Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-10-03
The Close Of the Walking Match.

The six-days agony has come to an end,
and, as was clearly foreshadowed by the
figures of the closing forty-eight hours, the
champion pedestrian belt goes to the Eng
lishman, Rowell-Mcrritt, the Connecticut
Yankee, coming in second at distance of
fifteen miles. The winner receives as stated
in our telegraphic dispatches, over S25, 900; E;
and as in the former match his receipts were
almost as large, he has earned in two weeks
of one year the very comfortable sum of
$40, 900. The late champion, Weston, was
| far in the rear; and so moderate was his score
and so eccentric his conduct, according
to the general testimony, he must be either
maniac or swindler-which, however,
may possibly do injustice to his very
mercurial temperament. The fact ap-
pears to be that these walking matches
are manipulated by the hackers"
and betting men much as horse trots are,
and that the best man does not win, neces-
sarily, any more than does the best horse.
The gate money, large as it is, is but trifle
compared with the immense sums wagered
on this walker or that; and. there is every
temptation to turn the match from fair
contest to a mercenary fraud-and the pedes-
trians, as a class, are not people in whom
the general public would place implicit
confidence. This is one objection to these
professional walking matches. Another is
found in the gambling which is their direct
outcome. 1t was on a vaster scale this time
than ever before, and in fact such contests
have come, to large extent, to he regarded
simply as convenient means for gambling.
1t is not only that the betting at the betting
stand on the scene of the walk aggregated
nearly quarter of million of dollars, but
in every town and city in the land there was
gambling on the resut-the beginning of
public decentralization which can not be con-
templated without some alarm.
Again, there is a certain degradation and
brutality in the thing. A six-days' walk is a
tremendous strain on the nerves. the muscles
and the brain; and in the closing days the
sight of the poor wretches, thoroughly ex-
hausted, dragging themselves around the
track, cannot fail to have an effect on the
spectators somewhat akin to that of the glad
itorial games on the Roman people. And
why people should flock by the thousand TO
see such spectacle is at this distance
almost imcomprehensible. There is, too,
so large an element of chance (adnlit-
ting the match to be honestly conducted)
as to render such an affair Of no particular
value as test of endurance and vitality.
The present winner was at one time threat
ened with Il complete breakdown !; and, as
shown at this match, man may at one time
make a most brilliant record and a few
months later, with the conditions just as
favorable and the encouragement just as
great, come limping in, the fourth or fifth
in the race Finally, walking match is of
no earthly practical good. Whoever wins,
his success is not due to scientific training,
nor have all the matches ever contested
shown any system of discipline that would
increase the physical endurance and power of
the average man.
Such, briefly, are some of the objections
to professional pedestrianism. OF course it
will, nevertheless, still hold its own, for its
day is not yet over. But the general public
can console itself with the reflection that the
present craze is something that will have It's
decadence as it has had its growth, and
in due time will pass away as has the base
ball, and many another predicting mania.
At present it can not be regarded as other
than an enormous nuisance and Il positive