A Western Idea of Athletics.
We clip the following without change from the Daily Palo Alto of Leland Stan ford Jr. University; the Palo Alto lipped it from a small western college paper;
"The athletic annex to a college or university involves a needless expenditure of money. Athletics almost double the expenses of the student. Where athletics have become popular in an institution, it has taken control of the institution, it has taken control of the work of that institution. All the honors are distributed among: the athletes. The man with the most muscle is the Great Mogul. To day Russell is Governor of Massachusetts, not because of his great intellect, but through the patronage of Harvard athletes. The object of college training is not to turn out Kilrains and Sullivans, but to sharpen the intellect and broaden the man. There was a day when the plumes of the knight adorned the cap that crowned the strongest knots of brawn, but that was an age coeval with bull-fights and duels. No person with refined sensibilities can look upon a modern game of foot-ball, with all its cruelly, and feel that it is in keeping with our civilization."
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Final Examinations, 1886.
