PROF. RICHARDS ON ATHLETICS.

The second paper of Professor Richards, from which we give several of the more important abstracts, does not seem up to the first in originality of ideas, but is, nevertheless, of sufficient interest to attract notice. He says: "With regard to the evils of the present system of college athletics it must be remembered that the best system will not be free from all evil. That the present system has evils is no valid argument against it, unless it can be shown either that these outweigh the good, or that some other practical system can be devised which shall have all the good with less of the evil of the present system." 1. The amount of time devoted to sport is, he claims, not excessive, never more than two hours daily, including going and coming, and this for the men who take the greatest amount.

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 boatrace.

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 prohibited. Games and races in colleges do not create betting. They simply divert it from other channels.

3. It is charged against athletics that they benefit the few, and that these few, are those least requiring the exercise. But it has been already shown that more men are induced to exercise than the actual membership of organizations; and that the present system affects, in the matter of exercise, at least half of the undergraduate department.

The objection, that the men under training in the university organizations are the men least requiring the training, can be understood to be one of two propositions, viz., either that these men have naturally so much power or skill that they need not develop any more, or that they will cultivate their strength and nerve without being stimulated to do so by the workings of the present system. This would be like arguing that men of great mental gifts either do not need an education, or would get an education without any opportunities being provided for this purpose in a school or college system- a proposition which, however true in exceptional cases, taken as a general statement no argument is required to prove absurd. Men of muscle do need exercise. The men who suffer most from the confinement of student-life are the men of vigorous bodies. Many of them, without the capacity of self-control, and without the health which they gain by exercise under the present system of athletics, would never be able to graduate. Many others would graduate with impaired bodily powers, and others still as slaves to habits of dissipation.

6. It is said, again, that the system may develop men, but it only makes fine brutes of them, and sets before the college a false standard of excellence, viz., one entirely physical. It can not be said with truth that the standard is false. The standard of good scholarship remains, and many of the athletes take high rank in scholarship. The standard of good conduct remains.

7. The evil of a general nature last to be considered is that of expense.

Fifteen dollars per man would undoubtedly cover the whole cost of athletics at Yale throughout the year, counting all kinds. Certainly this does not seem an extravagant sum to pay for the benefits derived from the system. The writer believes that the expenses can be very much diminished. The tendency to unnecessary increase of expenses can certainly be diminished by measures heretofore noticed.

The subscriptions for baseball and football are small in amount as compared with their earnings. It is generally believed, among students, that the university organizations of both these sports can be made self-supporting.

The evils already commented on are general. There are other so-called evils which are special-some peculiar to one kind of athletics, but not belonging to the others. One of these, charged against base-ball, is that the game brings the students into contact with "professionals." Whatever may be the extent of the evil in other colleges, at Yale it has not proved to be so great as to call for faculty interference, or even to excite apprehension. All the evils, real or imaginary, connected with ball playing, are reduced to a minimum when the students meet "professionals." They meet them simply for practice. Betting is, as a rule, precluded by the fact that the result is generally a forgone conclusion, and men bet on only doubtful issues. Off the field there is no more intercourse between the students and the "professionals" than is necessary to transact the business attending the match. 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 nor occasion dissipation in any form.

But to some objectore 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 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 companion of his trainer, nor trust his morals to his direction. A remedy would be to select an amateur athlete from the graduates, educated as a physician, and give him a salaried office, with duties as general adviser and guardian of the athletic interests. Such a man, if properly qualified, would help the students to a safer and better physical development than they now get, and would, besides, soon drive away all trainers exercising improper influences among them."

He speaks of football and the objections which have been raised against it, but he maintains that the advantages far outweigh the evils and dangers.

Since some very worthy people who believe in manly sports object to young men playing for money taken at the exhibition games, it is necessary to say a word of explanation with regard to this feature of all ball-games. If field athletics are to continue, the expense of them must be met in one of two ways, either by gate-money or by subscription. Most young men prefer to give their money at the gate, and thus to pay for what they see. If a club knows that it is to spend only what it earns, it will be stimulated, first, to play as good a game as possible; and secondly, to spend its earnings with prudence. It seems only just, too that, if the public desire to see a good game, they should pay for the exhibition.

The evil of liability to strains and injuries in athletics cannot be entirely obviated. It is well to bear in mind, at this point, The fact that even those who are not athletes do not, therefore, enjoy immunity from accidents. Still it is possible that a slight injury, to a person having organic weakness, might result in a fatal difficulty. Such an issue might be avoided by the requirement that every candidate for trial should be examined by a competent physician.

If, moreover, the faculty of every college having a system of athletics would exert a sympathetic as well as a judicious oversight of the students interested in the system, they would find the young men quite willing to listen to friendly suggestions.