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Show CARDINAL M0RAN ON "SPORT." A very interesting interview with Cardinal Mo-ran Mo-ran on manly pastimes, especially on boxing, is reported re-ported in the columns of the Sidney Daily lele-graph. lele-graph. "I like to encourage manly spurt.' the car-dinal car-dinal said, "and 1 do encourage it in every way. 4 so long as sport is pursued for the pure love ol sport, but when disputes, dishonesty and brutahty entcr into athletics when sport is indulged m mere- . lv for the sake of the money it. brings in. then it is to be highly censured. Besides-." the cardinal went on to say, "sport nowaday, i taken too much seriomlv and the pursuit of it has developed into idolatry or a mania. The time of the young people peo-ple is taken up completely with it to the exclusion of the other important affairs of life, and thing which would bring honor and advantage to the countrv are neglected. When Rome entered into her period of decay, fell from the pinnacle of her ancient glory, the youth of Rome were pursuing the same sport and after the same method as the youth of today." The cardinal prophecies rum to any countrv if this modern mania is allowed to continue, and it is the duty of law abiding citizens, citi-zens, citizens who have the welfare of the Fatherland Father-land at heart to draw the line between sports that should be encouraged and thoe which should nut. Not long ago somewhere in the columns of The Inter-Mountain Catholic we drew attention to the evil of gambling, especially in England. France and America. There is scarcely a pastime nowadays nowa-days but gambling enters into. On the day of boxing contests, football matches. hore racing, you will find thousands and thousands of people of all walks in life, those to whom a shilling mean food and shelter, stake their all on the issue of those events. The legislators of England ore at their wits' ends to stop gambling in connection a with sports of all kinds. We have instances before J our minds where the fathers and mothers were so fascinated by this evil of gambling that they pawned their own clothes and their children's in ' X.f order that they might have the money to put on a certain race, a football match or a boxing one. It is not the mere love of the sport that today fascinates fasci-nates people, but it is the money that such contents brings in, and we all know that where money enters h into any contests, sport becomes vitiated, there is corruption, bribery and all forms of unfair play, and consequently those manly games which in themselves are good and for the welfare of the youth of any nation become on account of this money spirit a mighty evil, and the spirit of fair play and purity which should characterize them are totally absent. It is to be deplored that such a state of things is the case, and it, is about high time that those who guide the helm of state should do something to root out from all manly sports thi evil and put into practice the saying of a certain English nobleman, "By George, I race for the pure love of the thing, and when I knock a man out I do it for the pure love of the thing, too." |