588 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



of exercise, the time used in going to and from the gymnasium, and 

 the time used in dressing and undressing, it would not go beyond two 

 hours per day, and in most cases would be less than that amount. 

 So, to consider the question of excessive time, we must look at the fall 

 and spring terms. In the fall, during days when afternoon recitations 

 are held, the class nines do not spend more than two hours' time alto- 

 gether, including both practice in the field and the time of going to and 

 from practice. The same may be said of the Foot-ball and Lacrosse 

 Teams. On Wednesday and Saturday afternoons the students give from 

 two to three hours to practice. On these afternoons the match-games 

 occur. They are prohibited on other days, except during examina- 

 tions, at which time they are allowed on any day, provided no player 

 is thereby prevented from attending his examination. The crews, 

 also, in practice on the water and in going to and from their boats, 

 spend two hours daily. On Wednesdays and Saturdays they use 

 more time, but the practice is so arranged as not to interfere with 

 recitations. 



In the summer the same amount of time, daily, is given to practice, 

 except that, when recitations cease and examinations begin, the Uni- 

 versity and Freshman Nines use more time. Even then that time will 

 not average more than three hours per day. When match-games are 

 played out of town, to the time of the game must be added the time 

 used in travel to and from the scene of the match. In the season of 

 1882, of the games played during the time when recitations or exami- 

 nations were being held, only five were played out of town by the Yale 

 University Nine, though the men went out of town once or twice more 

 but were prevented from playing by the rain. Of these five, three 

 were played in New York city, which is only a little over two hours' 

 ride from New Haven, Of the remaining two, neither needed more 

 than thirty-six hours' absence from town. 



The University Crew row only one race a year. The Foot-ball 

 Elevens and the Lacrosse Team play a few games out of New Haven, 

 but do not use in this way as much time as the Nine. 



2. It is said that the excitement attendant on these sports distracts 

 from study. It is true that the contests do furnish excitement for 

 the students, but it is excitement of a healthy kind. Athletic sports 

 do not divert so many from study as the theatre and billiards. Banish 

 athletics, and you increase the attendance at the theatres and the 

 saloons, where the temptations are greater, and the excitements less 

 healthy than those of the ball-field and boat-race. 



3. There is the evil of betting. This is not an evil peculiar to 

 athletics. The men in college, who are in the habit of betting, would 

 continue to bet on something else, if not a game were played nor a 

 race rowed. Gambling would increase if the athletics were prohib- 

 ited. Games and races in colleges do not create betting. They sim- 

 ply divert it from other channels. 



