LET US GO AFIELD 



some of those men sat in the Coliseum. There are 

 cathedrals elsewhere built by the descendants of the 

 men who fought in the ring. 



The paid idea of sport and the individual idea of 

 sport which has survived in the world and which 

 is going to survive ? And where did the barbarians 

 get the sinews which made them worth paying to 

 see when they played the game of survival? Did 

 they grow strong by paying to see someone else 

 fight? No, they got their strength in war or in 

 work, in sport or in exercise. And when a nation 

 comes to the place where it has to pay to see some- 

 one else play the games, that nation is, at least in the 

 humble opinion of a minority of two, on the na- 

 tional toboggan with the way greased for a quick 

 and easy national descent. 



If we could reverse the scene in our own arena 

 and leave nine men in the seats to watch fifty thou- 

 sand citizens play baseball on the ground, then base- 

 ball might be of some definite good to us. That 

 would be organized baseball worth while. If the 

 umpire at the football game could put his eleven on 

 the seats and make thirty thousand men go through 

 the motions through which he has forced his team 

 during these weary months of training, then foot- 

 ball would be the grandest thing that ever happened 

 for America. If the two hired scrappers who draw 



316 



