TITE SUNDAY OttEGOXIAN, POTITLAXP, MAY 11, 1013
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(Pnbllibad br Plal arranKemnt with
the Outlook, of -which Thoodor Roosevelt
la tho cotitributlnr editor. Copyright. 1913,
br the Outlook Company. All rlchta re
erred. Including ricnts of tranamlatlon.)
WHEN obi I sod to live In cities, I
for a Ions time found that box
In? and wrestling enabled me to
get a (rood deal of exercise in con
densed and attractive form. I was re
luctantly obliged to abandon both as I
grew older. I dropped the wrestling
earliest. When I became Governor,
the champion middleweight wrestler of
America happened to be in Albany, and
I got hirn to come round three or four
afternoons a week. Incidentally I may
mention that his presence caused me a
difaficulty with the Controller, who re
fused to audit a' bill I put In for a
wrestling-mat. explaining that I could
have a billiard-table, billiards being
recognized as a proper Gubernatorial
amusement, but that a wrestling-mat
symbolized something unusual and un
heard of and could not be permitted.
The middleweight champion was of
course so much" better than I was that
he could not only take care of himself
but of roe too and see that I was not
hurt for wrestling Is a much more
violent amusement than boxing. But
after a couple of months he had to go
away, and he left as a substitute a
good-humored, stalwart professional
oarsman. The oarsman turned out to
know very little about wrestling. He
could not even take care of himself, not
to speck of me. By the end of our sec
ond afternoon one of his long ribs had
heen caved in and two of my short ribs
badly damaged, and my left shoulder
blade so nearly shoved out of place
that it creaked, lie was nearly as
pleased as I was when I told him I
thought we would "vote the war a
failure" and abandon wrestling. After
that I took up boxing again. "While
President I used to box with some of
the aides, as well as play singlestick
with General Wood. Aiter a few years
I had to abandon boxing as well as
wrestling, for in one bout a young cap
tain of artillery cross-countered me on
the eye, and the blow smashed the little
blood-vessels. Fortunately. It was my
left eye, but the sight has been dim'
ever since, and if it had been the right
eye I should have been entirely unable
to shoot. Accordingly I thought It bet
ter to acknowledge that I had become
an elderly man and would have to stop
boxing. I then took up Jlu-JItsu for a
year or two.
When I was in the Legislature and
was working very hard, with 'little
chance of getting out of doors, all the
exercise I got was boxing and wrestl
ing. A young fellow turned up who
was a second-rate prize-fighter, the son
of one of my old boxing teachers. For
several weeks I had him come round to
my rooms In the morning to put on the
gloves with me for half an hour. Then
he suddenly stopped, and some days
later I received a letter of woe from
him from the Jail I found that he was
by profession a burglar, and merely
followed boxing as the amusement of
M B
his lighter moments, or when business
was slack.
Naturally, being fond of boxing, I
grew to know a good many prize
fighters, and to most of those I knew
I grew genuinely attached.I-have never
been able to smypathize with the out
cry against prize fighters. The only
objection I have to the prize ring is the
crookedness that has attended Its com
mercial development. Outside of this
I regard boxing, whether professional
or amateur, as a first-class sport, and
I do not regard it as brutalizing. Of
course matches can be conducted under
conditions that make them brutalizing.
But this is true of football games and
n rm JB-
of most other rough and vigorous
sports. Most certainly prize fighting
Is not half as brutalizing or demoraliz
ing as many forma of big business and
of the legal work carried on In connec
tion with big business.
Powerful, vigorous men of strong
animal development must have some
way In which their animal spirits can
find vent. When I was Police Commls.
sloner I found (and Jacob Klls will
back me up In this) that the establish
ment of a boxing club In a tough neigh
borhood always tended to do away with
knifing and gun-fighting among the
young fellows who would otherwise
have been in murderous gangs. Many
of these" young fellows were not nat
urally criminals at all, but they had to
have some outlet for their activities. In
the same way I have always regarded
boxing as a first-class sport to encour
age in the Young Men's Christian-Association.
