Pokračování textu ze strany 13
It is this last that is turning so many thoughtful ones against baseball, football, etc. This, it will be seen, is a reproduction of the condition that ended in the fall of Rome. In her days of growth, every man was a soldier; in the end, a few great gladiators were in the arena, to be watched and applauded by the millions who personally knew nothing at all of fighting or heroism.
Degeneracy is the word.
To combat the system that has turned such a large proportion of our robust, manly, self-reliant boyhood into a lot of flatchested cigarette-smokers, with shaky nerves and doubtful vitality, I began the Woodcraft movement in America. Without saying as much, it aimed to counteract the evils attendant on arena baseball, football, and racing, by substituting the better, cleaner, saner pursuits of Woodcraft and Scouting. Its methods were fairly successful; at least 100,000 young people joined. But the idea, as enlarged by General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, has in less time achieved greater popularity in England; the results have been such that we are justified in adopting his innovations.
