72 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



insignificant; victory in the intellectual arena seems to count for little 

 even with the professors; victory in contests requiring only such abil- 

 ities as a savage possesses alone deserves permanent record in the shrine 

 of learning. If this visitor go farther in examination of the college 

 plant, he may find that great sums of money have been expended in ac- 

 quiring athletic fields, in provision for comfortable seating of specta- 

 tors ; that buildings for physical culture often excel in equipment those 

 for mental culture and that the coaches for teams in athletics are, as a 

 rule, better paid for the time expended than are assistant professors or, 

 in some cases, than even the professors. He will have little doubt that 

 those who have control of college affairs think more highly of the 

 extraneous courses than they do of the college curriculum. 



Should this visitor turn to the great daily papers, he will discover 

 that popular opinion coincides with that of students and college au- 

 thorities. A page or even two pages may be devoted to description of 

 a single football contest; for days beforehand, the betting odds are 

 given and the police make due preparation to repress too great exuber- 

 ance on the part of the visitors' sympathizers. But during the greater 

 part of the year he will find little reference to any college work except 

 that of intercollegiate contests. The pressure of interesting news pre- 

 vents insertion of any but passing notes respecting the mental culture 

 side — unless a professor make a statement, which, separated from the 

 context, appears to conflict with some popularly accepted opinion con- 

 cerning morals or social relations. 



If this visitor should pursue his inquiries in detail, he would find 

 that appearances do not belie the fact. He would discover that glee 

 clubs give abundant concerts during the term time and that sometimes 

 they even make tours ; that the football season consumes two months or 

 more at the opening of the college year, when men should be devoting 

 their whole energy to study; that the baseball season is at its height 

 during the closing weeks of the college year, when men are supposed 

 to be grinding at the final reviews ; and that the anxiety of young men 

 to prevent too close absorption in study has led them to introduce 

 basketball and hockey to fill the unfortunate gap which exists between 

 the seasons of football and baseball. As if these were not enough, he 

 would find careful provision for the needs of men indifferent to violent 

 exercise; for them there are intercollegiate contests in chess and de- 

 bating; there are "magazines," "newspapers," dramatic exhibitions — 

 so many devices to entice men from their legitimate work that it seems 

 impossible for any to escape the net. 



If, after this investigation, the visitor should express the opinion 

 that in a great proportion of American colleges intellectual develop- 

 ment is subordinated to other matters, surely no one could censure him. 



It is said that this is but a reaction from the conditions of former 



