Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

| ngnter forms OF outdoor amusements. Run
ming, ericketing, baseball, lacrosse and
similar games, are at very low ebb in Ger
many, though there is some football. Ever
the sports at which the Germans
claim to excel are by no means their own,
They have been very proud of their skater:
for long while, and yet Joe Donognue, oi
Newburg, has won every contest in his Ger.
man tour, beating the cracks without any
special struggle There are a great many
men in America, who are as good as Dono-
| ghue, too. The curse OF the German boy is
beer, just as the curse of the American boy
is cigarettes The German Kaiser knew
what he was talking about when ne
spoke on the. occasion of his birth
| day, urging the youth of Germany to keep
| more aloof from the beer gardens. There is
no reason that / can see why the German
athletes should not make wonderful records,
for have never seen a sturdier lot of men,
and their determination and pluck is pro-
verbal. Everywhere man goes in Ger
many he sees big, powerful and sturdy look
ing men, with broad shoulders, deep chests,
thick necks and sturdy legs. They all have
the build Of athletes in certain way, but
all Of them carries huge paunch, and all
the lightness and swing is gone from his
movements BY reason of this encumbrance.
Beer does this. 1t is beer all the time,
morning, noon and night. Alterevery walk
ing tour, football game, bicycle race or
fencing bout, everybody, principals, Sec
onds and spectators, adjourn to the nearest
beer garden, sit down to the tables, and
drink for hours. A man OF "a or 25 years in
Germany who has not lost his waist is a
rare sight.
CLEVER IRISH BOYS.
English and Irish boys are wonderfully
fine fellows. l met great many amateur
athletes in Ireland, and I found them the
cleverest sort of men. There is good reason
for the prominence of Irishmen in athletic
sports all over the world. They make great
pugilists, plucky runners and marvellous
cricketers. Indeed, they excelin all varie-
ties of sports, and many of the crack ath-
letes in America-who, by the way, are the
crack athletes of the world nowadays-are
Of Irish parentage. The love of the people
over there for sport is as natural and
honest as their love for fresh air. They do
not drink beer, smoke very little, and the
smooth roads of Ireland offer them a splen-
did opportunity ior running and walking.
Before the trouble over the eyictions and
. the misery they entail came upon Ireland,
the people showed their fondness for sport
of all sort by trudging from one end of the
country to the other for any athletic event.
Many of the peasants would walk Is or 20
miles simply to watch the horses and
hounds of some notable hunt. Now they
will walk so miles to break up a hunt if
possible.
The young Irish boys are good runners.
Some time ago they adopted the English
style of running, but am glad to see that
the American form which Myers exhibited
over there has taken good hold. Some of
the heetest runners that have ever seen in
Ireland and England now run in the Ameri-
can fashion-that is, with the arms hanging
free and the head forward. good deal as an
Indian runs. The conventional English
style OF running is to throw the shoulders
very far back, stick the elbows close to the
sides, pump and arms up and down, keep
ing time with the stride and throwing the
leg very far forward. In England the anna
teur athletes crop up at every possible
point. Every little village has its barriers,
its cricket and football teams, and there are
contests going on constantly. The BOYS are
STRAIGHTFORWARD, ruddy-faced, clear-eyed
lot of youngsters, VINO speak without affecta-
tion and are delightfully."- modest and un-
conventional. 1t is wonderful thing to
me that they develop after they are'22 or %
years old into the stiff, awkward, surly and
even insolent men that one meets so often
in London.
ATHLETICS IN ENGLAND.
Every facility is offered the boys in En-
gland for indulsing in athletics. The most
crusty and Grabbed of village shopkeepers
will contribute his share toward purchasing
cup or prize of some sort for the bows to
struggle for, and it is really remarkable to
see the number OF people who turn out at
an athletic meeting in some of the large
towns outside of London. Athletic games
in many of the big manufacturing cities
like Birmingham prove thousand times
more exciting and interesting to the people
than circus or a race meeting in America.
They number spectators by the thousands
over there, where we count them bv the
hundreds. A crowd of 10000 people any-
where in England at an athletic meeting is
by no means unusual, though the runners
may not be champions, and there NAV be
nothing more interesting than a series of
walking and running matches between men
who have merely local regulations.
What I have admired most about the
English and Irish boys is the careful man.
ner in which they look after themselves.
They will toddle of to bed early no matter
what the attractions may be, get up betimes
and take five-mile spin, wrapped up in
sweaters and heavy coats, return and take a
cold bath and sit down to breakfast with |
out feeling that they have done ANYTHING |
out of the ordinary way. When thew smoke !
at all it is simply to take short pull at a |
briarwood pipe, and as a rule nothing on |
earth can coax an English boy into touch |
ing malt drinks or smoking cigarettes. |
They look further ahead than our own bows. !
The trouble in America, as far as nv
observation goes, and have been more or
less associated with athletics for a number
Of years, seems to be that the bows
and young men take up athletics
merely in the way of fad.
They train themselves violently and
severely with some definite purpose in view
such as the 100-yard dash, or the high
Jump, and if they fail to beat the record In
the course of q year they abandon athletics
altogether. Men are athletes in Ireland and
England until they are 40 odd years of age.
mat Is the one advantage OF cricket. by the
way, over baseball, and it is the real reason
u the permanent popularity of the game in
Great Britain. A man can play cricket
Until ne is 80 years of age, bit nobody can
play baseball nowadays unless he is a we'll
ralned athlete, with youth, strength and
OTIS of activity to back him up. But then
had rather see one game of ball than
thousand games OF cricket. This is, as far
s my own observation goes, the usual
preference in America.
BLAKELY HALL.
Djsnster MT the Do0 pIav