PROF. RICHARDS ON COLLEGE ATHLETICS.

Prof. Eugene L. Richards of Yale has written a very interesting essay on the subject of athletics. His first paper is confined to the advantages derived. He speaks of the relation of the mind and body, and of the necessity of exercise. "Exercise, to be beneficial, should be regular and systematic. To be most beneficial it should be in the open air. In consequence of the reciprocal action of mind and body, to be as beneficial as possible it should be accompanied by mental occupation. The mind should be interested in exercise while the body is engaged. But how secure the co-operation of the mind? That is the real problem to solve. Very few can be induced to exercise form a sense of duty. The majority go without it till they suffer illness from the want of it, and then prefer a doctor's remedies to Nature's By the present system of college athletics these requisites are met, if not perfectly, at least as well as it is possible for them to be met. They furnish a mental stimulus. They set up an object to be striven for and an ideal of strength or skill. The object is honor-honor of no great worth, perhaps, but still honor to the student mind. To secure a victory in any sport, good brains in the players contribute quite as much as good muscles. In fact, it is the skilled muscles roughly directed by good brains which win, and not the players most skilled in the use of their muscles. Mind as well as body has to be considered by the successful captains in the selection of their men. Then there are minor considerations which keep students in steady training, and help to induce more men to work than finally appear in the great contests, such, for instance, as the ambition to secure an office or position in one of the university organizations, and thus an honorable standing as a college man." He gives quite an elaborate account of the number of men training on the various teams and of the time actually devoted by them to athletics. Continuing he says: "It would be putting the estimate too low to say that at least half of the undergraduate members of the academic and scientific departments get quite a regular amount of systematic out-door exercise from, or in consequence of, the present system of college athletics. It is no argument against the system that all the members of the university do not take advantage of it. The need of exercise is met, and opportunities for regular and systematic exercise are given, with inducements to take it, which do act upon at least half of the membership of the two departments most in need of it."

In addition to those already mentioned, he claims for it the following advantages: "1. The college is sending out a better breed of men." Under this head he speaks of the good influences produced upon the preparatory schools and he also quotes from President Eliot's remarks, which summarize the benefits of athletics at Harvard. "2. The system of college athletics gives opportunity for the development of certain qualities of mind and character not all provided for in the college curriculum. but qualities nevertheless quite as essential to true success in life as ripe scholarship or literary culture. Courage, resolution, and perseverance are required in all the men who excel in athletic sports. The faculty for organization, executive power, the qualities which enable men to control and lead other men, and again those other qualities by which men yield faithful obedience to recognized authority, are all called into action in every boat race, in every ball contest, and through all the preliminary training. In athletics the college world is a little republic of young men with authority for government delegated to presidents, captains, and commodores, and loyally supported by the resources and bodies of the governed. Is the system not worth something as a means of preparation for the responsibilities of life in the larger republic outside the campus? 3. The system is conducive to the good order of the college. It conduces to good order in furnishing occupation for the physically active. There are men in every class who seem to require some outlet for their superabundant animal life. Before the day of athletics, such men supplied the class bullies in fights between town and gown, and were busy at night in gate stealing and in other pranks now gone out of fashion. A number of them were dissipated men, and had to diversify the monotony of their classroom life by a spree and a row. Many such men, under the present system, find occupation for all this activity in regular training. A man who goes into training can not go on sprees, and must economize and systematize his time in order to both study and train. Having steadied their nerves by hard work of the muscles, many such men settle down to study and often make fair scholars. The system is conducive to the good order of the college, because it furnishes a healthy, interesting topic of conversation out of study hours. 5. The power of the athletic contests to awaken enthusiasm ought not to be held of small account. The tendency of academic life is toward dry intellectualism. However desirable such a tendency may be for those who are training to be investigators, there can be no question that it is lamentable for a young man to begin life without enthusiasm. 6. The system of athletics, by its intercollegiate contests, brings the students into a wider world. They are no longer "home-keeping youths," "with homely wits." They measure themselves by other standards than those they find in the limits of their own campus.