Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, July 28, 1924, Page 2

Je pl w st at H ac hi te ct n 2 — —— nec Ted RE ae Some Features of the Modern Revival Would Make Ancients Stare in Wide- t Eyed Wonder: OR the first time after such an F event,” wrote the founder aft- er the last Olympiad at Ant- werp in 1920, “I can take up my pen without feeling the necessity of ex- Plaining what an Olympiad is.” Yet there is many a man im the street who thinks the Olympiad is a automobile. Founded 1596, It is to Baron Plerre de Coubertin that we owe a revival of the old Olympics. While a yery young man as a pupil of the Jesuits at their ex- clusive school in Paris and later as a cadet at St. Cyr. De Coubertin brooded over conditions in his be- loved France. He felt that the in- troduction into French education of pedagogical sports would bring a needed stability of character, dis- cipline, ‘training and powers of in- itiative. He studied the schools of England previous to the time Arnold Fs ster at Rugby and substituted-clean, manly sports for the regime of brute force and tyranny of the strong over the small and puny which had been character- istic of England’s schools up to this time. Gradually both morals and became POISONOUS DYES OME, present methods of dyeing S shoes “while you wait" are a menace to public health,-ac- cording to Drs. C. W. Mueblberger and A. S. Loevenhart, of the depart- ment of pharmacology and toxicol- Ogy of the University of Wisconsin, who report several cases of aniline poisoning due to the improper use of leather dyes which have come to their attention during the past six months, “There are shoe shining.parlors which advertise ‘Shoes dyed while you wait,’ and-there have been re- ports of cases'where the dye was ap: Dlied to shoes while they were on,” declared Dr. Muehlberger. “Dyes containing aniline or nitrobenzene. should be allowed to dry at least 24 hours before the shoes are worn, “The only way ;the present method of dyeing may he made safe and foolproof is by remoying the highly dangerous poisons, which are realily absorbed through: the skin.”” Analyses of threo leather dyes ob- tainable on the local market showed dyestuff (nigresine or aniline black), 6 to 10 per cent; ethyl alcohol, 50 to 65>per cent; aniline or nitrobenzene, 23 to 40 per cent. The symptoms which follow the absorption of nitrobenzene or aniline show within a few hours after put- ting on a pair of freshly dyed shoes. The person becomes blue at the lips and fingernails. This cyanosis be- comes deeper until the whole face and body assumes a bluish or purplish hue. morale improved under the new re- sime, and de Coubertin spared no effort to bring competitive sports to France and to the world at large. The first of the modern Olympics was held at Athens, Greece—a most fitting spot—in 1896. Since that time both interest and attendance have rapidly increased. Serve Without Pay. It must be borne in mind that these athletes compete without re- compeyse other than honor. No pro- fessionals are allowed to compete, nor would they, when the sonly re- ward of the winner, i long months of strenuous trainthg he has undergone is the silver or bronze medal and the diploma with which he is presented. “For the honor of our country and for the glory of the sport!” With these ringing words he takes the pledge, and behind it is much of the ; spirit of chivalry with which knights of old-rode forth to tournament and joust. It is a spirit whose value can not be over-estimated in a com- mercial age such as ours. No na- tion can go down to decay while it holds a vital interest in athletic: Our schools and colleges recognize this and give them a place of im- portance in the school curriculum. The young man or woman: who learns to “compete without hate; lose and yet smile; win and, be gra- cious,” has acquired one of life’s greatest lessons. In the presence of women among’ the contestants the modern games offer a striking contrast to the old Greek events, which women were not even allowed to attend. Surely the old Greek athletes must turn over in their graves to see these bobbed- haired young women competing with all the agility and dexterity of the male athletes! The original contests took place between dawn and dusk of a single Summer's day, An Olympic Victory, Prof. William Milligan Sloane, Princeton, member International Olymple Committee since 1895, has some very interesting things to say about the” old Greek events. His contrasts. of the rewards received are espcially striking. “Honors which seem tous preposterous were paid to a conqueror, whatever his walk in life. The Olympic crown itself was a simple wreath of wild olive culled with religious ~ cere- monies, But very different was the victor's reward on his return honie. Mounted in a chariot drawn by four white horses, clad in a mantle of Tyrian purple, surrounded by friends and relatives, accompanied by a vast concourse of fellow-citizens, the victorious athlete entered the city through a breach made in the walls for that purpose, to signify that a MANTEMTMAY OTN ayillth ght i) Ve POR town with such inhabitants no ramparts. “In some instances there was even given to them,the right of ‘Sitesis,’ free subsistence for life, Their mon- ey rewards were for three centuries exorbitant. Think