PATSY FILLIGAN ON FOOTBALL.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXVII, Issue 8199, 12 August 1895, Page 1

PATSY FILLIGAN ON FOOTBALL.

TO HIS BROTHER IN NEW YORK, (By a Local I layer.) I was playing full-back atfcircd in . striped jersey and a pair of nice liick shoes wid a most squandering ole on em, anmuch of it. Now to ell ye the teetotal truth, Mickey, I new nothin whatever of the rules of he game; but! bad a powerful foot, n I thought that was all that was lecessary. I ought to have tould ye 00, that there is always three or four octors liandj on the field, as well as a ambulance, an I hear that in future •arliamenfc is goin to insifct that no ootball match shall be played on any round above iliree minutes walk rom the nearest infirmary. Well, as I tould ye, the Rovers ieked off, and I stood watchin the Sail, when preenfcly one comes bowlin;a long toward me wid his feet. Kow," thinks I, "I'll take it off lira," so I rushes at him like a traeion engine an steam-navvy, but no ooner did I get within a yard of him ban he kicked the ball/to a cornmnion of bis, an I was completely ouid. "Ah, yon mane coward," avs T 1.0 him. " what did you do that .liabby trick for? Why didn't ye :apc the ball an let me take it off ye ? lut he never made no answer, so I •tin at the. other fellow who bad the mil, and then bedatl, he passed back o the other; so I flew back to the )fcher, and then he dodged it back igain, an that made me aggravated, m I says, "Look here, I didn't come j ere fo be made a fool of. Ye'd better if op that game before I injure some )f ye in the spinal column." But :hey took no luitlcc-of me,-so I ran afc )ne of 'em, an put out my logjn front )f him, an he went sprawlin oil^hisio'e in the mnd, an the referee blew :iis whistle and shouted "Foul!" An ■vhcre is the-foul ? M says I, an some of he people tould rae to go home, ivhile others advised me to join the Tapu' Jolly Boys or Turna Pirates, in other insultin remarks like that. Well, we kept on playin an we was ill runnin up and down the field, an the referee was everywhere at once, in in two or three places at the same time, besides, an then Mickey, I suddenly got mixed up among six or seven of the savagest footballers, an somebody shifted the field from under my legs all at once, while two or three more sat down on my nose and kicked me in the stomach, knocking five jood teeth down my throat, an I couldn't tell where I was at all, for I wasneither.here nor there nor.anyw{fere else, but somewhere else quite painfully different. , By an bye, sometbin which my wounds made me guess was. mc, sat up, an I pulled two pairs of shoes out of my mouth, an great sods out of my eyes, and inquired if anybody had lost anyfchin ? But they was all busy playin, so when I had recovered my presence of mind, though I wasn't sure where my body was, I stood and plaintivly awaited coming, events. And they came rather sooner than punctual for me; for before I bad waited t\yo minutes I lost myself again for a few years, and then found myself with my nose stickin in Ihe slutcii, an I was'badly wounded,' havin sustained a very bad compound fracture of the right ear, and other internal injuries of a calamitous bad character. I cried out,for 'em to let, mo go home while there was some of me left, but while I was thus beseechin there was another scorching scrimmage iu goal, an now at present I am lyin in hospital waitin for one of the goal-posts to be extracted from my left, eye, after which (they tell me) my head is fo be amputated, as that is the only chance e.f saving my n<?ck, If I don't recover, I will write an lot, jo know whether I die or not before anythin fatal happens. Your battered brotl er. PATSY FILLIGAN.