e same season that the
Rugby match would be played in Scotland, and _vice versa_. It might be
as well here to say that the celebrated Scotch club and the Wanderers,
then in the zenith of their fame, played a drawn game with no goals on
either side, but finding it too difficult a job to meet the Englishmen
again, they scratched. Since then, however, the Rugby and Association
Internationals take place regularly as each season comes round, in
Scotland and England alternately. It is a curious fact, and one worthy
of record, that the Scottish Rugby Football Union and the Scottish
Football Association were both constituted in the same year--viz., 1873.
The Union was formed after the International Rugby match at Glasgow, Dr.
J. Chiene, of Edinburgh, being in the chair on the occasion. The
Scottish Football Association was formed under the presidency of Mr.
Robert Gardner, the once famous goalkeeper.

The annual competition for the Association Cup, when the clubs who
entered for it the first year only numbered 16, were proceeded with in a
much more gentlemanly way than is the case now, but the reason is
obvious. Hitherto young and inexperienced clubs never dreamt of entering
against opponents with whom they knew they had no chance, and,
consequently, the competitions were left to be fought out among the
cream of exponents of the dribbling game. As each year came round,
however, and young clubs began to multiply exceedingly, many of them
considered they should have a shy at the "Cup," and as the entry-money
for membership to the Association was only a nominal sum, they competed,
and were never heard of after the first tie. No one who has watched the
progress of Association Football in Scotland can for a moment deny the
fact that the Challenge Cup has been the chief factor in assuring its
popularity and rapid development all over the Western District of
Scotland, and when its original promoters inaugurated the competition,
it was done with the honest conviction of spreading a knowledge of the
Association rules, together with generating a spirit of friendly rivalry
amongst clubs.

That it has been eminently successful in the former respect is admitted,
but I can't say the same thing so far as "friendly rivalry" is
concerned, and one has only to remember the manner in which some of the
ties are conducted to point out that the term "questionable conduct"
would be more appropriate. When I hear of men and lads deliberately
kicking o