GALLIC FEROCITY

Mark Twain's ludicrous account of the "great French duel," in which he--the second--was the only man injured in thirty years, gives one impression of the French character. A report from Paris that French rugby rules must be revised on account of excessive roughness gives quite another. In the Toulouse-Biarritz match--the semi-finals in the championships--Toulouse lost twelve of its fifteen players, and the Biarritz casualties were eleven.

When one learns that no substitutions are allowed, and that no penalties are inflicted unless a player knocks his opponent completely unconscious, the sanguinary nature of French rugby is revealed. Theoretically, the game demands open running play, much like American soccer, but these devils of Frenchmen put their heads together with an "on no passe pas" war-cry, and fairly wade in gore. According to the newspapers the match was an "example of street fighting,"--something reserved in America for hockey games between the New Havens and the Victorias.

One parallel to the French ferocity can be found near at hand; Curious crowds, returning from the baseball games at Soldiers Field, frequently pause to wonder at the most bloodcurdling game played in this country--lacrosse. The players run far and wide--especially far and the sticks, which developed from Indian war-clubs, are still used for this primitive purpose. The organization in depth, instead of stabilizing the conflict as it does in ordinary warfare, merely causes a sort of harmonic motion up and down the field. This business goes on either until the war-clubs have accomplished their work, which happens very rarely, since American teams are provided with plenty of substitutes--or until the time allowed for complete exhaustion has elapsed. There is also a method of scoring, which does not depend on the number of opponents put out of the game.

In spite of this bloody exception American games are quite safe. The dangers are ordinarily remote, and even football could never be compared to a "street-fight". Considering the French rugby "atrocities", and the thousands recently hurt at an English soccer game--spectators, not players--it would seem that Europe can throw no stones at America for athletic extremism.