GREAT WALKING MATCH.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 648, 17 July 1876, Page 4

GREAT WALKING MATCH.

The London correspondent of the Age supplies the following account of this match:—Weston’s claim to be ranked first of living pedestrians has been challenged in a manner very creditable to British power and pluck. Out of a vast number of walking men whose ambition impelled them to enter a contest against the American’s time, fourteen competitors of proved capacity ■were chosen by the promoters of a genuine English match ; and at nine o’clock on Monday night, Bth May, these men started to walk for twenty-four hours on a newly laid cinder path, seven laps of which, round the inner area of the Agricultural Hall, make exactly .a mile. Weston’s performance, it will be remembered, was 100 miles in twenty-four hours, he having started with the purpose of doing 115 Out of th fourteen Bngli. b pedestrians who attempted to beat this grand effort of strength, speed and endurance, three have succeeded ; am. one of these three has surpassed the Araeri can athlete’s great feat by so immense a distance that he will undoubtedly be looked upon for the moment as a wonder and a paragon. This disciple of “ Walking Stewart ” is named Vaughan ; he is in his twenty-ninth year, he comes from Chester, and he is said to be an amateur. By a quarter to nine o’clock last night he had covered, since nine on the previous evening, 120 miles. Not only has this never been done before, but, as the crowd of sporting men who looked on and cheered at the finish were generally agreed in declaring, it had never been dreamt of. Weston had been invited to contend, and it had been made a contingent of his assenting to the proposal that the prizes should be doubled. But he did not ’respond favorably; and was not present, we are told, at any time of the match. At a few minutfs before four o’clock on the evening of the 7th May, or, to speak exactly, 18h 51min 35sec, he had performed the distance which is authentically said to have been done by O’Leary, in America, in 18h 53min 40sec, the fastest walk of a hundred miles that had ever been chronicled. Vaughan’s completion of this distance was hailed with immense cheering from all parts of the crowded hall. Just after six o’clock Vaughan surpassed Weston’s twenty-four hours’ distance (109 miles 3 furlongs 172 yards), having nearly three hours in hand. On the fact being made known, such a burst of applause filled the great space of heated and dusty atmosphere that the music of a band stationed on the centre platform was rendered quite inaudible. Capital performances were those also of Howse and Crossland, the former of whom finished his 100 miles in nineteen hours forty-three minutes and one second, and the latter in twenty-four hours forty-two minutes. At three minutes before seven—that is, with two good hours before him— Howse had beaten Weston’s distance ; and at five minutes to eight Crossland had accomplished the same great feat. By |eight o’clock the throng inside the hall was very great, and many hundreds were loitering outside the doors. Vaughan, Howse and Crossland were repeatedly cheered to the echo. Newman, an old pedestrian, was walking steadily and well, He took long rests ; and when on the track kept a great pace, always unattended, and never once ceasing to smile in a very cheery and satisfied manner. Though all doubt as to the result had long been over, the excitement among the spectators increased every minute. At eight minutes past eight Vaughan having put on a great spurt, came striding firmly along, and was passing the table where the judges sat, when he staggered and was caught by two of them, and prevented from sinking to the ground. He had th6n done 119 miles and five laps, and the sudden failure of his powers showed too plainly that he had overtaxed them to a cruel extent. He was borne off on the back of an attendant, and when, after an interval of twelve minutes, he came on the track again, his lithe, sinewy form was enveloped in a loose coat. He had determined, it appeared, to walk the twosevenths of a mile in order to complete the score over a hundred. At a painfully slow pace, and with labored steps, he crawled rather than walked one lap and twenty-five yards, and then again stopped from sheer prostration. This time he was carried to his room [by four men; but he emerged once more in a dreadfully feeble state from his retirement, and literally hobbled and staggered round the hall, finishing the seventh lap, and with it the 120th mile, amid a deafening roar. It wanted now fifteen minutes of nine o’clock, and there was still a quarter of an hour to be used by the other competitors before pistol-shot. Howse was in a state more deplorable even ban that of Vaughan, though the smaller man showed bis distress in a less fitful manner. The two or three attendants who walked with Howse fanned him continually, or his failing steps would have yielded altogether. As it was they were ready to catch him if he fainted ; but he kept up, deaf, as it seemed, to the thunders of applause, and wholly insensible to everything but the bull-dog determination not to give in. When the pistol was fired, at nine o’clock, Howse had covered the distance of 116 miles five and three-quarter laps and 200 yards, or very nearly 117 miles, in the twenty-four hours. Crossland, who had walked magnificently, no sooner heard the pistol shot than he seized a hat and began to hand it round. He had done 113 miles and six laps less fifty yards. Thus Vaughan, Hows* 3 , and Crossland all did far better than Weston for the space of a night and a day. Newman walked 101 miles and five laps less fifty yards, and will certainly not be allowed to go unrewarded. The first prize is the sum in money of £IOO, the second £lO, and the third £7 10s. In addition £lO was promised to head a subscription for the man or men beating Weston’s distance in the time, and a further prize was to have been given to any man completing the task in twenty-five hours. As there was no chance of Newman’s doing this, of course the match was over at nine o’clock.