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JOHN P. THORNTON. 
 
TRAINING 
 
 FOR 
 
 HEALTH, STRENGTH, SPEED, 
 
 AND 
 
 AGILITY. 
 
 FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF AMATEURS 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
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 JOHN P. n"HORNTON. 
 
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 NEW YORK: 
 EXCELSIOR PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 
 1890. 
 
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 Copyright, 1890, by 
 EXCELSIOR PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The aim of this volume is to explain, firstly : what 
 are normal physical conditions; secondly: how these 
 are capable of improvement by exercise, providing the 
 efforts made are carried out in a scientific manner. 
 
 As this work is written for the use of amateurs, it is 
 addressed to an educated public. To such all rule of 
 thumb methods of training would be irksome. An in- 
 telligent man always wants to know the why and the 
 wherefore of everything he is told to do. He naturally 
 declines being considered as an automaton. If exact 
 information is then afforded, there can be no question, 
 but that just because he knows what he is about, im- 
 proving mental and physical conditions follow. 
 
 No attempt has been made to teach the peculiarities 
 of any one special exercise. A man can learn some lit- 
 tle as to how he should run, or jump, or row, from the 
 many excellent books written on those special subjects. 
 There is, however, no royal road to getting strong. 
 Time is a necessary element for physical development. 
 To acquire Health, Strength, Speed, and Agility is 
 
 (3) 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 always possible, and it is for this purpose that this vol- 
 ume has been written. No athletic sport in favor to- 
 day has been omitted, and the preparatory methods, 
 those which will best serve the amateur, are presented. 
 
 Care has been taken to point out what are the disturb- 
 ances arising from either excess of work, or from exercise 
 taken in a wrong direction. '* Training for Health, 
 Strength, Speed, and Agility'' may be deemed over- 
 cautious, but there is no one practically acquainted with 
 athletics who does not deplore the many accidents which 
 have fallen under his own observation. It is not broken 
 limbs that are regretable, because fractures and sprains 
 are by no means singular to the gymnasium or the track. 
 What is meant by ^'accidents'' are those arising from 
 expenditures of forc-e by those who are immature, and 
 the lasting shocks given to systems. Fully aware of 
 these responsibilities, an author would be culpable did he 
 not give expression to what he thought were the dan- 
 gers of over-training, not in relationship to performance, 
 but as influencing health. 
 
 Particular allusion has been directed toward the keep- 
 ing men and women, who do not train, in good health 
 by means of moderate exercise. How children should 
 be taught a natural development is also presented. The 
 past and present systems for the prevention of obesity 
 are given, and methods explained ; how growth of fat 
 can be prevented, considerations of health always being 
 remembered. 
 
 This work is the outcome of many years of practical 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 experience, where how to train was guided by study, 
 not exclusively acquired in the gymnasium or on 
 the track. 
 
 "Training for Health, Strength, Speed, and Agility " 
 will be found not alone useful to amateurs, but will give 
 its aid to teachers of physicul culture, and to parents 
 and principals of schools. 
 
 John P. Thornton. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The All-Around Man 9 
 
 Advice to Teachers and Pupils 15 
 
 The Influence of Work 25 
 
 Lung-Power 34 
 
 Excess of Work 43 
 
 The Body as a Machine 52 
 
 Fatigue 57 
 
 Improving Conditions 62 
 
 Effects of Careless Exercise — Deformities 6y 
 
 Training 80 
 
 Fat 85 
 
 Food 98 
 
 Air—Ventilation 123 
 
 Sleep 128 
 
 Clothing 133 
 
 Work 138 
 
 Training with Reference to Speed 1 56 
 
 Sprinting 157 
 
 Long Distance Running 160 
 
 Hurdling 162 
 
 Walking 165 
 
 Training for the Running High Jump 168 
 
 Training for Pole Vaulting 174 
 
 Training FOR Cycling... 177 
 
 Training for Base-Ball 181 
 
 (7) 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Training for Oarsmen and Scullers 183 
 
 Work for Heavy Men 196 
 
 Putting the Shot 197 
 
 Throwing the Hammer 200 
 
 The Tug of War 203 
 
 Training for Boxing 207 
 
 Training for Wrestling 211 
 
 Training for Long Distance Work 215 
 
 Exercise for Young Men who have never been at 
 
 A Gymnasium 217 
 
 Exercise for Men past Middle Life 218 
 
 Exercise for Women.. ' 223 
 
 Gymnastics for Children 227 
 
 Blisters of the Feet 233 
 
 Boils and Carbuncles 234 
 
 Rupture 235 
 
 Sprains 235 
 
 Ulceration 236 
 
 Bleeding at the Nose 236 
 
 Sunstroke 237 
 
 Drowning 238 
 
 Liniments v. 240 
 
 Indurating Mixtures 241 
 
 The Track— How to Make It 242 
 
 Axioms for Amateur Athletes 245 
 
 Definition of an Amateur Athlete 251 
 
 Amateur Athletic Union of the United States — 254 
 Records 255 
 
TRAINING 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ALL-AROUND MAN. 
 
 Looking over the man — Men adapted to special work — The man 
 in perfect training — What he ought to be — What he is — The 
 undefined quality — The mistakes made — What are our limi- 
 tations — Will power — The all-around man — The ambitious 
 athlete. 
 
 I AM in the training-ground, and my attention is 
 called to a young athlete. Some one in charge says 
 to me, " There is a man in perfect training.'' If I am 
 conversant with looking over men, as is a horse-trainer 
 with blooded stock, my reply might be, " Yes, that 
 man looks all right. At his age, he is likely to im- 
 prove. I should think he has resources which can be 
 called upon for great efforts.'' I might add, *' I would 
 be careful, however, not to push him any more, for he 
 seems to be at his best — that is, as far as looks go. 
 What is he in training for ? " 
 
 If I am familiar with athletic exercises, I ought to be 
 able to place the man as to capability, for certain general 
 lines of performance, but neither am I or anybody else 
 so absolutely proficient, as to put a man at once in the 
 
 (9) 
 
10 TRAINING. 
 
 class to which he exactly belongs ; nevertheless, I can 
 settle in my mind several lines of performances more or 
 less allied in which he might excel. 
 
 The trainer answering my query, gives me the infor- 
 mation. His reply may be, " That is our best hurdler, 
 or our crack sprinter, or our cleverest jumper/' Having 
 that much given me, which of course is a great deal, I 
 take a more careful look at the man. Having satisfied 
 myself first as to his general development, I look at 
 the head and eyes of the man, in order to find out 
 if he seems possessed of will and determination. I 
 must confess, that any study of physiognomy may be 
 delusive, still I do not omit it. What I scrutinize par- 
 ticularly is the man from the waist down to his toes, 
 because I have been told that he is in training for speed 
 as a runner. It is below the waist that I want to see the 
 higher physical development of the man. I require a 
 certain balance of muscular power, distributed evenly 
 all over him. If his wind mechanism is bad and lung 
 power limited, my opinion will be that he will have lit- 
 tle staying power. If the chest capacity were good, and 
 legs and thighs not first-rate, the chances of his being 
 successful would be but slight. 
 
 I do not care much about the height of the man, that 
 is within certain limits, because both big and little men 
 have been wonderful performers. I am, however, in- 
 clined to prefer the man, for field athletics at least, who 
 does not exceed five feet ten inches, and for the reason, 
 that distinct muscular power, not being augmentable by 
 
TRAINING. II 
 
 exercise in proportion to length or breadth, the bulk of 
 an additional inch remaining, being a positive fixed 
 quantity, this extra weight to carry or to propel, is 
 something which handicaps, in some small measure, he 
 who possesses it. 
 
 I vary then my appreciation of the man, when I 
 understand what he is trying to excel in. From the 
 above, which everybody can understand, it will be at 
 once understood that men must train for special per- 
 formances. 
 
 The ideal definition of a man in perfect training 
 would be an individual who by judicious exercise had 
 obtained uniform development of muscles. It ought to 
 mean too, something more, as to the performance of 
 this highly-gifted individual. It would be, that he could 
 successfully accomplish any kind of work. In actual ob- 
 servation, however, we find that although there are many 
 superb ^* all-around men,'' it is rather exceptional to find 
 that any one man ever can accomplish more than a sin- 
 gle thing with exceptional excellence. To account for 
 this, we must face the fact, that there are peculiarities 
 of human build, or of muscular individuality, which ren- 
 der the one man capable of doing something better than 
 his fellows. 
 
 Mr. Myers' muscular development might through care- 
 ful measurements have been presented in fractions of an 
 inch, but that never would have accounted for his wonder- 
 ful bursts of speed. No tape measure would indicate the 
 reasons why Mr. Page can clear a higher bar than another 
 
12 TRAINING. 
 
 man. General measurements may be about the same 
 between the first and the second man, but the particu- 
 lar, the special reason why A is a fraction or second 
 quicker than B, or C can jump an inch higher than D, 
 no one ever will determine. 
 
 Such a blunder nobody is likely to make, as of trying 
 to have a natural sprinter take a place in a tug of 
 war team. Still many men waste their time in at- 
 tempting to do exactly that thing for which they are 
 physically incapacitated. I mean, of course, when 
 with laudable but mistaken ambition, young men try 
 to take first places, so as to get their names on the 
 record. 
 
 I often see in training clever lads working the life out of 
 them in endeavoring to overcome their own bodily inertia. 
 Endowed with normal muscular power, they believe 
 that by exercise, they can impart that increased strength 
 to their arms, which will finally overcome the dead bulk 
 of their bodies. Their arm strength increases, yet no 
 one can accomplish the impossible! If they are wise> 
 then, they should leave feats of agility to lighter men. 
 It is just in cases of this kind that the professor of 
 athletic exercises explains to pupils the futility of such 
 work. Carried out so as not to overtax strength, such 
 exercise may do no harm, but if insisted on to too great 
 a degree, the effects are unquestionably bad. 
 
 Like in mental occupation, or literary work, the best 
 thing for a man who aims to excel in athletic sports, is 
 for him to know at once what are his limitations. He 
 
TRAINING. 13 
 
 may find out that his field is curtailed. He may do 
 one thing well, but only that one thing. * 
 
 I am positive that no book will ever give a man, save 
 in glittering generalities, the exact kind of work he is 
 best adapted for. It will ever escape the most gifted of 
 writers to describe the indefinable element called pluck, 
 or grit, or that will-power which accomplishes miracles. 
 To call it as a mental power, when physiological consid- 
 erations are borne in mind, is contrary to science ; but 
 yet, how otherwise account for what seems nothing 
 short of an electrical discharge of force ? Since muscu- 
 lar power is called upon by the will, it must be from the 
 brain that the action is transmitted. 
 
 I have presented the perfectly trained man to be one 
 who contains within himself a thoroughly developed 
 muscular power ; and the supposition is, that all the 
 thews and sinews of this man will respond to every call. 
 This is an ideal condition. The man is not special, for 
 it must be remembered that his powers are general. 
 
 This " all-around condition,'* difficult to arrive at, can 
 only be brought about by long, diligent, and careful 
 methods of preparation. 
 
 It is not my intention in a book on physical culture 
 to emphasize any particular line of work, giving it the 
 preference above others. We all of us have our likes and 
 dislikes. As far as the pleasure of it goes, my delight is 
 greatest when I see a foot-race, and I am (I cannot 
 help it) quite indifferent to a walking-match. No one 
 appreciates more than I the work the walker under- 
 
14 TRAINING. 
 
 goes, and I know that, to win, depends on perfec- 
 tion of form, with pluck and endurance carried to its 
 maximum, and yet the exact ** heel-and-toe movement ** 
 is nothing else than a hampered gait. The man, to go 
 fast and long, is forced to bring into play certain move- 
 ments, with a huge expenditure of muscle, which nature 
 never intended for such a precise purpose. To encour- 
 age the walker, the trainer will lope alongside of his 
 pupil. I have walked fairly fast myself in a match, and 
 I remember my coach running alongside me going easi- 
 ly, his toe taking the natural spring from the ground, 
 and his crying to me, " Now you are putting me to 
 all I know how.*' I was, however, always saying to 
 myself, *^ How stupid it is for me to be working my 
 life out learning ao unnatural way of going over the 
 ground, wriggling my hips all out of shape, when 
 I could get along so much faster and pleasanter if I 
 were to run.'* I have, then, my preferences, but in a 
 work of a general character like this, I shall do my best 
 to give every exercise its full value. 
 
 I believe in the all-around man. I have always thought 
 that the method of tempering good steel was applicable 
 to the physical education of the man. Once (my subject 
 being young) that I succeeded in bringing up a certain 
 temper or efficiency, then I have thought I could make at 
 will hard or elastic, rigid or supple metal out of the man. 
 What kind of an instrument he was to be fashioned into 
 became then less a matter of chance. The man's own 
 tastes took him into the lead he was to follow. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 ADVICE TO TEACHERS AND PUPILS. 
 
 The advantage of varied exercises — The duties of the teacher — 
 
 Selection of pupils — What is exercise — Muscular force — The 
 
 stimulant — Our every action tells on the muscular system — 
 
 djirfihel two sets of muscles— What are antagonistic muscles — 
 
 Elegance is excellence. 
 
 Need I say that no man ever was made strong by 
 book-reading alone? Close study, with its confinement, 
 induces positive deterioration of muscular tissue. Over- 
 brain-work reduces the strength of the student. The 
 value of books which treat in a sensible manner physical 
 development, lies in two directions : First, particular 
 exercises are explained, which help to build up the 
 system ; and secondly, the reasons why such and such 
 things are done, are made clear. Of the two, the latter 
 is of the greater importance. Illustrations of the de- 
 vices employed, the weights, the pulleys, the apparatus, 
 are good enough in their way. A visit of five minutes 
 to a gymnasium makes not one mechanism, but twenty 
 of them understandable at once, when hours spent in the 
 examination of wood-cuts would not suffice. 
 
 In the best equipped gymnasiums, the reasons why 
 certain exercises are to be carried out in preference to 
 
 (15) 
 
l6 TRAINING. 
 
 others are not always made clear to the beginner. A 
 professor of physical exercise is generally a very thor- 
 oughly occupied man. It is only of late years that he 
 is an educated man, able to give the reasons for certain 
 kinds of exercises adapted to individuals. With a nu- 
 merous class of pupils, where different conditions exist, 
 the teacher can ill spare the time necessary for long 
 explanations. He may be more or less right in consid- 
 ering his class as a unit and in trying to bring it up to 
 one general average. 
 
