COLLEGE ATHLETICS AND PROFESSIONALISM.

The following editorial appears in the New York Times: "The remarks of President Eliot of Harvard, in his annual report, on inter-collegiate athletic contests have caused a good deal of comment. One journal in this city sagely says that probably no Harvard student ever thought seriously of becoming a professional baseball player or oarsmen. That may be true to a certain extent, but some Harvard men, nevertheless, have accepted money for their services as ball-players or boating men. Tyng, the famous catcher of Harvard, several years ago played a number of games with the Bostons, and Mr. Bancroft, the ex-captain of the Cambridge crew, a young lawyer at the "Hub." receives pay for coaching every spring the wearers of the crimson at New London, in the annual race with Yale. Some other eastern colleges, however, have sinned in this respect more than Harvard. Yale kept her skirts clean until last year, but last summer Jones and Hubbard, the pitcher and catcher of her champion nine, helped the Athletics to win the America. Association championship, and Smith, the centre-fielder, played with the Bostons who were first in the League contests. Ward, the pitcher of the New Yorks, was once a student at the University of Pennsylvania, and he has talked seriously recently of giving up baseball and going back to finish his course. Humphries, who caught for the League team here the last season, is a Cornell man, and Mountain who has been pitching for a Western club, was a student at Union. Richmond, the left-banded pitcher, was a Brown man, and, when he joined the Worcesters first the college catcher went with him. The Brown pitcher some years back, Saulsbury, played with professional clubs for several years, and a representative of Princeton, a gentleman with the euphonious name of Funkhouser, was for some time with the St. Louis team. These are only a few instances in which college athletes have turned their skill to profit; probably if a complete record had been kept twenty-five or thirty cases of this sort could be cited. That is a remarkably large number, when we consider that professional base-ball playing has practically been in existence only about fifteen years and that there are only ten or fifteen colleges that have good nines, and when we remember that all the instincts and surroundings of a college man would tend to dissuade him from becoming a professional athlete." As an interesting commentary on the above in showing what influences are sometimes brought to bear on college students we print the following telegraphic item: "Prof. Edward Hitchcock, Jr., of Amherst College, has been appointed by the trustees of Cornell University professor of physical culture and hygiene. It is probable that compulsory gymnastics will be required of the lower classes. It is stated that the engagement of Prof. P. McClellan, of New York City, who was appointed to the chair a year ago, has been broken because within a week after his appointment he accepted a challenge to a prize-fight for the light-weight championship of America, and the proceeding could not be tolerated by the trustees of the university."