ll," continued Doctor Proctor presently, "is a fine game. It's
fun to play and it's a wonderful thing to train a fellow's body and
mind. I've heard lots of folks object to it on various scores, but I've
never heard an objection yet that carried any weight. More often than
not those who run football down don't know the game. Why, if it did no
more than teach us obedience and discipline it would be worth while. But
it does far more than that. It gives us strong, dependable bodies, it
teaches us to think--and think quick, and it gives us courage, physical
and moral. I'm going to tell you of an incident that I witnessed only a
few weeks since if you'll let me. I fear I'm taking up too much
time----"

There were cries of "No, no!" and "Go ahead!"

"I'll try to be brief. Last Fall I was travelling on a train out my way,
to be exact some eighty miles west of Cincinnati, when we had an
accident. A freight train was slow about taking a side track and we came
along and banged into it. It was about five o'clock in the morning and
most of the passengers were asleep. A wreck's a nasty thing in any case,
but when it happens at night or before it is light enough to see it is
worse. The forward cars of our train and the freight caught fire from
the engines, and there was a good deal of loose steam around, and things
were pretty messy for awhile. There happened to be another doctor on the
train and, as soon as we got our bearings, we started a first-aid camp
alongside the track. Some of the passengers, mostly in the day coaches
up front, were badly burned and we had our hands full.

"There is always more or less confusion in an affair of that sort and
it was some minutes after the accident before the rescue work got under
way. But one of the first rescuers I noticed was a young chap, a boy in
fact, probably about seventeen years old. He didn't have a great deal
on, I remember, but he was certainly Johnny-on-the-spot that morning! It
was he who brought the first patient to me, a little dried-up Hebrew
peddler I judged him, who had been caught under some wreckage in the
forward day-coach. He had a broken forearm and while I was busy with him
I saw this young chap climbing in and out of windows and wading through
wreckage and always coming out again with someone. How many folks he
pulled away from the flames and the scalding steam I don't know, but I
never saw anyone work harder or more--more efficiently. Yes, efficiently
is just the wor