Much has been said in the papers of late about "slugging" in football, some of it sound sense, some of it harmless opinion, much of it going far to defeat its own purpose because of its ignorance. The gist of it all is this, that there has been too much "slugging" this year, and that something ought to be done to stop it. With these two main ideas we quite agree. The recent development of the various mass plays where many of the players are hidden from view has undoubtedly done much to render easy the settlement of private grudges by sundry forms of pugilism. The plays when the teams line up against each other are so close that it is extremely difficult for an umpire to see all that goes on. That this trouble is due to the nature of the game or to any particular fault in the rules we cannot admit. If the game were played according to the spirit and the letter of the rules there would be nothing in it to trouble the most fastidious nature or to excite the tenderest conscience. The difficulty is that umpires have often been willfully or unwilfully blind and partial. They have not fulfilled the duties imposed upon them by the rules. Even allowing for the difficulty of seeing the "slugging," if every man who had been seen "slugging" had been summarily dealt with this present outburst against the game would never have come. We realize fully the difficulties which beset an umpire-probably no man is in a less enviable position. Yet we venture to say that college spirit is fair enough to stand sturdily by an umpire in resolutely ruling out every man who shows himself no gentlemen. Here is the remedy-a general sentiment among players themselves against "slugging" and absolute determination in umpires to rule it out, and, we may add, hearty support of umpires by students. More specifically, much may be done by the three great games this season to put an end to this unfair, unmanly "slugging." These three games, if rightly conducted, can kill it beyond possibility of its reappearance. Here is certainly a chance where all the colleges can unite for the purification of athletics.