 I am positive that the public school method, which 
 takes a low average as a standard, though it may not 
 bring forth the highest development of the pupil, is, 
 however, not wanting in wisdom. Lads (I am writing of 
 school-boys) may be pushed beyond their powers, and 
 their future natural development is thus impaired. 
 
 I think the trouble with boys of normal powers who 
 are ambitious to excel in manly sport, is this, that they 
 are urged too much. They want restraining, not egg- 
 ing on. 
 
 The best professors of physical culture have often 
 told me that to arrive at anything like a satisfactory 
 result, the limit of a gymnasium class of youths should 
 not be above six. There are many simple exercises in 
 which no account need be taken of numbers, but for 
 careful work they think that six is all they can manage 
 at a time. 
 
 " I spend,*' said to me the most conscientious of pro- 
 fessors, " hours over my class of six. I first pick them 
 
TRAINING. 17 
 
 out from the mass, assorting lads in small squads, accord- 
 ing to age, size, and build. I do not begin until I have 
 taken into consideration more than the outside make of 
 the lads. I look them all over, and go as far as strip- 
 ping them. I never should forgive myself if the slight- 
 est indication to heart disease escaped me. If I only- 
 know that it exists, then I am not afraid of it. I even 
 hope to cure it in time, but I want to be careful. I 
 sometimes make curious mistakes. I find out the more 
 I think I know, the less I actually do know. For in- 
 stance, there is Mr. G-^ — . He has just broken one of 
 the records at an intercollegiate match. I had him as a 
 lad when he was thirteen. He is twenty to-day. His 
 was the poorest physical development then you ever 
 saw. Pulmonary weakness on the father's side. I was 
 afraid too of other organic troubles. I was exceedingly 
 careful of him, just as anxious as if he had been a deli- 
 cate girl. What was best in him was his courage. My 
 difficulty was to hold him in. If I had let him have his 
 own course, like a candle with too great a draught, 
 he would have been burnt out at once. Gradually his 
 condition improved. I was stricter with him than ever 
 when the change for the better came. He became more 
 manageable as he grew in years, and you see the result — 
 a big event won by him — which he never could have 
 carried out if he were not to-day absolutely sound. 
 Nevertheless, I am still cautious with him. He wrote 
 me a letter giving me some particulars of the contest, 
 and I have replied to him praying him only to try and 
 
1 8 TRAINING. 
 
 keep in form, and not to over-tax himself. I wish I 
 could explain to my own satisfaction, why it is that tak- 
 ing two pupils as nearly alike as can be in a physical 
 way, one goes ahead under the same work and the other 
 makes no progress. I am certain that mental energy 
 has much to do with perfect physical ability.*' 
 
 This brings me to those considerations which are nec- 
 essary to be understood when the study of bodily exer- 
 cise is made, with the end of perfecting the health, or 
 the skill, or the power, of the individual. 
 
 What is after all work carried out by means of the 
 body ? Whether in an amateurish way I hoe my flower- 
 garden for an hour in the morning, or my neighbor the 
 kitchen-gardener plants cabbage, for the same time, the 
 muscular power exerted by both of us is practically the 
 same. But the differences are those of our individual- 
 ities. I work with my hoe for an hour, because I like 
 to do it. My neighbor labors over his field, because he 
 has to. He may wear himself out. There is no neces- 
 sity for my exhausting my forces. I can stop when I 
 please, for I am at play. If fatigued, I can take my 
 rest just as long as I please. 
 
 My neighbor cannot afford to rest. Whether it rains 
 or shines, he must keep on at his task. He may be over- 
 worked before he began his toil with his cabbages. The 
 labor may be violent ; he must not stop. My little 
 work which I call exercise, has made me feel all the 
 better for it. His heavy labor may have done him no 
 harm ; nevertheless if he has not had food enough, or 
 
TRAINING. 19 
 
 of the proper kind, or his sleep has been bad, he is more 
 hkely to suffer than I. 
 
 In a physiological point of view, then, the bodily ex- 
 ercise taken by the ditcher, and the young collegian who 
 spins over his hurdles, are both the same, for exercise 
 and labor are synonymous terms. In one case, if a man 
 works too hard and is ill-fed, he breaks down. On the 
 other side, a man may expend a vast amount of muscu- 
 lar power, and having his losses made up by means of 
 proper food, good housing, and requisite rest, he can 
 keep to his work with no inconvenience, and finish a 
 herculean task in almost as good a condition as when he 
 started at it. 
 
 I do not care to enter into a too lengthy study of 
 the muscles. Generally the muscles may be described as 
 bundles of fibres, having two extremities. The muscles 
 are closely united, and are attached to the bones. All 
 muscles are contractile. They shorten themselves. A 
 tension, or a pull, then takes place on the bone. It is 
 the brain power that starts the pull or improvises the 
 pulley. I want to move my arm. My arm moves be- 
 cause my brain wills it. On the flexed muscles of my 
 arm I put a 20-pound weight. I have not exercised 
 those particular muscles, and the weight refuses to rise, 
 any more than had my arm been made of wood. Will 
 is worth nothing at all in this case. I have, however, 
 exercised these particular muscles. I will that the 
 weight shall rise. I straighten out my arm. The mus- 
 cles which have been trained and exercised, at once 
 
20 TRAINING. 
 
 obey the will power, and the 2opound weight rises. 
 My brain has acted as the stimulus. 
 
 When we learn that in weight the muscles make up 
 rather more than one-half of the human body, we can at 
 once understand, apart from their power, how much 
 they have to do with the nutrition of the body. Nature 
 could never have distributed muscles so abundantly over 
 the human frame, if they had not general work to do. 
 
 Studying the subject more carefully as to muscular 
 movement, we come to this remarkable conclusion : 
 ** That contractility is a force inherent in muscle, and 
 is not supplied by its motor nerve.'' Bear in mind 
 that will is the stimulus, and that though the muscles 
 are there in a man's leg or arm, it is not the mus- 
 cles which give out first, but the stimulus. I think 
 anybody can understand this. The sprinter has run his 
 course — and say he has won. The rapidity of his mo- 
 tion has been so great that he is dead-gone for the frac- 
 tion of a second after he has passed the tape. If the 
 muscles of his legs or thighs could be weighed or meas- 
 ured, then would they have shown a change ? Certainly 
 not. But what prevented him going even a foot further 
 in his course ? He had used up his stimulant. Because 
 the work he had cut out was terribly severe, he called 
 on his own stimulant, his will power, for its last possibil- 
 ities. The stimulant did give all it could. It could do 
 no more than that. 
 
 It is not muscular force that is gained alone by exer- 
 cise, but exercise increases not only the effects, but the 
 
TRAINING. 21 
 
 duration of this stimulant. We can call upon this stim- 
 ulant for a longer and more continuous service. 
 
 How otherwise can I explain the fact that a man 
 shows a tremendous increase of power far beyond his 
 muscular development ? It can only be derived from 
 certain improved qualities of stimulation, which the 
 man called into existence, through judicious training. 
 What we all agree in is, that this stimulant is an intan- 
 gible thing, which cannot be weighed with a scale, nor 
 measured with a tape-line. 
 
 Muscular force in its unity is something often lost 
 sight of. I move no portion of my body without call- 
 ing into play an endless number of muscles. There is 
 not a muscle on my left side that does not respond to 
 the movement of my left leg. It is not alone the mus- 
 cles on my left that are put into motion, but there is a 
 yielding on the right side of my body to the active work 
 of the muscles in my left. If there was not what is 
 called antagonism, I should work stifHy, maybe not at 
 all. I would always be getting out of plumb. 
 
 If I had a mast properly rigged and held in posi- 
 tion by two stays, securely anchored, and I wanted to 
 pull the mast on one side in a line with the stays, I 
 should have to overcome the resistance of the stay on 
 the other side. What a wondrous movement it is then 
 in our bodies, which almost automatically causes the 
 other side, say it be on the right, to give way gradually 
 to a left-handed movement. 
 
 When a man puts the hammer, there is no single muscle 
 
22 TRAINING. 
 
 of his body that he has not trained to work in unison. 
 The toes of his foot he has put to the front ; on the heel 
 of the one which he keeps in the rear, he balances himself ; 
 the muscles of his waist, the thews of his neck, the 
 very movement of his head, all give the additional foot 
 or inch to the distance his hammer has been launched. 
 
 It was not his arms alone that did the heaving. You 
 never can then put your finger on one muscle and claim 
 for that the entire effectiveness for doing work. In fact, 
 the localization of any effective muscle is lost when geo- 
 graphically considered. I know that I do think by 
 means of my brain, and that in this bony box, my skull, 
 my thoughts are engendered. I strike a blow v/ith my 
 arm. I am wrong in my appreciation of muscular local- 
 ization, were I to insist that my arm alone struck that 
 blow. It was at the end of the arm with the clenched 
 fist that the blow was delivered, but the power of that 
 blow emanated from every muscle in my body. Those 
 muscles did not, however, all work in the same exact 
 direction. Some of them could not. What they did 
 was their best, but of a different kind ; that is to say, 
 some of them gave just as little hindrance as they 
 could. 
 
 This matter of a man's having two sets of muscles, 
 working apparently differently, but all tending to the one 
 end of perfecting the man, should be thoroughly under- 
 stood. 
 
 All important muscles seem to have their antago- 
 nisms. We should be muscularly erratic if it were not 
 
TRAINING. 2^ 
 
 for this. These antagonistic muscles are the wisest of 
 natural brakes. There is an interplay of these two dif- 
 ferent sets of muscles. We train without our appreciat- 
 ing how much we are indebted to these two muscular 
 systems. 
 
 When we are perfect in physical exercise we actually 
 do get, as it were, a new sense, which for want of a bet- 
 ter term, we may call muscular sense or perception. 
 If we did not educate that sense to its highest degree 
 of excellence, we would waste power with every action 
 we made. There is no neat athletic feat that does not 
 owe its perfection to this unconscious muscular sense. 
 It regulates the initial impulse. If either of these two 
 sets of muscles are brought too much into prominence, 
 there comes stiffness, and stiffness means want of co- 
 ordinate power. 
 
 Sometimes troubles arise from too much work im- 
 posed in one direction and none at all in another. I 
 have, say, exercised the particular set of muscles I 
 designate as A, and I have produced a force which I call 
 5. I have neglected the opposition muscles B, which 
 remain at their normal 3. Their resistance takes then 
 3 from the 5, and my result is but 2. I ought to have 
 worked up the relaxation of these resisting muscles, so 
 that they had given the least antagonism to the mus- 
 cles A. I might never get the ideal 5, but probably a 
 4}^ power. 
 
 Tyros in gymnasiums always show in a distressing 
 way the pull-back of their antagonistic muscles. This 
 
24 TRAINING. 
 
 brings about awkwardness. The experienced teacher 
 sees at once what there is at fault, and hence gives cer- 
 tain pupils particular exercises. 
 
 Take the danseuse. She is the embodiment of human 
 grace, having under automatic control all her muscles. 
 When she learned her calling she studied but one move- 
 ment at a time, then two, then many. She acquired 
 the art of making every new pose and each new step 
 harmonize with those she had learned before. She has 
 educated her two sets of muscles, otherwise she would 
 be clumsy. 
 
 The perfect mastery of all the muscles brings about 
 the acme of grace, and grace is excellence. 
 
 I never saw a great runner who did not carry himself 
 with a certain amount of elegance. Even at the con- 
 clusion of a terrible struggle, the last five yards, a great 
 racer keeps to his form. Let him make the slightest 
 blunder, — and to blunder is to be awkward, — and he is 
 second or third best, and not the great first. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF WORK. 
 
 What are the muscles— Exercise brings about circulation— Close 
 connection of all the functions— What is a congested con- 
 dition—Muscular activity and temperature— -A muscle to 
 work properly must be warmed — The muscles at rest — 
 Work without apparent movement — How it tells on the 
 muscles— Connection between brain and brawn— -Fatigue- 
 Automatic exercises. 
 
 No muscle is ever brought into action that it is not 
 in a measure wasted. If this waste were not at once 
 made up, powers would wane. How, then, can muscles 
 be restored ? By means of the blood. The circulating 
 fluid flows through all the veins, always pumped into them 
 by that great engine, the heart, and the blood lands in 
 each muscle exactly those elements it wants. Hence it 
 follows that no motion can ever take place without 
 increase of circulation. 
 
 I may state that physiologists are undecided whether 
 this increase of circulation is due entirely to the mechan- 
 ical action of the muscles. It is much simpler to be- 
 lieve, as I do, with others, that this increased circulation 
 is, for the major part, mechanically induced. The 
 harder I work, the quicker, the more intense is the 
 action of the blood. No one function of the human 
 
 (25) 
 
26 TRAINING. 
 
 system can take on independent movement. All of 
 them follow suit. If I am to carry on more steam I 
 must put in more coal. Wanting to move faster, the 
 stroke of my piston-rod is accelerated, and the fly-wheel 
 makes more revolutions. The heart and lungs of a man 
 in exercise are called to do more work, and that, too, in 
 briefer intervals of time than when he is at rest. We 
 must breathe more quickly. If we do not, we dull the 
 fires, just as if we were to put a damper in the draught 
 of a stove. 
 
 I want to have this most important fact borne in 
 mind, and it is the close relationship existing between 
 all the functions of the human body. I cannot lift the 
 slightest weight but that the stimulant of such exercise 
 affects the brain. Where else than from the brain 
 comes the will which makes me raise the weight? 
 When, therefore, I exercise, I not only improve the 
 subtlety of my muscle, but of my will, and it is on 
 account of this that it may be safely said that exercise 
 ** favors the brain and the work of thinkers.*' Thence it 
 happens that if physical work be carried to extremes, a 
 time must come when the blood courses so quickly that 
 something or other in the human system gets out of 
 stroke, as it were, and then what is known as congestion 
 takes place. 
 
 We need not be the least alarmed at the word '' con- 
 gestion.*' A feeble man rolls six of the ten-pin balls and 
 is used up. The pugilist stands up for forty rounds and 
 then gives in. It is not that the pugilist has been 
 
TRAINING. 27 
 
 SO much battered, as that he has reached the limit of 
 his powers. His period of congestion has been arrived 
 at. It is not a dangerous crisis. We get over it. 
 
