Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 192, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1918 — ITALIANS NOW PLAYING BALL [ARTICLE]

ITALIANS NOW PLAYING BALL

National Game of Thia Country Hat Been Taken Up in Italy—Big Aid in Training. One of the curious effects of the war is the. international interest which has been aroused in American sports. Italy apparently is the most recent victim of the baseball game, according to Dr. Felice Ferrero, director of the Italian bureau of information in Washington. Football, as played in America, as well as the national game of this, country, also has taken hold of the popular Interest in Italy. The Gazetta dello Sport, one of the most Influential sport journals of that country, is raising a fund for the purchase of baseballs, bats and footballs and the distribution of prizes among the soldiers to stimulate competition. General Pennella, commander of the Second Italian army, in a letter to the Gazetta dello Sport, says that football and baseball games are of inestimable value in the training for war.