554 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



illustrates the value of the positive. It teaches one to do. It is 

 action, not inaction. It bucks, it punches, it breaks, it runs, it goes, 

 it goes through the line, it goes round the ends, but it goes. (3) 

 Football represents the value of a compelling interest. There are other 

 interests, good and bad, but certain temperaments need something like 

 football to arouse them. Speaking of a lazy boy, Emerson said: 'Set 

 a dog on him, send him West, do something to him.' Football serves 

 such a purpose. (4) Football embodies the process of self -discovery. 

 Every football game is a crisis. It not only creates power and de- 

 velops power; it also discovers the possession or the lack of power. 

 (5) Football develops self-restraint. Self-restraint, or more broadly, 

 self-control, is one of the primary signs of the gentleman. Football 

 demands self-restraint for it teems with temptations to do mean and 

 nasty things. It thus helps to make the finest type of a gentleman. 



Few college men would claim all the above, but if we grant the 

 half, football is amply justified, and deserves general support. 



It is interesting to note the favor with which athletics are received 

 by educational leaders on all sides. I quote a paragraph from Supt. 

 Thomas M. Balliet, one of the ablest of Massachusetts educators : 



The need of systematic physical training as a part of the legitimate work 

 of the public schools is to-day not questioned by anyone who is informed on 

 the subject. The health and care of the body is as much the concern of the 

 school as the training of the mind, and this fact is coming to be very widely 

 recognized by school committees. . . . The best authorities on physical training 

 place much less emphasis at present than formerly on formal gymnastics, and 

 far more on free, spontaneous outdoor play as a means of physical culture. 



Unmanly Interference. 



In the interest of fairness and good breeding General Walker pro- 

 tests vigorously against a style of systematic cheering or yelling, which 

 directly or indirectly tends to disconcert and impede opposing players. 

 In this protest I cordially join. Good play should be generously rec- 

 ognized no matter who makes it, and neither the side lines nor the 

 grand stand should say or do anything to embarrass or confuse visiting 

 players. It ceases to be a manly sport when ungentlemanly tricks are 

 resorted to. Fair play means the golden rule; treat others as you 

 would wish to be treated in a similar situation. I do not say, as you 

 would expect to be treated, but as you would wish to be treated. I 

 regret that in many a community visiting clubs are treated by the 

 spectators in such a disgraceful way that one is forced to infer that they 

 do not know what fair play and good breeding mean. 



Last spring I witnessed some athletic contests between the represen- 

 tatives of different educational institutions in a neighboring park. One 



