Time Devoted to Football.

Walter Camp has an article in the Century on the "Current Criticisms of Football" in which he devotes some space to the time it takes from the regular college work. He says that, in the first place, the early practice of some three weeks is taken not from the studies of the player but from his summer vacation. October and November are the only months where in he is both playing football and studying. During the first of these his practicing usually consists of two half-hours in the afternoon. In November he may be required, in addition to this, to go through signals for a half-hour in the morning, and, towards the end, in the evening also. It is easy to see that the actual time occupied is, therefore, far from excessive. But during the last fortnight before the great game the football man will become more or less wrapped up in his fancies of victory or defeat. Up to this time the player, in distinction from the captain, has had few worries. He has been coached, but has not been required to study out problems of attack and defense, tricks and strategies, plays for emergencies, and plans of operation. This has become the duty of the coaches and the captain. The coach is usually a graduate who has sacrificed a vacation at some other period of the year to assist in the fall work. Thus the coaches answer an excellent purpose in taking from the players the too fascinating and engrossing study of tactics. The reason that college authorities are so little moved by the clamor against athletics is that they know from the results of their previous and continuing investigations that the good far overbalances the evil, and that no better example could be placed before the college of the value of sustained self-control.