The Foot-Ball Eleven.

This afternoon the eleven plays the crowning game of the year, the game with Yale. Any one who has watched the playing of the team during the fall, must feel confident that the play of the Harvard eleven this afternoon will satisfy every one who is interested in college athletics, and will surprise those who have been depreciating the team as a raw eleven not worth much. It is a raw eleven in the sense that most of its members have never played on the University before; but that is quite a different thing from saying that they are not good. In fact, considering the peculiar circumstances under which Harvard has played football for the last two years, it is just as well that most of the men are new men, and have no bad teaching to unlearn. It is, indeed, to this readiness to learn, and to the steadying influence of the old men, that the team as it now stands is due, a team which is admitted by the other colleges to be one of the best Harvard has ever had.

Probably few people, even of those who call it a green team, realize how little experience most of the men have had. Peabody is the veteran of the team, as he played on the university in his freshman year; but he has never played on a winning team. Brooks played on the university two years ago, and was one of the best rushers on the team; and it is largely owing to his efficient work as captain that the team of this year has reached its present point of efficiency. Adams has played portions of two important games in two years, and was obliged to lay off entirely two years ago on account of a bad knee. Burgess played for a short time on the university two years ago. Porter, Holden, Woodman, Faulkner and Fletcher have played on their class teams, but never on the university, while Butler, Boyden, Dudley, Harding, Remington and Wood have never played on a college team before. These are the men that we put against the veteran teams of Yale and Princeton.

It is true that the eleven was beaten by Princeton; but it must be remembered that the score is no criterion of the respective merits. Princeton won the toss, and had the wind in her favor during the first half, and was thus able to score. This enabled her in the second half to keep hold of the ball and play a defensive game, while our men had to give up all defensive tactics, and pursue the offensive as the only chance of scoring, while Princeton, by means of the lead, was able to keep the lead. As every one who saw the '86-'88 class game last year must remember, it is very hard work for an eleven to play an up-hill game and win it. The following extract from the Princetonian will show what the Princeton men thought of the playing of our team: "The game in general was a spirited and extremely interesting one, and the issue seemed by no means settled until the close of the contest. Harvard presented by far the best eleven she has put in the field for a long time, and their team play excited general comment." Then in an editorial, "All pronounce the game to have been the most scientific ever seen in Princeton." This is very high praise, coming as it does from another college.

Then, it must be remembered that Princeton beat Yale last year, and that her rush-line, whose magnificent playing won the game for her last Saturday, is probably stronger than the Yale rush-line. This point, together with the fact that our backs as well as our rushers, have had time to improve as much between the game last Saturday and the game to-day as they did between the Wesleyan and the Princeton games, ought to make everybody come out to see the game with a confidence that they are going to see the prettiest game they ever saw in their lives, with a fair chance of the crimson coming out ahead.

One thing the team should bear in mind is that almost all Yale's victories have been due as much to her prestige as to her skill, to the other team going into the contest with the expectation of being defeated. The only times of late years when Yale has been met by a really confident team have been the last two Yale-Princeton games. In the first one, the game was never finished, but it was anybody's game all the way through, while last year's game resulted in a well-earned victory for Princeton. These two games, and the experience of every one at all skilled in foot-ball, teaches that the main thing is to go into a game with confidence in your power to win, and not to let that confidence get knocked out of you.

The result of our last Princeton game must have shown our team the importance of playing hard in the beginning, and scoring first, if possible; while last year's Yale-Princeton game should teach them that even if Yale should be fortunate enough to score first, that does not prove that they are going to win. A game is not lost till it is won. The game is played on our own grounds, and the team will have the support of all the men in college, and of all the graduates who can possibly get here, all of whom have confidence in the team, and feel sure that it is only necessary for the eleven to make up its mind to win, for them to surprise Yale more than the boat race two years ago.