I do not like to see young
Christians with shoulders that slope
like a champagne bottle. Of course
boxing should be encouraged in the
Army and Navy. I was first drawn to
two naval chaplains, Fathers Chldwlck
and Rainey, by finding that each of
them had bought half a dozen sets of
boxing gloves and encouraged their
crews in boxing.
e
When I was Police Commissioner, I
heartily approved tho effort to get box
ing clubs started in New York on a
clean basis. Later I was reluctantly
obliged to come to the conclusion that
the prize ring had become hopelessly
debased and demoralized, and as Gov
ernor I aided In the passage of and
signed the bill putting a stop to profes
sional boxing for money. This was
because some of the prizefighters them,
selves were crooked, while the crowd
of hangers-on who attended and made
up and profited by the matches had
placed the whole business on a basis of
commercialism and brutality that was
intolerable. I shall always maintain
that boxing contests themselves make
good, healthy sport. It Is idle to com-f
pare them with bull-flghting; 'the bull
fighting is enough of itself to blast the
sport, no matter how great the skill
and prowess shown by tho bull-fighters.
Any sport in which the death and
torture of animals is made to furnish
pleasure to the spectators Is debasing.
There should always be the opportun
ity provided in a glove fight or bare
fist fight to stop it when one competi
tor Is hopelessly outclassed or too bad
ly hammered. But the men who take
part in these fights are hard as nails,
and it is not worth 'while to feel senti.
mental about their receiving punish
ment which as a' matter of fact they
do not mind. Of course the men who
look on ought to be able to stand up
with the gloves, or without them, them
selves; I have scant use tor the type
of sportsmanship which consists mere
ly In looking on at the feats of some
one else.
Some as good citizens as I know art
or were prizefighters. Take Mike Dono
van, of New York. He and his family
represent a typo of American citizen
ship of which we have a right to be
proud. Mike is a devoted temperance
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BY STANHOPE W. SPRIGQ.
LOXDOX May 10- (Special Corre
spondence.) No business In the
history of England has ever made
such tremendous headway In so short a
time as that of aviation. For the pur
pose of teaching man the art of birds
there are aerodromes scattered up and
down the country, the most important
of which la at Hendon. about six miles
from the heart of London.
Here an extraordinary number of pu
pils are attracted by the successes
achieved by the Graham White Avia
tion Company. Within any period from
four days to alx months they become
full-fledged aviators and. after exam
ination, receive the Royal Aero'a Club
brevet.
The fee for the course of instruction
Is 1375. except fn the case of an officer
tn the British Army, and he la taught
the secrets of the air for J300. This is
practical patriotism, for when he his
passed the Royal Aero Club's examina
tion, be gets the wliole of -this 300 re
turned to him by a grateful British
War Office.
Many of the pupils are boys under 20
healthy, wholesome looking British
lads who hate the Idea of a trade or
profession, and long to work In the
open air. They are not In the business
for amusement.
They reckon on winning races and
buying machines and Living exhibition
flights, or on traveling to distant coun
tries and opening flying schools of
their own. soon, so they believe, no
city of any size will be complete with
out its aerodrome and Its 'flying-Instructor
corps.
Later, perhaps everybody will own a
flying machine but present prospects
are quite rosy enough to go on with.
So they work in the engine shed, or
tear aloft round the aerodrome, and
feel how splendid It la to be in" a new
and young business with all its free
dom and hopes of success, and with a
future that stretches out to them long
beckoning hands aflame with the color
of gold.
Thar are, at times, "quitters,' pf
course, but they quit through laziness,
not fear, through slackness, and no(
because they, don't believe flying Is to
be one of the biggest and most profit
able careers of the future.
The art of teaching flying has now
been reduced to a system at Hendon,
and a very Interesting system it is
when explained on the spot by an ex
pert who understands all its technical
ities and yet has not forgotten its fas
cination and romance.
