St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-07-12
Some Wonderful Feats In Running,
Walking and Jumping.


The greatest distance ever run in ono
hour is eleven miles, $40 yards, by Deer
foot, at Old Brompton, in 1s63-Deer-
foot's real name and address being l..
Bennett, Catteraugas County, America.
The fastest time in which one mile has
ever been run, on level ground, is
min, 16 1-5 Sec, by w. Cummings, of
Paisley, in 1881, at Preston; but in 1868
w. Lang ran mile over a course
which was partly down hill in min. 2
sec. The swiftest runner hitherto seen
is a man named Hutchens, formerly
newsboy at Putney Station. He has
not yet been timed accurately for q
standard distance like 100 and 120
yards; but in q Sheffield handicap he
covered 1871 yards in I2i secs.--a per-
formance which shows him many yards
better than "even time at 100 yards,
and even time is the unattained am
bition of the great army of amateurs.
"A hundred yards in seven time" means
100 yards in 10 secs, or a rate aver
aging 10 yards per second. In 1875
X. Buttery, of Sheffield, ran a quarter
of a mile in 4sl SECS, and remains un-
beaten to this day. George Hazael has
ran 30 miles in three seconds less than
six hours and a quarter, and he has
also performed the prodigious task of
covering 600 miles in six days '.go-as-
you please''-a pedestrian journey in
which the competitors may run or walk
as they prefer.
Now as to walking. As we all know.
four miles an hour is the ordinary
standard pace for good brisk country
walk. What shall we say, then, to
eight miles an hour, fair heel and toe?
Yet this has been done by w. Perkins.
j. Raby. Griffin, and other professors
of the art. Perkins, indeed, has fwalked
one mile in 6 min. 23 sec.-a rate of
progression nearly approaching 81
miles per hour On the same ii.casion
he walked two miles in Is min.tt,0 secs,
equalled records. The greatest dis
tance ever walked without taking rest
is 120 miles l,560 yards, by Peter
Grassland, of Sheffield. and this is a
marvellous instance of enduran truly;
but it pales before what must rank as
the greatest pedestrian performance
ever recorded, namely, Gales walk of
l.5O0 miles in LOCO consecutive hours,
one and one-half miles each hour, to
start walking at the commencement of
each hour. This arduous undertaking
was successfully carried out during the
months of August, Septmber and Oc-
tober, 1877. For six long weeks, in
every single hour, had this indomitable
little pedestrian to journey mile and
half; and one imagines-or rather
one can try to imagine-how he man.
aged TO sleep. We saw him finish that
gigantic task. In the last mile and
half but one he seemed unable to move
slow. sore, jaded, utterly done up.
In the last peregrination a marvellous
change came over the scene-he went
along at racing pace, attendants, mad
with the enthusiasm of the moment.
positively having to run to keep up with
him the plucky little fellow seemed
imbued with new lease of life. Gale
was about forty-1ve years of age, and
about five feet four inches in height.
So long ago as 1909 the celebrated
Captain Barclay performed the feat of
walking 1000 miles in 1000 consecu-
tive hours; and. although innumerable
attempts, genuine and otherwise. have
been made to equal his record, it re-
mained 0nshaken till Gale so easily
surpassed it.
With regard to jumping, profess
sionals have been in the habit of using
dumb-bells and other other contrivances
in their competition; while amateurs.
who patronize the sport far more than
their rivals. have always jumped without
any artificial aid. The records among the
latter are both held by the same athlete
p. DAWN, of Carrick -on-Suir, Ireland
who has cleared feet p inches high.
and % feet inches wide, both at local
athletic gatherings. Thus both these
feats are to the credit of the Green Isle.
But the English records are within a
shade in each case; and NJ. j. Brooks,
who in 1865 won the Inter-'Versity
high jump with feet 2! inches, is said
to have cleared an inch more in prac-
tice. John Howard. a Bradford pro-
fessional, who died quite recently. more
than once cleared a full-size billiard
table lengthways-a feat requiring
courage as we'll as ability; and on one
occasion, on Chester race course, he
jumped the enormous distance of 80
feet Z inches. He took off from a
wedge shaped block of wood raised
four inches from the ground and car
ried five pound dumb-bell in each
hand. In pole jumping-prettiest of
all athletic -times-the great height
Of 1 feet !! inches has been cleared by
the present amateur champion. L. Ray,