 Many who Hve in the cities, and who are fat and lazy, 
 get to the condition of congestion whenever they mount 
 the steps of an elevated railroad in order to catch a 
 train. Perfect training puts further and further back 
 the time of congestion, or if congestion does come, 
 serious effects are not to be dreaded. 
 
 Too much stimulation brought about by excess of 
 physical work is something to be guarded against. A 
 man may wear himself out. This wearing out is not 
 confined alone to his muscles ; it is all over. It is not 
 only muscular development that halts, but the brain 
 power is diminished. Cases of this kind are exceedingly 
 rare, because nature has her own safeguards. Before 
 the crisis is reached the check comes of its own accord. 
 
 Muscular activity is increased when outside tempera- 
 ture rises. Movements would be dull in a gymnasium 
 kept at the freezing point. The question of the elas- 
 ticity of an individual's muscles is not alone to be con- 
 sidered, when he is exercising in a temperature of 32° 
 F. He is not only not so springy, but he is actually 
 weaker. It comes down to this. In order to get good 
 work out of a muscle, and when you call on one you call 
 on them all, that muscle, or all of them, must be warm. 
 Do we not say, ^^ wait until you see that man warmed 
 to his work *' ? Unconsciously, then, we warm to our 
 work whenever we want to use any muscular effort. 
 
28 TRAINING. 
 
 This IS exhibited in a hundred ways, not alone by our- 
 selves, but in the lower animal creation. There is the 
 pianist. If the concert-room be too cool, he will be sure 
 to clasp his hands together, closely interlocking his fin- 
 gers, so as to warm them. He tries to increase the cir- 
 culation. The blood moving faster supplies warmth. 
 A man may be in a passion. Say he is a cool man, 
 apparently, and conceals his emotion. We are not to 
 suppose that he is bereft of peculiar sensations. His 
 heart moves faster. His circulation increases, and he is 
 unconsciously warming himself up for his onslaught. 
 If he is to strike a blow the muscular preparation has 
 commenced. 
 
 Take a dog just before he jumps at you. His hide 
 becomes wrinkled. The mouth snarls, he shows his 
 fangs. Nature is warming him up. The tiger, before 
 he springs, lashes his tail. Take a horse and run him 
 at once on the course, without a previous canter or 
 warming-up, and the jockey will tell you you have made 
 a mistake. All this is nothing more than the prepara- 
 tion of the muscles. When you take rest and the body 
 sleeps, the muscles rest and temperatures fall. 
 
 Many a man in training knows how strange is the 
 feeling when he rises in the morning half asleep. He 
 experiences a certain numbness of muscle. I remember 
 when closely associated with a rowing crew, to have 
 watched the stroke oar get out of his bed after a sound 
 night's sleep. It was a cool May morning. There was 
 an expression of horror on the young man's face. 
 
TRAINING. 29 
 
 "Anything wrong? ** I asked. 
 
 " Wrong ! I should say so/' 
 
 '* Stiff or sore?" 
 
 " No ; but I felt I had muscles yesterday, and I know 
 I am all bone to-day/' Then he clapped his hands to- 
 gether and stamped his feet on the ground, and said 
 with a smile, which ended in a hearty laugh, " Why, 
 here they have come all back again ! I am all right. I 
 was wild for a moment with some strange ideas ; I fan- 
 cied my muscles had kept longer asleep than I did/' 
 That really might have been the case. 
 
 The limit of effectiveness of the muscles is found when 
 the temperature of the blood approaches 45'' Centigrade, 
 or 110° F. 
 
 Here are my muscles, or systems of muscles, sound, in 
 good condition, and improved through proper stimula- 
 tions. They have withstood the heavy stress put on 
 them. I am not satisfied. I want more work out of 
 them. I call on them, in and out of season, and then 
 comes what is known as a feeling of fatigue. My mus- 
 cles are wonderfully made. No steel nor catgut can 
 compare to them, but there is a measure of durability 
 to everything, and I am wearing my muscles out. Keep 
 on coiling and uncoiling a spring, and carry that out 
 long enough, and the contractile power will wane until 
 all the natural elasticity goes out of it. 
 
 Just here comes in the consideration of that wonder- 
 ful stimulant. The duller man is the one who, running 
 in the foot-race, has used up his muscular power. He 
 
30 TRAINING. 
 
 has been willing with an inferior will. He has drawn on 
 all his stimulant, such as it was. Another man has 
 started in the contest with, say, just the same normal 
 amount of muscle and of an identical quality. He has 
 been just as lavish in the employment of these muscles. 
 The supreme moment arrives. He calls on himself for 
 the extra stimulant, and it comes. His battery of re- 
 serve works the stimulant into the muscles; they contract 
 again and again, and he forges ahead and wins. That is 
 what was meant in a previous chapter, when marvellous 
 outbursts of power were mentioned. 
 
 Because man has the most brain, this prevents him in- 
 juring himself as would the lower creation through over- 
 fatigue. Get to the limit of the use-up of the muscle, 
 and the man stops. Will does accomplish wonders, but 
 physical pain has, too, its own sway. There is no neces- 
 sity of using violent exercise to convince us of the domi- 
 nance of human sensibility. We can dispense with pump- 
 ing a man on the track, or getting him congested, to 
 show that. 
 
 Hold out your right arm and keep it there, and see 
 what happens. It would be the most reprehensible of all 
 exercises if introduced into a competition. Soon the 
 pain occasioned by such a position becomes evident. 
 One good authority puts the time when a man can hold 
 out his arm at being five minutes and twenty seconds. 
 The limit, I think, is six minutes. I never saw it held 
 more than five minutes and twenty-two seconds, though 
 
TRAINING. 31 
 
 I have been told it has been done with a few more 
 seconds added. The deltoid muscle declines the work. 
 Yet there is no apparent real work. But there really is, 
 and a vast amount of it. There was a constant, noise- 
 less fight — none the less hard because not visible — be- 
 tween the two antagonistic sets of muscles. The ex- 
 perimentalist had stimulated himself, and kept on stimu- 
 lating all he knew how, but it was of no use. 
 
 Besides the real display of power in keeping up the 
 muscular equilibrium of the arm, the one of motion was 
 absent. The repairing fluid worked in a certain way, 
 but its ** head '' or circulatory pressure was much dimin- 
 ished. There was, too, actual compression of certain 
 muscles. So we see that, after all, how to account for a 
 very tired arm is somewhat complicated. Bear in mind 
 here, that, distressing as is this work of holding out an 
 arm, its effects are not alone physical, but mental. 
 The consequences might not be alone evident in an ach- 
 ing arm, but in a disturbed head. 
 
 I want to call particular attention again to the close 
 connection between brain and brawn. Professors of 
 physical culture never overlook it, but pupils are inclined 
 to pay too little heed to it. 
 
 Without getting into any unfortunate condition of 
 mental exaggeration, watch out all the time whether 
 your brain works as well as do your muscles, for you 
 might exhaust the first. Moderate exercise for begin- 
 ners is, then, the golden rule. As you go on with your 
 
32 TRAINING. 
 
 work, your mental power — the possibility of securing 
 the stimulant — should increase. When you find it fail- 
 ing, and you are listless, make up your mind that you 
 have been overdoing it. Stop for a while, or work with 
 the utmost moderation, until the proper balance is re- 
 stored. You can see now, in many ways, that power 
 really exists in your brain, and how it is almost always 
 the directing agent. 
 
 I remember to have seen a professional long-distance 
 man who ought to have raced past an adversary. He 
 lost the match. 
 
 ' What was the matter?'' I asked. 
 
 " Matter? Matter enough. An hour before the race 
 I had a letter telling me of the death of a man I loved 
 — a man who had befriended me in a hundred ways. 
 That took all the spring out of me. I sha'n't be good 
 for anything for a month to come.'' 
 
 I could hardly blame the man for his sensibility, 
 though it had made him lose the race. 
 
 Fatigue — ordinary fatigue — is a premonitory symptom 
 showing that the body needs rest. It is like hunger, which 
 is a natural call for food. But if I am fatigued, that does 
 not mean a physical break-down, any more than hunger 
 indicates that I am at starvation point. I think the de- 
 scription of fatigue as a kind of '' regulator," as M. La- 
 grange calls it, expresses the exact condition for the ex- 
 istence of this feeling : *^ We tire most when we do 
 things which our will controls, least when they are au- 
 
TRAINING. 33 
 
 tomatic, or when work is carried on without any will of 
 our own." If we had to think how we are pumping our 
 own blood, or how we are breathing, we could barely 
 stand the strain of that work for an hour. 
 
 The less, then, we have to think how we do a thing, 
 the more automatic we become — the less tired we feel. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LUNG-POWER. 
 
 Pumped out — When it happens — Causes for it not well under- 
 stood — The possible reasons — The congested condition — An 
 excess of carbonic acid — All violent action has an effect on 
 the lungs — Running — Sprinting — What sprinting calls for — 
 Mental conditions affect staying powers — How a runner was 
 beaten — The regulation of breathing — How lung-power may 
 be increased. 
 
 When I explained the looking over of a man in train- 
 ing, I said that my first scrutiny was directed toward his 
 chest. I wanted to judge his lung-power. I do not care 
 how well developed may be his thighs, legs, or calves, 
 without the bellows and room for them to move, physical 
 excellence in all other parts of the body goes for noth- 
 ing. To be " pumped out '' is the most common of all 
 experiences, and it is not at any time a comfortable one. 
 In large cities, where there are elevated roads and trains 
 to be caught just on the minute, running up the steps 
 *' winds '' a million or two of American citizens every 
 day. Take the conclusion of many ordinary athletic 
 exercises. A man runs, fails, and breaks all to pieces. 
 No matter what may be his stimulating powers, he 
 comes to a halt because he can breathe no longer. 
 What happens to him very much resembles strangula- 
 tion. 
 
 (34) 
 
TRAINING. 35 
 
 If you study this wind trouble, you will find that it is 
 not so easy to understand. You may learn from your 
 own experiences that certain kinds of exercises use up 
 your wind powers while others do not. You blow or pant 
 when you mount the rungs of the ladder, or swing on the 
 rings. If you are on the parallel bars you can go 
 through almost the whole of the exercises, may have 
 your respiration quickened, but without any feeling of 
 discomfort. When you stop; it is because you have 
 used up muscular power alone. Your wind to all in- 
 tents and purposes is intact. 
 
 Certain movements you will discover, however, inter- 
 fere seriously with respiration. If you are a sprinter 
 and hurdler, at once you find out what it is to be both- 
 ered with respiratory disturbances. Some experts have 
 tried to show that " respiration '' or taking in air, and 
 ** expiration '* or driving it out, when regularly carried 
 on, were the cause of trouble. This rhythm in breathing 
 we do not think ever takes place save when a man 
 sleeps. What we do know, however, is this, that when 
 force is called upon, to be repeated at very short inter- 
 vals of time, then breathlessness comes. 
 
 Anatomical studies lead me to believe that in all 
 the exercises " that wind a man,** we call into action for 
 sudden movement the thoracic muscles, or those placed 
 lower down (the abdominal ones). These we want pre- 
 cisely to do our work of breathing. No muscle can do 
 two things at once. There is probably mechanical in- 
 terference. This trouble of the respiratory organs is 
 
36 TRAINING. 
 
 not, however, so easily solved. There is more than 
 mechanical action in it. Violent muscular action creates 
 an additional quantity of carbonic gas in the system. 
 We can stand just so much of that inside of us, and not 
 a fraction more. When the quantity increases we must 
 give in, or are poisoned or asphyxiated. 
 
 Such natural manufacture of carbonic gas in the man 
 has been measured. Sanson says that man during his 
 sleep gives off 0.35 grammes of carbonic acid ; while at 
 rest and awake almost double that, but when running 
 1.65 grammes. This enormous increase is at once 
 visible. Returning to those exercises, or peculiar move- 
 ments which bring about respiratory trouble, it is not 
 only perceptible in man but in animals. The kind of 
 gait a horse takes has as much to do with his lasting 
 qualities as with his speed. On the race-course, an 
 expert will tell you : ' ** That it is not so hard for a horse 
 to trot, for that is leg work, but to gallop, that is all 
 lung work.'' You may completely wind a horse in a 
 short gallop. If you had trotted him over the distance, 
 no violent efforts on his part to breathe would have 
 been perceptible. Gallop then slow, and you may trot 
 him fast. 
 
 It is running above all things else that winds the man. 
 If you study the movement, examining the Muybridge 
 instantaneous photographs, you will comprehend how 
 much the man who runs is actually doing. There are 
 certain intervals when the feet are clear from the ground, 
 just as when a horse gallops. The runner is propelling 
 
TRAINING. 37 
 
 himself clear of the earth, sailing into space, and it is 
 here where the effort required is immense. Think in 
 the mile run how often a man has to do that. The 
 sprinter must take this upward and forward spring many- 
 times in the second, and his body assuming exactly that 
 position, when the muscles of propulsion are at cross 
 purposes with those controlling the respiratory functions. 
 
 A man to do this work once or twice or ten times, 
 and suffer no inconvenience, is possible. But the doing 
 of it some thousands of times consecutively, in the brief- 
 est interval of time and not to break down, shows how 
 marvellous is human endurance. He can accomplish 
 this only when the proper condition has been brought 
 about by careful training. 
 
 I do not think that fatigue includes breathlessness, for 
 breathlessness is something distinct and apart. There is 
 a good authority who states, that the actual exercise of 
 the lungs is far greater when a girl dances on a tight 
 rope, than when a man pulls at an oar. This difficulty of 
 the respiratory organs varies immensely with the in- 
 dividual. I have known men with apparently a black- 
 smith's bellows in their chest, get pumped out with cer- 
 tain kinds of exercises at short notice, while others of 
 much slighter build, with narrower chests, suffered but 
 little. I have found that heavy men invariably suffer 
 more than light weights, that is, when beginning their 
 training. A course of careful exercise improved both 
 sorts of men, but for high speed, I have thought the 
 lighter man kept his wind a trifle longer. He had bet- 
 
38 TRAINING. 
 
 tered himself, in this respect, some few points more than 
 the heavier man. My remarks as to these two men, of 
 course, only refer to their speed. Not being called upon 
 for this power of respiration in other things, even in 
 jumping, the bigger man was in more than one respect 
 the smaller man's superior. 
 
