Harper's Round Table, February 16, 1897

by Various

The seventh hole is an easy one, the only obstacle being a good-sized mound with a small ditch back of it. The most difficult hole on the whole course, however, is the eighth. One of the principal dangers is that of going over the fence to the left, and there is also the chance of going over the fence which lies to the right, as the hole itself lies in a small lane between the two, and consequently considerable skill is necessary to place the ball in the proper position.

THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL GOLF COURSE.

The last hole is by no means an easy one, either, inasmuch as there are a fence at the start, a brook just this side of the green, and a swamp on the further side. There has been a great deal of interest displayed in golf at Hotchkiss during the past year, and a large number of the students have taken up the game with energy. Some good scores have been made over the course, and doubtless next spring there will be a tournament to settle the championship of the school.

Athletics seem to be taking a new lease of life in Chicago, and the high-school sportsmen are developing an unusually clean and healthy spirit, the greatest evidence of which is their determination to overcome all the obstacles that lie in their way, and to try to do the best they can with such advantages as they have. The schoolboys made an application to the authorities of the University of Chicago for the use of the college gymnasium, but as this has been refused, a number of the schools have had to look elsewhere for training quarters.

The Englewood athletes have announced philosophically that they will do as they did two years ago—that is, they will train out in the street if they cannot get any other place. This is made necessary because Englewood has no gymnasium or any room in the school that can be used as such. Hyde Park High-School has, without exception, the best school gymnasium in the West, and will therefore probably not feel the deprivation of being forbidden the university gymnasium so much as will some of the other schools.

The Hyde Park gymnasium is not by any means large, but it is well equipped and has an excellent running track. South Division H.-S. will have to follow Englewood's heroic example by resorting to the public streets for training quarters, and mighty lively training quarters will they have, for two of the streets bounding the block on which the school is located have street railways running through them, and tracks are about to be laid through the street on which the school-house faces. The pupils of the school have gotten up a petition, which has been sent to the High-School Board, begging that a new school-house, more favorably located, and with greater conveniences (including a gymnasium, of course) be provided for them.

In regard to the facilities that the high-school boys of Chicago have for athletics, it is to be noted that a great many students who have gone out from the South Division H.-S. to other schools have won distinction on the teams of the latter, whereas the South Division teams very seldom achieve any success in athletics. The general opinion, consequently, is that, owing to the lack of facilities and advantages offered to the students of South Division, the teams which represent the school are not nearly so good as they might be under other circumstances.

What prompted the high-schools to petition the authorities of the university for the use of the gymnasium this year was that last year the schoolboys were allowed to train there between the hours of two and four in the afternoon, and a large number of young athletes from Hyde Park, Englewood, South Division, Chicago Manual, and even from Lake View, took advantage of the opportunity of working there, and as a result the athletic teams the next spring were all of an unusually high standard.

The reason given by the University of Chicago for refusing the use of the gymnasium to the schools this year is that there was too much crowding on the track by the runners, and that the galleries were kept too full of spectators. This is a very good reason, of course; but it would seem, nevertheless, that if the gymnasium was given up to the schools entirely between the hours of two and four, it could make no difference to the college men how much the school athletes crowded one another on the track, nor how many of their fellows congregated in the galleries to watch them. I can readily understand, however, that if the gymnasium was not entirely given up to the high-school lads—if the college men intended to use the track and the floor at the same time—there would naturally be a good deal of crowding, and the vigorous methods of the younger athletes would probably prove annoying to those who considered that the youngsters were intruders.