Latest Craze in Marathons is Pillar Sitting

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 815, 8 November 1929, Page 7

Latest Craze in Marathons is Pillar Sitting

Freak Performances in United States

WHAT THE MAYOR SAID v

The following waggish comment by a Canadian writer deals with another of those weird stunts which break out in the United States every now and The latest craze in Marathons — thank heaven it has not struck our city yet—is pillar sitting. You put up a pole, anywhere from fifty to a hundred feet high, with a platform atop, and there you sit until you beat the record, and then it is time to come down.

The American champion—we forget his name—is also champion of the world, and we doubt if any sensible person wants to rob him of his giddy eminence. We understand that he stayed up in the air some three weeks —which beats the record of the King Government in the 1926 crisis by a full week. He could have stayed up longer, but callouses had developed, and he de.cided to quit. YOUTHFUL ASPIRANTS This would not have been worth remarking—only one more fool in the world —if the craze had not extended to the children of Baltimore, where the pillar champion pulled off his freak performance. The southern- city is now troubled with a plague of pillar sitters of tender years, who are V-y way of being encouraged by the the Mayor, who crowned a 13-year-old champion the other day with glowing words to the effect that such spectacular deeds developed the stamina of the race, and displayed the sturdy pioneer spirit which has made the United States such a great success. With all respect to the Ma.yor of Baltimore, we suggest that he has got a wrong idea of stamina, and that pillar sitting is more likely to develop a love of sedentary occupations, which lead to indigestion and other ailments quite foreign to the pioneer spirit. Moreover, this pillar sitting is not carried out as it should be, as a real test of endurance. The platforms are luxuriously provided with easy chairs, reading lamps, tables, bath tubs and other modern conveniences. The cherub who sits up aloft suffers no discomforts that he would not incur down below—in fact, he escapes them. A HE-MAN SPORT It is, as we see it, a very poor sport. The real game is pillar standing. It was invented by St. Simeon Stylites, more than five hundred years ago. He was the first of the pillar hermits, and still holds the record for plain and fancy standing at any distance from six feet up to sixty. He started his performance at the age of 30, and concluded it at his death at the age of 60. He stood on his pillar for 30 years, with only a railing to rest his back against. He never descended, and his friends brought his meals up to him by means of a ladder.

We do not take any stock in these pillar sitters, but as a pillar stander, we are prepared to back fet. Simeon against the world. In the course ol time he grew a beard which reached to his feet, and must have afforded him considerable protection against the night chill of. the desert.