Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1918 — SPORT ACTIVITIES AFTER END OF WAR [ARTICLE]

SPORT ACTIVITIES AFTER END OF WAR

Basenall, Football and Boxing, Will Have Larger Following. Instruction Given in Various Camps, Sure to Develop Many Devotees of Sport, Who Have Never Be- ’ fore Been Interested. Baseball, boxing and football are going to have larger followings after the war than they have today. > That this will be true In baseball particularly is the prediction of many men high up in the game, and it has been pointed out by followers of boxing that the instruction being given the soldiers in all of Uncle Samuel’s training camps will develop thousands of devotees of the manly art who have never before been interested. Football, which has been growing by leaps and bounds within the past five years, may not gain many active participants through the formation of training camp elevens, but it will certainly gain in popularity. At Close of Civil War. The pathway to success for, present day baseball in the United States was opened wide with the close of the Civil war. Hundreds of soldiers returned from the battlefields on which the blue nnd gray armies fought their many great conflicts hardened through the rigors of service in the open and demanding some form of sport competition, or, at least, recreation, upon which to center their interest and in which those who brought youth back with them could find active exercise.

From the ending of the Civil war to the present day baseball has been gaining in popularity. It has suffered several rude shocks owing to Internal strife, but as an attraction which gained and held public interest it has de* veloped wonderfully. Ask Red-Blooded Recreation. With thousands of Uncle Sam’s soldier boys equipped w’ith baseball, boxing and football paraphernalia while in the service, thousands of young bloods coming on who will demand redblooded recreations and pastimes on a larger scale than ever before and the country at large weary of death-deal-ing conflicts and grateful for the chance to relax, sports should thrive on a greater scale than ever. Sports will be encouraged in every way possible by the government, too. President Wilson, Secretary of War Baker and many of our lawmakers at Washington, have openly expressed the opinion that health-giving sports should be encouraged and continued throughout the length and breadth of the land, even In war times.