"I"ll take anything you"ll give me," said Jimmieboy.
The old wizard laughed heartily at this. "Most boys would," said he, "but you are the first one I ever met who was willing to take advice.
The boys I"ve known have all been like little Sammy. Ever hear about little Sammy?"
"No," answered Jimmieboy. "What did he do?"
"Why," said the wizard, "Sammy is the boy the poet wrote about, saying:
"Sammy was a pretty boy, Sammy was his mother"s joy.
Sammy"d take A piece of cake, Sammy"d always take a toy.
"Sammy"d take a top to spin.
Pie with fruit and raisins in.
Sammy"d take A piece of steak, Sammy"d take his medicine.
"Sammy"d take a bowl of rice, Sammy"d take a bit of spice.
Sammy"d take A garden rake, But he would not take advice."
Here the wizard stopped.
"Is that all?" asked Jimmieboy.
"Certainly," answered Thumbhi. "What more do you want?"
"Didn"t anything happen to Sammy?" queried Jimmieboy.
The wizard was about to say no, but then he suddenly remembered that something always does happen to boys that refuse to take advice, so he said: "The poet never told us about that, but I think it probable that something did happen to Sammy. Very likely he went out skating on a mill-pond one summer day in spite of his father"s warning, and got his feet so wet that he caught cold, and had to stay in bed while all the other boys went off on a picnic."
This seemed to satisfy Jimmieboy, and Sammy was dropped as a subject of conversation.
"Now let us go into the drawer," said the wizard.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORT]
If the success of a track-athletic meeting is to be judged from the number of records broken, the two interscholastic meets of May 11th at Berkeley Oval and at Eastern Park will go down in the annals of school sport as the most notable occasions of the kind ever held. The contestants in the N.Y.I.S.A.A. games left the records of only four events on the card standing at the same figure they showed when the programme was printed, and came so close to these that the entire schedule was in danger of being entirely overthrown. The management of the Oval games was as near perfection as can be hoped for where so many events and so many contestants have to be attended to; and although in Brooklyn there was considerable delay at one time on account of the non-arrival of the hurdles, yet things were kept moving as fast as possible, and the enthusiasm of the spectators helped to fill what might otherwise have been several tedious gaps. The Cutler athletes deserve the highest praise for the work they performed. They came on the field with Barnard and Berkeley strong favorites, and they went into every event with an earnestness and energy that were finally rewarded by victory. Cutler"s score was 34-1/2 points, with Barnard second, having 30, and Berkeley third, with 27. Next year there will be a hot struggle between Barnard and Cutler for the final ownership of the cup, which will then be decided, unless some other strong team is developed, to come in and secure the trophy for a year"s custodianship.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FINISH IN THE 100-YARD DASH.]
Although Hall won the second heat in the 100 in 10-2/5 seconds, with Moore behind him, he was unable to distance Moore when the final test came, and the Barnard man plunged ahead and took the event. All the heats in the 100 were close and interesting, and no winner had an easy time of it in any case. In fact, all the sprints were contested in sound earnest. The quarter-mile furnished as pretty a race as any.
Irwin-Martin kept along in the middle of the bunch until they were well opposite the grand stand on the far side of the field, when he pulled ahead strongly and steadily, and finished in good style. His effort was a strain on him, however, for he collapsed as soon as he had breasted the tape. For this reason he was probably not in his best form when he toed the scratch for the half-mile, but it is doubtful if he could have distanced Meehan even if he had been. Meehan proved himself to be in the pink of condition. Robinson, the old Yale runner who has been training him, told me at the start that Meehan had been trained to do the first quarter in 60 seconds, and as he pa.s.sed the mark the watch showed just that time. He was leading then, and kept right on, with strong graceful strides until he finished, and broke the record by one second.
Irwin-Martin did his best to pull up; but Meehan kept ahead easily, with a broad smile on his face, and appeared to be just as fresh at the finish as he had been at the start.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MILE RUN.]
The mile run was another pretty race. There must have been more than twenty starters, and they trotted off in a tight bunch, sticking well together for three entire laps. Then Tappin gradually pulled out from the centre, with Mosenthal and McCord seesawing behind him. He kept increasing his lead, and although Mosenthal pushed him pretty hard, he finished strong, with the place men a couple of yards behind, and the field straggling as far back as the bend. Blair failed to come up to his promised form, and was at no time a factor in the race. The walk was practically a duel between Hackett and Walker. Hackett took the lead, and Walker stuck close to his heels, making several attempts to pa.s.s him. On the stretch Walker made one last desperate effort, and walked abreast of his opponent for several yards, while the judge of walking almost went frantic in his endeavors to keep the racers down to form.
Neither broke, however, and Hackett won by a yard. Walker is still young for such strong work, but I am sure that he will be heard from within the next few years. The bicycle racers broke the interscholastic record of 2 min. 49-3/5 sec. in every heat, and Powell"s final race, which brought the time down to 2 min. 34-1/5 sec., was a beautiful contest.
Ehrich pushed him hard all the way, and finished a strong second. A pleasing feature of the event was that only one collision occurred, and this was not serious.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE I.S. HIGH-JUMP RECORD.
Baltazzi, Harvard, clearing the bar at 5 ft. 11 in.]
