We publish elsewhere a short account of President Eliot's report to the Board of Overseers. We concur most heartily in what is said about voluntary chapel and the other questions concerning the college. But in the final paragraph relating to athletic sports, we find sentiments expressed with which we cannot entirely agree. Admitting that "foot-ball, base-ball, and rowing are liable to abuses." yet we cannot see that these abuses are altogether of the kind President Eliot mentions. Extravagant expenditure and betting are, to be sure, abuses which exist and flourish abnormally. Our position in regard to them has been taken for some time, as every one knows. But is the interruption of college work a very material one? Is there, in and among our athletic teams, such a spirit of "trickery"? Or are "hysterical demonstrations of the college public over successful games" such terrible evils when kept within ordinary bounds of decency? We believe not. Important intercollegiate base-ball contests, for instance, occur for the most part on Saturday afternoons, as provided by the regulations; and surely it can do no harm to college work if the whole body of students turn out to see the game. There is a healthful, pleasurable excitement in watching a closely contested match, which, if the element of betting is left out, can surely do no harm. If the game is won, is it not natural for the victors to celebrate their victory? What harm can be done by the discharge of a few fireworks, rockets and bombs, or the building of a bon-fire-in a judiciously selected place? Of course we do not mean to countenance wanton destruction or endangering of property, but we cannot believe that a mild celebration is out of place or deleterious to the healthful tone of college spirit. The president speaks of the "trickery condoned by a public opinion which demands victory." This is certainly not a prevalent abuse; if it exists at all it is among a very small element in our college world. The spirit of fairness and honor, of which most colleges boast, would soon frown down any "trickery"; and, if that potent factor in a college world-public opinion-frowns upon "trickery," how can it exist? In spite of all this, however, we believe with President Eliot that there is much that is rotten in our athletic system, and we call upon public opinion to eradicate that rottenness.
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GAIN OF FIFTY-NINE.