Life — April 2, 1898 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

ae) Athletics and Esthetics. HE rude exercises called Athletics are popular in all educational institu: tions, and successful in some. Cricket obtains high favor Philadelphia, because it seems to unite the dignified and ceremonious solemnity of a chureh processional with the maddening exe ofa pink tea, Its English origi gives it a certain vogue at Cambridge. Golf appears to have filled th ching void made by the decadence of that en- thralling sport, croquet, though its scenic effects, Stockings and stage settings are more The students and profes f golf—for the game hasa ritual and a language are sometimes called dead-game sports, pos sibly as a tender tribute to the game it super: seded. Golf and a glossary add much interest to the exploration of Barrie and Maclaren. Baseball is popular even with the rude masses—who are aot in colle The oppor- tunities it affords for public opprobrium, the Krace, culture and persitlage of the players, and the occasional annihilation of the judges of the supreme court of the game-—the umpires—en- dear the game to the great heart of the Ameri- in people. And the open season of the game isata time when w either engaged in sav- ing our country nor in fabricating fish fiction. But these games are, after all, mere recrea- tions, that lack the refining influences of soci- ety’s full recognition, Pugilism was at one time numbered amon gentle arts; but since the pen became mightier than the boxing. glove, and the lung more potent than the upper- cut, pugilism has been relegated to the rostrum and the Sunday press. When we seek a fine mingling of athletics and intellectuality,a rich compound of gore and brains and hair,a func tion appealing toour higher and better natures, we must look for it in football. Football derives its name from the fact that it is played largely with the hands, the feet being utilized to kick the fellows on the other side, The game is one of the most important branches of study at our universities, the star students receiving the honors and applause customarily lavished on soubrettes, prize- fighters, and other metropolitan dignitaries. It has a literature and art of its own, and writers of the football school in the American press take rank with the classic R. Hardong Davee The position of captain of a football team is one of impressive dignity ; he may condescend to recognize a college president only by im- perilling his social rank ; he lives in an atmos: phere of glory, almired of man, worshipped of . hated and dreaded by bis only rival— beautiful, Kelceyized stage lover. Wt captain stalks into the field, arrayed in armor and leggings of soiled canvas, bis flash- ing nostrils concealed beneath an India-rubber nose-guard ; when he stands with folded arms, and tossing ringlets, spurning the earth with his large, intellectual feet and glaring at the brass band, shouts thrill the trembling air, single ladies faint from excess of emotion, and the snorting freshman exclaims, with Ovid : “Ain't be a corker 1" As the reputation of a ubiversity for ement entrancing. > LIFE: The Ruling Passion. J WATCHED the great parade go by With glitter, tramp and blare; ‘The people cheered it lustily And flung their hats in air; But at my side, a lad and lass Looked in each other's eyes And let the world, unhee Their mutual paradise. What did they care for Hags and drums ? ‘The passing show is naught To hearts where Love, triumphant, comes And claims each wish and thought. I siniled to think how countless pairs From Adam's day to this Had viewed earth's crises unawares, Wrapped in unbeeding bliss. How many couples, without doubt, aw Noah build the ark And heard him give the reason out, Yet never paused to hark ¢ overs strolled by, oblivious, While Babel's bricks were laid, And lovers wondered at the fuss Cwsar and Pompey made. Doubtless, when brave Columbus sprang Upon the New World's strand, A pair of lovers were among The group that saw him land; Martyrs have marched to fire and death, Kingdoms and peoples passed The careless eyes of love beneath— Careless from first to last! History wears a splendid state, Fame glitters in her pride, Ainbition sweeps through Mammon’s gate, But Love smiles, satisfied To see how lovers, everywhere, Ignore the passing show, From the tirst blind, enraptured pair Till the last trump shall blow! Prisedia Le scholarship aud learning lies in the hollow of the hands of these hairy heroes, dom demands that their selection shall be marked with care and discretion. Different methods obtain in different colleges. At Yale and Princetop—where rude, provincial American ideas-suryivé—muscles, legs, heads of thickness and endurance, and hair of tropi- cal copiousness are the tests. Harvard, with nicer discrimination, selects her favors for foot- ball with the same point of view as for the ger- man. The members of her team must have names current in Beacon Street and Common. wealth Avenue: they must be equipped with the grips and passwords of a dozen alphabet- ical societies, and be refined and ladylike in de- meanor. These aré the essentials in all civil- ized communities; muscle and the things com- mon to the rufa! student are mere incidentals. If any wretch, in a thoughtless moment of petulance, were sacrilegious enough toaver that McSorley‘s legs were more potent in the ball: field than the sonorous and awe-inspiring name of Quincy Os Brimmer, he would probably be hurried to the Soldiers’ Field and shot. Yale and Princeton rudely ignore these things, and in consequence their methods are highly dis- approved of by the best people of Harvard and its suburb, Boston, These uncultured football fellows kick, thump, chew, slug, rush, assault and howl ina most rude aud vulgar fashion : their method would not be tolerated in the read- ing-room of the Somerset Club, nor counte- hanced in any Back Bay drawing-room, Itmay, of course, excite chagrin and dissatisfaction to lose games year in and year out, but Harvard has the proud solace of knowing that it does so with dignity, and in accordance with the canons of polite society. The lofty spirit of Cambridge will not much Jonger brook the rude—we may say bandit-like- conduct of the colleges it has heretofore conde: scended to play with, Itis within the possibili- ties that, if reform is not quickly inaugurated, Yale, Princeton and other insolently victorious colleges may be dropped from its football exchange list, and Vassar, Wellesley and Smith substituted. The worm will turn, Joseph Smith. A Careful Boy. [ NCLE WILLIAM (who wei ighstwo hundred and fifty): Well, Bob, is the ice thick enough to skate on to- day *% Bossy: I don't know, we want you te That's why go with us and find out. Knew Their Business. RS. TWICKENHAM: Do you know, the burglars didn’t touch the family plate. Mrs. Biuankixctox: They must have been experts. I swear not leay take a kiss, Kiss me quick. to you that 1 shall this house until I