There is nothing ambiguous about Mr. Curran's statement as quoted above. He says clearly that the money value of the medals at the winter games was not great enough for a certain class of New York school-boy athletes to contest for, and that these same individuals are not going to spend their valuable time and energy in running races for less than a certain weight of gold or silver. I do not see how much nearer to professionalism these boys can get without being thrown out body and baggage from the society of amateurs. It is well if they do keep away from the National Interscholastic meeting. Such medal-hunters are not wanted, and the sooner they can be detected by the officers of the Association and prevented from mingling with the true and sportsman like element among school-boy athletes, the better will it be for athletics in this city.
The New Manhattan Athletic Club, or rather its athletic directors, were considerably surprised, I know, at the attitude taken by this semi-professional element among the New York school-boys. It had been their intention to offer a valuable trophy in the form of a cup, to be contested for on this occasion, in addition to individual medals, and they had even gone so far as to consult with the President of the National Association concerning the order for this cup. But when they found that their interest in school-boy athletics was apparently unappreciated, they gave up the idea entirely.
Fortunately the success or failure of the National Meet does not depend upon the entries from the New York Association, and we may well rejoice if a lot of medal-hunters keep away. Strong teams will come down from Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and there will be representatives from New Jersey, and probably from other leagues, and the sport will be good and clean, and the races will not be run with the sole idea of getting money value in prizes at the end, but for the sake of the honor of winning on that day—of the glory of sport for sport's sake.
At the recent Olympian Games the prizes were olive wreaths—plain, ordinary vegetable growth; worth, say, ten cents a bushel, with perhaps fifty wreaths to the bushel. And yet those dried branches brought home from Greece by the American winners are worth more to them than any yellow metal they can get here. The young men who talk of remaining away from the National meet, because the weight of the medals is not great enough to suit their tastes, would do well to reflect on this: there is a greater object in life than the collecting of medals.
The New England Interscholastic baseball season is practically closed, although there are a number of games yet to be played. But Brookline has won the championship, having played all its scheduled matches, and having won each of them. In the last game Brookline defeated English High 6-0. Brookline played excellent ball both in the field and at the bat, but E.H.-S. was weak all around. Some of the features of the game were Nettleton's stop of Manning's hard hit in the fifth inning, Wise's clever throw from centre to third in the eighth, putting out Cronin, and the heavy hatting of Lewis and Parker. A review of the whole baseball season will be made in this Department as soon as space enough becomes available.
C. S. D., Bayonne, N.J.—Any interscholastic association composed of at least two schools may join the National Interscholastic Association upon applying for membership. The field meeting this year will be on June 20, and is the first one ever held by the Association, which was formed only last December.
The Graduate.
ILL-TEMPERED BABIES
are not desirable in any home. Insufficient nourishment produces ill temper. Guard against fretful children by feeding nutritious and digestible food. The Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk is the most successful of all infant foods.—[Adv.]