Life — October 20, 1887 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

T last the baseball season is over. The Detroits were winners for the simple reason that they played ball, and were not afflicted with that far too common disease, the big-head. The great and only Mike could not bring Boston in nearer head than fifth place—a fact whereat we secretly rejoice, for Boston has done so much of late in literature, yachting and pugilism, that we New Yorkers were beginning to feel slightly uneasy. It’s all very well tolet Boston beat us in one or two things, but when she monopolizes the ability of the country it is time for New York to look to her laurels, We con- gratulate ourselves that we got ahead of the Bean City in the ball- field, and believe that in the matter of ripped-up streets, bad pave- ments and red-mouthed Anarchists, we still hold the supremacy. . . * HE chief sporting event of the month has been the opening of the colleges. At Columbia there has been a perceptible increase in the attendance of brawn and muscle, and I learn from purely private sources that President Barnard is much pleased at the prospect of a good Freshman crew next summer. President Eliot, of Harvard, has a very promising class in foot-ball this year, and the genial Dr. Dwight, of Yale, is said to be confident that his students will be able to hold their own in all the contests in which they shall take part. Work at the Princeton gymnasium has been resumed under auspicious circumstances, and Dr. McCosh’s lectures on ‘ Muscular Development,” and ** The Psychological Aspect of Goal Kicking, from a Presbyterian Standpoint," are awaited with much interest, I do not credit the report that John L, Sullivan has matriculated at the Harvard Divinity School, so that he may assume the duties of half+ back on the Harvard Eleven, although the Yale man who informed me of the fact is himself quite a prominent member of the Theologues’ Boxing and Sporting Association at. New Haven, and is in a position - LIFE: to know, as well as to speak the truth occasionally without injuring his conscience. . . . AMONG other unconfirmed reports that are floating about, 1 find that the managers of the New York Yacht Club, upon reading in the Harvard Crimson, an influential Boston daily, that the designers of the winners in the last three international yachting events were Harvard men, resolved by a vote of 26 to 7 to endow a chair in yacht designing at the University, in recognition of these distinguished ser- vices, However this may be, I hope the country will not overlook the fact that to the fostering care of Harvard College our supremacy upon the waters is due, and when President Cleveland passes through Cam- bridge, as he must if he would make his Western trip an unqualified success, the least he can do is to allude to this statistical fact as luridly as the dignity of his exalted station will permit. * * . T the Manhattan Club games last week, a young man ran seventy- five yards backwards in an extraordinarily short space of time. I am glad to see the youth of our country starting out in a new direc- tion, It is a valuable addition to the sum of our knowledge to learn that a boy can run seventy-five yards backwards in 11 1-5 seconds. If we should ever get into a war with Canada our volunteers and maga- zine writers would bave behind them a distinguished precedent for fleeing with their faces to the enemy. It places a man at a great dis- advantage to return home from the wars with a load of shot in his back. It makes him look as if he had forgotten something and had turned around to get it, and forgetfulness at the critical period of a fight is a vice which cannot be too severely condemned. The newly discovered art of running backwards, however, obviates the humili- ating necessity of turning one's back on the enemy to go back to camp for ahandkerchief, and the Manhattan Club has performed a great service in bringing out the fact that it can be done with grace and dignity. Next week, we are given to understand, the same young man will give an exhibition five-mile walk on his hands, which will show the veteran who is left on the field of battle without any legs, how to retreat with all the honors of war. Carlyle Smith, comicbooks.com