Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-19
OLYMPIC CROWDS GROWING
Thousands Of Persons Sit in Heavy
b Rain to See Games.
MORE HONoRs FOR SHERIDAN
IFish-American Athlete. wins Discus
Threw and Makes New worlds
Reesra-M. r.. HOrr in
second Place.

LONDON, July 1S.-If every day on
which the Olympic games are held were
only Saturday there would be some chance
of their proving a success from the point
Of view of attendance. Londoners showed
today that, given the opportunity, they
will support good sport, no matter what
the weather conditions are, although
every person who journeyed to the
stadium this afternoon might have made
the excuse that IL was too wet TO go
anywhere. The two great grandstands at
either end of the stadium, the admis sion
to which is fixed at a shilling, were COM
pletely filled with a crowd similar to
hat which attends foot ball matches on
half holidays. The covered stands where
the seats are reserved also held a much
larger number OF people than on any pre-
vious day, while the royal box, too, was
occupied by a large party, including the
queen, who took a keen interest in the
Danish athletes. Princess Victoria and
the crown prince of Sweden, who, by the
way, have been present every day since
the opening, and the children of the prince
of Wales, who were interested followers
of the sports.
The weather, however, was no respecter
Of persons. 1t vas cloudy and dull all
morning during the progress of the arch
- tAAA 4CANAAB NtANE6Aof bAA AuMdIuE
noon the sky cleared an dit looked as
though the afternoon would be fine. In
stead 1t was one Of the worst days ex-
perienced In the week and there have been
bad ones. The rain came down in tor
rents, with but few clear intervals, and
the officials repeatedly had to stop the
sports going on in the arena. The
cyclists and runners were the only ones
who ignored the wetting they all received,
even the fancy riders being forced to
call a halt in their contest for half an
hour, as the judges were unable 10 do
their work properly.
So far as the Americans were concerned
the day passed off without any unpleasant
Incidents, such as that connected with
the tug of war yesterday, while the Can
adams had one of their grievances recti-
fled, the officials of the cyclists union
at the last moment allowing Young, one
Of the Canadian riders, to start in the
lo~O-kilometer race, for which they de-
clared yesterday that he did not qualify.
1t was proved beyond dispute that this
disqualification was the result of a mis-
take by an official who placed the Cam
adam one lap behinds where he belonged.
Frances protest, also in the cycling event
was added to by another today. = Schilles
protested Jones, the winner of the 5000
meter event. Schilles claimed a foul. but
the protest was not allowed.
More British Victories.
On the matter of scoring, the United
Kingdom completely outclassed the other
countries. its athletes adding seven wins
TO their already good scores. These include
the archery contest, the 3, 2OOmeter steeple-
chase, the 2N-meter breast stroke swim
ming the 5,OOO-nneter cycling, the 1OO-kilo-
meter cycling, the tug-of-war, and the five
mile nat race. The only two other events
decided the discus throwing, Greek style,
ana the Fancy driving, went to America
ana Germany, respectively, but Americans
accomplished two Of which their country
men are proud. In the first place Martin
j. Sheridan of the Irish American Athletic
CLUB, broke all previous records with the
discus at this style Of throwing, making a
distance OF 12S feet 8 inches, while M. F.
Holt OF the same club, was second. also
with a record-breaking throw of 100 feet
6s inches. The other accomplishment. of
which all the athletes are talking, was the
success Of ]. L. Eisele of the New York
Athletic club, In getting third place in the
$500 meter steeplechase.
america never had any idea of scoring In
this event, particularly since Eisele had
run two OF his hardest races during the
week. He was the only American who
compared with the Englishmen in the dis
lance runs, and each race, he had to fight
against odds, being handicapped on each
occasion by having several Englishmen
pitted against him. Further, he had suf-
tered greatly with an injured foot. Just a
httIe more stamina and a little more luck
a anu nHnSele would have captured some of
the distance events for America.