The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-05-08
manifest intent and purpose of the existing
pension laws.
Apropos of walking Watches.

/ hiatCu WAS III progress db MaulSOn square
Garden, New York. Nearly all the famous
pedestrians of the age took part in it, in
Guiding Rowell, the English champion, and
crowds fecked to see their performance
For six long days and nights, in an atmos-
taminated with the exhalations of thousands
of spectators the contestants made their
| applauded what it conceived to be a mag
nifcent trial of physical strength and endur-
ance. And such, perhaps, it was from the
standpoint of the sporting fraternity, but as
an exhibition of those qualities which fit
men for great actions and noble deeds it
was, like all such contests, shabby farce.
| Handled by their trainers as if they were
mere animals, their food and stimulants
| portioned out with scientific caution, their
bodies scrupulously spoDged and rubbed at
regular intervals, the period allowed them
| for rest vigorously limited, these so called
athletes in trayersing such immense dis
tances within the time prescribed demon
strated nothing in the world but the extent
Of the strain which the human system is
capable of sustaining without collapsing
under it. AS a test of practical endurance
it was really worthless, since it was made
under conditions which seldom exist when
occasions of peril Or danger demand the
| performance of some splendid feat of phys
ical strength and skill.
Quite of another sort were the walking
matches which engaged the attention of the
country between the years 1861 and 1866,
when tramp, tramp, tramp" the boys we're
marching over the arena of war. No saw
dust track relieved their weary feet; no
4 friendly roof sheltered them from the storm !;
no obsequious attendants were at hand to
/ battle their aching limbs nor downy touches
! to receive their exhausted bodies; no sump-
tuous viands awaited them when they turned
/ IN at night; no flowers streYed their way
nor swelling plaudits cheered their hearts
/ These walking matches of our veterans had
| far different accessories. Their way lay
through swamps and tangled thickets; over
towering mountains and through precipitous
ravines; up TO the neck in icy rivers and
along roads knee deep with mud; over
bridges raked with grape and canister,
and over breastworks at the point of the
bayouet They marched, not to the strains
| of the inspiring waltz, but the thunder of the
enemy's guns.
| Recall for a moment some of their walk
ing matches. Think of that march from
/ the Chickahominy TO the James in the sum
mer Of 90, fighting by day, retreating by
night, every stopping place battlefield,
every road trail of blood. Think of the
/ battle above the clouds at Chattanooga, and
the intrepid souls that breasted the iron
hail and sealed the heights! Think of that
day at Fredericksburg, when the veteran
legions of the Army of the Potomac march
ed into the very jaws of death with smiling
faces And Sherman's march to the sea ~
all, that was walking match at which a
world wondered!
/ Not in the costume of the professional
athlete did our veterans make these
marches, but weighed down by musket,
| blankets, haversack and forty rounds in
the cartridge box Drenched by the rains of
summer, chilled by the SHOWS and frosts of
winter, often without tents or fires, and
/ sometimes without rations-where viii you
find such en- example of manly endurance
| and patriotic devotion as they furnished?
That was twenty years ago. Is it any
wonder that of the men who survived these
hardships of the march so many should to-
day find their strength spent, their health
shattered and the doom of peniless old age
confronting them Is it not hard that while
] honors and rewards are showered upon the
winners of a petty six-days walking match
these survivors of the greatest trial of hui
man endurance that the world has ever
witnessed and in which the stake was the
preservation of the Union. should be neg
lected and ignored?
IN reply to an esteemed Iowa correspond
ent who forwarded us clipping from a
newspaper criticising the national officers
for their action in regard to Grand Army
badges and supplies, we would state that