DOMESTIC AND INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS. 553 



The moral and mental value of high-class athletics is well pointed 

 out by the late President Francis A. Walker : 



It must be said that the favorite athletics of to-day are, in great measure, 

 such as call for more than mere strength and swiftness. They demand, also, 

 steadiness of nerve, quickness of apprehension, coolness, resourcefulness, self- 

 knowledge, self-reliance; further still, they often demand of the contestants 

 the ability to work with others, power of combination, readiness to subordinate 

 individual impulses, selfish desires, and even personal credit, to a common 

 end. These are all qualities useful in any profession; in some professions 

 they are of the highest value. So genuine does this advantage appear to me that 

 were I Superintendent of the Academy at West Point, I should encourage the 

 game of football among the cadets as a military exercise of no mean importance. 

 It is the opinion of most educated Englishmen that the cultivation of this sport 

 has had not a little to do with the courage, address, and energy with which 

 the graduates of Rugby, Eton, and Harrow, have made their way through 

 dangers and over difficulties in all quarters of the globe. 



Rugby football has taken a strong hold upon popular favor and 

 no outdoor entertainment can command so large an attendance of 

 respectable people as a game of football between two teams of college 

 boys. Of course there is mixed with a love of the game pure and sim- 

 ple a great deal of college spirit and college pride. 



But there is something more. There is a moral force that is 

 mighty and strong, and which only a player truly knows. The player 

 alone feels the wild joy of the charge, the struggle, the tackle and the 

 gauntlet. None but the player feels the absolute necessity of obeying 

 orders, of cooperation, of vigilance, of instant decision and prompt 

 action. A novice at the game subordinates the care of the ball to the 

 care of himself; he can not help this; he feels that his person is worth 

 any number of points in the game, and he risks a defeat to avoid a 

 bruise or a sprain; but when he is trained and can fall safely without 

 thinking of himself, he subordinates himself to the requirements of 

 the game and puts his whole soul as well as his body into the play. 



Experienced players can see great moral gain in all this, and in the 

 sense of obligation to cherish the body so that it may always be at its 

 best. Men who have made athletics a business have taught us that 

 certain things weaken and enervate a man and make him less noble 

 and less manly; so the football player must avoid them, not only while 

 he plays, but as long as he wishes to be noble and manly. 



President Thwing's Views. 

 In a recent number of the North American Review, President 

 Thwing of the Western Reserve University elaborates 'The Ethical 

 Functions of Football.' His points are summarized as follows: (1) 

 Football represents the inexorable. It embraces things that must be 

 done at specific times, places and in specific ways. (2) Football 



