Upon the defence, the quarter with the other two backs form a kind of second rush-line. The play of the quarter-back on the defence, unless some special assignment is made him, is that of a free lance, a pirate to mix up things generally and break through where he is least expected. He generally stands behind the centre, and the moment the play starts, takes the nearest hole. Oft-times the guard and centre can make a hole to let the quarter through.
When an individual enters a competition which is held by any association for the purpose of determining which player has the strongest claim, by reason of his skill, to represent that association at a competition to be held by some other (and, usually, greater) organization at some future date, he takes upon himself, as a man of honor, the obligation, in case he wins, of representing the first body in the contest to be held by the second body. This more or less ethical and undoubtedly wordy definition I hope is clear; but in case it is not, let me put it in another and possibly more colloquial way: If the Scholastic School holds a golf tournament for the purpose of selecting a man to represent the Scholastic School at the University College golf tournament, every man who enters the Scholastic School tournament pledges himself (in spirit, of course, he being an honorable amateur), in case he is a winner, to appear and compete, to the best of his ability, at the University College golf tournament as the representative of his school.
In other words, any person who wins at a preliminary event, and fails to fulfil at the final contest the obligations he has thus assumed, is guilty of a breach of faith. He is guilty of a breach of faith unless he is physically unable to stand the bodily strain of the contest he has entered for, and in such a case he should at once notify both the body he represents (that it may send a substitute if it chooses) and the officers of the organization for whose competition he is entered, that the latter may not be placed in a false position toward the public and the other competitors.
Mr. C. W. Beggs, of the Lawrenceville School, entered the Princeton Interscholastic Tennis Tournament as a representative of Lawrenceville—and won. By this victory Mr. Beggs became Princeton's representative at the National Interscholastic Tennis Tournament to be held at Newport, and accepted the obligation and responsibility of representing Princeton on that occasion, just as fully and as unequivocally as a football-player or a baseball-player accepts the responsibility of playing his position in the final match game of the season when he earns a place on his school's eleven or nine. Mr. Beggs did not fulfil his obligations toward Princeton. He did not appear at Newport on the day of the tournament, and, so far as I am able to learn, he did not notify the officers of the national event of his intended and perhaps entirely unavoidable absence.
By acting in this manner he disarranged the programme of the national event, he lessened the interest in the play of the tournament, and he deprived Princeton of a possible victory. It is possible that Mr. Beggs was prevented by illness from appearing on the courts at Newport, but illness alone can be accepted as a valid excuse for his absence. Having undertaken to be present, not travels nor "occasions of a life-time" should have kept him away—should have allowed him to break his faith.
These few words are not aimed in censure at Mr. Beggs. He is not alone in such conduct. But he is a vivid example of an unsportsmanlike act (unsportsmanlike unless he had the excuse of illness, and, even so, inconsiderate if he did not notify the National L.T.A., and it does not appear that he did), and the ethics of sport can only be taught to most of us by the display of a striking example. The interests of interscholastic sport may best be maintained by a strict adherence to obligations assumed.
"TRACK ATHLETICS IN DETAIL."—Illustrated.—8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.
The Graduate.