The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-04-22
L ALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS
NEW YORK Anril d.

~ hiking are closest to nature.
Perhaps that's why these are the
snly two sports that welcome the
graybeards among the champions.
Somehow it is more pleasant to
picture nature as a benevolent
guardian Of her aging brood than
q driving. impatient despot clear
ing the way for the exploits Of adj
venturous youth. Clarence De Mar
hes just won biz seventh champion
shin in the historic Boston mara
thon De Mar is well along in the
forties. He won ms first marathon
twenty wears ago. The time he made
last Saturday in winning again
was the best he has ever done for
the Boston distance. Instead Of
Going book 1e seams to be coming
fo-w-rr'
To the middle aged there ought to he
something heartening and warning in De
Mars performance. Years 14ust count for
little when men who left youth behind
decades back can run twenty-six miles and
3s5 yards in superiative time. Or In any
time at all. Maybe sociologists could take
ne Mar and make Of him a selling sermon
that viii be Of enIghteninE interest to
the Industrial world. Few men are &C
cepted In the trades at 30 when men Of
twenty are to be had.
Isn't it possible to reduce De Mar
to a brief case formula and carry
him around the country and in re-
spouse to the inevitable, you're toe
Old" answer, oh yeah? Well, what
about this guy?'
THERE is another sermon in De
4 Ma IL might faithfully be
captioncd. b yourself" From the
start he was a natural marathoner, /
which means he had fair speed,
stamina and the sort of homespun
courage that it takes to begin a
Job and stick with it until it is /
finished. He first won recognition
in 1911. The following year he was
nance ON the Olympic team. Up
tn teen he had never had any adj
vice from a trainer. He had never /
had RIB down. a steam bath or
suffered The meticulous impositions /
Of a diotitian.
Enrolled as an Olympic starter he was (
promptly taken in hand BIZ experts. II
appeared that everything he had been do /
ing was wrong " he was ever to yet any [
where as a marathoner he must change /
over cornlet@Iv. The race run and 4
he finished twelfth. He returned from /
Stockholm a d'siIlusioned athIotc. He quit /
the sport Why not He had been handled I
by experts and had failed. 1t must be
that he was no good.
But FIVE years later he came back, /
unannoUnced and without benefit of /
ballyho0 or expert handling, and /
won archer marathon. From that I
time on he has been the most con- /
sietentlv successful marathon run /
ner in world history.
ONE Of the drawbacks about the
" science Of exporting is that it /
makes no allowance for genius in |
the raw. 1t has been observed that |
the female among the Ubangi saw
gees now adding to the delights of |
Mr.. RnglingS circus walk with a
slinkv stride commonly effected by |
the Southampton and Palm Beach |
set. This was not acquired at a !
fashionable finishing school and its |
native attractiveness is probably /
more automatically appealing than !
the domestic counterpart.
Among the aItobiograph.ca works Of M I
Eabs Ruth is tnc disclosure that he came |
upon HIS tremendous hitting powers with !
nut educational influence. with character !
istic candor the great man confesses that |
he too dumb TO be taught. The COM
bined tutorShip Of I'll the great hitterS of
the past covId hardly have made him a |
Rrc7t-r sir~r~~.