592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tending the match. The professional nine are then generally repre- 

 sented by their business manager, and the students by the president or 

 treasurer of their club. In the game one nine is in the field, while 

 the members of the other are at the bases, or waiting for their turn at 

 the bat. The " professionals " are under the strictest discipline, so that 

 their presence does not invite or occasion dissipation in any form. Vic- 

 tories of college nines over " professionals " are not frequent, and are 

 not attended by disorders on the campus. 



But to some objectors the evil of " professionalism " in athletics 

 includes more than playing with professional nines. The employment 

 of professional "trainers" in preparing students for contests is, for 

 some, the chief evil. Such trainers are looked upon as bad companions 

 for our young men. It is contended that they undermine the morals 

 of our students by their profanity and generally low talk. They are 

 also supposed to give too high a standard of excellence for our ama- 

 teur athletes, and thus to draw on too much of their time and strength, 

 in the effort to make them conform to this standard. All these things 

 may happen in some cases, but they do not happen frequently. Ad- 

 mitting, for the sake of argument, what is generally denied by the 

 students, that for the past two years the crew has been coached by the 

 professional oarsman who rigged their boats, his coaching would have 

 brought him into personal contact with not more than a dozen men at 

 the most, and for a time of only three or four weeks in the spring 

 and summer. For a short time in the winter some of the candidates 

 for the university nine have exercises in boxing with a trainer, in 

 order to bring them into " condition " for the spring and summer 

 work. There can hardly be more than fifteen such men. 



The only other really professional training done has been done for 

 those who go into track athletics. This training lasts for about six 

 weeks, and is given to some fifteen or twenty men. A "professional" 

 has sometimes accompanied the foot-ball team when they have played 

 their great matches, but his office has not been to train the men, but 

 to apply his skill to limbering stiffened joints and healing bruised mus- 

 cles. 



It is quite natural that students, when taking lessons of any kind, 

 should prefer the best masters. Unfortunately, the best masters are not 

 always the best men. That the pupils are, therefore, always led into 

 bad courses by the example of their instructors does not follow. There 

 is enough good sense in college students generally to dissociate good 

 instruction from faults of character. The trainer seldom influences 

 the student beyond the purpose of his training. The young man 

 does not make a comj^anion of his trainer, nor trust his morals to his 

 direction. An easy cure for possible evils in this direction would be 

 for the faculty of each college, troubled by vicious trainers, to forbid 

 their students employing such men. An investigation, however, into 

 the relations between such trainers and their pupils would show that 



