Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/487

You shall give the foeman all his due,
⁠And let him win if he can;
But keep all rights that belong to you,
⁠For that is the law of man.
You shall hold the ground that is yours by right,
⁠And yield not a foot you have trod.
But grant his right in a stand-up fight,
⁠For that is the law of God.

If you row with the crew in the boat,
⁠It's a wretched thing to spy.
There's plenty of work when you leave the float,
⁠But little to do for the eye.
There's plenty to do to swing and slide,
⁠And steady the fragile shell;
But to gain your strength from the other side
⁠Is a method sent from hell.

No man shall yield on the foot ball field
⁠Till the final whistle sounds.
No man shall show by a single blow
⁠That he has no place on the grounds.
But when the foe is in racking pain
⁠And cannot move or fight,
You shall help him up to his feet again,
⁠And chafe his bruise and bind his strain,
To show the make of your own good grain,
⁠For that is fair and right.

The strength of the team, or nine, or crew
⁠Is not the strength of the "star."
'Tis what the body together can do
⁠That carries the victory far.
So you shall give your mite to the rest
⁠To bring the whole team through,
And then at the time of your single test
⁠They shall give their strength to you.

And these are the laws of the athlete,
⁠You can heed them or not, as you like,
But they make the code of the runner fleet,
⁠And they check a man when he'd strike.
They tell you how to lay your plan,
⁠And how to carry it through.
They help the man, who's done what he can,
⁠To bear his Waterloo.