MODERN "SPORT."

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 159, 5 July 1879, Page 3

MODERN "SPORT."

The scene towards the conclusion t>£ the great walking match in irl.o Hippodrome, New York, the other when Itowcll. the Englishman, carried off the " Astley Champion§Belt," was, to ! judge by the accounts given of the affair, in the New York papers, of a most thrilling description. One of the competitors, a man named Harriman, a New Englander, struggled on in a most pitiable condition, without a chance of winning the match, but merely in order to obtain a share of the gate money. He was during the last three days of the match a horrible spectacle —"very lame, in the last stages of exhaustion, his skin of a dark hue and drawn tightly over his cheekbones, his eyes sunken and bloodshot, and his body greatly attenuated." Still he persevered, and his pluck' excited the unbounded enthusiasm of the vast crowds thut witnessed the performance. When he had commenced walking the 451st mile, and had thus entitled himself to a share of the money, the enthusiasm broke all bounds. " A "man sprang into the path and handed him a magnificent basket of flowers. The house rose as Harriman received it, and redoubled their cheers. Still another man came forward and put about his shoulders a rod, white, and blue sash. If the house cheered before it now yelled with delight. Stiil more honors were coming, and some friends stepped forward ancf presented Harriman with a large silk flag. This was simply too much for the overwrought house. Men shouted, screamed, danced, grasped each other's hands in a whirlwind of delight, and the band, also bubbling over with joy and patriotism, burst forth into ' Yankee Doodle.'" There seems to have been an immense amount of weepin," by " strong men," according to the reporters, during the match. When the Englishman, Rowell, walked a short distance on the track c; arm in arm" with the wretched Harriman, the "strong men " shed floods of tears at the touching incident, and the band struck up "The Star-spangled Banner," topping it up by " God save the Queen," to mark appreciation of Howell's manly and graceful conduct. Indeed, the tact displayed by liowell under somewhat difficult circumstances appears to have made him a general favorite.