Athletic Sports (extract)

The Physical Proportions of the Typical Man those who have undergone a faithful course of training. (vi.) By arousing the spirit of antagonism and fostering viciousness and brutality. In all competitive sports that bring individuals into personal contact, such as wrestling, sparring, foot-ball, lacrosse, polo, etc., there is a constant tendency to roughness and brutality. The object being to " win at all hazards," the reason for the roughness is apparent. These sports without doubt furnish the best kind of general exercise for the body, and develop courage, manli­ ness, and self-control. How to retain the good features, and to hold the evil ones in check, are the problems that are ever pres­ ent to those who are interested in the preservationof these invigorating pastimes. They are worth perpetuating, and ought not to fall into disrepute for the want of a few friends to throw a protecting influence around them. Certain it is that as soon as brutality gains the ascendency gentle­ men will cease to compete, and the sport will fall into decline. It is a question now in the minds of many whether some of these sports have not already reached a stage of deterioration in which, in the colleges at least, their future existence is threatened. I O