The Columbus journal., 1908-09-09
WAS @G0nC SOME"
HOW RALPH PAINE BROKE 4
RUNNING RECORD.
Spurred 70 Effort BY Flight Of kra9
and Mauser Bullets, Correspond
ent Hit Ground Only Ia
High Places.

In my own experience. beginning
with college football. those sporting
activities which were seasoned with
some danger to life and limb are re-
called with the keenest zest. AZ an
alleged war correspondent In three
campaigns I added shooting and foot
racing to the list Of sports with whose
rules l was fairly familiar, says Ralph
Paine In Recreation. While the Yale
athletic trainers had appraised my
physique as better adapted to throw.
ing the hammer or putting" the
freight car than the 100-yard dash,
lived to Overturn these expert judg
ments. There Is every reason to be-
lieve that through the tropic verdure
Of a valley near Guantanamo. Cuba. l
had the unique distinction Of running
the 10O-yard dash in nine seconds and
the quarter mile in close to forty sec
onds, for the farther I went the faster
flew. Needless to say. these were
all new worlds records. professional
and amateur.
A battalion of husky American ma
rines had been fighting twice their
weight of Spanish infantry two nights
and days on end, under q harassing
and incessant cross fire which swept
the hard-held camp on the hill. On
either side Of this hill lay small. green
valleys. the enemy keeping under
cover along the opposite slopes. At
length there came lull in the action.
A correspondent, whom modesty for
bids me to name. observed that far
up one of these valleys lay the huge
boiler of q burned sugar estate, and
that said boiler would be safe fort
ress from which to look matters over
at much closer range. Borrowing
rifle from a wounded corporal. he Jared
hastily toward the sugar boiler amid
the prOfane shouts of q dusty squad
of marines:
"Come back, you fool. They'll turn
loose again directly"
They did. 1t happened that the pill
grim was wearing q wide-brimmed
Spanish straw hat taken from q de-
ceased soldier of CASTLE The Ameri-
can marines had no other targets than
these straw hats as glimpsed in the
dense underground. They therefore
opened brisk fire from their hillside
at this solitary straw hat bobbing up
the valley. The Spanish troops. know.
ing that none of their men was down
there. fired with much enthusiasm at
the same bull's-eye. The bullets
hummed both ways. They raked the
atmosphere from left to right The
poor fool whom friend and foe were
trying to pot had not the wit to think
of discarding the straw hat as he
sprinted for the shelter of the sugar
boiler, which appeared to have been
moved at least eighteen miles away.
There are witnesses alive to-day who
will swear that when his tracks were
followed next morning brown patches
were found where his flying feet had
scorched the grass. Bullets aimed to
stop him passed twenty feet to the
rear when they crossed his trail. These
troops had not been trained as wing
shots and were therefore handicapped.
Veering to the first person, for l am
honestly proud of those sprinting rec
ords land why make pretense of q
mOdesty which is superfluOus?, l
Glove the bullet-spattered atmosphere
with a distinct whistling sound and
my heels flew so high with each ter
rifle stride that they clattered against
the back of my head like the shoes
of an Over-reaching horse. At length
reaching the sugar boiler, i dove into
its end with tremendous velocity and
lay painting while I listened to the
pelting drive Of bullets against its
sides like rain on q farmhouse roof
In this spirited fashion were shat
tered, Obliterated and showed under
all known sprinting records, ancient
and modern. They were achieved un-
der the most fawless amateur status.
because no financial induce
ments could have led me to start from
scratch with a fight of Krag and Maui
ser bullets and beat them to the tape.