The morning journal-courier., 1908-07-25
|pectacle at Olympiad the Like of Which Has Never Been Seen in This Aee--Ameri-
 can the Victor.
ITALIANS GREAT STRUGGLE
Enters Stadium First, But Falls Many Times and Has to Be Aided to the Tape
 A Tribute to
 Murphy.

LondOn, July Efs--lt Wouiu ue hv [exaggeratlon by any of the 100000 Spectators who witnessed the final Struggle in the Marathon race at the |Olympian games to-day to say 1t was Rthe most thrilling athletic event that has occurred since that Marathon race |in ancient Greece when the victor fell Hat the goal and, with gesture of Itriumph. died.
 ( The veteran athletes of Europe, America. AfNca, and Australia, who thave seen the greatest struggle of ev- |iery sort on land and water for ath- letic supremacy, declared that there Twas nothing comparable to the great trace to-day within their memories or Hin the other Olympiads since the mod 4ern cycle of these began.
 It was spectacle the .ikc of which Fnone living had ever seen, and none who saw it expect ever to see repeat & ed. In the race bS of the best men winnowed from the runners of four N continents competed and in the arena M where it was finished in the presence N of an enormous cosmopolitan assembl- 4 age, were the Queen of England, the royal representatives of several na- Al tions and hosts of finely dressed men and women from the most fashionable 1 circles of Europe, as well as several thousand Americans; these features, and the dramatic and exciting de- nouement at the end combined to make an historic day.
 It was an American day and the l resentments of yesterday which rankl- I ed strongly in the breasts of Ameri- cans here when they cane to the . stadium this afternoon, were forgot ten not only in the victory of John F. Hayes, the Irish American Athletic club runner. but In the splendid record made by the other Ameri ans who were wei to the front among those who finished
 Since the beginning of the Olympic rames the great rivalry has been be- tween England and America, and while the minor competitions on the track and field in which he two m , tions specialized. were fought out. E1HllS1IIltH tOnSOltu lntUStlHtS IoG al, the American successes by the thought that in the domain of long distance running they had always hoen supreme and whatever prizes they failed to grasp in this department the colorals would pick up.
 The sequel may be told briefly Six Americans started in the Marathon p1 ri Epo tc1 (,f the first ten men to reach the coveted goal, four were Americans and they are officially placed as follows: Hayes, first; Joseph Forshaw, Missouri A. C., third A. R. Welton, Lawrence Y. M. c. A.. fourth, and Lewis Towinina, the Carlisle Indian, ninth. The second man was Hefferon, of South Africa. He was the oldest among .he runners, being 34 years old and he kept up a remarkable pace almost 10 the end of
 26 miles of the struggle, nut Hayes was the better man. Friends of lief
 feron explained that he is at his best at 40 miles and that to-1ay's event was too short for him. but certainly hs
 is one of the most wonderful runners
 in the world.
 The first Englishman who crossed
 the line came in twelfth He was W. TT Clarke. and was not one of those
 counted upon to win. Duncan, the
 former English champion. who won the preliminary English trial. fell out
 at the twelfth mile and like several
 other contestants, was taken into q motor car and brought to the stadium
 It is considered generally that the
 race Is not only triumph for the
 United States, but, in larger sense
 for America. because seven of the
 leaders at the end were from North
 America The three Canadians, Wood
 the Indian Simpson. and Lawson fin.
 ished In fifth, sixth and seventh
 places respectively, and with the rep
 resentatives of the United States de.
 prved England of it's claim to leader
 ship in the long distance running
 branch of athletics.
 II will not snatch any laures from
 the brow of Hayes, who won a goot race, to say that the hero of the day
 was the Italian Dorando The admir-
 ation and sympathy of every persor
 In the stadium went out to the gallan
 Italian, who, although he did not win
 deserved to win and did more within
 the limit of his powers than any othe,
 man who ran. The crisis in a battl,
 on which the fate of a nation hunl
 could hardly have been more mpres
 sive than Dorando's entrance into tho
 staudium Ten minutes before, tht
 megaphone announced "The runner!
 are in sight" guns had proclaimed
 the arrival of the leaders al the near
 est station of the course an intens,
 sN overhung the stadium, whil,
 the thousands awaited breathlessl,
 the approach of the first man
 For ten minutes all eyes were fo