Trying to Settle a Date.

For some days the papers have been full of wild rumors of threats made by the Yale freshmen to give up the foot ball game with Harvard '88, unless the eleven of the latter class should consent to play the match before Thanksgiving day. According to the agreement between the colleges drawn up last spring, the foot ball game this fall was to be played at New Haven. Knowing this, the manager of the Harvard '88 eleven, after having looked over the calendar to find open dates, sent to New Haven proposing either Thanksgiving day or Nov. 29 as dates on which to play. Mr. Albert S. Cook, manager of the Yale eleven, also named two dates, the 12th and 15th of November. Word was sent at once that on neither of those two dates could the Harvard men travel to New Haven: on the twelfth, because contrary to faculty regulations: on the 15th because the Princeton game came on that day and some freshmen were detained by our university eleven. The Yale men, thinking to frighten Mr. Palmer, sent a telegram saying Harvard must come on the 15th or that the game would be given up, as that was the only possible day on which they could play. This was soon followed by a letter, dated Nov. 13, exactly contradictory, which reads: "If you will not play on the 15th, we offer you one more day, the Wednesday immediately before Thanksgiving. If you prevail with your Athletic Faculty to let you play, we can play the morning of that Wednesday. We must play then if at all, as any other day after is entirely out of the question. This is our final answer."

This letter gives no reasons for the statements made and makes no objection to any other date. But for Harvard, the Athletic regulations were the only trouble which prevented them from complying with Yale's demand. Rule 5 says that no game shall be played out of Cambridge except on Saturday; and as the committee on athletics have already broken it once this fall in favor of the freshmen, they refused to do so again on that very account. This state of affairs was quickly made known to the Yale manager, who wrote that the class had voted not to play on Thanksgiving or after. He also asked for a proof of the faculty regulation, and this was immediately sent, signed by Dr. Sargent and professor Byerly. Here the matter now rests.