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Show HHHI , 'Soccer Football Rated H j As Popular Pastime ) " ' T 's 'mP3B'bIe to throw a new sport H ai.nnj community and have Its peo- H f pie 'go crazy" over It. There must bo a gradual upbuilding and the absorption of tho scientific side of the game by the public before that particular sport H begins to make headway. H Tho average American wonders why H I ' tho Englishman does not take more I i readily to baseball Britons cannot un- J , dcrstand why cricket Is not more pop- H ular in the United States Tho Cana- 1 I dlan who loves tho speedy action of H lacrosse Is at a loss to understand why HI It docs not catch on across the border, H ' i The same can be said of lco hookey. H i ' Toung America cannot "see" Rugby football as it Is played In the British ' Isles, and young England will l.esl- tato a long white before adopting tho H i i American gridiron code Yet all these H sports number their followers by the H thousands and these have been acqulr- H n ed by slow and laborious processos H ' ' Among tho minor sports which have i been battling for a recognition In this H I country Is association or soccer foot- ball. Planted on this side of the water by Erltis. players, It has been played H ' and nurtured by them for over twenty H ' j cars and flnajly has taken root. H There may be hundreds of thousands H t of citizens who never have seen a soc- H cer football match, but there are ex- . ceedlngly few In tho bigger sporting centers who have not heard of it- Tho growth of Boccer, not alone In tho United States, but in most of tho countries coun-tries of Europe, has been phenomenal, tho pame at the present time being played strongly In Norwav and Sweden, rrance. Germany. Holland, Austria and having a fair following In Italy and Turkey. Of the gamo in England and Scotland It was said by James Hart, former president of the Chicago baseball base-ball club. "When I reached England I found goal posts from one end of tho country to the other." |