Evening star., 1925-01-18

And Immediately afterwards l
looked at him stretched on the slab
taking his rundown, and my amaze
fnent grew. He was breathing
rhythmically as If he had only been
nut on an easy trot. There was not
p sign OF exhaustion on him.
His Admiration Grows.
And as l scrutinized his body with
che eye of a man who has made
human muscularity and stamina his
life's study, my admiration for the
Finn grew. For he had done such
wonders with so little. 1 mean that
nature did not plan him to be an
athletic world beater. He had grown
70 his teens narrow and fiat of
chest, spindle-shanked
To Nurmi will be given no such
natural endowment of muscle, Drawn
and stamina as were provided joey
RAY or the great, tall. lithe-legged
Lonzboat or Nurmis brother Finn,
Ritola.
These fellows were shaped for
great physical prowess and had no
long route of training to undergo to
attain extraordinary development.
But you can see how Nurmi must
have worked faithfully and trained
TO acquire the well-rounded chest he
now possesses. attaining the splen-
did lung power and amazing heart
stamina that carry his legs tirelessly
over such long distances
Arms Tell the Tale.
He can now display the full chest
OF an athlete, whereas the arms, which
he has not been at pains to develop,
are the arms of Nurmi as first he was
fashioned. They are pipe stems
His legs even now do not look re-
markable. They are not such skinny
things as his arms. however, as you
may well imagine. But he has
earned those great legs OF his. He
has earned the flexible. steely sineWs
by long. hard efforts.
He stands as the most extraordinary
example of what can be accomplished
by scientific, intelligent direction with
a physique which 1 do not hesitate to
declare in the beginning must have
been actually below the average.
Followers of track performances
know that it has only been in the last
four years that Nurmi has taken on
speed. Before he tried that he had
made himself the greatest of all en-
durance runners. He had drilled and
drilled himself to where 1t is no ex-
aggeration to say that il has become
as easy for Nurmi to run as 1T is for
YOU and me TO talk
He had acquired an iron body anu
a heart gradually trained into a mag
nificent engine of strength and steadi-
ness And then he began to speed up
his legs until you now get the spec
tacle of an athlete in such perfect
form that he can apparently call on
an exhaustless reserve of both speed
and stamina.
Fail to Appreciate 1t.
It was noticeable that the spec
tators in the Garden Thursday night
seemed hardly to realize the wonder
of the spectacle they were witnessing.
AS one by one the Finn Tapped all the
other contenders. barring only the
doughty Ritola, at each such perform
snce there came a, round of applause.
But otherwise IL was not apparent
that the spectators realized what
marvellous show Nurmi was giving.
The enthusiasm aroused did not
match the achievement.
This was because the Finn in flying
around the laps was betraying not
the least sign that he was making
tremendous effort. He started out
with his elbows cooked well up, his
chest thrown fully out so that his
lungs might do their best work, his
head thrown back, chin up, his nos