of what they must’ have been when we find Solon limit~ ing their cash gratuity to 500 drachmae, and a high-sounding title was theirs for life. The value of the Attic drachmae was about 17. cents, but a single one would buy a sheep or an ox.” Worth winning in those days, wasn't it? Think of what 500 times the price of a sheep and an ox would be today. It is human nature to bow down before the man who performs a feat of strength, endurance, or daring, needed J@hn B. Kelly told of being unable to dress for two hours after his victory in the 1920 Olympiad, “I had to slgn everybody's program in Belgium. Jist when I thought I was ready to make my getaway a delegation came up from another club and asked if I wouldn't do the honor of accept- ing their club colors. They took me to the club in a machine; still in rowing clothes, and I was treated to one of the rarest experiences of my life, It took me ten minutes, with the help of a squad of gendarmes, to push through the crowd to the machine, and when I reached the car I didn't have all my clothes, as they like souvenirs.” Nearly every great winter could give a somewhat simi- lar experience. “WHY SHOULD | ¢ CRY OVER YOU?” — lympic Games Then and The first Olymplads were merely a tryout between runners, the length of the stadium. In the eighteenth the pentathlon was introduced, jump, Sprint, discus and javelin throwing and wrestling. In the tiwenty-third there was boxing with the terrible cestus, of leather and lead; gory an- cestor of the modern brass knuckle. The Marathon runner was not orlg- inally an Olympiad contestor, but a youth who sprinted 26 miles after Now “of my plan to reorganize the Olym- . Hardy men, these, and in the pink YY, Greeks Even Reckoned Their Time by Olympiads the battle of Marathon to carry news of the victory, after which he fell - dead, “As soon as M. Michel Breal heard pic Games,” says de Coubertin, “he offered to donate a silver cup to the runner able to repeat the classic feat, without dying as a result, Ey- eryone knows how the first race was won in 1896 by a shepherd boy from Finland, named Spiridion Louys, who had insisted upon fasting two whole days and spending the night in prayer before holy pictures. The third winner, an Italian, after reaching the goal, faced the aston- ished onlookers and made a double somersault to prove that his feet were still in good condition. He was followed by a Belgian, who made an extra round carrying a kind of shield with the national colors.” => of condition, when we remember that @g the course was tho historical dis- tance of 12 kilometers. It was by means of this special training that the Greek figure reach- ed its high state of perfection, The Greeks always believed the male fig- ure to be more symmetrical than the female. Tiis athletic strength and grace has been immortalized by the statues of that time, notably that of Hermes, who was considered a per- fect type of Greek athlete., Inherited Characteristics Subject to Change OMPLETE transformation .. of an adult female pigeon into a fully developed male bird, in- that all man’s inherited and mental characteristics may be considered gs subject to change and control, has. recently been announced by Dr. Oscar Rid- dle, of the research staff of the Car- negie Institution, “ The bird was a female blond ring dove, and at the beginning it was a normal female like thousands of other doves and pigeons which have been studied in the institution's sta- tion’ for experimental evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, L, I, during the C dicating bodily bast 13 years, She laid 11 eggs be- tween January 27 and April 15, 1914. These eggs were carefully ex- amined and details concerning them recorded. A few months later the bird began to act lke a male. After the last eggs Were laid, the evidence indicates that tuberculosis began to destroy the fomale gland of this bird. . Forty-four months after this bird laid her first egg she died. The autopsy showed advanced tuberculo- sic infection of the spleen, liver and other organs. No female glands were found, hut two well-formed glands in their normal position were present. “Tha result clearly indicates that the hereditary basis of no bodily or mental characteristics may de con- sidered as irrevocably fixed and un- controllable,” Dr, Riddle said. As one of these characteristics, known to be hereditary and normally to be con- trolled through the so-called “chro- mosomes” of the germ cell, has been shown to-be capable of a reversal to the alternate form, it becomes whol- ly probable that all hereditary char- acteristics of every human being and of every organism are cppable of re- versal and modification. Sang these pretty maids—college girls who chose the kitchen as the scene of their endeavors to add to their incomes—when thoy had to peel onions. And so they wore raw potatoes in their mouths to keep the fumes away, and then they had to hang up signs on themselves to answer the thousand and one questions of th os rates baby lion in the Oakland, California, Zoo, being fed by H, A. Snow, ‘a famous African er. curious who watched the novel line-up, The way to rise above the disappointment is to fix our eyes not on others’ or our own failures, but on the mark, and press toward that. ‘ —HLW. Foote ‘ \den (Fleonings~