Life — December 9, 1886 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

“While Tete’. Life there's Hope.” VOL. VIII. DECEMBER 9, 1886 No. 206. 1155 Broapway, NEw York. Published every Thursday, $5 a year in advance, postage free. Single copies, 10 cents, Back numbers can be had by applying to this office. Vol. I., $1.50 per number ; Vol. II., 25 cents per number ; Vol. III., IV., V. and VII. at regular rates. Rejected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanied by . a stamped and directed | envelope. HRISTMAS is here— or at least if it is not absolutely here yet, it is well along on the way, and forehanded people are preparing for it. Don’t make too many preparations. Take the great festi- val with as much moderation as you can command. Don’t keep yourself poor for the next six months by giving hand- some presents to your rich relations. Don’t attempt to make a vain show. Don’t measure your gifts by your feelings— without some reference to your means, and don’t be satisfied with having done your duty. Do your duty, the whole of it, if you can, by all means, but have some fun, too. There isn’t enough Christmas fun. Too much of human effort is invested in keeping one’s end up, and too little in af- fectionate, sympathetic hilarity. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner expresses sentiments to these effects in the current number of Harper’s Magazéne, and LIFE is very much of his opinion, and is glad of the chance to give this supplementary council in time for it to be of practical benefit. But do try to have fun. First, because the capacity for having fun is itself a blessed indication that your soul is not all husks yet; second, because you cannot have it all by yourself, but must find accomplices ; and thirdly, because to exercise the faculties which come into play under the pressure of innocent enjoyment, helps to keep them active and to pre- vent their relapse into a torpid state. “The desuetude of our | capacity for enjoyment is far from innocuous,” a high author- ity might put it, but “all work and no play is bad for Jack,” is the common form of the truism, and has the advantage that we all know what it means. * * * S to the particular methods of having fun, Lire intends to leave the choice of them to its readers; but if ‘Christmas did not come so late in the season, it might feel compelled to warn them against the special brand of amuse- ment known as foot-ball. The late exhibition of this sport given by the Yale and Princeton elevens, has gone far to re- vive the impression that once prevailed that the game should only be played under the effectual supervision of Captain Williams, or Inspector Byrnes, with mre of a proper weight, and strictly according to the Marquis of Queensbury’s benefi- cent rules. It was asserted that the rules of the game had been so amended as to transform it from a rude and boister- ous sport to a comparative lamblike diversion. Upon this understanding, Harvard College this year removed its boy- cott, and allowed its young gentlemen to punt their brown leather bag in intercollegiate disputes. However the Cam- bridge men may play, it is certain that when the contest is between the Dwight’s Congregational team from New Haven, and the interesting group of young Calvinists put into the field by Dr. McCosh, blood may be relied upon to flow and eyes to be blackened. A description in the New York Times of one interesting passage in the game on Thanksgiving Day, reads as follows: The “ slugging ”’ in this half of the game was reckless. A person standing two-thirds of the length of the ground away from the players could hear the spat, spat of fists on faces constantly. One Princeton man on the rush line threw down the man opposite him, and deliberately tried to kick him on the head, Fortunately, the Yale man dodged, or the Princeton man might to-day have been in jail, Jumping with both knees on a man’s face appeared to be a favorite amusement among the players, and frequently men stopped to kick one another’s shins when the ball was in another part of the field. Watkinson, | of Yale, got his finger broken during this half, but refused to stop playing. Another incident on which most of the daily mewspancs comment is thus described in the Sun: The play thus far had been skillful, but violent. Every one was looking for a free fight, for it wasan open secret that the rivalry between the two teams amounted to partisan hostility. H. Hodge, of Princeton, and Wallace, of Yale. had sparred with each other rather roughly all along, when suddenly, in the heat of ascrimmage, Wallace hit Hodge full in the eye. Hodge returned the attack, catching Wallace squarely in the face with his gloveless knuckles. Then the men lowered their heads like mad bulls and butted, striking, mean- time, right and left. Wallace appeared first to know when he had enough, and he backed away from Hodge. * * * IFE has no desire to run any needless risk by denying * to Messrs. Hodge and Wallace that meed of respect which it has always yielded to Professor Sullivan and others of “the fancy;” but, gentlemen, is this foot-ball ?. Wouldn't mighty Edwards have stamped his mighty heel pretty deep into Princeton mud if these kind of goings-on had been prev- alent in his time. We think he would. No doubt President Edwards would have reminded his young men that -he who ruleth his own spirit is a greater man than an alderman. Princeton seems to have failed somewhat more conspicuously than Yale in this particular, but then Princeton had a bad example of temper set to her lately, and that must be her excuse. * * * NOTHER unpleasant rumor involving the comparative efficacy of the American head and foreign liquors comes from Mexico. If there is one thing more insidious than Mexican pulque, it isa Mexican libel. It is soon enough to believe this last one when it is proved. comicbooks.com