If one were to ask nay small boy in Scotland if he knew Alec Smith he would smile and say: "Every one knows Alec Smith. He's the outside left of the Rangers." It is possible even amongst adults in Scotland the flying forward of Glasgow Rangers is even better known than his illustrious countryman, Adam Smith. For while the latter was a political economist and wrote about the "Wealth of Nations," Alec of the Rangers is a football player who has done much to stimulate the Health of Nations.

Scotland has several national idols, and Alec Smith is one of them. Everyyouth with club or international aspirations is a devout worshipper of the genial Alec, and the person who would dare to say in broad daylight, out Ibrox way, that his equal existed on the south side of the Border would be in danger of being "accidentally" pushed into the Clyde. The Scots are a race much stronger in national feelings than the common or garden Englishman, and the idols of the Scot once established on his heart none need try to pluck out.

In Smith's case there is some cause for loving him — this side idolatry — for he has been as a beacon light in the kingdom of Scottish football for many years, and, what is of greater importance, he has been a thorn in the flesh of the haughty Sassenach in many a hard-fought International match. Smith is not merely the player of a day, a month, or Consistency is written all over him, and after many years he still remains in the forefront of Scottish football. For years he was termed Scotland's one and only outside left, and well does he deserve the honour, for looking back one finds that from 1898 to 1903 Alec has been chosen to represent his country against England. To his credit, be it said, he has never failed to come up to expectations.
a season.

His name is as much respected in England as it is in his own country. Without being conceited Smith has never been struck with "stage fright" in International matches, and he is one of those players who never know when they are beaten and who last from end to end of the game. No matter who his partner may be, Smith has the faculty of adapting his play to his comrade, and falling into line with him from the start. Bold, original, often daring in his methods, he never forgets the supreme duty of subordinating self to combination. He plays for his team and not for Alec Smith. Much of his success has been due to this all-important element in his character. He is a player who can think on his legs, think quickly, accurately, and wisely. Like others he may make an occasional mistake, commit a slight error in tactics, but in nine cases out of ten when he makes a dash for goal and glory he is successful. As a rule he plays the orthodox wing game as known and understood in Scotland, but he never confines himself to the "wing game." He remembers that there is a centre, and that there is another wing to whom the occasional long pass carries confusion to the ranks of his opponents.

Although rather under than over medium height, and weighing barely eleven stone, he can take his own part in the hurly — burly of the football field — no back is big enough to frighten him-and when he makes a bee-line for goal with his teeth set some one or something has to go. Yet Smith has met with comparatively few accidents. He has the faculty of going straight up to an opponent as if to charge, slip round him at the last moment, and show him a clean pair of heels.

If Smith were a poet of the romantic order, and could write about the great football fights in which he has taken part, we would possess an epic to vie with the best of classic lore. But like most others of his class he is mightier with his foot than with his pen. Those who have been fortunate enough to see Smith at his best are to be envied. If he does not quite possess the poetry of motion, he is at least one of the most graceful exponents to touch-line play of his generation. His dashes up the wing have electrified thousands, and many a clever half, and many a skilful full-back, has been driven to distraction by Smith's bewildering tactics.

His play is so uniformly good that he ought to have as his telegraphic address, "Consistency, Glasgow." Born at Darvel in 1877, he there learned the rudiments of the game, and soon gave such exceptional promise of ability that before he got to manhood's full estate his fame had preceded him, and the Ibrox officials were on his track, with the result that Smith became a member of the famous Glasgow Rangers team. He received his first International cap in 1897, when he played against the Irish League. The season following he took part in all the International games, and since then he has virtually held the field against all-comers in his position. He has taken part in no fewer than twenty-one great representative games. In the great era when the Rangers were pre-eminent in the Scottish League — from 1898 to 1902 — the club had only two other players as consistent in skill and as regular in attendance. These were Dickie and Hamilton. In the seasons 1898, 1899, and 1900 Smith took part in sixty-nine out of a possible seventy-four matches.