"The first thing, for Instance, we do'
with a pupil," said Marcus D. Man ton.
of the Aviation College, to me, "is to
take him to one of our biplanes and
to teach him the controls. Until he
has learned how the machine is guided
and steered and brought Into position
during a flight, he is not allowed to
go up. As a rule, this is taught to him
on windy days, when even a trip with
a pilot Is Impossible, but, once he has
mastered these technicalities he is al
lowed to take a passenger's flight and
to go two or three trial trips on a bi
plane, eo as to get used to being In tha
air. and to become accustomed to what
might call, for the lack of a better
term, 'the feel of the machine.'
"Afterwards, he takes up a position
behind the instructor, so that he can
keep his hand on the control lever as
It is worked by the instructor, and can
feel the different movements that
achieve different effects. For a week
or two, all his trips are taken in that
fashion In fact, until he shows that
he has grasped In practice the theories
of control that were impressed upon
him at the start. Then he is permitted
to take the aviator's seat in front, and
allowed to have charge of the ma
chine, with the Instructor behind with
his hand on the control lever to follow
his movements and to correct any mis
takes he may make in the novelty or
excitement of his flight.
i
"This portion of the training roes
on until the pupil has secured the feel
of the machine from the point of view
of the pilot and can run up and down
the grass of the aerodrome, and, that
accomplished,-he Is allowed to go out
alone. Even then he makes no atempt
at an ascent. He has to continue these
runs on the ground, which are known
as 'rolling,' until he can guide the
machine in a perfectly straight line
over a certain distance, perhaps some
400 or 500 yards. If he cn 'roll' prop
erly on the ground he can control the
machine in the air, and can manage
the rudder, and hence he Is. on his next
series of flights, permitted to do what
he usually ardently desires to leave
the earth but even then he la only
allowed at first to skim the ground in
a series of 'hops.' ,
"After a certain amount o practice
In skimming and hopping he Is allowed
to fly at a height of two feet or so,
and, very gradually, to increase the
distance from the earth till he reaches
an altitude of 500 feet, and can descend
In two semlclrcults. In the next stage
he has to practice first the left-hand
control and then the right, so that he
knows how to make sharp turns to the
left or the right, and can describe the
usual air test of figures of eight. Fol
lowing that, he masters the true vol
plane a descent with the engines cut
off but at such a pace and angle that
the equivalent speed is supplied by the
momentum of the fall. Once he reaches
that point, he is usually eligible for
examination by the Royal Aero Club
and for obtaining his brevet.
"In flying, there is practically no
sensation. All the stories about It mak
ing men deaf and i seasick are mere
moonshine. In all my experience of the
flying on this ground I - have only
known one man sick after a flight, and
he did not put it down to the machine,
but turned up the next day and went
on with the lessons without any other
mishap. As a matter of fact, the pilot
of a flying machine feels very little
sense of movement at all. He usually
gets the Impression that the machine
is absolutely still, and that It is the
earth that Is leaving him.
"Accidents seldom occur to men when
they are actually learning to fly. They
will shear' a sheep or two sometimes,
and one gentleman in a hurry crashed
through a lot of Iron railings, dashed
through, too heavy wooden doors of a
hangar, and Bmashed a machine to
pieces, but only sustained a slight con
cussion of the brain and one broken
rib. The majority of mishaps occur
through hard landings. Most pupils
are rather heavy on the pneumatic
tires of the wheels, and occasionally
they will break the supports of th
landing chassis. The vast majority,
however, get through the Course with
out any damage. You see, we teach nn
a system of control, the Henry Far
man biplane control; that is practical
ly the standard, all its movements, ex
cepting that of the rudder, being abso
lutely natural.
"The average number of hours taken
by a pupil to learn actual flying Is 60,
I picked It up In four hours and a half,
and, given favorable weather, I havs
known a pupil learn the whole busi
ness of aviation well enough to obtain
his brevet by four days' work. We fix
the course for six months to cover all
eventualities, but, as a rule, three
months will suffice even for the most
clumsy and Indifferent."
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