Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-02

tried him out at ten miles, and the
young Indian beat Davis SO bad that
Davis found him at the end of the dis
tance not even brething hard, while he
was "all i'm
The day of the race came. Davis
withdrew his own entry and substi-
tuted that of Longboat, so he appeared
at the start In a wildly striped bathing
suit and pair of old bicycle shoes.
Everybody gave Davis the laugh and
wanted to know where he picked UP
his ringer" The betting men, who
made a book on the race, quoted Long
boat 100 to /. He was the joke of the
race,
"Ringer" Creates Surprise
Davis gave Longboat his instructions
"Try to keep up with the leader, who
ever he is. Don't pass him until the
very end of the race. Just keep at his
heels if you can" The Indian nodded
and grinned.
Longboat was the original Message
to Garcia" Indian. He did just what
L avis told him. A leader worked out
of the bunch with Longboat at his
heels He looked around and saw
that the freak in the bathing suit was
dogging him.
"I'll shake him." he thought, and hit
up the pace for the next two miles. At
IT6 eIlQ lIOHRDOdL was Slllt DIT Ills liCClSj
fresh and smiling, and the rest of the
and hearing.
The leader was firing, and slowed up
to let Longboat take the van and set
the pace. But Longboat slowed up,
too, and still kept at his heels. The
leader was winded, and as the rest of
the bunch was far behind, thought
he'd sit down for a minute.
Longboat sat down on the other side
of the road and smiled at him. Long
boat always smiles. Soon they heard
the rest of the runners coming. The
white man started at terrific clip. He
knew that he couldn't last the race out,
but he made up his mind to run the
| Indian off his feet.
| Longboat met the sprint and ran fast
or slow, kept his place few yards be-
hind the white man, smiling STILL
About five miles from the finish the
| leader fell III a heap, completely done
up. Longboat stopped, looked at him.
saw that he was done for and logged
home at slow dog trot.
| He finished nearly two miles ahead
of the second runner, and was within
a minute of the record for the course
set by Sammy Mellor, 1 hour, 40 min
utes, 25 seconds. He finished perfectly
fresh, and could have broken the record
had he kept his pace In the last two
miles.
Greatest of Runners
The feat stamped Longboat as q
great distance runner. A month later
last Thanksgiving day, Longboat won
the Ward Marathon race of fifteen
miles in Toronto. The next month, last
Christmas day, he ran in Hamilton
again, and won the ten-mile road race
with the greatest ease.
| Longboat was a famous runner by
| this time, and special invitation
match race was arranged at Buffalo
between him and George V. Bonbag OF
the Irish-American Athletic club OF
New York. Bonbag is the worlds
champion and record holder at the two
and three mile distances.
| 1t was an indoor race of three miles
a style and distance entirely new to
| Longboat. He did not win, but ht
pushed Bonbag hard and compelled hin
to shave several seconds from his owl
worlds record to beat the Indian b!
a single yard. 1t was the greatest in
door race ever seen.
In the light of these facts it appear
that Longboat's record-breaking vic
tory in the B. A. A. Marathon was no
a fuke victory in any sense. Long
boat is, without any exception, the
greatest long-distance runner the worl6
has ever seen.