 To improve a man's wind really does not present such 
 immense difificulties. The great secret of it is not to 
 waste the strength of the pupil at the beginning. Every- 
 thing depends on gradual work and instruction given the 
 muscles. It is to be slow to-day that good work is pos- 
 sible to-morrow. Give the man the same thing to do 
 over and over again, such work being chosen which 
 brings more particularly into play the abdominal muscles. 
 Then something like an automatic action takes place. 
 Struggles for breath pass away, or are of minor im- 
 portance. 
 
 The worst thing I know of is to start a man with poor 
 respiratory power and to try to mend it at once on the 
 track. What ought to be done is to keep him on his 
 legs and work the legs, but not by speeding the man. 
 Give him work in plenty, but not violent work. When 
 on the track, walk him indifferent as to his style. 
 If you do at last consent to run him, insist at first in 
 short distances and let him work over them slowly. In 
 time the short breath will be a longer one, and speed 
 will come without strangulation. I find fault with any 
 such teachings, which insist that a man can be so trained 
 as to come in winner at the foot race, breathing as 
 
TRAINING. 39 
 
 regularly as a child in the cradle. Any one who enter- 
 tains such an idea can never have seen a race. Running 
 kept up with the element of speed is the hardest work a 
 man can undertake. The blood tears through the veins. 
 The heart increases its action. Carbonic acid produced 
 by such rapid breathing accumulates in the system. 
 There is the probability that rapid muscular action 
 manufactures and injects carbonic acid into the blood. 
 The best man wins, but he is and must be breathless. 
 
 The endurance and wind of the race-horse is superb. 
 When he comes in after the race, I want to loosen his 
 girths at once, so as to leave his panting flanks un- 
 hampered. I am desirous that he should assume normal 
 conditions. 
 
 You can wind yourself, and really take no great 
 amount of exercise. Mental disturbance brings about 
 panting. Run a man and add to that distress of mind, 
 and you augment his respiratory troubles. Raise a hare 
 and chase him with dogs. Actually, the hare is faster 
 than the greyhound, but the hare loses ground through 
 timidity. He pants through fright at the first 50 yards. 
 He might escape did he husband his resources. He 
 breathes hard because of his emotional distress. His 
 wind goes, and he is overtaken by the dogs. 
 
 Great runners have told me that they had acquired 
 the habit of regulating their lung action, and that they 
 strove to keep it in regular action, never hurrying the 
 respiratory process. It is the will-power which comes in 
 here. 
 
40 TRAINING. 
 
 A phenomenal runner said to me : " Oh, my legs ? 
 Why, they run of themselves. They can't be taught 
 anything more, but it is my wind that I keep educat- 
 ing." 
 
 The man thoroughly versed in physical exercise comes 
 in the winner, because he has learned how to economize 
 his powers. He does not believe that he has the limit- 
 less endurance of a steam engine. Say he is line for the 
 race, and knows that at the start, the runners B or C 
 may outfoot him for the first half. He waits until they 
 have done what is called ** beaten themselves/* by forcing 
 the work. Then he has his reserve of wind power. He 
 has kept it in abeyance, and on the last quarter he does 
 his best, and because he has had good judgment and 
 good training, he comes in ahead. 
 
 When I call attention to the *' thoracic action,*' I 
 know it is a term describing a great deal. It means that 
 part of the human body between the neck and the 
 abdomen. We breathe through the automatic contrac- 
 tion and expansion of the muscular system. What part 
 the abdominal muscles have to do with breathing, we do 
 not know so much about. It is probable, however, that 
 they give a certain movement to respiration. In cases 
 of violent physical work, such as of running, they cer- 
 tainly give their aid. These muscles act as auxiliaries. 
 To give these additional force, so that when called upon, 
 they will help respiration, I deem certain simple ex- 
 ercises of the abdominal muscles of imperative necessity 
 for the runner. 
 
TRAINING. 41 
 
 I always question the staying powers of a man who, 
 when stripped, is too much " tuckered up '* below his 
 waist. 
 
 The winded man, if in good condition, suffers but lit- 
 tle after the crisis has been reached. What would kill 
 the novice, is really of little consequence to the expert. 
 Recuperative powers come into action. At once he 
 frees himself rapidly of that excess of carbonic acid 
 which would imperil the condition of another man. 
 
 A good many reasons are given why a clean-skinned 
 man is alone in prime condition. Because his pores are 
 open I know that he must get rid of his poison more 
 rapidly than an unclean man. Well acquainted with 
 running men, I may state for the comfort of beginners, 
 that I have seen the most famous of them come home 
 winners in an apparently very woe-begone condition. 
 
 The consulting physician of a well-known athletic^ 
 club gave me this as his personal account of the condi- 
 tion of a winner, whose pluck made him the first in a 
 hard-run contest : 
 
 " I thought Mr. H quite gone. It was a condition 
 
 of absolute collapse. I am used to such things, but I 
 was worried to death. It would not only be the loss of 
 a splendid fellow, but would bring discredit on athletics. 
 Every newspaper would have made a row about it. 
 Just as I was in an absolute * funk,' my brave lad 
 said, languidly enough : * It must have been two feet. 
 I thought I should beat him that much.' I put some 
 weak brandy and water to his lips, and as he sipped 
 
42 TRAINING. 
 
 it, said : * Don't bother about me. In ten minutes I 
 will be walking about, and good to run in a quarter 
 hour, and next month I will have another try/ It 
 might have been just as he said. In twenty minutes 
 he might, it is true, have been ready to go out ; but I 
 wouldn't let him. I had him to lay down. No, I 
 didn't have him rubbed down. He went soon sound 
 asleep. When he awoke, four hours afterward, he seemed 
 fairly fresh." 
 
 " But," I asked, '' might not the time come when such 
 a man would be likely to kill himself ? " 
 
 " Certainly, ' was the reply. " And so I have just for- 
 bidden him from trying to do anything more this year. 
 A valuable life is worth more than a record of a one- 
 quarter of a second better than anybody else. You 
 Americans, with your high-strung natures, are going it, 
 I think, too strong. You do things uncommon well. I 
 think the air gives you a certain amount of nervous 
 energy, but do try and remember that wind, and the 
 overtaxing of it, is full of danger. I sometimes have 
 an idea that wind and muscle are two things quite apart. 
 Heavy, sluggish men do not go off with heart disease 
 from over-exercise. I do not suppose that whales die 
 of heart trouble, but the dolphins do." 
 
 I may add that my judgment about such matters 
 coincides with that of my English friend. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 EXCESS OF WORK. 
 
 General and natural fatigue —We can break down, and our lung- 
 power is not at fault — The exercise of a single set of muscles — 
 Case of the United States Register — Special dangers of over- 
 work — Liability to disease — Heart troubles — Always keep on 
 the safe side — Pushing lads to efforts beyond their years. 
 
 Much as temperate and well-considered work at the 
 gymnasium or in the open improves bodily condition, 
 so excess of it, inattentively carried out, causes physical 
 degeneration. 
 
 I have made a point of examining what were the con- 
 sequences likely to ensue from want of attention to the 
 exercise of the chest and abdomen, and above all, call- 
 ing on the human economy for more than it could give. 
 In writing particularly about the respiratory process, 
 and the inconveniences felt in certain exercises, I have 
 tried to draw a distinction between specific troubles, 
 and general and natural fatigue. 
 
 I can take one kind of exercise and work at it until 
 my arms refuse to make another effort, and yet my lung 
 power will be diminished little, if anything. I am using 
 up some particular system of muscles for the time being. 
 It is the simplest example of overwork, but the effects, 
 as can be clearly shown, are complex. To explain this 
 
 (43) 
 
44 TRAINING. 
 
 " overwork *' of a very ordinary set of muscles, the best 
 example of such a case that I know is Mr. L. E. Chitten- 
 den's account of his signing U. S. Treasury bonds when 
 pressed for time. I make the following summary of 
 his article, abridging it from the one under Mr. Chitten- 
 den's signature, to be found in Harper s Magazine of 
 May, 1890: 
 
 Mr. Chittenden began to sign bonds at midday on a 
 Friday, and continued signing up to the following Sun- 
 day, when his work was completed. The period was 
 then forty-eight hours. Every possible assistance was 
 given him. The bonds were brought to him and carried 
 away. All he had to do was to sign. There were rea- 
 sons of state why Mr. Chittenden should sign the bonds, 
 and no one else, and the bonds had to be ready for 
 transmission to England at a certain hour. 
 
 One might suppose that the tracing of the letters of 
 a man's name by the owner of that signature would be 
 the most automatic of actions. Nothing, in fact, is 
 more thoroughly developed by use than the fingers. 
 The act of thinking in writing a word, by an educated 
 man, is hardly appreciable. In this case, here was a 
 high officer of state who had naturally acquired both 
 precision and rapidity in writing his signature. He was 
 used to making it. 
 
 What happened to the United States Register? 
 On the Sunday he writes, '* My fingers and hand were 
 drawn out of their natural shape." Long-continued ex- 
 ertion had to some extent influenced the mind of the 
 
TRAINING. 45 
 
 Register. His memory of what happened for the great- 
 er part of Sunday morning was a blank. The whole 
 process of the over-exerting of a single set of muscles 
 he carefully describes. It was at the eighth hour from 
 the start " that muscular discontent*' was apparent. In 
 a short time every muscle in the arm showed inflamma- 
 tion, the pain in the hand becoming intense. The best 
 surgical aid was called in, and the arm was bathed and 
 rubbed, but there came no alleviation. Then set in 
 symptoms which were alarming. There was numbness, 
 and Mr. Chittenden writes, ** It was as if my arm and 
 hand were dead.'' Still the fingers went on with their 
 work. It might have been expected that the signatures 
 would have become more and more illegible, or at 
 variance with its original form, but this did not happen 
 to any great extent. ^' The constant repetition of the 
 same movements seemed to result in their continuance, 
 independently of the will. The signature was still a 
 fair one." 
 
 General physical weakness was fast setting in, and un- 
 doubtedly there was mental disturbance. It took more 
 time near the end to sign loo bonds than i,ooo at the 
 beginning. The task was concluded. Mr. Chittenden's 
 terrible physical ordeal was apparently over, and with 
 what result ? He writ-es : " The abuse of muscular en- 
 ergy eventually caused my resignation from the Treasury, 
 and cost me several years of physical pain." Farther 
 on he adds : '* Many years elapsed before the Register 
 atoned for this violation of the laws, which never fail to 
 
46 TRAINING. 
 
 punish those who break them. While he remained in 
 office there was no day in which he was not reminded, 
 by a sharp rheumatic twinge of the wrists, of that Sun- 
 day morning. After he had left the Treasury, there 
 were five long years in which he could never promise 
 that he could perform any professional labor at any 
 fixed date in the future." 
 
 Mr. Chittenden's case shows the remarkable effects of 
 fatigue of muscle, with the wane of the mental stimu- 
 lant. After a while, " the will '' was dulled, though it 
 was the will of the Register that kept him up all the 
 time. The mental stimulant had been called upon, and 
 called upon beyond its possibilities. After a while it de- 
 clined answering, and yet there was something of it left, 
 since the fingers traced the letters. No book can pre- 
 sent a theory so clearly as an actual case of this kind. 
 If not for the positive authenticity of the article, it 
 might be questioned. 
 
 The Register's disturbance continued after the task 
 was ended, and it was only on Monday night that sleep 
 came, and it was sleep brought about by sheer exhaus- 
 tion. It may be advanced that Mr. Chittenden's phys- 
 ical condition at the start was not good, and this may 
 be granted. Not being " good," might mean that his 
 status was not equal to that of a fairly-well trained 
 man. If the Register had had the physical condition of 
 an athlete, he could have gone on signing with much 
 less inconvenience. He would have kept to his task 
 longer, but exactly how much longer nobody can say. 
 
TRAINING. 47 
 
 This, however, is positive : if Mr. Chittenden had been a 
 better built-up man, and accustomed to muscular wear 
 and tear, the after-effects would have been insignificant. 
 I question, however, whether special endurance of any 
 particular circumscribed set of muscles has ever been so 
 thoroughly tested as in this casq. 
 
 There are certain simple mechanical devices in gym- 
 nasiums which might solve localized endurance. I do 
 not want them, however, tried. The play would not be 
 worth the candle. What I do believe, however, is this : 
 that the limit of endurance, for certain movements, 
 would be sooner reached than is supposed. All I want 
 to show here is, the connection which exists between 
 the muscles and the brain, and that they are interdepend- 
 ent. Their action is correlated — reciprocal. One works 
 on the other. Over-fatigue your brain, and your body 
 suffers. Overwork your body, and the brain feels the 
 depressing work. 
 
 Although the athlete is good for nothing unless he 
 breathes well, there have been well-attested instances of 
 men performing acts of strength who were absolutely 
 consumptive. These men did not get better of their 
 major complaint by exercise, but eventually died of it. 
 
 The dangers of overwork are not, then, to be slighted. 
 The w^hole system can be over-strained, and then gen- 
 eral health is weakened. This volume is written, not to 
 quench that proper ardor for physical culture in which 
 lies our greatest hope for the future, but to guard against 
 abuses arising from overwork. To get the system down 
 
48 TRAINING. 
 
 to its lowest level, to keep taking away from its vitality, 
 without giving it a chance to repair itself, is not uncom- 
 mon. It is, as if a man was stripping himself of his 
 shield of ordinary health, so that the shaft of disease 
 directed toward him should meet with the least power 
 of resistance. He who is thus worked down invites ill- 
 ness. The minor diseases which accompany youth may 
 not be evaded, but such as are unusual, as typhoid 
 fever ought to be rarer. There is no better nidus, or 
 nest, for typhoid fever to hatch in, than the body of a 
 young man from eighteen to twenty who has overworked 
 himself. 
 
 I do not argue this question, because it is self-evident 
 that a young man who is in the act of making or train- 
 ing himself up is more liable to disease than the normal 
 hardened adult. 
 
 An overworked man is hurting himself, not in a spe- 
 cial, but in a general way, not an inch or two or more 
 deep, where his muscles play, but internally. I believe 
 that with the peculiarities of our American climate, our 
 chances of becoming overworked are more frequent 
 than in England. Essentially nervous, we have a tend- 
 ency toward excitability of the brain, and our men, 
 from overwork, lose will power. To be "stale" means 
 more than muscle deterioration. It positively includes 
 lessened will to work. The stimulus has departed. 
 
