Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/273

250 they are still in vogue. No goal-keeper can possibly count upon safely stopping them; and if they are not prohibited, in course of time there will be few goal-keepers without smashed faces, and Lacrosse will surely degenerate.

We feel we cannot better bring this book to an end, than by beseeching players not to cultivate rough and dangerous methods of play, merely because they are successful. If it is unfair and wrong in Cricket and other sports, why not in Lacrosse?—and where is the honor of taking advantage of little imperfections in the laws, and resorting to force, instead of cultivating accuracy and skill. Particularly at goal, a man wants to be shown fair play, or no good man will occupy that position. If you expect goal-keeper to restrain his desire to go out on the field, and lose the pleasures of a run, give him fair play in his own position. With a spirit of this kind, and an earnest desire to popularize fair play, in every part, our national game can never die; and the boast of an enthusiastic friend of ours will be fulfilled,—that one day “the sun will never set on our flags!”