Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1888-02-09

circuit could be made in an hour. A
IO o'clock at night they dove into tn,
river. The men who backed them fol
lowed in boat, and l am told that
upward of twenty thousand francs
were put up on the question whether
either OF the contestants would finish
on time. They came to the finish pre-.
clsely at the same instant, having &C.
complished the circuit in fifty-seven
minutes. The prize money was di-
vlded between them. When they were
taken from the water the weather was
so cold that ice formed on their trunks
before they could be got under shell
ter. One of them became danQerousIv
III, but the other suffered nothing from
his hardy adventure.
Fenclng L suppose everybody knows
about. The French are the acknowl-
edged masters in the art, and every
educated man in the country knows
how to handle the sword. The war
department does everything possible
to encourage the general cultivation of
tins exercise. General Boulanger is
himself famous swordsman, and fire.
quently goes out of his way to act as
Judge In public contest. These con-
tests are numerous, much more numer-
Gus, am inclined to think, than the
sparring exhibitions that take place in
New York. And this, it need not be
said, Is distinctly sport wherein more
muscular power is at discount; it is
skill that counts.
The French are also experts at bill
Iards, and, in short, will be found the
peers of any nation in games of skill.
hhi6f, h6te Inel w1estIer wf5n us 10 Ia1s
to the extent that champion
would be in America"
as there no general interest in aqua
tic sports?"
"Yes, responded NJ. Dumont laugh
ing. "The wealthy have their yachts
as you have here, and there is form
of canoeing that, though highly enter
tanning, would hardly pass for sport in
the sense you mean. Canoeing is a
popular recreation of Sunday, and in
fact those addicted to it like it 80 we'll
that they often spend the entire day at
it. That is more than your boat club
men do on the Harlem, is it not? But
the canoeist on the Seine is almost in
variably accompanied by the lady whom
you Americans would denominate as
his best girl, and he not infrequently
takes along cargo oflunch. All, yes,
canoeing is good sport, but do not
remember that have heard of cham
pionship contest. And on our holidays
it is not game of baseball that at
tracts the crowds; they 20 to the
Tuileries and listen to the music and
roam about the gardens, and now and
then an irregular kind of football is in
dulged in. 1t is not the Rugby game
by any means, more kind of indis-
criminate kicking.
"In the northern part of France they
play variety of lacrosse, but it is
considerably different from the game
known to Americans. Lawn tennis is
played by the same class of people who
play it here, and in the winter, when
the weather allows, there is some skat-
ing, but it is an intensely aristocratic
sport, not at all the popular thing it is
here. Our champion skater, by the
way, so far as we have one, is an
American, George Frost. More than
that, / believe he is q journalist.
Speak king of aristocratic sport reminds
me to say that our sport is mostly of
that character. Such great games as
we have are played mainly by the titled
persons and the military. The leading
one 1 think of is a paper chase on
horseback, conducted in very much
the same way that the English and
Americans play hare-and-hounds.
With us, two Of the most intrepid