r "infant love began." Were it not, in fact, that Caledonia is
at times so "stern and wild," and that football and frost can never
flourish together, the game would be far more extensively patronised by
the fair sex. At a cup tie or an International match, it is quite a
common thing to see the Convener of an adjacent county,[A] the city
magnate, the suburban magistrate, the Free Kirk minister, and the
handsome matronly lady, standing side by side with the horny-handed
mechanic, the office-boy, the overgrown schoolboy, and the Buchanan
Street "swell." They all watch the game and surroundings in their own
particular way. I once heard a quaint, but nevertheless true, idea of
how some of the more familiar visitors give way to a certain failing,
which in itself can scarcely be called such, but is not unfrequently
looked upon with amazement by the stranger. The Scotchman, it is said
somewhere, is not so much respected for the manner in which he goes
about a thing as the way in which he does it, and the remark, when
applied to this particular case, will be all the more potent. Here it
is:--"Where are you going to howl to-morrow (the query is put on
Friday), Jack?" "Oh! the Queen's and Vale, of course; they will have a
close thing of it, and there will be rare fun," says Jack. "Old Anderson
was very indignant last Saturday, and declares that he will never stand
near me again at any such matches. He was quite ashamed of my howling,
and positively charges me with digging my thumbs into his ribs, and
nearly strangling his youngest son at every scrimmage near each goal."
"It serves you right, Tom. I was always afraid something of that kind
would happen; you shouldn't be so demonstrative." Tom was silent. He was
as jealous of his own propriety and good behaviour as anybody could be,
but being of a most excitable nature, he did things in the heat of a
tussle for which he was afterwards very sorry, and many ignored the fact
that he was an old Rangers man, who scored the first goal for that then
young club in a close and exciting game with the once powerful
Clydesdale. As the Association rules are very easily learned in theory,
the great bulk of the spectators show an acquaintance with them which is
pleasing to see, and when an assumed infringement takes place, it is
generally heralded from some part of the field by a partisan of the
contending elevens. The only apparently unintelligible point to them is
the "off-side" rule, and I have s