T will come as welcome news to all and sundry, perhaps, to hear that the date of the season's outstanding soccer classic has at last been set. Sunday, March 16, it was learned yesterday from an unusually reliable source, will be the fateful day when those two mighty organizations, the Press and the Referees, engage each other in more or less mortal combat on the football field io resume the annual argument as to which of them is to keep the Coveted Cup for the year.
At the time of writing, the Re forees are in possession of the tre-sured trophy—sad to relate. Plans, however, are afoot to deprive them of the silverware before this moon is on the wane. Dire and drastic are the measures that the maligned Press propose to adopt in the forthcoming clash of the century. With determination writ clearly on their features, Shanghai's sports editors met in secret conclave yesterday evening and long and varied was the addenda that was thoughtfully studied at that cataclysmic conference.
Steps hitherto undreamed of were not"only proposed but actually de. cided upon and the future—as far as the Referees are concerned—may be said to have assumed a purplish tinge. Dark will be their fate on Sunday week; their doom is sealed. Stung to ą fine frenzy of activity by the uncensored jibes of their foes, the Pressmen are leaving no stone unturned in their dramatic en-anxiety of the Press to win the major e season will now be For them it is hend, the incentive for victory is also very great. It is a dream that the Fressmen mean to have fulfilled on are invited to turn out; neierson, C.EM. Brown, T. Butler, D. Zentner, S. T. Berglof.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.