The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-11-15
UPPER MARLBOROUGH, NOVEMBER 1885,

would not consent to let the judges in the
games all be taken from one nation
When the judges had taken their seats in
the judges stand of the stadion. in the
morning, heralds appeared, announcing
the contestants to the vast concourse as
sembled
The first contests were on the hippro-
dome with chariots and horses. The char
| lot races were contests between two, four
| six, and sometimes more on the course at
time. Only wealthy persons could af-
| ford to enter chariots, as a chariot was an
| expensive piece of property. Many of the
| most distinguished statesmen and warriors
among them Alcibiades, the Blaine of
Greece, entered their chariots in those
races, and many women had their chariots
entered there also. Horses, mules and colts
were raced in pairs, fourS, skies, &c Of
| ten two horses were tied together and their
| rider raced them, sometimes one pulling
the other headlong after him. The jock
eys also practiced jumping from the horses
at full speed on the course There were
also walking matches between the horses.
The next contests introduced at Olym-
pia were boxing and wrestling, and then
a combination of these two exercises.
This was called the pancrdtium, and was
| the most violent of all the contests These
bouts usually followed the horse racing,
the contestants entering the arena under
the influence of inspiriting flute music,
their bodies, nude as at birth, anointed
with olive oil and sometimes sprinkled
with dust Men were often killed in this
game but the choking, beating and hug
ging had to be concluded according to
rules. If a contestant manifested any NAL
ice, put heel or toe or knuckles in the alb
domen or eyes, it was sufficient to dis
grace him, and caused him to be called off
The pentdthlon was a combination of five
games: running, jumping, throwing the
dicus and the javelin, boxing and wrest-
ling, &c. The Greeks were very fond of
foot racing, and hence the track was
crowded and running violent as possible
Their races amounted to two or three
miles, and the racers ran till their tongues
lolled out of their months, and sometimes
they foil dead before reaching the goal
They were undoubtedly very much better
long distance runners than the moderns
are, though it is very doubtful whether a
Greek could beat the record breaking
American or Englishman in 100 yard
dash.
History is not clear on the details of
the training, especially the dieting, of
Greek athlete. All the Greeks were very
simple in their food There were picures
but no gourmets, gluttons, and Luculuses
among them They ate fish, olives, eur
rants, little beef, barley bread and they
drank wine; but were not drunkards,
d'iirinm fremems being unknown among
them. Plato denounced the Olympic
games on account of the high feeding and
entertaining of the youths for weeks and
months at a time; but in their diet some
of thevictors at Olympia lived on bread,
lean meat and wine, with a few olives
thrown in. But their were men then who
denounced athletes as there are now.
Among them were such immortal minds
as Plato and Aristotle, and even Herodo
trs, the guileless father of history. Pin
dar has celebrated those games and their
victOrs in manner to make the contest
immortal. During the contests, we are
told, the futtist piped his strains, and the
athletes did their best-as much to cele-
brate in his song as to receive an ovation
from their friends on their return home.
Phidias was there, too-that man whose
equal with chisel was never born; whose
eye for pure form and its manifold mean
ings has never been surpassed. Doubtless
he got many points for his immortal stat
ues from the nude athletes moving uncon
sciously before him.
The Greek had a strange idea of wo-
mans position at Olympia. He admitted
the maidens to these festivals and eXclud-
eG the mothers. Why he did SO is not un-
derstood. But the Greek gave the maiden
more liberty than he did the wife and
mother, perhaps on the ground that maid
a woman. At any rate, the maidens here
looked on at their nude brothers in the are
ma, and there were many of them present
while one matron, the mother of PiSidOr-
os, one day ventured within the stadion
to witness the contests of her son, who
came off as victor in the pancruiimm. She
was dressed in the guise of an athlete, and
as ner son came out ahead, she sprang into
the arena with joy. In her movement her
dress betrayed her sex, and had she not
been of a family in a long line of athletes,
she would have been condemned to death.
So no Spartan mothers could ever wit
ness the feats of their sons at Olympia.
Why the mothers were excluded and the
maidens admitted cannot be appreciated
bv our civilization Yet, if Hercules, AL
cibiades, Pericles, Phidias, Pindar, and
other notables could witness the exercises
at Athens next year, they would be as
greatly shocked rs any of that modern
crowd could be to witness there Il literal
reproduction of all the Olymrian games,
for most likely next year at Athens the
cycle maiden in her boomers will be seen
in full bloom. But all who are interested
in classic sport would probably like to
have also Il hasty fore glimpse of great
modern Olympia which will begin in Ath-
ems next year and go the rounds of ali
the great cities of civilization.
UNPLEASANT RTC0LLECTIONS.
Mrs. Mcclure (whose husband has late
ly made money on contracts An how
do look on me Mlc i Mrs. FiahcrtX2