A DISCOURAGING PRACTICE.

The football practice yesterday was the worst of the season. The first eleven was not only unable to score but could not even advance the ball further than the second team's thirty yard line. A forty-minute half was played without a stop, and most of the time the ball was in the first team's territory. The backs on the first eleven fumbled on almost every play, without even the excuse of a wet ball, and when they managed to hold it their running was so slow that they were tackled from behind. There was no interference, and several times the runners were knocked down by men on their own team. This poor work is less discouraging, as none of the regular backs were in the game except Ellis and he played only part of the time. The work of the men in the line was almost as bad as that of the backs. No large holes were opened and gains were made principally by the individual work of the backs. It must be said, however, that the defensive work was good. Although the second eleven had the ball a large part of the time, not once was it able to make enough gains to get first down. The second eleven also had the advantage of a strong wind, but was unable to gain by punting.

Of the backs Ellis did the best work, as he made fewer fumbles than the others; but he did not strike the line with sufficient force, and was very slow in interfering for the other runners. Stillman made two fairly good end runs and did some good defensive work; otherwise his playing was very poor. He fumbled several times, and lost a great deal of ground by running back on end plays. This fault also characterized Derby's running. Fincke caught punts well, but was slow in passing the ball to the runners. The offensive work of Barnard and Lee was weak. They were unable to open holes and got in the way of the backs. Their defensive work was much better, as they allowed no gains to be made through them. Lee broke through once and blocked one of W. R. Lawrence's punts. Graydon was tried at left tackle again, and made a very good showing against Donald '99 who played on the second team for a few minutes. J. Lawrence was not as fast as usual, and barely held his own against his opponent, McGrew. Campbell and Farley were slow in getting down under punts, and they were also unsuccessful in blocking off their opponents.

The second eleven fumbled almost as much as the first, but deserves great credit for its defensive play. Grew, Roberts and Rainsford played a strong, plucky game in the centre of the line. They stopped almost every play and Ellis alone was able to make any headway through them. Hoxie, Baldwin and McGrew were all very fast on their feet, and did some effective tackling.

The line-up was as follows: First Eleven.  Second Eleven. Farley, Ristine, r.e.,  l.e., McDonald, Morse. J. Lawrence, R. Lawrence, r.t.  l.t., McGrew, Wright, Donald. Barnard, r.g.  l.g., Rainsford, Peyton. Sargent, c.  c., Roberts, Greene. Lee, l.g.  r.g., Grew. Graydon, Blagden, l.t.  r.t., Donald, Meier. Campbell, l.e.  r.e., Hoxie, Littig. Daly, Fincke, Baldwin, q.b.  q.b., Baldwin, Glidden. Derby, r.h.b.  l.h.b., W. R. Lawrence. Stillman, Boyd, l.h.b.  r.h.b., Swann. Ellis, Stillman, f.b.,  f.b., Switzer, Mifflin.