The best performance of the day, from an athletic point of view, was Baltazzi"s high jumping. He was in good form, and won the event by clearing 5 ft. 7 in. Then he had the bar put up a quarter of an inch above the interscholastic record mark of 5 ft. 9 in., and cleared it, thus insuring for himself a record medal. The "take-off" was in bad condition, and had to be constantly rolled. There were also several bad holes along the runway. In addition to this, Baltazzi"s right shoe split, and afforded him almost no support. Nevertheless, he felt that he could do even better than 5 ft. 9-1/4 in., and he had the bar raised to 5 ft. 11 in. He failed the first five times allowed him for a record try, but on the sixth he got a good start, cleared the holes, and found a solid spot to "take off" on, and cleared the stick as neatly and gracefully as he ever did at 5 ft. 5 in. He had never before, even in practice, done better than 5 ft. 10-1/2 in. Baltazzi goes to Columbia next year, and will be a factor in the intercollegiates if he keeps in his present form, which I have no doubt he will. I expect to see him go beyond 6 feet inside of two years. He will doubtless be one of the N.Y.A.C."s representatives when the English athletes come over here this year.
The records for the other field events, with the exception of throwing the baseball and the broad jump, were broken. Ayres bettered the shot record almost by a foot, and Irwin-Martin, in spite of his hard work in the runs, threw 117 feet 4-1/2 inches with the hammer. A notable feature of this event was that every place man in it surpa.s.sed the interscholastic record, the third man bettering it as much as 3 feet.
This kind of work is most encouraging, and cannot fail to raise the standard of the contestants, and create a most beneficial compet.i.tion.
If a man knows he has got to break the record even to get third place, there will be good work done. Cowperthwaite, as I had antic.i.p.ated, won the broad jump easily, but he should have gotten closer to the record than he did. He covered 20 feet 8 inches. One of the other exciting and unexpected features of the day was the semi-final in the Junior 100, when Leech left the field about ten yards behind. He will make a good man as his two easy victories over Wilson will attest.
A better exhibition of tennis than that offered by Ware, when he defeated Whitman in the final match on Holmes Field, Cambridge, last week Monday, could hardly be wished for. The Roxbury player was decidedly in championship form, and although he won in three straight sets--6-4, 6-3, 7-5--he had to play his level best, for Whitman was no easy victim. In the third set Ware showed what he was made of. The games were 5-2 against him, but he gathered himself together, played a cool, careful game, displaying excellent judgment at every point, and thus pulled out the next five games, and the set. It was exciting throughout.
Whitman took the first game. His opponent got the second, and both were then playing as good tennis as they knew how, with the advantage temporarily in favor of Whitman. By keeping close up to the net he managed to fool Ware a good many times, at the same time saving himself from committing his great fault of banging the ball into the net. This Whitman invariably does when he stands back. Ware evidently knew his antagonist"s style of play, for he gradually coaxed Whitman nearer and nearer to the back line, and then pounded the b.a.l.l.s at him, with the 7-5 result. Ware will be seen at a number of tournaments this summer, and will no doubt bring a triumphal record back to Roxbury with him in the fall. He will play in the Western Championship Doubles at Chicago, in the Longwood open tournament, as well as in the Ma.s.sachusetts championships held on the same courts; and he will enter the lists at Newcastle, Bar Harbor, Narragansett Pier, and Newport.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FINAL HEAT IN THE 120-YARD HURDLES.]
At Eastern Park the Adelphi Academy athletes swept everything before them. Gunnison and Jewell proved to be surprises, the former winning three firsts and the latter two firsts and one second. The other members of the team seconded them so well, that Adelphi took the cup with 10 points more to their credit than their nearest rival, which was Poly.
Prep, with 29. It is to be regretted that there was any hitch over the delivery of the hurdles, and at one time it seemed as if those two events would have to be omitted; but the sticks did come, and the races furnished some of the best sport of the day. The Junior 100 gave a close finish, and the 220 furnished an exciting contest. Stevens took it from Jewell, who had been counted a winner, but Jewell retrieved himself when he won the quarter handily, it being his first attempt at running that distance. Bedford was somewhat of a disappointment to his schoolmates, who expected him to take the mile for B.H.-S. instead of allowing it to go to Adelphi, but he ran the half-mile in good time, and took second in the longer distance. The walk was most interesting too. Clark and Stars were fairly in lock-step behind Hall, and it was nip and tuck with the three until the tape was broken.
The bicycle race, in which the Long Island record was lowered 1-2/5 seconds, was run under the rules of the L.A.W., and with the sanction of the L.A.W. Racing Board. This is the first school race to be so run. The final heat looked like a dead heat between Roehr and Hazeltine, and I have no doubt that if the two had set the pace earlier in the race the record would have been greatly bettered. In the pole vault Phillips beat his own record of 9 feet by 7 inches, and the hammer record was increased by over 24 feet. Mason threw 100 ft. 11 in. Some of the other records that were smashed were the mile run, which was lowered 2-1/5 seconds; Bedford brought down the half-mile record from 2 min. 17-4/5 sec. to 2 min. 12-3/5 sec.; Gunnison made the record in the high hurdles read 16-3/5 sec. instead of 18-3/5 sec. The record for the 100 was broken three times. In the final heat the time was 10-3/5 sec., and in the second and third heats it was 10-2/5 sec. and 10-1/2 sec.
respectively. Stevens made the best time.
N.Y.I.S.A.A. Records Event. previous to May 11, 1895.
100-yard dash 10-3/8 sec.
100-yard dash, for Juniors 11-2/5 "
220-yard dash 22-4/5 "
220-yard dash, for Juniors 23-4/5 "
440-yard run 53 Half-mile run 2 m. 5-1/5 "
Mile run 4 " 52 "
Mile walk 7 " 30-2/5 "
120-yard hurdles 16-1/5 "
220-yard hurdles 27-1/5 "
One-mile bicycle 2 " 49-3/5 "
Two-mile bicycle Running high jump 5 ft. 9 in.
Running broad jump 21 " 5 "
Pole vault 10 "
Putting 12-pound shot 39 " 1 "
Throwing 12-pound hammer 110 " 3-1/2 "
Throwing baseball 325 " 9 "
N.Y.I.S.A.A. Games, Berkeley Oval, New York, May 11, 1895.
Event. Winner. Performance.