The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-07-11

Holland has no big league base ball, no intercollegiate football, no Indianapolis auto marathon, n1 Madison Square Garden priz 2 fighting, no Florida tuna fishing, and no horse racing of any descrip- tion-yet it is a land of sport, of good sport, of sport for sports sake.
 As in most countries where civil lization is older and popular opin- ion on many subjects exceptionally mature sports are played not to indulge a competitive spirit but to satisfy gregarious instinct. Tc the Dutch, sport means sociabil- ity
 One of the first games I saw in Holland was 'korfball," which translated literally, means basket ball and which literally is basket ball. It is played outdoors on a court which has near either end (but not on the boundary line) m oneSt-to-goodness basket at tached to the top of a twelve-foot pole. There is no blackboard, so only the most perfect shot can score a goal.
 The secret of the game, however lies not in the equipment but in the lineup of players: basketball team consists of six boys and six girls! To an American that sounds horrifying; to a Dutch "korfbalr' it is decidedly ideal And the Dutch
 'korfball" player should know. It has been proven in the past that Dutch girls can make worthy teammates or opponents of tn C Dutch boys. Burly brutes have to refrain, of course, from kicking kneeing, tripping, biting, elbowing pinching, swearing-and they do AS a result the game is open
 Jean. tricky, and good-natured
 Thus in Holland playing with girls is not a masculine sin but a great incentive to masculine vir- tue. Aand "korfball" is truly an ad- mirable sport because it provides a vigorous sport that boys ant girls can play together without tht
 ooys becoming bored or the girl. becoming mangled.
 In other sports in Holland mixed | teams also meet regularly Fielo hockey, as virile a game as ha. ever been invented and the favor lte sport of thousands of Euro pean men, is particularly popular in Holland as a boys-and- girls | together event.
 One of the greatest of all Dutcf sporting events is the annual Three Day Distance Walks in Nijmegen In the rolling environS of that city there is laid out every August beautiful over hill-and-dale walk ing course, thirty miles long fol men, twenty miles long for women The object is for participants te walk over the stipulated course be- tween the hours of am. and $ pm. each day. Anybody who com pletes the round on each of the three successive days of the dis lance walks receives an attractive medallion. There are competitive sports in Holland: tennis, rowing, indoor basketball, and soccer The last named sport is exceedingly popu- lar. Sunday games often attract as many as 60,000 spectators. Yet at the same time that such an event is taking place in the big Amster- dam Olympic Stadium there are sure to be at least 75,000 sports devotees in the huge park just across the lake.
 These people may be bicycling sailing, canoeing, swimming, or walking through the woods-rarely singly, often in couples, most fre- quently in large groups: young boys and girls, old men and wom- en, parents with their children. MT. Vanderbreggen will present an illustrated program on Holland for boys and girls of Juneau to- morrow afternoon, Friday, July 12 in the social room of the Lutheran Church. There is no admission charge. An adult program, This Is