ness of purpose. To the young cad, who can think of nothing but
the colour of his latest pair of kid gloves, or the check of his newest
acquisition in the shape of fashionable trousers, all out-door amusement
is considered an interminable bore, the game of Football has, of course,
no charm. There is too much hard work for him, and the training required
to put one in condition, fraught with all that is called self-denial, he
could never endure. The musty old duffer, too, looks upon the game in
the light of a deadly sin, which can never be associated in his mind
with anything short of idiocy and the most virulent fanaticism. To some
of his young men he remarks--"And you call that a grand game, running
about a field trying to put a ball near a pair of upright posts, and
knocking the first lad down who attempts to retard your progress! Do you
call that manly, eh? Would anyone but a pure lunatic run the chance of
getting his shins cut, or collar-bone dislocated, indulging in such
work, and donning coloured stockings and fantastic shirt the while to
make the matter all the more absurd!" He seems to forget that "all work
and no play makes Jack a dull boy," and the real meaning of a dull boy
and a dull man is irregularity and vexation in the counting-house and
office. There are amusements and amusements, and recreations and
recreations, but I know of none adapted for the winter months which can
be so cheaply indulged in, with so much profit to health, as Football.
Accidents do happen occasionally, I admit, but they are exceedingly few
when the number of young men engaged in the game is taken into account,
combined with the fact that, last year, some of the leading Association
matches were played much more roughly than in previous years, it is an
astonishing fact that no fatal accident occurred in Scotland. There are,
of course, many, if the whole truth must be written, whom the exciting
and manly game has failed to touch by its magic and fascinating
influence, but they should not be courted, and fortunately their
patronage is neither sought nor needed, for they are the men most to be
avoided on a wintry Saturday afternoon while one is on his way to see an
exciting "cup tie." Depend upon it, they will allure you to some haunt
where the language is not even so choice as where the "final" is being
played between two leading clubs.

I am fully convinced that when the game was first improved and adapted
to stand side by side with oth