"The Travelers' Rest," "The Golden Swan,"
"The Bull's Head Inn," and other resorts of a like kind were stopped at
on our way back, and it was eleven o'clock at night when we were finally
set down at the doors of the Grand Hotel, having spent one of the most
enjoyable days since our arrival in Melbourne.

A great day's program of sport had been prepared for Monday, the last
day of the year, in which cricket, baseball and foot-ball were all to
have had an inning. The weather, however, interfered with the base-ball
and cricket part of the program. The foot-ball game between the Carleton
and St. Kilda foot-ball teams proved to be a most interesting contest,
however, and one that we were glad to have the opportunity of
witnessing, a heavy shower driving us back to the hotel before we could
indulge in either base-ball or cricket.

Two games were scheduled for New Year's day, but only one of these was
played and that in the morning, the attendance being 2,500, and the
Chicagos winning by a score of 14 to 7, Tener pitching for us and Healy
for the All-Americas. That same day there were 4,000 people at the races
and probably as many more at the various cricket matches and athletic
games going on in the city and vicinity, so it can readily be seen that
Melbourne was a decidedly sporty place and that we had pretty hard
competition to go up against, even for New Year's day. After luncheon at
the cricket grounds we were treated to an exhibition of rope-skipping
and boomerang throwing by a lot of aborigines that was little short of
wonderful, and that must be seen to be appreciated. The natives could
make these curved pieces of wood do all kinds of seemingly impossible
things, while for us they would simply do nothing, but I expect that
with a set of billiard balls several of our party could have made them
look as much like monkeys as they did us with their boomerangs.

We were booked to sail from Port Melbourne for Ceylon on Monday, June
7th, and Saturday afternoon we played our farewell game in the Victoria
capital before a crowd that tested the capacity of the grounds, the gate
count showing that 11,000 people had paid their way into the enclosure.
The program for the afternoon was a varied one, a two-inning game
between the Australian Cricketers and the All-America team being the
starter, and in this the American players easily demonstrated their
superiority. Next came a game of foot-ball between the Port Melbourne
and Carleto