Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Tlhc Xutbecan IDtgttor - GOD’S WORD, OUR RULE; CHRIST, OUR PATTERN; A PURE FAITH, OUR WATCHWORD., Vol.^XXXVI—No. 2. NEWBERRY, S, C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1902. Whole No. 1701 Wethink the strong Recklessness words of Professor and Brutality. Stevens of Wash ington and Lee should open the eyes of those in authority to the growing abuses of the brntal sport of foot ball. We are in favor of all manly and elevating forms of athletics, boys at college need wholesome exercise, bnt when any form of sport is known to be injnrious and debasing it should be abandoned. Hear his judgment on foot-ball: “The idea that springs most promptly into consciousness about football is its -reckless brutality. Yet this js the special feature that seems above all others to ensnre its popularity. The element of sav agery in bntnan nature that makes crnelty the pasttime of the small boy remains latent througbont life among perhaps the majority of men. The knowledge that blood may be shed, that danger to life or limb mnst be incurred, has an in describable charm for a large pro portion of the spectators at the football field. Everybody knows that life may be lost by railway accidents, or by summer bathing, or even by paralysis dne to long sermons in cbnrch ; bnt the num ber of snch casualties in propor tion to the number of persons directly concerned is too small to produce any excitement. Risks mnst be taken in everything we do, bnt it is only the obvious and dan gerous risks that bring pleasurable agitation. There is then a wide spread and enthusiastic demand for football because it is dangerous, because it is war, even thongh on a small scale. One of the best known of medical journals, the London Lancet, chronicled 23 deaths due to football in England during the year 1892, and 28 in 1893. The number of casualties that escaped notice is not known, bat 109 were serious enough to re quire hospital treatment, including 34 broken legs, 20 broken collar bones and three cases of concnssion , of the brain. Daring the season just ended, despite improvements in the rules of the game, there have been at least seven deaths dne to football in the United Stages, and over 70 recorded injui *N>0 so severe as to require surgical treat ment, with a large number un recorded. ' Within sight of the writer’s home there have been two cases of concussion of the brain requiring hospital treatment. “In comparing football with other sources of danger we are not con cerned so much with the absolute number of casualties as with the ratio of casualties to participants. At West Point in 1893 a careful statistical comparison was made by local medical officers between gymnastic exercises, horseback riding and football, as sources of injury to the cadets. Of the 80 cases 9 were due to the gymnasium, 17 to riding, 54 to football, or six times as many to football as to the gymnasinm. Of the days lost from scholastic duty 11 were due to the gymnasium, 54 to riding and 277 to football, or 25 times as many to football as to the gymnasium. The average enrollment of cadets that year was 260 The percentage danger dne to football, more than 20 per cent of the enrollment, is thus seen to be extraordinary. But in reality to obtain the comparative percentages of football and riding those of football should be multi plied by three, since football was played only once a week and riding was done three times a week. To obtain a comparison for football and gymnasium accidents, the foot ball percentage should be multi plied by six, since gymnasium ex ercise is taken six times a week. “It may perhaps be said that all cases of brntality in playing foot ball are indirect violations of the rales of the game. But if this must be granted, the actual resnlt in deaths and broken limbs and shat tered health is a stubborn answer. No game is civilized that requires the presence of surgeons and hos pital equipment. ’Intercollegiate football is as merely collective prize fighting for championship and gate money. Its essential brntality can never be trne. The victim of slagging feels bound to avoid informing on his assailant becanse he would be regarded as pusillanimous for doing so. Slug ging generally passes undiscovered by those whose duty it is to pre vent this evil, since the very con ditions of the contest make it impos sible for one man to see or control the actions of nearly two dozen in the confusion of snch play. Despite its rongbness, it may be reasonably tolerated among stud ents in the same college; but eo soon as the intracollegiate feature is replaced by intercollegiate com petition a Pandora’s box of evils is opened. It may seem as if a com petitive same between two colleges ought to involve no principle dif ferent. from that of a contest be tween classes in the same college. But experience has shown that the difference is great. To quote the words of Dr. Wiler, who at Cor nell nnivserity has had exceptional opportunities for information, be tween the intracollegiate and the intercollegiate forms, the distinct ion is snbstautially as between re creation and destruction, liberality, and extravagance, emulation and hostility, zeal and ferocity, music and noise, enthuasiasm and hyster ics, hilarity and rowdyism, moder ation and excess. Ferocity in competition and recklessness in rivalry are evils inherent in contests that are inter collegiate, but absent to a large extent from those that are kept within the college. The question of the control of these evils is beset with difficulties. Perhaps the great est is the attitude of college fac ulties, whose members regard athletic success as an important means of drawing students. Re cognizing the nniversal demand for athletics on the part of the stndents themselves, both actual and pros pective, they believe that as a busi ness proposition it pays to encour age what seems to aronse the en thusiasm of young men far more than any scholastic attractions that the colleges can offer. No one col lege feels strong enongh to prohibit the participation of its own stud ents in intercollegiate matches, an less most of its competitors agree to do 'the same. So strong au institution as Harvard prohibited intercollegiate football in 1885, but the prohibition lasted only a year. Regulations for the control of intercollegiate athletics have been drawn up by committees organized for that purpose, but what suited one college failed to suit another; and general agree meat has thus far been impossible. The fundamental idea that should be grasped by all college authorities is expressed iu the following words by President Schurman of Cornell university, who says, (Forum January, 1894), “A liraitatio which will, I think, be deemed fair and manly, is that these con tests between students should be regarded as exhibitions for students, and not primarily for the public They are prostituted when they are treated as money making shows. The proper place for them is the college field; and in cities this should not be given up to the crowd. The aim of athletics should be to give every student a round, harmonions physical organization, not to tram a doz-in or two semi offi'dals to win matches.” A writer in the Advance on“ Dea conesses in Methodism,” says: “Methodism is but a pioneer in the movement. Giber denominations are inquiring. Some are even mov ing. God hastens the day when in all our allied ranksthe women who pnblish the tidings shall be a great host.” The Lutheran World makes a very appropriate addition to the above when it says: “This is a queer sort of a history. It was Theodor Fliedner, a German Luth eran minister in Germany, in 1836, who was the first in modem times who called women to a deaconess sis'erhood, trained them for work and organized them into bands. He is the true ‘pioneer in the move meat.’ It was a Lutheran min ister also, the late Dr. W. A. Passavant, who in 1849, in com pany with Fliednfr, introduced the deaconess work into this coun try. “Credit to whom credit is due.'”—The Lutheran.