Tárogató, 1939-1940 (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1939-07-01 / 1-2. szám
TÁROGATÓ 13 From “Tobacco and the Athlete” by J. Shier A man who is facing a long season of tournament play should refrain from either alcohol or tobacco in any form.” Those are the words of William T. Tilden, one of the greatest tennis players of all time. “Excesses of any kind are bad for physical condition,” Mr. Tilden wrote, and pointed out that tobacco as well as liquor hits the eyes and the wund. An English scientist made a ten-year study of the entrants in the famous threemile cross-country run held regularly at Aldershot. This type of contests is a gruelling one, and the runner who can keep up a winning place for that distance over all sorts of ground has to be in the best of shape. In all, the performances of nearly two thousand men were observed, and the results were published in the Lancet, worldfamed medical magazine. The runners included 345 non-smokers, 1,461 “moderate” smokers, and 167 “heavy” smokers, who used at least twenty sigarettes, or the equivalent in cigars or pipe tobaco daily. Of nonsmokers 18.8 per cent, were among the first ten to arrive home in the various races, while only 8.6 per cent, of the “moderates” and 6 per cent, of the “heavies” were in the charmed circle. On the other hand only 4 per cent, of the non-smokers were grouped with the last ten, as against 11.4 per cent, of moderate and heavy smokers. In short, the record of the nonsmokers was over twice as good as that of the others. The growing boy is especially subject to tobacco poisoning. It stunts his growth, irritates his heart and disturbs his stomach. Medical authorities suggest that if the boy thinks he wants to smoke, he should wait for maturity, preferably until he is twenty-five years old. Then, with developed body and mind, if the use of tobacco still seems desirable, he can make his decision with knowledge of all the facts and considerations at hand. The writer well remembers boys of his own age who grew faster than the average when about ten or eleven years old, and might have become young men of fine physique and athletic fame. But they thought it smarter and more grown-up to be ‘tough,” become members of smoking, swearing, street-corner gangs, and bully the rest of us. They scared us and we hated them, but perhaps we secretly envied them a little, too. But within a year or two, things began to change. The bullies stopped growing, and stopped for good. Tobacco, along with other bad habits that usually go with its use at that age, had begun to take toll. Its admirers became pasty-faced, clammyhanded, short of breath. They couldn’t catch us any more, and pretty soon we stopped running. After a while we were bigger than they were, and though we meant them no harm, their shifty eyes avoided ours and they sneaked down back alleys to avoid us. They were the runts now, and the school teams were not for them. If you don’t know about any cases like that, ask the school coach or friends on the senior teams about it. What you hear probably will help you to make up your mind about tobacco, at least for some years to come. “I Will Play Straight” By P. R. Hayward I hereby resolve to play the game “as straight as a string.” I will touch every base on my way around when the umpire is looking the other way the same as when he sees me. I will not crowd the rules of the game for my own advantage. I prefer to win by my strength and skill inside the regulations, rather than by a trick outside them. If, after I have done my level best, I still must come out behind, I am determined to walk off the field of defeat with my head in the air, proud of a clean game. Most of all I desire that my opponents shall say of me that I know the game and that I play it hard and well, but that I do not cheat. I will piay straight. (“Youth’s World”) OUR ENGLISH SECTION.
