The Northern Guardian. — 1892-11-24 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

ALDERSON ON FOOTBALL.  Mr F. H. R. Alderson, B. A., captain of the Naglish international football team, delivered a lecture cm Rugby Football yesterday evening, at the Temperance Hall, Hartlepool, in aitl of the hinds of Holy Trinity Parish. The Rev. E Shaw presided over a gathering of fair dimensions, and o,ong those present were the Mayor (Councillor E. siiey), the 3layoresB, Councillor Hunter, &c. The CHAIRMAN, in introducing the lecturer, alluded in eulogistic terms to Mr Alderson's position as a football player. mr ALDERSON, in the course of an extremely interesting address, lasting about forty minutes, said that his reason for delivering the lecture was a &sire to increase knowledge of the game as a scientific form of pastime. He proceeded to criticise some statements made in an article contained in a recent number of the Nisetetodh Century, in which football was severely attacked, and traversed many of the statements contained therein. The present was a very critical period in the history of the game, owing to the many internal disputes and disagreeseuts 1,; Hell were taking place. The game, however, notwithstanding all the  . CRITICISMS which were levelled against it was one which was thoroughly well worth playing. It was absolutely necessary that there should be some form of healthy recreation for the young, and he contended that football was one of the best that could be obtained for them. Then, again, football was a pastime especially well fitted for the masses, because it could be procured at a cost lower than almost any other game of similar standing, while in its exercise were called forth some of the best qualities of human nature—pluck, determination, goodtemper, and temperate habits, being all thorough essentials to the making of a successful player. The game, in fact, tended to produce a race of robust. men with active habits, manly sympathies, and exuberant spirits. Moreover, one of the prime elements of success in football was the spirit of unseltishnesis. The game had a tendency to bring the masses and the classes together, because, in the same team were nearly always to be found men of  WIDELY DIFFERENT stations in life, yet all united by their common love of the pastime. In tmany ways football was used for thebaurpose of benefiting charities, and clubs were always found ready and willing to organise benefit matches in aid of any deserving institution. Dealing further with the objections urged against football, the lecturer mentioned the dangers which were said to exist in the practice of it. He contended, however, that whatever may have been the dangers which attended football in the old days, the change which had taken place in the rules of the game in the direction of rendering it more scientific had destroyed a great deal of the danger, and that though there might be accidents now and then they were almost invariably due to rough play, and that in fact football was no worse than any other sport in this respect. Certainly there was far more danger to the bar loafer and billiard player of injury to health than to the athlete who indulged in lanai an exercise as football. Alluding to the existence of rough play, the lecturer said that there was no necessity for it. and the man who went on to a football field with the deliberate intention of doing serious injury to an opponent ran great risk, if any fatal result occurred, of being charged with murder, and duly punished for it. Another disadvantage which was said to attach to football was that a serious  WASTE OF TIME was often caused by the necessity for training. A great authority on the subject stated, however, that if a man were already in the wholesome and vigorous condition in which all men ought to live, all the daily exercise he need take to keep himself in training would consist -of ten minutes' skip, ten minutes with the dumb-bells, and a hundred yards sprint, so that the time spent would amount to very little. He contended that on the whole the advantages of football very greatly outweighed its disadvantages. The lecturer next dealt with the history of football, and pointed out that it was a game of very great antiquity. The Roman pastime of " harpastium " was really a species of football, for it included such features of the modern game as the "scrummage" and the carrying of the ball. The playing of football in the streets of Sedgefield and Chester-le-Street on Shrove Tuesdays was also a very ancient custom, and doubtless a relic of days still further hack. There was also a tradition attached to a parish in Midlothian that the married women played the single at football. The first