The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-05-30
WALKING MATCH HoRRoRs.
The Terrible Countenances of the Contes'
.tants at New York.

IanbS at NEW &OAA |
New York letter: The horrors in the
crypt at the Eden Musee were as moth
ing compared with the faces Of the So
called racers in the six days walk.
They have in the chamber of horrors
in this museum various wax faces Illus
trating more or less agony. One is the
face of a Moor whose head has just been
chopped off by an e~xecuioner. An
other is the face of n man who is being
scalped. Another is the face and head
of a victim who is being roasted alive by
the cannibals. All of these faces are
sufficiently horrible but they are not q
marker to the faces of six day pedes-
TRANS, after they have been on the
track for three days.
Fitzgerald's face-unshaven, uncouth,
distorted and ungainly, withered by the
tremendous strain and lined like a cob
web-was a more repulsive sight during
the last three days of the match than
anythingin the Eden Musee. His eyes
ware sluggish, bloodshot and heavy and
encompassed by huge purple circles.
His cheeks had so sunk in that the con
tour of the teeth could almost have been
seen through them and every movement
was an illustration of acute agony. He
swung his arms painfully, his head
dropped on his chest, his shoulder
blades stuck out sharply from his aten-
uated body, his legs dragged lamely n
after the other and the muscles of his
neck twiched nervously at every step.
He dragged himself steadfastly ahead,
never turning his eyes to the right or
left, until he came to the scorers stand,
when he painfully and laboriously
turned his face toward the figures to
see that they were correctly given.
Charles Rowell was even more
pronounced and if possible a bit more
pitiable. At the start he was as hand
some, chunky, well-fed and athletic
specimen of a man as one could desire
to see. He was trained down perfectly.
His eyer were bright, his color good
and his muscles superbly developed.
He moved gracefully and quickly, and
looked like q winner from the start.
As the race progressed the color faded
from his cheeks, his eyes grew heavy and
brow wrlnkled until it seemed shriveled.
His shoulders dropped and his cheeks
fell away until he was almost unrecog-
nizable. The terrible strain drew his
face almost out Of proportion and
made it repulsive to look upon.
These were the two leaders.
They were in better condition
than any other men in the race.
Night after night and day after day
thousands of people poured into the
garden and hung for hours oyer the rail
staring at the faces of the poor wretch
es who were dragging themselves
around the track. There seemed to
be a sort of morbid fascination in it for
the crowd. A man would get q
position along the rail where he could
| see the walkers for an instant as they
| passed on their rounds. Here he would
stand for five or six hours in the sitting
atmosphere, pushed and jostled by the
crowd, just for the chance of catching a
glimpse of the faces of the toiling PEI
destrians as they came around the track.
Everybody who came in exclaimed at
the revolving appearance of the men,
and then crowded eagerly for a place
where they could catch a closer
view of them. All this has been
written many times before, but one
couldn't visit the six days walking hor-
ror without being duly impressed by it.
What is there in the nature of sport in
a six days walking match? One can
understand the admiration the people
feel for a well contested and swift run
ming, or boat, race, a good game of base
ball, o scientific sparring match, or a
rattling game of tennis, racquets, la
crosse, foot ball or cricket. In all of
these q .nan needs endurance, pluck and
science. Nobody is injured, constitu-
tions are not wrecked, and the contes-
tants do not pass through a period Of
prolonged and terrible suffering as they
do in one of the lengthy contests Of the
Madison square garden.