Judge — October 19, 1929 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Football Fashions: 1929 asitions change in football as regularly asin frocks and hip-flasks, Baseball, tennis, golf i ‘and crap-shooting flourish under the good old rules, but football is never stabilized, This year the most important new rule is that cover- ing fumbles. A fumbled ball is dead at the where it is recovered by the defensiv more shall we have the spectacle of | or other reincarnation of Frank Me rtiwell scooping up a loose ball and running the length of the field for | a touchdown, There are two other changes worth notice. After a touchdown the ball is put in play (for the try for an additional point) one yard further from the j line, in order to encourage v: a) there is a modification of th | ing of forward passes which seems to gl ek defense ] a better chance to intercept. | Now we come to the really spectacular develop | ment. The referce has been made a part of the pic | ture. He has taken on the additional job of keeping ] the spectators informed. H i g him- self a jumping-jack, an interpre rer and a living statue, all rolled into one. He dopted the the baseball umpire and improved it enoz- By twelve different gestures or poses he lets the folks in the topmost seats know what is going on. If he stands with his legs crossed, some- body has been tripping or clipping. When his arms are akimbo it means offside. He puts his hand over his mouth as if snickering when he imposes a penalty on er coming into the game and communic or failing to report. Both arms his he: score. Grasping one wrist—holding. When he snaps into a military salute that means unnecessary rough- And of course a frozen stare with arms folded can signify only one thing—refusal to humor the com- plaining captain who wants a penalty imposed. above ness. s Broadw: All this is grand theatre, And it is significant as revealing the re football fashions keep changing. It's to make better sport but a better show, not for the p! but for the grandstand. As the stadiums got wider and higher the ga y would say. on why it not thousands could sce, even from the topmost tiers. And now even the poor referee—for whom we have » had to be opened up so that more Hockey, Too reaKINe of box-office rule-making, the Hockey Association is at it too. New rules have been adopted which favor the attack by permitting more forward) passing and thin out the def The immediate purpose is to increase scoring. ‘The ultimate purpose is to please the paying customers, who were disgruntled last year because the games too tight. Chief sufferer is the goalie, who is already bombarded beyond endurance and padded t 1 recognition. If things go on some biologic rd will have to cross-bree new variety of slic having four arms, four legs, sixteen eyes and steel, * . * were n epidermis of armored [27.22% it may be reinembered, brated her victory at New Haven by tearing down the goal posts, even though they were em- bedded in solid concrete. Now the Yale authorities have replaced them with posts which are less expen- sive and which make no pretensions to permanence: Is this bravado, or evidence that Yale herself to the Facts? o # « Ar a banquet in London the Honorable F, O. Rob- erts, minister of pensions, was called upon after an orgy of orations on politics Instead Harvard cele- has reconciled i nd industry. of making a speech, he reached under the table, hauled out a fiddle and played “Loch Lomond.” The Hon. Roberts is hereby elected an honorary polition of ¢ insurance member of Judge’s Asso n for the Speechmaking. Similarly at a recent li convention in Washington six dignified officials dem- enstrated the daily dozen, in unison. When they lay flat on their becks, a ne Wspaper reporter said, the scene resembled an Eskimo vill: The idea has promise for the re’ lief of after- =dinne r boredom. Charlie Dawes can play the flute. Longworth is no mean fiddler himself. Shipstead is a dentist and ought to be able t on a fine exhibition of painless drilling. We envision a banquet with Otto Kahn doing ground and lofty tumbling, Julius Barnes tricks with cards and coins, Senator Borah skipping the rope, Mabel Walker Willebrandt juggling glassware, and Presi- dent Hibbe; en whistling through his teeth. Thus we might > a sort of moral equivalent of oratory. Better still, of course, we could abolish banquets. RJILW.