 I need not point out how " overworking and under- 
 feeding ** bring about rapid fatigue. A man who exer- 
 cises daily at the gymnasium, and finds no natural in- 
 
TRAINING. 49 
 
 crease of appetite, need not stop all work, but he ought 
 to lessen his hours of work. Too sudden losses of weight, 
 when temperatures show no difference, are signs of over- 
 work. Human resistance should be gradual. A man 
 ought to get rid of the over-quantity of fat in his system, 
 but precipitancy in such things is to act at variance with 
 the laws of stability. 
 
 I return to that heart action which becomes endan- 
 gered from overwork. Nervous trouble is bad enough. 
 You may stand mental sufferings ; you can live more 
 or less miserably with them, but when the action of the 
 heart is disorganized, your race is run. Why this hap- 
 pens is easy to explain. When I exercise, I call on my 
 heart for increase of activity. I want new blood all the 
 time for purposes of repair. I force the circulation, 
 mechanically, if you please. I use my heart too much, 
 w^hich really is nothing more than a big muscle. I neces- 
 sarily expand and contract it to a greater degree than is 
 normal. It is only a muscle, and if it obeys the same 
 rules as do the muscles of my leg or arm, it must be 
 subjected to the same troubles. I can, by squeezing my 
 heart, flatten it out or thin its valves, and then away it 
 goes, because its natural fibrous structure has been 
 weakened. Sometimes the heart refuses to do over- 
 work. It thickens and thickens, becoming denser, and 
 so loses its healthful play, and then comes the end. 
 
 I am told that Indian runners in South America gen- 
 erally leave off their calling at thirty-five because of 
 heart troubles, and an Indian runner's gait is not so fast 
 
50 TRAINING. 
 
 as it is constant. We all know what are the conditions 
 which most readily induce physical exhaustion. It is 
 labor carried out without enough food, or well-prepared 
 food, and without sufficient sleep. You need not look 
 for cases of such exhaustion in the gymnasium alone. 
 You may find it among farm laborers, where a great deal 
 of work is expected by employers who stint their hands 
 in their food. Many a servant girl feels it, and breaks 
 down in a fashionable household. She scrubs, irons, 
 washes, cooks, and has not enough to eat. It becomes 
 perfectly plain that we break down, not from one, but 
 from many causes. Stripping this overworked condition 
 of the many scientific terms in use to describe it, I may 
 say that it often arises from the absolute tearing of mus- 
 cular fibre, and may be local, or it comes about from the 
 over-creation of waste products in the system which 
 choke us. They may be solid, or even gaseous ; and 
 lastly, we get to that cause most subtle and most difficult 
 to specialize, which is the lessening, or the extinction, of 
 the will power. 
 
 I again call attention to the purpose of this book. 
 Everybody is not born strong and lusty. Conditions of 
 men are as different as are their environments. Young 
 men are ambitious, and their present sound health may 
 induce them to believe that no amount of self-imposed 
 work can hurt them. I want to show that such a belief 
 is dangerous. I am inclined to the opinion that over- 
 exertion hurts many. Serious cases of prostration I 
 know of. I have seen them, and I say regretfully that 
 
TRAINING. 51 
 
 the subjects thus affected were rarely brought back to 
 that same degree of physical excellence they once en- 
 joyed. I have a mortal dislike to see very young lads 
 put in training, and *^ training'' is different from *^ exer- 
 cising.'' I know that generally nothing unfortunate 
 comes of it, but only *^ sometimes," and even that 
 *' sometimes " ought never to occur. 
 
 What is prettier to see than a fourteen-year lad going 
 free over the track with a natural gait. I know it does 
 not hurt him, but I want him not to go quite so fast. I 
 feel all the time like stopping him. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BODY AS A MACHINE. 
 
 The body like a machine, but only up to a certain point — Exer- 
 cise changes its condition — After work, repose — Methods of 
 human repair — How relief comes — Rest — How different ex- 
 ercises tire — Endurance — Troubles arising from over cere- 
 bral stimulation. 
 
 We are prone to compare the human body to a ma- 
 chine. The simile holds good, but only up to a certain 
 point. Our food is our fuel ; the mental power, the 
 stimulant, or the steam, is created, and the arms, the 
 pistons or the legs or the wheels, move. But here the 
 likeness stops short. Every time I fire up my boiler I 
 use up my grate-bars, I wear out my boiler, I grind out 
 by friction the piston or the bearings. I may fire away 
 all I please. In a certain definite time my engine must 
 stop for repairs. To set the machine of iron, steel, or 
 brass working anew, man must come in and put in 
 repairs. 
 
 We work the human body, we wear it away, but the 
 repair comes miraculously from ourselves. It is impos- 
 sible to imagine that we can use up muscle and repair 
 muscle at one and the same instant. We must have 
 repose or rest for our body in order to give it the chance 
 
 of going into repair. We are burning up something 
 (52) 
 
TRAINING. 53 
 
 within us, for how could our temperatures rise in exer- 
 cise if there was not combustion ? When you burn up 
 anything, have you not two products left — the gaseous 
 and solid ones ? 
 
 I work hard at the parallel bars or I run my mile. I 
 make more carbonic acid than when I was at rest, and 
 I even produce novel changes in the substances out of 
 which my muscles are made. I must get ri3 of these 
 new substances, or I would soon be in the condition 
 of the fire-grate where the bars are clogged with clink- 
 ers. My draft must be free and clear or my fire will 
 smoulder. 
 
 Repose then is a necessity. It is nature asserting 
 itself. We sleep in order to restore our bodies to their 
 normal conditions. We make up then for the waste of 
 tissue. We strike work for repairs, or we get our burnt 
 products or ashes in such a condition as to most easily 
 discharge them. 
 
 There are certain conditions, particularly accentuated 
 in the muscles, which insist on rest. By overwork we 
 render them locally over-excitable. We can produce vio- 
 lent spasmodic effects. We have "cramps*' because of 
 the over-friction of one muscle on another. Cramps are 
 felt by old people who do not exercise, and as far as the 
 causes can be determined, they arise because muscles 
 have become clogged, do not work easily one over the 
 other, our condition with advanced years not being nor- 
 mal or natural. 
 
 Brief intervals of rest, even of a few seconds, caught 
 
54 TRAINING. 
 
 as it were when work is going on, bring immense relief. 
 The accomplished performer is skillful because he knows 
 exactly how, and when, to take a brief rest. I know of 
 no better comparison than that of the vocalist, who 
 sings so well and yet takes breath. The opera tenor 
 inflates his lungs so quietly that when he does, it es- 
 capes you. How exactly then to take rest while at 
 work is a talent. 
 
 In running, relief may sometimes be had by a change 
 of position, or the stride, but a man must know exactly 
 how to do it. It seems really marvellous how a well- 
 trained man will apparently gain perfect equilibrium, 
 after violent exertion, by taking an instant of rest. An 
 untrained man would require an hour or two to get him 
 back to a normal condition, while one or two minutes 
 suffices the athlete. 
 
 An excellent authority on such matters, in describing 
 the " time '' allowed between the rounds according to 
 the rules of the ring, believes that the fact of the thirty 
 or forty seconds permissible is entirely too long. Ex- 
 pressing himself as decidedly on the side of humanity, 
 he thinks that a prize-fight would subject the combatants 
 to less bodily harm if they were allowed no intervals of 
 rest. His argument is that, with their perfect training, 
 the pugilist gets himself entirely back in the quarter of 
 a minute, and then his arm, or his fist, or his entire mus- 
 cular system, is as good as ever. Hence the blows ad- 
 ministered at the last round are just as telling as the 
 first. If the battle were fought right out without a sec- 
 
TRAINING. ■ 55 
 
 ond's rest — a brush from beginning to finish — then, he 
 insists, that (with certain rules) the injuries inflicted 
 would be diminished. It is a French authority who 
 writes this. He may be sound theoretically, but evi- 
 dently knows little about boxing rules, nor of the many 
 resources, other than physical ones, pugilists possess. 
 
 If we consider what are the advantages of rest to ani- 
 mals, we need only look at the horse when he is put on 
 the course. In his mile burst — the best in three — with 
 brief intervals of rest between the races, the racer is 
 quite likely to make his last mile the fastest of the three. 
 Endurance in exercises of certain kinds is marvellous. 
 It would seem at first that the repose necessary after 
 prolonged exercise might be made briefer than for short 
 and violent work. Speaking not so much of my own 
 personal experience, but of that derived from certain 
 distinguished performers that have told me that ^* dead 
 beat,*' as they might have been after a half-mile run, they 
 got sooner over it, wanting less absolute rest than after 
 a ten-mile walk. The feeling of fatigue, so they ex- 
 pressed themselves, with continued work was "all over.'* 
 The tire had come during the long walk, little by little 
 (not all at once, as in the mile or half-mile race), and 
 it was only little by little that the effects of the long 
 walk were removed by rest. 
 
 Generally, " the profession *' is much more amenable 
 to trainers' orders than is supposed by the public. 
 Backers, who had most to do with the selection of a 
 trainer, make it imperative that principals must obey 
 
56 TRAINING. 
 
 orders, or the purse-strings are drawn tight. I have, 
 however, seen headstrong men, with fine legs and poor 
 brains, who, by not giving themselves rest enough after 
 a telling effort, having tried to repeat their perform- 
 ances, have failed, and never afterward reached the time 
 of their best work. I can account for these mishaps in 
 no other way than by their having ignored that rest be- 
 tween acts, which is imperative. 
 
 In such cases as have come before my notice of actual 
 troubles arising from overwork in exercising, they were 
 so visible as to require no diagnosis. But there are 
 some complaints of a nervous character which are, how- 
 ever, very difficult to localize. The over-stimulation of 
 the abdominal muscles does, sometimes, bring about pe- 
 culiar troubles. Certain ganglia seem then to exercise 
 abnormal power, and there are well-defined intestinal 
 disturbances. Something like acute dyspepsia sets in, 
 and the digestive powers are seriously impaired. I am 
 forced to make the statement that conditions of this 
 kind are prevalent, and, what is worse, that they are ex- 
 ceedingly difficult to cure. 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 FATIGUE. 
 
 Fatigue and hunger considered — Endurance with the trained and 
 untrained — Adaptiveness — Improvement of bone and muscle 
 — The race-horse — Local disturbances overcome — The help 
 nature gives. 
 
 I HAVE said that the feeling of fatigue bears a marked 
 resemblance to that of hunger. The system wants, in 
 the first case, rest ; in the second, food. I may not take 
 rest or food from accidental causes, or these privations 
 may be self-imposed, and I suffer the penalty. If I am 
 inured to both fatigue and hunger, I can withstand 
 their effects longer, and the reasons are self-evident. I 
 have put my body under such excellent conditions that 
 I bend and do not break. The man, then, is soonest 
 used up, when strain is put on him, who has exercised 
 the least. The lassitude of those who never walk need 
 not be commented upon. If they do walk, then stiff- 
 ness and other discomforts set in. Mechanical action is 
 hampered by what may be, not so much atrophy of the 
 muscles, as entire absence of mental stimulant. Nei- 
 ther having been worked, both fail. By mental stimu- 
 lant, I mean, of course, the peculiar willing power which 
 controls muscular movement. 
 
 (57) 
 
58 TRAINING. 
 
 It is well to define what is this special stimulant. It 
 is possible for a man to remain as motionless in his chair 
 as if made of marble, and still have marvellous brain- 
 power and exercise it. All is dead in him but the ca- 
 pacity to think. 
 
 Endurance to fatigue depends on physical conditions 
 and much on habit. I can take a runner and have him 
 try and do mason*s work for half a day, and I will tire 
 him out. I can try my mason over a two-mile track, and 
 use him up in a quarter of an hour for the rest of his 
 day. This difference may depend very much on the in- 
 dividual. I have two men well trained, and one will 
 outwork the other, and the man accomplishing the 
 heavier task will be the least tired. Careful training 
 does much, but the personal factor always will exert it- 
 self. There is this, however, about it, that, when fatigue 
 and actual discomfort arise, the trained man supports it 
 the more readily of the two. He does not dread the 
 after-effects of fatigue, even if his task is carried beyond 
 reason. When I say ^' he is a tough man,'' I mean pretty 
 much what the adjective expresses. He has hardened 
 his muscles through exercise. These have been greatly 
 developed, and because they exist in quantity, they can 
 be drawn upon as a capital, and, after a certain expendi- 
 ture, there is still a balance left. When a man is " ten- 
 der,'' the actual opposite exists. 
 
 I play gardener with my rake and hoe, and in an hour 
 I blister my hands. My neighbor, the market-gardener, 
 digs potatoes all day, and his hands, which had a horn- 
 
TRAINING. 59 
 
 like cuticle, show no abrasion when his work is over. 
 That gardener may laugh at me when I show him my 
 blistered fingers. Say there is a hue and cry suddenly 
 raised, and we both mount our horses in pursuit of a 
 murderer. Though my hands are so soft, it may not be 
 the same case with my legs. The gardener's general 
 condition may be better than mine, save in one respect 
 — his legs. I have exercised the muscles of my thighs, 
 legs, and calves, and have accustomed them to the move- 
 ments of my horse. I can ride three or four hours with 
 little fatigue and no abrasion of the cuticle, whereas, my 
 hard-handed gardener gets off his horse half flayed. I 
 need not, however, pride myself on my special perform- 
 ances, because, save in exceptional work, the gardener 
 is likely to be, physically, a stronger animal than I. Ex- 
 ercise, food, and rest being in favorable adjustment to 
 muscular work, these not only increase thews and sin- 
 ews, but absolutely improve the bony structure. Bones 
 increase in solidity when the muscles attached to them 
 do additional work. If the human structure did not im- 
 prove, how could it withstand the increased jerking and 
 pulling? Without a firm foundation no lifting power 
 would be possible. Take a limber or weak crane, and what 
 confidence could you place in it? Here is the positive 
 proof of what is stated : If the skeleton of a race-horse 
 is examined, though the bones may be smaller, their 
 structure is denser. They weigh more in proportion than 
 those of the ordinary horse. In the human skeleton this 
 difference of denser bone in the athlete is marked. 
 
6o TRAINING. 
 
 If we go back and ask why a man who is thorough in 
 his physical development resists fatigue better than a 
 man who has never put himself to work, at once then we 
 see the reason for it. I have a rough mountain road to 
 travel, and I want a stick to help me climb the steeps. 
 Shall I take a soft, or a brittle, or a hard, tough, and 
 elastic staff ? Say I get to my mountain height. I have 
 not broken my staff, but it is bent, and the spring has 
 all gone out of it. I know it is good for nothing. I can 
 trust it no longer. I have used it up. 
 
