The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-08
NEW HONORS FOR MERTENS.
FIVE-MILE CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT
CARRIED OFF BY THE ST.
PAUL ROY.
TWO WORLD RECORDS AS WELL
Mile Open Race, the Event of the
Day, Landed by Kiser, Bald
Second.

evening at Willow Grove park, Wnen
the eighteenth national meet of the l..
A. w, closed. In attendance there has
never been a national or local race
meet that has ever approached 1T. Dur
ing the two days of racing nearly 49,
900 persons witnessed the cracks from
all parts of the United States, two from
Mexico and the Canadian crack, Loug-
head, strive for fame and prizes. Yes
teday's attendance of $1,000 was nearly
doubled today with an attendance of
between 25, 900 and $1,000. In the par
ticular of racing, all the circuit chasers
showed themselves to be in fine form,
which resulted in the closest, prettiest
and most strategic competition that has
been witnessed in long time.
Fred Loughead, the Sarnia, Ont, lad,
who carried off the honors yesterday,
kept up. his fine work today, but little
Earl Kiser landed on top, winning the
half-mile professional and the mile
open professional A purse of $5O0
was divided among the winners OF the
latter race Eddie Bald also added to
his reputation, and while no f1rsts ap-
pear to his credit, yet his econds in
sional finals were within a hairbreadth
of being firsts. In each and every race
in which he competed he displayed re-
markable judgment
Maj. Taylor the colored crack, was a
hot favorite in the mile open heat
which was won by him and finished In
grand style. For awhile 1t looked as
though he would be the winner of the
final, but the others proved too, heady
and fast for him, and the best he could
do was to land very close fourth.
Mertens, who yesterday showed him.
self able to keep the cracks interested,
came to the front today and captured
fully his share Of the hOnors. He
finished first in one event, third in
another and established two new
worlds records. In the second heat
Of the mile handicap Mertens set the
pace and did a third of a mile in
Al 1-5, and two-thirds in 1:22, both
better than any previous mark. 1t
was too hot pace, however, and he
lost his heat. In the mile open against
Callahan and Gardiner in the seventh
heat Mertens finished second, while,
in the half-mile event, he set the pace
for Bald in the fourth heat and beat
him out in a merry clip, making the
half-mile in Los. He was third in the
final In the fivemile championship
s Mertens was the winner He finished
third in his heat, but in the final was
the first to cross the tape, with Bald
close behind him. The time was 10:45
Among the amateurs there was much
good racing, and Peabody, Eddie
EIleWellyn and Charles NJ. .Ertz put up
the. finest exhibition. In most of the
amateur events the riding was close
and in but few cases did the boys
show 1nV evidence of IOa
After the scheduled events had been
run off. Fred Schade the Virginia
amateur. succeeded in breaking the
worlds record for one-third of a mile
Schade was paced by two quads and
got away beautifully. He Rugged the
quads closely and finished in a terrific
pace in 80 As lowering Porter's rec
ord of "a Is, made in 1892 In addi-
ton to this there We're a number of
trials at the worlds record for one
mile amateur and professional.
Church covered the three laps in
Las 3-5. and but for the second pace
teams slowness would have chopped
at least two seconds off the time he
made. Major Taylor made the dis
lance in LAB 3-5.
Johnny Zimmerman rode an exhi-
bition half-mile in So 2-5, and Arthur
Gardiner paced by quads, did a mile
in LA. This brought the racing to
close.
BEFORE THE RACES.
The day opened more auspiciously,
if such a thing be possible, than yes
terday. There was just enough breeze
to make life worth living, but not
enough to retard the progress of the
races. There were no small runs
scheduled for this morning, the stellar
attraction being the push to Willow
Grove, which was on the programme
for O'Clock. At that hour the con-
dition of Broad street, the widest thor
oughfare in the city, was almost in
describable. AS far as the eye could
reach, this asphalted boulevard was
one mass of humanity, mixed UP with
wheels of all descriptions. So tightly
were the wheelmen massed about L.
A. W. headquarters that 1T was al
most impossible for the captains of the
various divisions to get the vast col
umn in line. There had been no
smoker at the headquarters last
night, and this was partly accountable
for the increase over the crowd of yes
terday. To gaze at the crowd, one
would scarcely imagine there was any
wheelmen in the country outside of
this city.
1t was nearly $50 before the first
division got under way, and it was al
most an nOur later before the last pha-
lanX got in motion. AS the ride to
Willow grove consumes only about al
hour, the first part of the parade must
have reached the ground before the
tail end had got away from league
headquarters.
The programme for the day was
more attractive than that of yester-
day. Seven events were scheduled to
be run off. This did not include
special race for a purse of $500 by pro-
fessionals. The first event of today's
programme after trial heats was the
mile handicap for professionals, in
which Cooper, Bald, Kiser, Loughead.
Johnson, Mcfarland and Nat Butler
were scratchmen. There were nearly
100 entries in the event. Then followed
the mile handicap, amateur, with
eighty entries. The half-mile cham
pionship professional, in which all of
the racing cracks were entered; the
five-mile championship, professional.
with all the long-distance men among
the starters; the two-mile champion
ship, amateur, and the mile open pro-
fessional.
The chief topic of conversation
among the racing men this, morning
was the remarkable riding of F. J.
Loughead, the Sarnia, Ont, crack
This great rider started in three events,
a total of six heats, winning five of the
heats, including two finals, and finish
ing close second to Mcfarland in the
final of the tWO-mile handicaD