THE GEOGRAPHY OE GAMES 



Invention of the rubber bladder made 

 football popular, of the gutta-percha ball 

 added immensely to golf, and of the 

 encased sphere made tennis a keener 

 sport ; and so the story might continue 

 to the mighty industries that provide the 

 amusement to be had from motion-pic- 

 ture play or from phonograph record. 



COLONEL ROOSEVKl/f'S INFXULNCL ON 

 SPORTS 



Theodore Roosevelt's influence is gen- 

 erally accounted in social, political, eco- 

 nomic, and literary fields ; yet time may 

 show that one of the most profound 

 lessons he impressed upon American 

 people was a deeper regard for health- 

 ful, vigorous, strenuous outdoor sport. 



The story of how the weakling Roose- 

 velt went to the open places of the West 

 and played at broncho-busting and cattle- 

 herding, and later relaxed in African 

 jungle from seven years in the hardest 

 job in the world, is an oft-told tale. 

 Such an uprooting of one's life, thanks 

 to our national parks, is not necessary 

 today. More and more is it the habit 

 of young men and old to seek the 

 health-giving recreations to be had in 

 Uncle Sam's matchless play places. 



Walking is one of the most healthful 

 and invigorating of all pastimes and free 

 to every one. Y r et it is much neglected 

 by Americans. Perhaps the automobile 

 is to blame, in some degree : but the fact 

 that walking is deliberate and lacking in 

 that element so dear to the American 

 heart, competition, also must be taken 

 into account. 



To the seasoned pedestrian "joy rid- 

 ing" cannot compare with "joy walking." 

 The latter affords the devotee intellec- 

 tual delights that neither speed nor 

 rivalry can offer. To him walking is 

 truly a royal road to learning — a ma- 

 triculation in the God-given university of 

 nature. To walk is to open the book of 

 natural wonders — to see the flowers and 

 the trees, to hear and know the birds and 

 all the voices of the outdoors symphony. 



Then, too, there is a walk for every 

 mood and temper. Gladstone loved to 

 walk in the rain ; Browning delighted to 

 stroll by night ; Charles Lamb turned to 

 the crowds of busy streets, while Words- 

 worth stole away to the silent places. 



That protean sportsman, Theodore 

 Roosevelt, counted walking among his 

 favorite recreations, and found a plunge 

 through untraveled woods, across 

 streams, up and down the hills, strenu- 

 ous enough for him. Former President 

 Taft likes walking, but prefers the sights 

 of the city streets. 



Europeans have a higher regard for 

 walking than most Americans. Viscount 

 Bryce, when ambassador at Washington, 

 by his daily tramps learned to know the 

 environs of the National Capital as do 

 few of the residents. He frequently 

 covered 15 or 20 miles in an afternoon. 



SPORTS BKHTXD THPv LINLS HELPED TO 

 WIN THE WORLD WAR 



The World War has helped stress a 

 higher claim for sport, more potent than 

 the fact that plays and games register 

 the habits and habitats of bygone peo- 

 ples or that they stimulate mechanical 

 invention ; for it has proved that sport 

 conditions the moral fiber of a people 

 and tempers those mental qualities that 

 advance civilization. 



Right up to 1914 it was almost bro- 

 midic to laugh at the Englishman for 

 putting his recreations in his "Who's 

 Who," alongside of matters considered 

 more weighty ; for publishing massive 

 tomes and cyclopedias of sport ; for 

 waging mighty word battles in print 

 over the relative merits of the breech- 

 loader and muzzle-loader for shooting 

 grouse. Now the world knows that the 

 Derby at Epsom, the cricket at Rugby, 

 and the fox-hunts of Northamptonshire 

 had everything to do with the bulldog 

 determination with which he ''carried 

 on" one heartbreaking summer after 

 another against vicious Hun onslaughts 

 in Flanders. 



It is significant that the wise men of 

 Washington, London, and Paris made 

 every effort in war time to maintain 

 the amusements of the people. "Millions 

 for morale," a familiar American slogan, 

 was another way of saying "millions for 

 play." At the government's behest, one 

 welfare organization alone sent 25,000 

 baseballs and 15,000 baseball bats to 

 France before half our men had arrived 

 there. 



Even the sport-loving Britons arc said 