 I wish I might make perfectly clear what is meant by 
 " adaptiveness," because adaptiveness is the most won- 
 derful of all physical possibilities. Suppose I take 
 an extreme case. A man has weak lungs, followed by 
 hemorrhages. The chances arc many that he will die. 
 Nature, however, exerts not so much her power of re- 
 sistance to keep the man alive, but rather tries her 
 plastic processes. Nature adapts the man's lungs to 
 new conditions. The man must breathe with a lessened 
 lung surface. If the change were instantaneous from a 
 normal or ordinary to an abnormal and extraordinary 
 condition, the chances of local disturbances would be so 
 violent that it would end in the death of the man. The 
 adapting process is slow then. Resistances are gradually 
 overcome. The machine is not as perfect as it was, but 
 Nature satisfies herself with a second-class mechanism. 
 It may clatter, but it does its* work. Nature then of 
 her own accord steps in, under unfavorable conditions, 
 and repairs as well as she can a damaged mechanism. 
 
TRAINING. 6 1 
 
 Take conditions which are the most favorable — a 
 sound body, a quickened intelligence, and exercise, noth- 
 ing being done in excess — and then we can understand 
 how marvellous are those new conditions. 
 
 It is the healthy tone of every portion of the human 
 system, acquired in younger days, that continues with 
 age. The joints in the man of sixty, who supplied them 
 with force when he was twenty, do not creak nor grate 
 when he is a grandfather. Nature gives us help when 
 we try to help her. Diameters of chests increase and 
 additional inches of muscle come. Careful physical work 
 does something more. It exercises a power of selection 
 within the substances found in the man. Muscles will 
 not contract well if too much imbedded in fatty tissue. 
 Work then dispenses with superfluous fat as nutrition 
 becomes automatically perfect. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IMPROVING CONDITIONS. 
 
 The bettering of all the functions — To strength, skill is added — 
 Muscular education — The many ways of doing the one thing 
 — The greatest economy of force — Courage — Self-reliance — 
 How exercise induces them. 
 
 So far I have presented what are the dangers arising 
 from overwork, and I shall have failed in my object if I 
 have not succeeded in impressing the gravity of this on 
 readers. 
 
 We will now take the optimistic side, the one so often 
 arrived at, and it is the man improved. He has in- 
 creased in strength and in health. Not one of his 
 organs, but all of them have been bettered. Not alone 
 all the tools he works with are of finer quality, but with 
 them he accomplishes more, because he knows better 
 how to wield them. The element of skill, then, has been 
 added. 
 
 The work itself is accomplished with less fatigue, 
 therefore the man's lasting powers have increased. Some 
 of his movements have become nearly automatic, so well 
 trained are certain muscles. He need not call all the 
 time on his mental stimulant, or, if he does, it is with 
 a lessened cerebral impulse. It then stands to reason 
 
 (62) 
 
TRAINING. 63 
 
 that, with an unimpaired stock of stimulant, when the 
 great effort is called forth, the mental source of power 
 responds. 
 
 I have described the work of the antagonistic muscles. 
 When the man is trained, there is no struggle within 
 himself for mastery. The nicest adjustments have taken 
 place, and the awkwardness is gone. If I were to take 
 a trained and an untrained man, both equally strong, and 
 have them accomplish a certain piece of work neither 
 had tried before, I might be quite positive that the 
 trained man would perform his task more easily, more 
 quickly, and better than the untrained man. 
 
 This educating of muscular action has its peculiarities. 
 Lagrange writes to the effect that the expert athlete 
 may have several ways of doing the same thing. Such 
 little differences are not visible to the looker-on. The 
 man who has been trained has gone through an appren- 
 ticeship, and knows how to manage himself. He may 
 at once reject certain ways of doing some feat of agility, 
 or combine several, and then arrive at perfect accom- 
 plishment. Wha^ he has done to achieve distinction 
 has been brought about by a careful selection of mus- 
 cular movement. This is not seen in the least by his 
 attitude, pose, or effort in the movement. The exact 
 combination of muscles escapes detection. He may 
 hardly know himself how he does it. He has arrived at 
 what is known as the greatest economy of force. Dy- 
 namometers or mechanical apparatus, used to measure 
 power, fail to show where is the excellence of the 
 
64 TRAINING. 
 
 individual for certain work. We call it knack — sleight- 
 of-hand. 
 
 There is one point in fine physical training which is 
 often overlooked, and that is the positive development 
 of courage in the individual. If there was nothing else 
 than this one effect gained, as the outcome of perfecting 
 the man, it would be all-sufficient. The reason why 
 personal courage increases is manifest. The character 
 of the will has been improved. It becomes more tena- 
 cious. It has tested its powers of resistance. It may 
 differ as to nicety of distinction from what is known as 
 moral courage ; nevertheless, since man was born, it is 
 physical courage which has made him master over the 
 brute creation. It is difficult to class physical courage 
 as something apart from known muscular powers. Cour- 
 age can exist, however, in the weakling, in the man of 
 slender proportions and soft muscles, but it is rather the 
 mind that stiffens such. Mental courage is that superb 
 brain-force which makes a brave man of him who is 
 naturally timid, as the officer who nerves himself in 
 battle, and stands apparently calm when the ranks are 
 being torn by an enemy^s shot and shell. The heavy 
 punishment a man receives in a prize fight, the feel- 
 ing of exhaustion which dazes the sprinter, the faint 
 of the plucky stroke-oar, all of which have to be re- 
 sisted, are examples of that physical courage the well- 
 trained man has created. With the adult, or the young 
 man under normal conditions, physical courage is nat- 
 urally developed. The germ of it becomes implanted 
 
TRAINING. 65 
 
 earlier when lads take to exercise, and it has greater 
 fruitage. 
 
 Exercise brings self-reliance. Knowing that my mech- 
 anism is good, appreciating its power of resistance when 
 I take personal risks, I do not lose my head. What 
 matters it if by a misstep I fall into the water, or my 
 canoe is upset ? It is only the minor question of wet 
 clothes. I know that I can take the most perfect care 
 of myself. Assured of that, suppose some one else falls 
 in the river, and I know that he or she is helpless. If I 
 can look out for myself, why not look out for the man 
 or the woman who flounders in the water? Because I 
 have energy and will, strongly developed by exercise, 
 I am neither fussy nor flurried. I know exactly what 
 must be done, and I do it ; and when a life is saved by 
 my means, I wonder why such a noise is made about 
 what seemed so little for me to do. 
 
 Take another condition — the quickness of thought, 
 the alertness of conception — which has all to do with 
 self-preservation. Because I am a fair trapeze per- 
 former, or accustomed to ladder-work, the space lying 
 under me, through which I might fall if I made a slip, 
 has no apparent danger for me. I may have fallen once 
 and been contused. But by practice I know how to 
 fall — for how to tumble is an art, one carefully studied 
 by fire-saving corps in the large cities. I am on a plat- 
 form with a crowd. The timbers break and down I go. 
 Instantly I appreciate the situation. As I fall I know 
 what I am about, and arrange my body, prepared for all 
 
66 TRAINING. 
 
 contingencies. Guides in Switzerland, accustomed to 
 falling and sliding, bring into play firstly their physical 
 courage, and secondly their well-trained bodies. What 
 higher incentives can there be for perfection of physical 
 culture than the possibilities of passing through certain 
 ordeals unscathed ? Self-preservation is held to be the 
 first of human rights. Perhaps before it comes the 
 noblest of all instincts — that of saving a fellow-creature 
 from death. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EFFECTS OF CARELESS EXERCISE — DEFORMITIES. 
 
 Differences in the length of limbs — The left leg generally the 
 stronger — Right-handed men increase the power of the left 
 leg — The foot — The balance struck — A lop-sided athlete — 
 Exaggerations of form — Cultivation of deformity — The trapeze 
 performer — The cyclist — Getting a set form — Overwork in 
 one direction — The fencer — The rider — The care to be taken 
 of the vertebral column— Use of head-weights— Baseball 
 pitchers — The Esquimaux in his carak. 
 
 In Xhe Journal of Anatomy and Physiology^ Dr. Garson 
 makes this statement, that by the actual measure of 
 the skeletons of seventy persons, " ten per cent, showed 
 right and left limbs of equal length, and of these only- 
 two cases in which the femur and tibia of one side cor- 
 responded respectively to the femur and tibia of the 
 other. In 35.8 per cent, the right limb was longer than 
 the left, the average preponderance of the former over 
 the latter in these cases being 3.3 per cent.'* 
 
 From these data, with many other measurements, it 
 looks as if the left leg generally is longer than the right 
 one, but the difference between the limbs is greater in 
 the average when it is the longer than when the right 
 is the larger. To show that there is unequal develop- 
 ment, if 200 pairs of men's shoes are carefully measured, 
 
 35 per cent, of these shoes would show that the foot was 
 
 (67) 
 
68 TRAINING. 
 
 about the same size. In 44 per cent, the left foot would 
 be the longer. In 21 per cent, it would be the right 
 one. If women's shoes are measured and compared as 
 to difference of relative size of feet, the left foot is fre- 
 quently the smaller. This would arise from the fact 
 that women are not as active as men. 
 
 What deductions are to be made from this? It is 
 that man being right-handed, and using that side of his 
 body the most, nature, by an act of great judgment, pre- 
 vents the overgrowth of that side by forcing the left half 
 of the man to do its proportion of work. Then follows 
 the rule that we can make no isolated movement. If 
 we apparently work one set of muscles, others, even 
 those far distant, must respond. If not for this, we 
 should be lop-sided. 
 
 The right-handed movement, being more common, 
 seeks for its balance. We could not strike a heavy blow 
 without something to rely upon to hold us up in a cer- 
 tain measure. The blow might be misspent, or wrong 
 in direction and useless. It might by its own force carry 
 us off our feet. If, as in boxing, we reverse matters and 
 lead off from the left— which is the true weapon of of- 
 fence — the right leg steadies us. The blacksmith wields 
 his hammer with his right hand and steadies himself 
 with the left leg. 
 
 Generally the left leg is the stronger, as men usually 
 are right-handed ; but if they are left-handed, in order 
 to gain balance, the opposite leg gets up the additional 
 power. This is the reason why we put the left foot in 
 
TRAINING. 69 
 
 the stirrup, though a left-handed soldier would take his 
 seat with greater alacrity did he use his right foot. 
 
 Infantry starts off with the left foot, and in working 
 the bicycle, almost always, if conditions are the same, 
 we take the left pedal to start the movement and we 
 mount with the left foot. Those who have made a 
 careful study of the left foot, declare that it has more 
 skill of movement than the right one. The left leg and 
 the foot have certainly acquired additional strength, and 
 the stimulant has improved the possibilities of the foot. 
 
 If you watch a skater, his nice cutting and flourishing 
 depend rather on his left than his right foot. When a 
 man dances, his left foot seems to be better under con- 
 trol, but women dance equally well with both feet. A 
 leading authority states that a rope-dancer always places 
 more reliance on the left leg, excepting when he or she 
 happens to be left-handed, then the right foot and leg 
 do most of the work. 
 
 With the mental effects of this prevalence of a right- 
 hand initial movement and an unconscious response 
 from the left, I have nothing to do. It is said, fol- 
 lowing up the idea, that men prefer walking in a circle 
 from left to right, and this rule is carried out in the 
 tracks for athletic sports where the direction is the 
 same. In bicycle races it is very rare not to circle to 
 the left, and the supposable reason is, that the first man 
 being right-handed, as is the majority, went that way. 
 
 I may present this as an instance of the mental effect 
 or tendency : 
 
^0 TRAINING. 
 
 A little friend struggling with his bicycle made his 
 worst falls when working away in the usual direction. 
 Asking if he might take the other direction — to the 
 right — he did so, and got along fairly well, and was not 
 unhorsed. Some time afterward, I found out that he 
 was left-handed and had to rely more on his right than 
 on his left leg. 
 
 This whole subject is a curious one, but where the real 
 interest of it lies, is in its physiological consideration. 
 
 Always working up to the idea of the man who is to be 
 perfectly developed, it would never do for us to have a 
 lop-sided athlete or a man who was strong on one side 
 and not strong on the other. The natural tendency to 
 make more muscle on one side than the other, we can 
 hardly ever entirely prevent. As I rise in the morning, 
 I do most of my work with my right hand if I am right- 
 handed. It may begin when I take my bath, my shave, 
 eat my breakfast, cut my bread, butter it, sip my coffee, 
 and when I write or when I amuse myself — as at bil- 
 liards or ten-pins, or anything calling on the work of my 
 hands. 
 
 If I cannot help, then, this right hand, or right arm, 
 or right side development, I have at least the satisfaction 
 of knowing that nature is bringing about something of 
 an equilibrium on the left side of me. What I am to 
 care most for is to prevent exaggerations of form. I 
 must not help directly toward the establishment of any 
 physical deformities. The perfect man would be an am- 
 bidexter. To prove this self-evident fact, no argument 
 
TRAINING. 71 
 
 IS necessary. The loss of a hand or of an arm forces a man 
 to transfer fiis work from one side to the other, and it is 
 wonderful to see how soon, through necessity, a left 
 hand acquires all the cunning of the right. 
 
 We find that nature gives to the feet the same deli- 
 cate manipulative functions as the hands, only civiliza- 
 tion declines monkey-like imitations. Without being 
 obliged to do it, but only because the savage finds it 
 more convenient, he picks up the smallest object with 
 his toes. In the highest degree the toe and foot '' dex- 
 terity '' is found in artists who, born without arms, paint 
 creditable pictures with their toes. 
 
 Natural inclinations toward physical eccentricities, 
 which are not visible, may be made in time to take the 
 shape of exaggerations or real physical deformities. 
 Such may be cultivated, and nowhere else so unfortu- 
 nately as in the gymnasium ; that is to say, when work 
 is done without intelligent supervision. 
 
 Lagrange presents in a somewhat distressing manner 
 many cases of deformity produced by exercise. Let us 
 understand what the author means by a " deformity.*' 
 The definition of ''to deform" is to make anything ill- 
 shaped and displeasing to the eye. Though the supposi- 
 tion might be that deformity cannot exist without dis- 
 ease, M. Lagrange does not mean that ; he rather looks 
 on it as an aesthetic sense. 
 
