The New York herald., 1879-09-22
The Great Contest Begun.

The loot race begun this morning at the
Garden promises to far outstrip in interest
any pedestrian contest which ever took
place in this country. Two years ago at
Agricultural Hall, Islington, O'Leary made
his name household word throughout the
land by outwalking, in the fairest sort OF
way possible, every man in England who
would face him. Next Briton, of Won
drous sturdiness and stay, made, right here
among us. surprisingly short work OF all
opponents, the redoubtable O'Leary being
the first man to fall out Of the ranks, and
back to the United Kingdom went the belt
which had been so nobly won. Suddenly
there loomed into prominence in England
a man who, though he had taken part in
almost countless races. covering in. all tens
of thousands of miles, and had made his
name familiar all over the earth, had of late
done nothing either here or abroad worth
mentioning and was almost universally re-
garded as having long since seen his best
day. Pressing the English champion closely
for two whole days. then dropping all of a
dozen miles astern, he doggedly stuck to
the great pace until he not only closed the
gap, but went ahead and won at the end of
the best weeks work on record.
But the Rowell victory here last spring
had opened English eyes, and the hand
pedestrians covetous and eager to try their
hand-or, rather, foot-in the American
Ell Dorado. At Weston's victory Rowell
took no part, an alleged shoepeg and a re-
ported lame heel therefrom being the rea-
son offered, and very possibly another
chance at the Madison Square Garden re-
ceipts having something to do with it.
4, But there is faster goer in the field to-
day than any of these-he who made such
a marvellous score in the first days fight
with Blower Brown and Weston the
swiftest runner in England, till now o
stranger among us--George Hazael. Doubt
less before nightfall he will be easily
leader, and likely enough tomorrow night
as we'll. But he has yet to show that the
close-knit little Yankee cannot outstay him,
and unless he does better than his record
is likely to prove the English Hartman of
this contest. Stout John Ennis is on hand,
overrated before and as plainly under
rated now q good enough man. if that
stomach will behave itself, to win this race
in one contingency-that is, if the three
leaders will so force the pace as to cut each
other down and so let q dark horse win.
: But with the abundant good racing al-
most sure this week tits we'll enough for
Al, - 80 10, ;x~F~r
gestiys circumstances. If Weston wins he
will not have beaten this time so far his
worst antagonist, Brown. If Brown wins
the O'Leary belt fortnight hence he will
not have beaten Weston. Now. why have
not these two men both entered for the
sured that Brown had entered for the
O'Leary belt before the Ashley race was de-
termined on and so he could not we'll 60
into both.( But Rowell, means to and so
does Hazael, SO why not Brown? It has
look as if the ball were to be kept rolling;
as if, after few months, especially if
Weston retains the Ashley belt on this side,
it would be necessary for Mr.. Brown to re-
turn again and, should he fail in his en-
deavor to recapture it, to at least solace his
sad heart with another neat little allow
ance from these soothing receipts. 1t
would have been at least as well, in the in
terests of bona fde racing, had Brown en-
tered himself man fashion for both the
Ashley and O'Leary events this time, and
would have proved long stride toward
maintaining the belief that these are not
mere money-making devices, but really
honest endeavors to determine who is the
hacf man