ATHLETES GOOD ONLY SHORT TIME The pathetic feature of professional profession-al sport Is the Ehort range of time allowed al-lowed Us followers for the eserciBe of their physical gifts Christopher Mathewson of the New York Giants is 32 years old. He says he Is an old man It Is admitted admit-ted that the good right arm which has served him in the pitcher's box for 12 years has lost Its speed In sporting parlance he Is "slowing up" and has kept his place in fast company com-pany only owing to his study of the weakness of batters In other words, Mr Mathewson Is pitching chiefly with Ills head and his courage. He recognizes that such a condition cannot can-not obtain long and that another year In tho big league baseball probably will be his last. Mr Mathewson has been temperate. temper-ate. He has violated none of the rules laid down by professional trainers. train-ers. He has kept his bodily welfare In view at all times and has collected collect-ed tribute thereon to the ultimate. But now at 32 he is "old" in a field lh:it iv- ',rtn t'-o i.irrct rf nhvslpftl exertion, and he must go the way of other "star" athletes to oblivion. It is no wonder, when the physical physi-cal life is beset by such limitations, the young men overcrowd the professions pro-fessions that call for the expenditure of mental enersy alone. Gladstone, with h:s brain active and forceful at SO; Ibsen, with his great work done when he was past 50. and others who have scored tholr greatest sJccesses after middle life, form a potent argument argu-ment in favor of brain work as against the toll which calls upon the muscles. Life Is short enough at its longest, long-est, but the young man who chooses a career as a professional athlete deliberately de-liberately cuts his time of usefulness In two. " 'Perhaps it Is worth the sacrifice, but we doubt it There is too much pathos in the exits of the Mathewsons at the very meridian of life to spell much of a recommendation for athletics as a profession.