
Ingenuity In Hunting.
Methods of hunting were exceeding
Iy primitive at first, but some tribes
early developed an amazing technique.
The Eskimo would wrap himself in
skins and lie by the hour alongside an
ice-hold to harpoon seal. The Tarah-
mares of Mexico felled trees by the