The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1877-07-19

/ the more strong nutrimcnt man coul,
absorb the stronger hc would become
The quantity eaten by athletes is uni
versally spoken Of as far exceeding tn,
quantity eaten by ordinary men, no
considering its heavier quality. OuI
suspicion that, in consequence, Greel
athletic performances were not greater
if even equal, to our own, is, however
hard to verify, as we are without any
information as to the time in which
their rnnning feats were performed
They had no watches, or nice measure,
Of short subdivisions of time, and al.
ways ran races only TO see who would
win, not to see in how short time 8
given distance could be done. Never.
theless, as the course was over soft sand
and as the vases picture them rushing
along in spread eagle fashion, with
their arms like the sails of a windmill
in order TO aid the motion of their
bodies, as the Germans explain lafter
PhilOstratos) way, a. we even hear of
their having started shouting, if we
can believe such thing, their time
performances in running must have
been decidedly poor. In the Olympic
games the running, which had origin
atty been the only competition, always
came first. The short race was once up
the course, and seems to have been
about l2j yards. About the year 72O
B. c., races of double the course, and
long races Of about 1900 yards, were
added; races in aTmOr were a later
addition, and came at the end of the
sports. 1t is remarkable that among all
these varieties hurdle races were un-
known, though jumping was assigned
a special place, and thought very i'm
pOrtant. We have several remarkable
anecdotes of endurance i'm running long
Journeys cited throughout Greek his
tory, aad even now the modern inhabit-
ants are remarkable for this quality. !
have seen a young man keep up with a
horse ridden at a good pace across rough
country for many miles, and have been
told that the Greek postmen are quite
wonderful i'm their speed and endur-
ance, But this is compatible with very
poor performances at prize meetings.
There were short races for boys at
Olympia of half the length. Eighteen
years was beyond the limit of age for
competing, as a story in Pausanias inn
plies, and a boy who won at the age of
twelve was thought wonderfully young.
The same authority tells us Of a man
who won the short race at four success
sive meetings, thus keeping up his pace
for sixteen years-a remarkable case.
There seems to have been no second
prize in any of the historical games, a
natural consequence of the abolition of
rewards. There was, of
course, a good deal of chance in the
course of the contest, and Pausanias
evidently knew cases where the winner
was not the best man. For example,
the races were run in heats of four, and
if there was an odd man over, the
owner Of the last lot drawn could sit
down till the winners of the heats came
together, and run against them without
any previous fatigue. The limitation
of each heat of four competitors arose, |
fancy, from their not wearing colOrs,
(or even clothes) and so not being easily
They were accordingly
walked into the arena through an un-
passage in the raised side
of the stadium, and the name and
country of each proclaimed in order by
a herald. This practice is accurately
copied in the present Olympic games
held at Athens every four years.--Noc-
.ijII00