 If I am an artist and want a model, I may not incline 
 toward taking either a pugilist or a coal-heaver to sit. for 
 me, unless I wanted to draw a fistic fight or a scene of 
 
72 TRAINING. 
 
 laborious toil. If we look at the work of the Greek 
 when he shows us the winners of the Olympian games, 
 these men of marble represent the absolute perfection of 
 human form. M. Lagrange asks : 
 
 ^* Could we ever make a statue of a demi-god if we 
 took for a model a trapeze performer ? '* 
 
 The next time a clever trapeze performer stands in 
 his tights, you cannot but help seeing that he is built 
 from the waist up, not from the waist down. He is ex- 
 aggerated in form. The balance of vigor is all above, 
 and nothing below. The form of the triangle, to hold 
 within its three lines, the man, has the apex downward. 
 That of the woman is the reverse. The apex of her tri- 
 angle is her head. If the trapeze man were put in the 
 triangle, the lines would hardly hold him. I should not 
 want to sketch him, save for study, but not for art's 
 sake. 
 
 Look at the trapeze man, not as would an artist, but 
 as one inquiring after physiological facts. His back is 
 good in breadth, but it is rounded. He has been hang- 
 ing so long on his bar that he has absolutely pulled out 
 of shape its muscular growth. He has prevented its de- 
 velopment. If he had too much muscle on his back, its 
 presence would have interfered with his gyrations. 
 
 The end and aim of life has been the trapeze, and he 
 may be the crack trapeze performer, but he is by no 
 means a well-built man. More than that, he is not put up 
 straight. There is too much dorsal curvature. As you 
 pick your trapeze man to pieces, you might find that his 
 
TRAINING. 73 
 
 front developments are not as nice as you would have 
 expected. The arms, the shoulders are superb. One 
 might say, then, that to have such arms, " to trapeze '* 
 has not been to live in vain. 
 
 Not so long ago, seeing a man put on his flannels for 
 exercise at the gymnasium, I said, without any claim to 
 infallibility : 
 
 ** That man has over-bicycled.*' 
 
 *' I do not know exactly if he has over-bicycled him- 
 self,'* said the intelligent superintendent of the gymna- 
 sium, ^^ but he has won several events. He is all nice 
 enough from the waist down, but next to nothing from 
 the hips to the top of his head.*' 
 
 I had never seen such an exaggeration before. There 
 was the ugly curvature acquired by the clutch at the 
 handle of the machine, a restricted muscular develop- 
 ment of the shoulders and of the upper arm, but the 
 legs and thighs were uncommonly good. All the power 
 of this man was below his waist. He was agile enough. 
 I saw him throw a clever back-spring, and could not help 
 but notice how the propulsion came as it should from 
 below, but that aid which arms and back-muscles should 
 give to help the general movement were quite wanting. 
 While I was looking, the person in charge said: 
 
 " He is defective in wind, and has no staying power. 
 He is here to get what he lacks, and I have said to him, 
 ' Sell your wheel.' " 
 
 My reply to the superintendent was : 
 
 " And capital advice it is." 
 
74 TRAINING. 
 
 There is a physiological mechanism which tends to 
 render an often-repeated attitude permanent. Sticking, 
 then, to my special apparatus in a gymnasium — working 
 that and nothing else — brings about deformity through 
 abuse. Too much work at the parallel bars gives a posi- 
 tive forward thrust to the body, and is retained. There 
 are forward curvatures just as ugly as the reversed one. 
 Relief comes from outside work, where there may be no 
 apparatus. 
 
 With fencers, who do nothing else but use the foil, 
 there is enormous development of the right arm and 
 shoulders and equal growth of the left leg and foot, but 
 nature can only do just so much. The left shoulder, 
 which has been left in the cold, has no development, 
 and real deformity exists in the working right side and 
 shoulder, which are lowered. Why is this ? Because the 
 position assumed necessitates the forward stoop to the 
 right side. There is a forced curvature. 
 
 Young people who are not over strong, and who take 
 to fencing at too early an age, show unmistakably this 
 right-sided droop. The lunge in fencing may, at the in- 
 stant of its delivery, put the man on a straight line as he 
 delivers the point, but a man does not lunge all the time. 
 The attack is limited, the defence more constant; and, 
 as an able maitre (Tarme said to his pupils : 
 
 "Though appearances are nice to look at, learn for 
 actual work how to crouch. You must make a bow of 
 yourself, so as to launch your arrow with lightning speed 
 when the time comes.'' 
 
TRAINING. 75 
 
 I do not know how far a man who fences with a droop- 
 ing shoulder is physically hurt ; maybe so little, that it 
 is not worth mentioning, but still, as far as form goes, it 
 is something to be avoided. Men who ride profession- 
 ally, as cow-boys, certainly have concave legs, because 
 they must mould their limbs so as to cling to the body of 
 the horse. Horses which pull at the bit induce curvature. 
 The modern school of equestrians is, however, opposed 
 to bit-hauling, and so the horseman of to-day ought to 
 have a fair back. A model of form, without exaggeration, 
 is a cavalry officer on his horse. When he gets off his 
 mount, if he has lived a life in the saddle, his legs are the 
 worst part of him. These three causes M. Lagrange 
 lays down as producing unfortunate conditions : 
 
 ^'(i) Concentration of muscular effort in a very local- 
 ized region, the other parts of the body not sharing in 
 the work. 
 
 ^' (2) Necessity of maintaining during the exercise an 
 attitude in which the axis of the body deviates from its 
 normal direction. 
 
 ^'(3) Frequent and prolonged performances of move- 
 ments which man does not naturally practice, and to 
 which his conformation is not adapted.'* 
 
 The first cause of deformity might have fencing as its 
 example ; the second, the over-use of the trapeze or 
 parallel bars, and the third finds its application in the 
 tug-of-war. Regular form, not here nor there, but all 
 over the body, should be the object of the teacher of 
 gymnastic exercise. 
 
76 TRAINING. 
 
 I think that a very simple rule for general guidance is 
 to remember that the vertebral column is the axis of the 
 body, and that by overwork of any muscles in one 
 direction more than another, you can throw it out of 
 line. The anatomist who understands the character of 
 this spinal column, its wonderful flexibility, will tell you 
 that it is impossible to have-any over-development which 
 is local, that does not bend this great spring of the back. 
 If you give it a wrong set it may become a fixed and 
 permanent curve, and it will grow in that one direction 
 and no other way. Of course I mean only a slight curv- 
 ature, and that no appreciable harm can come from it, but 
 it is an ugly thing to see, and then certainly it precludes 
 perfect flexibility. It may bend in one direction best 
 and not easily in another. 
 
 Stooping comes equally from no work at all. The lad 
 at school or the girl over her sewing, without sufficient 
 play, have their backs bent. Workingmen who ply cer- 
 tain crafts have crooked backs. The watch-mender has 
 a poor back. Tailors are always round-backed. It can 
 be seen, then, how without severe work these accidents 
 occur. The cure for the curved backs in children is best 
 brought about by gymnastic work. The stoop has 
 come as much as anything else from the want of har- 
 monious action on the part of the muscles of the back. 
 
 The same twist has been brought about, because of 
 over-exercise, certain muscles having been taxed to their 
 utmost, while others have been rejected. 
 
 Loads on the heads for children are admirable as pre- 
 
TRAINING. ^J 
 
 ventives for indination to curvature. The only thing 
 to be remembered is that loads must be light. It is 
 not the weight that does as much good as the balancing 
 action which is called into play. 
 
 I have seen a little girl with a wretched stoop perfectly 
 straightened by means of a demijohn which, uncorked, 
 held not more than four pounds weight of water. She 
 had to carry it a certain distance without spilling it. If it 
 fell she got wet and received no reward. Very soon she 
 aquired automatically the balancing powers. She straight- 
 ened out in two weeks, and from an ugly shambling gait, 
 she learned of her own accord to step out straight with 
 nice action. 
 
 Heavy weight on a man's or a woman's head acts in a 
 detrimental manner. The Italian woman who '^ totes '' 
 the tourist's trunk, though she does the work cleverly 
 for the time, with age will have a bent back. Something 
 must give ; the ribs go first, they tend to close, then 
 they pull as girders on the main column, which is the 
 back-bone. The spine then must yield. 
 
 The opportunity was given me to take the measure of 
 three pitchers who have gained reputations in baseball. 
 One of these men had " played ball '' during three years, 
 taking very little rest. I considered this man as a type 
 of the first-class pitcher, as a right-handed man. Exag- 
 gerations of form were barely visible on his right side. 
 The muscular development of both arms was about the 
 same. I could not see that there was any lowering of the 
 right shoulder. The muscles of the waist struck me as 
 
78 TRAINING. 
 
 being enormous as to size. The marked increase was in 
 the left leg, in the muscles of the calf, and the thigh. 
 The man's form was, however, to be described as normal. 
 He was credited with being a capital all-around man, 
 capable of taking any part in the game. 
 
 Another pitcher who had been pitching for a less time 
 showed a more marked difference of form. His right 
 shoulder was lower than his left one. When stripped, 
 this lowering was quite visible. The muscles of his 
 whole right side were wonderfully developed. In stand- 
 ing he had a forward stoop. Watching him, when in a 
 match, I think I noticed that when he delivered the ball, 
 he threw his body more forward than do most pitchers. 
 He had not the bulk nor the build of the first man, and 
 could not, probably, throw as much of his arm-weight 
 into the ball, but by general accord it was believed that 
 his balls had the greater speed. The left leg had rather 
 more development than the right. 
 
 A third man with a left-hand delivery had not been at 
 work as long as the other two. He showed distinctly an 
 increase in size of the right leg. I am not to suppose, 
 then, that pitching at baseball engenders any serious 
 disturbances of form. Though the work of the pitcher 
 is tremendous, the short intervals of time between de- 
 liveries allow him to recuperate his powers. When in 
 perfect condition, there is no such thing as a good man 
 giving balls with diminished speed at the end of a game. 
 The balls may be less effective because not so well 
 directed, but the power does not wane. As has been 
 
TRAINING. 79 
 
 before cited, the last blow of the boxer is likely to be 
 just as powerful as the first. During the intervals of 
 rest between the rounds, the muscular force has returned 
 with amazing rapidity. 
 
 Nothing was appreciable in the form of batters or 
 fielders. The all-around qualities of an efficient nine 
 take away possibilities of any exaggerated or local mus- 
 cular development. I may remark, however, that al- 
 though these references to pitchers were derived from 
 three men of national reputation in the field of base- 
 ball, in order to present reliable data, many more obser- 
 vations would be necessary. 
 
 The most notable deformity I know of is found in the 
 Esquimaux, who paddle in their skin boats. Their de- 
 velopment from waist to shoulders is superb ; from waist 
 to feet, they have no more strength than have children. 
 They can walk, but cannot run. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TRAINING. 
 
 Different applications of the term — The jockey — Consideration 
 of human peculiarities — Time in training — When to stop — 
 Food, clothing, air, bathing, repose — The human machine 
 and its many requirements — The sustaining power — The 
 appetite of the man at work — Privation — The Esquimaux — 
 Melting out the fat — Organic exhaustion. 
 
 In the use of this term, it must be understood that 
 "training'' does not always mean the endeavor to make 
 the man physically perfect. Men who dive for pearls on 
 the Indian coast work only to improve a capacity for re- 
 taining their breath. If a jockey is lo or 20 pounds too 
 heavy he trains down, so as to get rid of the excess of 
 weight. The jockey has not improved his physical con- 
 dition. On the contrary, he has lessened his general 
 
 powers. , 
 
 I have cited as nearest to perfection the " all-around 
 man," who is good for all things. I also brought for- 
 ward the peculiarities of the individual who from make, 
 build, or some cause which escapes us, is better adapted 
 for one kind of work than another. We train, then, for 
 the accomplishment of certain things. The element of 
 time can hardly be disregarded, and we must try to bring 
 up a man to his highest efficiency in the shortest in- 
 terval. We want certain organs to undergo modifi- 
 (80) 
 
TRAINING. 8 1 
 
 cations, for we are to expect the possibilities of higher 
 speed, increasing power, and greater staying abilities. 
 We force, as it were. Nature to exert herself to her 
 utmost. We are not to go beyond what is normal, but 
 still trainers know, do what they may, that this highest 
 degree of human efificiency is never a lasting one. The 
 time will come when the man under their care is at his 
 very best — " ripe '' we might call it. 
 
 This period of perfection may be long or short. It is 
 generally short. To keep in condition requires constant 
 work. Stop exercise, and condition is lost. Work alone, 
 however, is not sufficient. The man who is under train- 
 ing is destroying and rebuilding, and rebuilding and de- 
 stroying his own edifice. There is a certain time when 
 it is supposable that not a particle of the man as he 
 existed nine years before, is present to-day. When an 
 athlete then goes into training, the atoms of himself are 
 always changing. If he is eliminating such things as 
 may be opposed to the perfecting of his muscular devel- 
 opment, he must be at the same time storing up those 
 which are of special advantage to him. As his new 
 structure rises through the destruction of the old, he is 
 to build himsetf up with choicer materials. To provide 
 the man with these much-desired elements, we give him 
 carefully selected food. We bring the flesh of the man 
 into a healthy condition by clothing him properly ; and 
 lastly, we provide him with plenty of pure air, and we 
 are careful that he should have the requisite amount of 
 sleep. 
 
82 TRAINING. 
 
 We feed him so that there shall be no waste of tis- 
 sue. We call on nothing likely to diminish his pow- 
 ers through indigestion. We make him bathe, so as to 
 have all the pores of his skin open, for we know that to 
 clog his cuticle would be to prevent his getting rid in a 
 natural way of such substances as are hurtful to him. 
 We do not want him to fatten up, hence we limit his 
 starchy food. We want no stimulants, and we give him 
 little, if any, alcohol in the fluid he drinks. We make 
 him exercise in the open air if the season permits of it. 
 He must have good air. The room the man sleeps in 
 must have perfect ventilation. The necessity for con- 
 stant vigilance in order that a man may be brought up 
 to the highest physical condition all trainers know about. 
 A mother with her infant ought not to be more solicit- 
 ous about the nourishing of her baby, than a trainer as 
 to the food of the prize-fighter under his charge. A 
 statement of this character seems to be far-fetched, but 
 it really is not in the least out of the way. 
 
