Football In Australia

A football match between Collingwood and North Melbourne was play, ed at North Melbourne last month and the incldents which occurred show that the lot of a football referee Ín Australia is no better than that of his English confrère, says the Blackburne Standard. The moment the final bell rang there was a rush of people In the reserve to the pay gate. The moment Uae umpire stepped through the gate atores of men rushed at him like wolves and a scene of indescribible tumult followed. Pists and sticks were going and one man in the thick of the crowd, with some implemervt wrapped in paper, was making desperate efforts to fracture some one's skull. In the flrst rush Roberts was seized by the hair and dragged down, but splendid help was given him just theo, notably by Proudfoot, a player of Collingwood, who, holding one arm over hjs head to shield himself againet a rain of blows and with the other around the umpire, literally carried hüa tlirough the pack with one of hls football brushes. A "lady" had the enviable honor of starting this disturbance. As the players were coming in at halftime she waited near the gate and struck Roberts in the face. Afterward her shrill voice, as she leaned over the fence, added a high treble to the torrent of abuse rained on the unfortunate umpire whenever he approached the pavilion, which, strangely enough, seemed to be the mustering point of the roughs. Tüe woman "barracker," indeed, has become one of the moét objectionable of football surroundings. On some grounds they actually spil n the faces of players as they come to Vie dressing rooms or wreak their spite nmch more maliciously with long hat pine. In the height of this melee some of the women screamed with fear; others screamed "kill him." One of these gentle maidens at the close of the struggle remarked regretfully that it was a pity they "let otf" the umpire in the Geelong match', as they should have killed him. Yet these women consider themselves respectable and they "support" foot ball, which is consequently in a serioue decline.