Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/70

 All things being equal, the rules given for accurate and long shots, &c., are no probability or surmise. No one undertakes to say that principles can be laid down to govern every movement, every part of play—that cannot be expected in any sport.

Catlin's and other descriptions of the original game differ very much from the present Lacrosse, and the transformation is palpable even to those who cannot play. Old players can recal [sic] the game of ten or twelve years ago, or even three years ago, before the establishment of laws, and will acknowledge the improvement of the present game, not only in the destruction of the old principle of brute force and hard running, but in the invention of new and superior modes of practice. Many of the general principles of fielding, methods of dodging, throwing, frisking the ball, &c., were unknown three years ago as a regular art. The game is not played better now because every player trains or is better winded and stronger than the old players, but because it is played on different principles. When the bagged crosse was repudiated, a comparatively new field of development was opened, and a vexatious cause of excessive dispute and dodging removed. The laws of Lacrosse