The Abuse of Athletics.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5963, 16 October 1890, Page 3

The Abuse of Athletics.

It i-i the glory and the pride of the English-spe iking" nice that they are tho outdoor-game people of tho world. There is much soli'l truth in the saying that Waterloo was won on tho playing fields of Eton. Englishmen owe their unrivalled physiqno, health, mental and bodily _ vigor, pluck, enduraue., and good nature largely to their fondness of outdoor exercise, without which it would ho vain to look for such a result even iv so happy a fusion of the Briton, the Saxon, the "Norman, and tho Dime. Tho Frenchman laughs at cricket aud ridicules football. The result is a national character brimming over with eclat, but deficient in stamina. Tho Spaniard, th- Italian, tho Greek, have all tho laziness of tho Gaul exaggerated, without oven his fitful energy. Their complaiiit is IVeksnitlian, it is chronic, in his Irish element tho Britisher has all the go and dash of the French ; while from his slightly phlegmatic rnixtuiof English and Hootch blood ho has derived something of tho intrepid aud long-sus-tained perseverance of tho North American i Indian. It is this unique combination, applicable at once to the intellectual and I physical part of his nature, that won for the Englishnmu Creoy and Poitiers, that made the epic Westward Ho! possible, and packed tho would-be despot of tho nineteenth century off to St.Helena. But there is a danger which has lately become moro and more evident. Englishmen ought to profit by their glorious history, and to have a care that what has been in the wast a source of strength shall not become a source of weakness. It is very necessary to guard against any abuse of athletics, for thi-ro is a disposition abroad to allow them to usurp tho position of an end in themselves, instead of only remaining an important means to a useful end. Too much produces similar effects to not enough. 1" avoiding the Scylla of abstinence from games, Englishmen are falling into tlie Charybdis of excess. _iold sports aro a desirable part of a perfect f duration, tho progress of the whole man, K„ul and mind and body. It is a natural law that when _ faculty or a muscle ceases to ho used, it begins to bo impaired, and may ultimately becomo hopelessly paraWd And the converse is just as true, and hardly, if at all, less disastrous in its effect b When an organ is unduly developed, the balance of nature is disturbed. The abnormal is always repulsive, witness the • top-heavy appearance of the prize fighter,

whose shoulders, chest, and arms have been developed at }he expense of h',a legs. In the same way the unnatural growth of the physical is to be deprecated, because it implies the stunting of the spiritual and the mental. But viewed only from a severely physical standpoint, over-indulgence in exercise produces most baneful results. The proper function of athletics if. not to make athletes, but men. The perfect man, if such there be, is he who preserves a just equilibrium between work and play. Any preponderance of one or the other must inevitably be accompanied by undesirable effects. When play becomes a business it is at once prostituted. But apart from professionalism pure and she pie in games, it is an unmitigated abuse to make a toil of a pleasure. The extent to which it has become so has evoked a warning protest from an eminent physician. Says ho :— " Play, with millions,' has become the chief thought and business of life. It is no longer relaxation or recreation—it has developed into a most dangerous, a most pernicious over-exercise of heart and muscles, a profligate expenditure of the vital surplus force of the frame required for mental and moral uses, and which, so wasted, will in a few years realit-c a harvest of death through heart diseaso, and, in the future, entail a lessened constitutional power upon the children. Fatigue and violent exercise not only injure the body, they load the system with waste matter, and lessen the energy of the brain."'

All this is largely brought about by ignorance of the true province of recreation, which is to develop those muscles And faculties least brought into play in the pursuit of daily avocation, and to maintain constitutional rathei than physical strength. The most suitable form of recreation for the manual laborer, the carpenter, the mason, tho artisan, the mechanic, whose labor, if not purely physical, is mainly so, is not boxing, rowing, cycling, and football, but an of those mental qualities with which they have been endowed, and which will otherwise become the victims of dryrot through disuse. The recreation of these is reading, soienco, geom»try, chess. But to the tired brain - worker such pursuits would ba no relaxation, no recreation, but only au aggravation of his weariness. If he wishes to turn his loisure to good account he will walk, ride, run, jump, row, play football, rjricket, tennis, enter the gymnasium, the bowling club, the swimming bath, tho cycling track. Whjit is wanted is a change in the kind of occupation. It would be as absurd as it would bo unfair to deny the head-worker all the pleasures of literature, or to require tho workei with his hands to forego all the delights of outdoor games. But enough has been said to indicate the direction which the recreation of the respective classes should tako. No hard and ricid line can possibly be drawn if it were only for the reason that many employments partake both of the character of manual and of mental labor.—Chambers's Magazine.