MORAL TENDENCIES OF KICKING.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5350, 7 April 1879, Page 3

MORAL TENDENCIES OF KICKING.

The following letter, signed "An Anxious Father,*' is taken from the Pull Mall Gazette : —

" Since the return of ray son for his Christmas holidays, I have amused myself by looking over a copy of the magazines of his school which he has brought home with him. I found the young gentleman, as \va3 only natural, full of admiration for the three fine football players among his comrades— Brown, Jones, and Robinson. I ventured to bring up a few stories of my younger days, and to tell once more of a famous game in the days of my youth, which had impressed the lad before he went to school. ' What were your measurements, sir V the lad at once replied. ' Measurements, my boy !' I exclaimed, greatly puzzled. 'Measurements I You must go to my tailor and shoemaker for those.' I saw at once I had fallen, never, I fear, to rise again, in the lad's estimation. ' Look here,' he said, turning to a colum in the magazine ; ' here we have the measurements of the height, weight, chest, forearm, upper arm, thigh, and calf of every member of the fifteen.' I put on my glasses, and I read that the famous Brown was sft. lOin. high, weighed list. 91b., was 40fin. round his chest, 1V 6 round his forearm, 13£ round his upper arm, 29§ round his thigh, and 15-| round his calf. ' How about his stomach V I gravely asked. His waist, sir, I presume you mean,' he replied. ' That was not included among the measurements, as there was a difference in opinion among the fifteen whether it should be measured before dinner or after. When that important point is once settled, then the table will be completed.' I looked further down the paper, and I saw that the same minute information was given about the other fourteen players. Nay, even the average weight had been calculated of the whole fifteen ; and there was not a little pride shown in the fact that it was no less than 2 14.151bs higher than that of last year. It compares, also, my son informs me, by no means unfavorably with the avez'age weight of the fifteen in the other public schools. In another table were given the measurements of those players who make up 'the thirty.' But it was thought sufficient in their case to give merely their height and weight. It was only fitting that their inferiority to the fifteen should be in some manner marked, and this is done by not publishing to the world the size of their chest, arm, thigh, and calf. Their ambition, so far from being damp, is really fired by this omission. They have but to persevere, and they know that the day will come when all their merits shall be made known, even to the eighth of an inch. "I next read with no little interest that part of the magazine which is headed • Characters of the Fifteen.' The language of football has so changed since I played that I could understand but little of it. However, that did not lessen my admiration. I found one young hero described as ' a strong indefatigable forward,' and another as ' a first-rate half-back.' I noticed with regret that one who ' was very promising as a good collarer' broke his arm early in the season, and that another who was ' a thoroughly honest forward' was laid up by an accident. ' And what was the accident V I asked. ' Oh, not much. He got a kick on his head which stunned him, and he was carried off to the sick-house, where he lay senseless for about a week. It would not have much mattered if it had happened two days later, for then he could have played in the chief match of the season ?' I began to look serious, and to think of a little fellow . who is to follow his brother to this school, and who is no more fit for either ' hacking' or being c hacked' than his Bisters. * Well,' I said, ' this kind of a game, where two out of fifteen are badly hurt, will never suit Johnny. I must forbid him to play.' ' Forbid him to play !' exclaimed my son. ' i!ou forget the rules.' And so I confess I had. I forgot that however dangerous and; however brutal the game of football as at present played may seem to a father, yet his opinion and his wishes on this point would be treated with the utmost contempt by most of the head-masters of our public schools. It is thought a sufficient answer to tell him that if he does not like the rules ho need not send his son to the school. The predecessors of these gentlemen used to hold that a boy's brain could only be reached by constant application to his back. The birch certainly no longer flourishes, and learning is allowed to enter chiefly through the eyes and ears. But to make up for this, the Christian virtuesj it is held, are best inculcated through the shins. Let a boy go through a course of kicking and being kicked, and he is sure to turn out a muscular Christian. The very word that I have just used, 'inculcated,' supports this theory. It is certainly by inculcation, by treading, by a frequent use of the heel, and I may add to the toe, that manliness is at present taught. So obstinate are some of these masters in unholding this theory of the vir'w'.vi that one of them said to a friend of mine, who was ready to procure

a medical certificate that his son was unfit for football, ' You must remember that it is I who am to be the judge on this point,

and not your doctor.' "I have not the slightest wish to interfere with the wishes of parents in general, nore than need be with what are called the traditions of the school. Let the manufacturing of muscular Christians go on with a vigor that knows no abatement. I fear I must confess they will some day be found, like our calicoes, a drug in the market. All I ask is that my son's fore-

arms and upper arms, thighs and calves,

may be left to take care of themselves. If, however, these football matches must go on, and he must take part in them, I would suggest that every purpose would bo attained if the average height, weight, and measurements of the different ,parts of the body— l should exclude the head — of such fifteen were taken, and the victory was assigned to that side which in these important matters was found superior. I fear I am just too late for this plan of mine to be taken into consideration by the Conference of Head Masters. Perhaps some one of them will bring it before them at their next meeting."