Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/75

 58 game of Lacrosse as the national game of Canada in 1859; and a few months preceding the proclamation of Her Majesty, uniting the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, into one Dominion, a letter headed "Lacrosse—Our National Field Game," published by me in the Montreal Daily News, in April, 1867, was printed off and distributed throughout the whole Dominion, and was copied into many of the public papers. A circular giving minute instructions about the game, was afterwards distributed, and over sixty answers received from parties in all parts of Canada, who were afterwards instrumental in organizing clubs. On the day which created the greater part of British America a Dominion, the game of Lacrosse was adopted as the national game, and it was appropriate and auspicious that this should be so. The fact that it was to be the national game, spread throughout the country, and gave it popularity in districts where it had never been seen or heard of before, and where other field sports had been played for years. Suggestive as the spread of the game is of its attractiveness, it must also suggest happy ideas of the patriotism of Young Canada.