p. 7 | THE WORLD OF SPORTS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 21, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 25.

"THE WORLD OF SPORTS."

By Editor

SOME of the papers of the day have a standing department that they call "the world of sports." And under various other titles every daily paper, as well as most of the weekly papers, have their special columns devoted to the sports of the day. And not only do we have these papers that devote simply a part of their space to sports, but there are many periodicals devoted entirely to the interests of what the world calls "fun."

And if it could only be fully known just what influence this sporting craze has upon the world it would no doubt be seen that very much of the evil of this time is directly traceable to the thirst for fun. Men embezzle funds with which they have been entrusted, in order that they may bet on the races, or speculate in the stock exchange, or on some board of trade; and the object in it all is to grasp a fortune at a bound, so that they may have no stoppage in their rounds of sport. Of course they do not expect to get caught, and perhaps in the most of cases they honestly intend to restore the embezzled funds. But the honesty should commence farther back. Men should not use funds for themselves that are entrusted to them by others, and if their honesty begins there they will never be embezzlers.

The rising generation is coming up with a regular mania for sports. The solid and useful, and, withal, happiness-producing occupations are looked upon as drudgery. Young men and young women curse their fate if they have to work. What they desire is lots of wealth, so that they can spend their time at theaters, races, hunting, fishing, and at games and sports ad infinitum.

There are some who are so unfortunate as to possess this wealth, and to spend their days in useless and hilarious fun. And there are many more who do not possess wealth, and seem doomed to a life of toil, but who also are so unfortunate as to be furiously envious of the rich. They see the display of wealth that is flaunted in their faces, and they witness the rounds of pleasures in which the wealthy are engaged. And the thought comes to them continually, "If I only possessed some of this wealth, I, too, could have an easy, good time."

Thus the spirit of the love of sport is working in the world, and the harvest must soon be reaped. And an awful harvest it will be; for this spirit of fun carries with it every form of vice and debauchery. In some instances, of course, the evil of the degrading vices is concealed to a large extent from the ordinary gaze, but it is there just the same, and the very fountains of society are being polluted.

It has been the unvarying testimony of history that when a people give their time largely to luxurious feasting and gay and hilarious sports they have gone through revolutions into ruin. And what is the outlook to-day, not merely for America, but for the world? T.