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Show HOCKEY IS NATIONAL I game of mm I Sport Is Becoming Popular in I I the United States at I Present. I On account of the mildness of thft riH western climate, ice hockey, a gamo futfi which is, in many respects, the fastest UmS and most exciting in the roster of tfB t sports, is rathor a minus quantity. This m 5 great Canadian winter sport is, how- Wk. 1 ever, becoming very popular in some of: 1 tho large Eastern cities, such ag .Now B i York, Brooklyn, Pittsburg, Calumet, 9 Sault Sto. Marie and Detroit, and is in- M vading tho we3t. Tho teams in tltese J citics'are composed of first class players, B and the championship games cause in- B tenso excitement, and although it was 11 tho custom for mo3t of these teams to jn be largely composed of Canadians? tho M state of affairs is rapidly changing mid this winter one finds a comparatively n small numbers of tho players other than H out ami out Americans. This parti be: iM cause of the increasing proficient! of IjH the Itilter in their knowledge of tho iM game, and partly oh account of the fact gfl I that a great many of the Canadian rm clubs have become professional, and ! probablv arc in a position to offer suf- licient 'inducements to take many of 9 their original players back across the R I However, let tho cause he what, it II may, .it is now an undisputed fact that (BH thero tre todav several loams such as inHfl the New York 'or the St. Nicholas team VMM of New York, tho Crescents of Brooklyn SI and ono or two of the Pittsburg teams sHl composed entirely of Yankee boys, iH9 which could give the Canucks a run. HW for their money. Yalo. Harvard, Prince- ran ton und several of the larger colleges BB havo very good hoekev teams, which MR compare favorably with any strictly jDI ' amateur aggregation in existence. HH Of course, while athlete. who have WM i bocomo so capable in a game of which MM a few yours ago they were conipara- Vu I lively ignorant, after all it is only -an; iQI ; other of the innumerable examples of ! American perseverenoo mid progress. I There was somo tnik during tho past Hffi I .winter nmon,r the New York clubs of IBn sending an All-Ameriean hockey team HH to Montreal to play a scries oi games MB with the Wanderers of that city, who MM were then champions, for-thc champion- (MB ship of the world. Nothing, however, IBB came of it, although somo negotiations ifll were started with the officials of tlio MR Wanderer club, aad it was understood they would have boeu quite willing to Hn accept a challenge had it not been for MB j the fact that with their regular league 2Bm i matehe?, and other matches whicli they RH had arrangrd for, it would havo been WBJ an impossibility r.u arrange a scries be- flfl t'oro tin end of the playing season. BB1 11 be hock 02-' situation in Usnada is BBB pretty much the same -as- cricket ia OBI Great Britain or baseball in the United RR1 i States. In Canada every little town j and village has. it 5 hockey team, and the 1MB j residents arc as proud of their team as MM ! they arc of their Carnegie library; they MM celebrate when their team wins; they MM moui'ii wiic-u it loses, and in souk cases uHl they go so far oh to make things pretty KM hot for the visitors if they trim tlio MM local boys. In the large cities it is mRI different! but the same reeling of Joy- MM ally Io their clubs still remains, but MJ tempered witli a sportsmanlike desire to kBU sec the best team win. All this tends MM to develop a large number of splendid 9BB players throughout the country, the ftBB largo city teams, such as the Montreal KRR Hockey club, the Wanderer and Vie- IMJ toria hockey clubs of Montreal and the lEBI Ottawa. Quebec, Toronto and Winnipeg IBB clubs getting tho cream. & The tangible symbol of Cauadian HI hockey supremacy is the Stanley cup, mHI and auv team winning or holding tho iflMII championship of any ollicial hockey mHn league is untitled to challenge the cup ' Mill holders. And so in this way, the Wan- HBO dcrers of Montreal beinjc last year's MlH champions of the Eastern Hockey MKll union, became holders of the cup, for- IBJnl merly held bv the Ottawa club. Jn turn MM tho team representing Kenora, Man'- BjH toba. a town of 0000, champions of the fflH Manitoba league, in tho middle of tho UnB season defeated the Wanderers and at tfKgfl the present time are still tho chain- MJ pions. ARB |