| Show + > < i fOOIBAll CRIIIC8 I i YIr Of fOO1BML i 0 + Football has been the worst maltreated mal-treated of all national sports A wild vociferation has gone out against iL Ever since its longhaired dome appeared ap-peared over the horizon it has been the victim of seething anathemas and large blasts of vitriolic rhetoric Mammas go I off and weep softly when the pride I of their heart dons his tuscanned and bepadded suit of armor Pappas turn pale and use uncouth syllables when 11 their heir apparent lets his hair luxuriate I luxur-iate untrammelled and occasionally inflicts JI in-flicts severe pain upon the air with college vocalisms and rah rah rahs j < 3 > < > < S > The progenitor of this widespread quaking in parental hearts is undeniably undeni-ably ye editor If the infliction oft pain upon maternal breasts were a crime I with penalties affixed even a jury of 11 new women would sentence the self satisfied knights of the faber The dispensers of linguistic wisdom hurl more thunderbolts at the pigskin gladiator t glad-iator than Jove ever wasted during his I whole deified career All this they do serenely and with unruffable urbanity And the suffering public wonders and looks at each other and joins in the sulphurous chorus against the youth with the leonine mane < > < > 0 4 The enthusiast enters a lurid excep tion to this verdict of the wiseacres and at the same time takes occasion to rage worse than the heathen His opinion Is that the editor has stood still j and let the world spin past him and that if there ever was any winered j blood in his veins it long ago toofe upon itself an amber tingeS < tinge-S > < s > < > What is more the editorial wiseacre 3i when he poses as the tribune of last J appeal on football is not by any means 41 I a luminous success He is green 11 greener that the vegetation in a late spring The harsh and bitter truth is that he very likely never saw a i football game The enthusiast opines that he could not tell a touchdown from the Ides of March and that he i i could not give a laborous dissertation jl of two lines on an offsideplay or the why and where and whither oC a goal post In fact the enthusiast is ready to asseverate that ye editor ought either to read a book on football rules or see a football game or what is still better confine his florid eloquence 4 elo-quence to the even tenor of Cuban rebellions re-bellions or uptodate political intrigues in-trigues < S > < S > < S > S Of course the gridiron presents wondrous won-drous i possibilities for fractured ribs and crushed thoraxes But when was there a manlv sport which did not afford the same opportunities There never has been a time when cojrul 1 embrasures and fractural irregular 1 ties did not follow on the heels of athletics ath-letics It is not recorded in the history books but it is not at all improbable that even in the hallowejfdays of the Olympics there were ambulances In waiting for the young Greek gladiators Sprinters jumpers and bicycle riders all disarrange their forms with the same unerring accuracy < S > < > 0 SAnd S-And there are accidents in football I But these are not nearly so frequent as the public has come to believe and 1 there are not nearly so many fatalisms on the gridiron as of yore When they do occur they are almost always caused bv the recklessness of the player or his ignorance of the gameS < game-S > < s > 0 I Football is the most scientific of all the worlds sports Those which the < gods were wont to watch from the blue slopes of Olympus were merely sad sad imitations The casual observer 5 sees but a swaying heaving mass but there is a double bill for every canvassed can-vassed form to pay and in all the madness there is method o < s > < l > Football is a mindtrainer as well asa as-a cultivator of biceps Every faculty J of the player must be alert and active Every move must be closely accurately 4 accur-ately watched A momentary lapse of vigilance the failure of a quick response re-sponse to a signal and the fates of war may be reversed Mental concentration concen-tration is the first fruits and the first lesson of football 0 G < > The ideal footballist is muscular and j courageous The vim and force of the j struggle makes him powerful ironsin ewed and fearless It requires a courage cour-age almost Trojan in the football hero when he dashes himself headlong head-long in the powerful crushing heaving heav-ing mass of forms There is hardly a muscle of the athletes body that is unexercised The youth who has endured en-dured the rigors of a football season has the powers of an old veteran I whose scarred and hardsinewed figure has endured the surly chastisement of many wars The heat of a warlike fray Is scarcely more harrowing than the blandishments and swift decisive struggle bf a football battle There is no rest after the football bugle sounds d and there is no quarter It is man meeting man one great muscular power crashing against another It is a hard bitter soulharrowins campaign cam-paign but the victory is swift and glorious and the conquerors are heroes s he-roes almost as great as were the Greeks at Thermopalae Thev kre brave men and true dauntlessminded and oakhearted The old soldier full of memories of smoking guns and flashing steel has scarcely endured more than he It is the same great test of manhood administered in a different guise The tutor is brave deeds and the lessons are courage endurance en-durance and unquaking hearts < S > < S > < 5 > All the world can point to the sturdy generous openhearted combatant of the gridiron and say here is a hero The laurels of the Trojan the scars of the Scottish chieftain are no prouder than his GG 5 The siege that prepares the young gladiator for the feats of the football arena is a moral training There can c be no midnight revels or early morning morn-ing coquetry with the gushing tankard Footballism prescribes against the weed that cheers and not inebriates and against the temptations of welsh rarebits and the sweet hallucinations which follow it It is a moral tonic a corporeal tonic a tonic for the soul and a tonic for the bloodS < blood-S > 0 Physical incongruities and shortcomings shortcom-ings are corrected by this greatest of the worlds sports It finds men puerile and infirm and makes them beautiful and magnificent The footballist is the perfected animal He is wondrous to look upon great in his friendships and in his deeds strong sturdy and Unconquerable un-conquerable 5 The footballist makes the best friend the bestlover and the best and meet valorous warrior He is the pride ot his fellows and the immediate glory and ornament of his race c S ANGUS NICHOLSON |
