The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-28
Football and Recruiting

 who may be affected.
 Football and Recruiting
 Whatever the authorities may believe the decision of the football association to go on with it's programme of profess sional football Is a popular one with the youth of this country, both in and out of the army. The fascination of this game for the English. especially those or the lower middle class, can be compared With nothing in the United States. The base ball craze isn't a patch on 1t. have been 125 900 spectators al a big match Ut the Crystal Palace and thousands of others turned away because there was no more room in the grounds. Gates of 6o.0Go or 70, 900 are not at all unusual.
 Many of the men at the front and many of those in training are more interested fin the results of the various matches played N England every Saturday than they are in the progress of the war. The first thing wounded soldier in a London hospital asks for on a Sunday morning is a paper containing the football results of the previous days play Tens of thou sands of the troops in training are to be found among the spectators of the big matches and the abandonment of the programme would be a serious deprivation in a country where there is all too httle diversion.
 Just what anyone hopes to gain by the closing of the football grounds no one seems to know. Of course, 1t grates on the nerves of many people when they see men playing football while thousands of men are losing their lives in a life and death struggle In the north of France. l But the closing of the football grounds l is not going to force anyone Into the army except a few of the players and attend ants And to force men into the army by I deliberately throwing them out Of em- ployment is at total variance with the I spirit of volunteer service by which the government swears None of the specta- tors is going to join simply because he l can no longer go to a football match on l Saturday afternoon and the attempts 1 made by speechmaking at various grounds 1 to arouse the spectators to a sense of l their countrys danger demonstrate pretty l thoroughly that these young men have made up their minds not to enlist.
 Rumor Factory Busy
 1 The rumor factory has been busy this 1 week. One of the most startling of it's products is that Zeppelin has been shot downin Essex, near Shoeburyness and is l being guarded by a number of British | troops. number of persons are ready to 1 swear that they have seen it. What they may have seen is one of the British naval | airships which are now stationed neal l Shoebtiryness Another rumor which has been tackled on to the mishap to the Audac cious, which was damaged by a. mine more than month ago. is that the King l Edward XII, super dreadnought. has also been damaged and is in dock al Portsmouth. It may or may not be true 1 If it is the censorship win let us know on its own good time. It has not lei l us know yet about the Audacious, al. though the news has spread all ove the country by word of mouth The shir I ......is now at Birkenhead refitting, and i' nearly ready for sea again.
 II Japs In Europe
 II am informed on excellent authority not mere rumor this time-that Japan csc army is on its way over the trans II Siberian railway to help the Russians and that large number of Japanes guns are coming by sea to reinforce tn
 French. It is supposed that the Jap
 will be used to fight the Turks in Asi;
 Minor as it was stated at the beginning
 of the war that the Japs would no fight in Europe. There was no agree
 ment to this effect, however, and ther
 is nothing to prevent the Mikado's sol diers from helping their allies in an of the fields of battle.
 Lighthearted Volunteers
 There are lot of good stories goin
 round about some of the newly forme
 volunteer corps which are being organ
 ized solely for home defense. Of cours
 the great majority of them compose
 of men who want to do serious service , but there are some that seem to be in tended merely to allow a few people t
 pose in military uniform. In one c
 these a man whom I know was mad
 a sergeant. He had no military trainin
 at all. and he was asked why he ha
 been promoted so quickly. 'Oh, the
 made me a sergeant because I own motor car" replied in all innocence 'Yes
 and if you had owned steam yacht
 suppose you would have been bloom ! Ing field marshal by this time.' was tn
 comment.
 The courage of the French colore
 troops has been beyond all question, pr
 they have been shaky and uncertain g times especially under shell fire. I'll
 Turcos. I am told, have been simpl
 wiped out and the Senegalese are sti fighting bravely and losing heavily.
 An officer who returned from the froT
 a couple of days ago tells me that Gei oral French has put on about 9 pound