CORRESPONDENCE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 August 1910, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

4 [Our correspondents' opinions are their own; tho responsibilitj of editorial ones makes sufficient ballast for tho editor's •shoHders.l "A STIAXXOX STRIPPER" SCUTCH F.D. To the Editor. Sir,—F would like to reply to the unwarrantable aspersions put upon l>l -csent-day footballers by the. letter front "A Shannon Stripper," which you printed in The Chronicle last Friday. Your coir respondent is one of those who are ahvays calling loudly I't.r somebody to do things as nicely and cleverly as thev did — "in. their minds" -in the old (fays. It scents to me tb.tt in this district there is need I'or the appointment of an inspector of anonymous nuisances, whoso duty it would be to go around seeking to encircle the heads of such middle-aged nuisances as "A Shannon Stripper," in an unwashed jersey as old as the days they puff up! Let mo tell you st>lf-sati.s(ied flax-.••.trippi-r that \ was a senior footballer in tlio^c , far-away days ihe refers to. I had some ability too— "though 1 say it as shouldn't"—for I was picked as first emergency in a representative football toam by a sole selector for whom 1 had n.ever once shouted a drink—an unpardonable error of judgment in thoso far away days! These facts are mentioned, by me solely as proof that I have some personal knowledge and capacity of judgment, and that'l know as much about the old football days a.s your bald-headed stripper does! I have no hesitation in saying that the young men of to-day play every hit as dashing a. game of football as Mi.i).so''9-1 or "'DO." or 1904 or 1890. Tho crux of the ens*? was well put by the Georgian writer who penned the lines "The good old times—all times when old are good I" It seems to me. that your correspondent needs a liver-qiiiekeiier, or a mental cathartic, to clear his outlook and judgment. He eulogises "tho long kicks to toiuili that used to be seen!" The explanation of this lies in the fact that tho hulking forwards of h'fteen and twenty years ago were too slow to "get up" in time to hustle the backs and compel them to kick hurriedly for the nearest part of the touch-line. Your ancient stripper is peculiarly unfortunate when he witheringly asks if any "now-pusher" would have been tolerated in the scrums in tho period he extols. I would answer that with a great capital yell of YKS! There were football vampe.rs in 1890 and every other "tee." and "dred" up to r 99 and 190!). As kiiny old player who has followed tilts ball anvwliere between thy. ltick-forsake.il little village of Milton from Which your .evidently Shannon correspondent comes-and the ti'elily-terrible province of Taranaki, to which- he deserves to be sent—whether the players of the nineties were all pushers. Their answers would be vociferously negative. Why, Mr Editor, there have, been non-shovers and soldom-sweats in every team of Rugby footballers since the day when the first s:-rum was in trod need. Scarcely any representative team is picked without at least one vainper forward in it! For some years, in Weliingto.il, it was easy to get a look at photographs showing a famous Wellington scTUinmager of seventeen or eighteen years ago doing a barefaced "vamp" on the backs of his fellow forwards during a desperate tussle .with the Canterbury representative -forwards on Lancaster Park. I'll guarantee that at least a hundred middle-aged men in Wellington City remember "that picture," if not'the actual event. I would advise your Shannon stripper to stick to his flax, and allow football criticism to go by, for he is a .short-sighted person with no vision left to enable him to view the lineir points of play which make football to-day a better game than it used to be. Myron has taken occasion to say, "Great men were living before Agamemnon." To this I would add that great footballers have succeeded to "A Shannon Stripper;" and also to yours trulv, " A COSMOPOLITAN. Levin, July 29. SCGGESTTOXS TO CORRIOSPOXDEXTS. The following subjects are .suggested to readers of The Chronicle a.s matters upon which letters to the editor would bo opportune: — Progress and Settlement in the district. Educational Topics. Progress of Public Works, Xew Buildings, etc. Agricultural Operations. Florticultural and Fbriciiltural. Suggestions as to what Industries might profitably bo nndertakeji in the district. Accidents and Offences. State of Roads, Bridges, etc. Public Wants and Grievances.