Hardly had the pandemonium subsided than the turn of the visitors came--but with what a difference! The sections of mourners rose and stood with bared heads while the procession led by similarly black clad figures with the colors furled and wrapped around in crepe entered and approaching the home stands, passed with solemnly uplifted hands, as the gladiators about to die before Caesar once saluted him. From the adherents a funereal chant rose in barbaric acclaim. It needed no effort of my memory to realize that the team was being expected to do or die. I am not ashamed to confess, that the noble spectacle so moved me that my eyes filled with tears and I had to turn my head lest Dianne should surprise my emotion. “What magnificent specimens,” I exclaimed when I could master my voice. “But they are giants compared to the others,” I added, for in general the spectators I had observed, were small and effeminately slight, whereas the players were Goliaths. “We breed the athletes solely for these spectacles,” said Dianne. “They are really good for nothing else and we never mate them with the higher castes.” “What’s happening now?” “The officials are searching the players, of course, before the game begins.” These preliminaries were conducted with the minute fidelity of a police force. Not only were the nose guards, head guards, neck protectors, ear mufflers, shoulder, knee and elbow protectors searched for any metallic substance, but the soles of the shoes were displayed against the possibility of murderous spikes. That these precautions were not unnecessary was evidenced by the storm of boos and groans which accompanied the unmasking of several players, when the offenders were on the opposing side. The game, though so extremely sanguinary as to require the constant passage of the stretcher bearers, I found dull, due to the fact that at every moment the officials inflicted a penalty which necessitated lengthy discussions and so encumbered the field that it was impossible to follow the play. From the frequent casualties I gathered that the game had returned to first principles and that after the forcible elimination of the star players the result as in my day would be left to the multitude of substitutes. “Enough, dear?” said Dianne observing my restlessness. “Plenty. The game has been ruined by the legislators,” I replied. “And to call such beings men makes me hot with anger!” “I knew how you would feel,” she said taking my hand and looking at me affectionately. “And don’t regret that you can’t visit the Clubs. Really, you would be bored to death. Don’t waste any sympathy over their condition. They are a lazy indulged lot and not in the least rebellious.” “But is no work required of them?” I asked frowning as we rose and flew toward the south. “What work could they do that is not better done by machinery?” “Yet you said there were exceptions.”