 Take the thoroughly-trained man, and what have you 
 got there ? A mechanism which is strengthened, which 
 has a quicker and better movement, which can work 
 during a long period. But how was this mechanism 
 created ? At the expense of certain substances in the 
 body, which having been assimilated, have now almost 
 disappeared. Everything has gone to improve bone 
 and muscle. Here is a machine. It moves splendidly, 
 only it no longer carries its coal with it. This ought to 
 explain thoroughly that necessity the man in training 
 
TRAINING. 83 
 
 has for the proper kind of food. He has worked out, 
 or is working out, the sustaining power within him. 
 How otherwise could he keep up, if not by constant 
 renewals from the outside ? This may be said to be 
 the most commonplace of statements and relating to all 
 questions of human sustenance ; but the food given the 
 athlete, he takes and must take in larger quantity than 
 the man who does no work. A man, like a horse, if off 
 his feed, is lost. I should be afraid to state outside of the 
 profession, the enormous eating capacity of some men 
 when in training. It far exceeded any dietary regulations 
 I have ever seen printed in the books. It had to be regu- 
 lated as to quality. Restricting the quantity would have 
 been to ruin not a few of the subjects. I never have 
 seen cases of collapse more sudden, than when men under 
 training have had their provisions cut down by a theorist. 
 
 I never have considered such heavy devourers of food 
 as gluttons. Slightly scaling down such demands, using 
 discrimination as to the kind of food, and administering 
 it at short intervals, I never have experienced any seri- 
 ous troubles. I have invariably made a distinction be- 
 tween the power a man has of resisting muscular exer- 
 tion and the bearing of privations. An Esquimaux, 
 because used to it, will stand cold and hunger better 
 perhaps than an athlete. 
 
 In this consideration of the training of the man, I 
 return to the question of fat, for if my argument is 
 good for anything, it must be hurtful to try and " melt 
 out '' or work off all the fat in the man. 
 
84 TRAINING. 
 
 There is nothing in training to be dreaded more than 
 organic exhaustion. I have made the statement that 
 break-downs come from poor physical conditions. Here, 
 at least, the effects are at once perceptible. It might 
 have been more or less difficult to bring the man around. 
 It was very much worse when organic exhaustion set 
 slowly in. This is undiscoverable at the beginning, 
 for bad effects have had so long their sway as to be 
 beyond the power of curing. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 FAT. 
 
 False theories — The disadvantages of too much fat — Old ideas^ 
 Fat a reserve fund — Its use — We build with fat — How men in 
 training may take on fat — The distressed trainer — Fat an in- 
 tegral part of our organic structure — ^Japanese wrestlers — Fat 
 offering differing powers of resistance — Where it is not wanted 
 — Its presence in the abdomen — Pugilists — When fat inter- 
 feres — No fat in the lungs — Over-production of carbonic gas 
 — The sprinter — Inspiration and respiration — Methods to pre- 
 vent obesity — The Schweninger cure — The Aertel method — 
 How much fat is normal — Height in relation to weight — 
 When is a person stout — Discrimination as to kind of food — 
 What makes fat — The pig — Starchy and saccharine substances 
 make fat — Food in youth — Inactivity and obesity — Banting 
 — The carbo-hydrates— Table of weights —Dr. S. W. Mitchell's 
 comparison of English and Americans — Massage — The blood- 
 supply — The danger of using "anti-fats'* — The change for 
 the better in training — How to impair a man's vitality. 
 
 I HAVE said that exercise decreases the quantity of 
 fat, and that this diminution is what we want to bring 
 about, but I do not mean to advance the idea that we 
 should work away on the human body until fat disap- 
 peared entirely. In studying this subject, I find among 
 many excellent authorities, a disposition to make dis- 
 tinctions of fat according to location. " Run,'* writes 
 some one, " that is the way to remove internal fat," and 
 I am to suppose that reference is made to the fat in the 
 
 (85) 
 
86 TRAINING. 
 
 abdominal regions. Nothing is more true than that a 
 man with a distended paunch cannot run. Old methods 
 of training, founded on ignorance, advanced the idea 
 that the perfectly trained man ought not to have any 
 fat at all. You may still see in newspaper reports, de- 
 scribing athletic events, '^ When Smith stripped there 
 was not an ounce of fat to be seen on his whole body.*' 
 Nothing can be more absurd than a statement of this 
 kind. Maclaren presents the subject of fat in a sensible 
 manner ; and he writes that the getting rid of " all 
 fat '' was an '* old, venerated theory,*' which when car- 
 ried out did a great deal of harm. 
 
 That the elimination of the excess of fat facilitates 
 work, is not to be questioned. If I waddle with twenty- 
 five pounds more fat than I should have normally, I 
 carry about with me so much additional weight. I 
 handicap myself, but that is not the only thing at fault 
 brought about by this extra adipose tissue. 
 
 If I try to walk fast, having more work to do in lug- 
 ging around this extra weight, I must use more exer- 
 tion, i.e.y I can only get speed by increasing my draught 
 and burning up additional fuel. There is my coal-bin 
 of human fat. I burn that up, I get red-hot. What is 
 worse, having increased my blood temperature, the in- 
 ternal fluids remain longer hot, for the simple reason 
 that I am like a steam-pipe covered with felting. I 
 cannot cool off, because the fat prevents normal or grad- 
 ual change of temperature. 
 
 We have no rieht to abuse fat, however. Why did 
 
TRAINING. 87 
 
 nature put it there at all, if it were a hurtful sub- 
 stance ? It is so easy to find fault with things, the uses 
 of which we know nothing about. Fat is a reserve 
 fund, something for us to draw upon. It may be as 
 bullion in a bank, not negotiable in the street because 
 of its being too bulky to handle, but still it can be con- 
 verted into currency. If a man started as lean as a mu- 
 seum freak, and I had to train him, I should certainly 
 try to fatten him at first. I should want to know as 
 soon as I could if there was anything to build on. As 
 to fat itself in the man who is under training, I, with 
 many others, know of individuals intrusted to our care, 
 who invariably increase in bulfi: when put to work. They 
 '^ trained fat.'* It would be super-arrogation for me to 
 insist that the increase was due to improvement in the 
 quality of their flesh, their muscles, or their bones. 
 This I do not believe. It must have been due to the 
 taking on of a little more fat. 
 
 A year ago a gentleman, a leading member of an ath- 
 letic club, who was theoretically and practically pro- 
 ficient, tried his hand at training a friend, and very intel- 
 ligently he did it up to a certain point, when he came 
 to me in hot haste. This is what he said : 
 
 '^ Do what I can, Mr. J is training up and not 
 
 down. He turns the scale eight pounds heavier this 
 week than he did when he began three weeks ago.'* 
 
 "Does he show improvement enough to set off this 
 increase of weight ? '' I asked. 
 
 " Certainly he does. Never was so eager for work, 
 
88 TjRAINING. 
 
 and he is behaving splendid ; but, oh, that eight pounds ! 
 I can't cut down his work, or lessen his diet." 
 
 " Where does he show this increase of bulk ? ** 
 
 " Nowhere. Measures are increasing everywhere. I 
 can't sweat him with Turkish baths — but eight pounds 
 —oh, it's dreadful ! " 
 
 " I will tell you what you do," I said. " Let him se- 
 verely alone. If he breathes clear and full, I would not 
 bother. It's a natural case of increasing weight, and it 
 is all right. Change your method with your man, and 
 you will alter his condition and not to his advantage." 
 
 My advice, considered at least consoHng, was, I am 
 pleased to say, adhered 1:o. The morning before the 
 event the young representative of the club was a full 
 twelve and a half pounds heavier than at the beginning 
 of his training. He was a chunky, sturdily-built man, 
 and training had not reduced his full, round cheeks. 
 There was a pleasant smile of contentment on his face. 
 He felt good, good all over. I thought him just a little 
 fatter than I would have liked him to be. He was 
 pitted against the champion of another club, who was 
 rather gaunt below the waist-band, with hollow cheeks. 
 Not to extend this incident, our fat young man, in the 
 gamiest long distance race I ever saw (non-professional), 
 came in just a foot and two inches ahead ; of the two men 
 the stout young man seemed to be the least used up. 
 
 The best authority I know of calls fat in particular in- 
 dividuals " integral parts of their organic structure. It 
 is a constitutional tissue, and has, so to speak, freedom 
 
TRAINING. 89 
 
 among the anatomical elements which accompany it.'* 
 I do not hanker for stout-built men, save, of course, for 
 heavy muscular work, where bulk and fat ought to be 
 present. It is a false idea that much fat prevents mus- 
 cular possibilities. If that were the case, Japanese 
 wrestlers would not exist. 
 
 Fat — no matter where it is found in excess in the hu- 
 man system — can be gotten rid of. It ofifers, however, 
 peculiar aspects as to resistance. It may be deposited 
 largely in one part of the body and not in another. It 
 must not be allowed to be present at all in some por- 
 tions of the system, as in the heart. Generally it comes 
 rapidly, and in apparent excess in the region of the ab- 
 domen. In exercise, there is the place where it seems 
 to be most persistent. I have known pugilists who, af- 
 ter a long rest, have found all their trouble in getting 
 proper " form *' below the belt. 
 
 Too much fat must interfere, not as much with the res- 
 piratory organs, as with the quality of the products of com- 
 bustion which leaves the system. In describing that as- 
 phyxiation arising from sudden exercise, I have stated 
 that the causes for it were complex. There is no fat in 
 the lungs, but in the stomach. The air may burn that 
 fat in quantity, and so give an excess of carbonic acid, 
 and then wind-troubles come. When you are rid of that 
 fat — some of it, at least — the man gets his wind and 
 keeps his wind better, not because fat is a mechanical, 
 but a real chemical obstruction. With too much fat the 
 man is poisoning his own exhalations. 
 
90 TRAINING. 
 
 Take a sprinter, and his inspirations may be as high 
 as forty-four a minute, while in repose they ought never 
 to be beyond twenty. Forty-four breathings in the sixty 
 seconds! That is one inspiration and respiration — 
 eighty-eight movements — each accomplished in a frac- 
 tion of a second. 
 
 I have written about *^ adaptation.'* Nature permits, 
 by means of habit and use, of our doing many wonder- 
 ful things, but never for very long. What would be a 
 terrible strain on the individual unaccustomed to abnor- 
 mal breathings, experts bear without trouble. As this 
 matter of fat should be thoroughly understood, for its 
 further elucidation I present the advantages derived 
 from eliminating fat, so that the comfort of the indi- 
 vidual can be carried out. 
 
 ' The fat man has rarely any desire to figure in the 
 gymnasium or on the track. All he wants is to be able 
 to move about comfortably, not be stared at in the 
 streets, or he may long for such reduction in form as to 
 enable him to diminish his tailor's bill. The latest the- 
 ory in regard to diminishing the quantity of fat is due to 
 Dr. Schweninger. The credit of the system belongs 
 properly to Professor Aertel. With the peculiarities of 
 German nomenclature, the Schweninger method is called 
 '* cure ''; the idea being that morbid obesity is the disease. 
 
 A normal man — not an athlete — is supposed to carry 
 about with him one-twentieth of his weight in fat. A 
 normal woman will be beautiful with about one-fifteenth 
 of fat. From the accurate anthropometric measure- 
 
TRAINING. 91 
 
 ments kept by insurance actuaries, a man of five feet 
 seven at the age of thirty ought to weigh from one hun- 
 dred and forty to one hundred and fifty pounds. A 
 woman of five feet two ought to weigh one hundred and 
 twelve pounds. The accepted addition for each inch 
 in height is five pounds, and so a six-footer at thirty 
 ought to weigh from one hundred and sixty-five to one 
 hundred and seventy-five pounds. If there is a weight 
 of fifteen pounds added, then there is inclination to 
 stoutness, and it might be said *'that those men or 
 women are fat." But such additions by no means in- 
 crease the risk of the insurance. With us, our examin- 
 ing doctors rather incline to insure stout or fat people 
 than lean ones, and for this good reason: If illness 
 comes, stout persons with fat on them stand the strain 
 of disease better than the thin ones. 
 
 As fat comes from food, and we must eat to live, let us 
 care less for the quantity and more for the quality of 
 the food we consume. If by eating a certain kind of 
 food I take only an additional quarter of an ounce of fat 
 per diem, do not get rid of it, but keep on storing the 
 fat ; in ten years' of accumulation of fat I shall add not 
 less than fifty-seven pounds to my weight. 
 
 When I fatten a pig, from whence come the peculiar 
 substances which make this fat? Such matters have 
 been carefully studied. If I fed pure fat to the pig, I 
 would not produce fat. Fat is not made from fat. It 
 comes from the animal having been fed on starchy and 
 saccharine substances. I fatten him on corn. 
 
92 TRAINING. 
 
 When we are young, all kinds of alimentary substances 
 are taken with good results. We want certain food for 
 the bones, the muscles, and the flesh. There can hardly 
 be anything presented in excess. We use it all up in 
 building ourselves up. 
 
 When we stop growing, we do not want as much of 
 certain kinds of food. Then we ought to exercise selec- 
 tion, and particularly so if we lead a sedentary kind of 
 life. Inactivity leads directly to obesity. It is' 
 brought about by excess of food and too free use of bev- 
 erages. Sometimes, being an inherited tendency, we 
 have to use great precautions in order to prevent it. 
 Although William Banting has been more or less ridi- 
 culed of late because "he was not scientific,'' still, in 
 many cases, his system was shown efficient up to a cer- 
 tain point. I am not so positive as are those who are 
 opposed to it, that it brought about any dangerous con- 
 sequences. It might have been difficult of application. 
 In fact, save by exercise, I know of no method of " thin- 
 ning down '' which is not irksome. 
 
 In certain cases I must admit that the Banting method 
 might have induced heart-feebleness, but I do not see 
 why lung disease or dropsy necessarily followed the 
 London undertaker's method. All the systems — 
 whether of Banting, Ebstein, Aertel, or Schweninger 
 (the two latter being the same) — depend on a reduction 
 in the consumption of the carbo-hydrates in food, and 
 by the carbo-hydrates is meant starchy food ; for, both 
 theoretically and practically, it is undoubtedly starchy 
 
TRAINING. 93 
 
 food that makes fat, and if indulged in to excess with- 
 out exercise, obesity follows. 
 
 What the Aertel-Schweninger method tries to do is, 
 to give such food or kinds of food which they believe 
 will remove the fat if it be made. This is all nice 
 enough in theory, but the results do not seem positive. 
 What these professors insist upon is exercise, and in the 
 Schweninger rules, mountain-heights are to be scaled. 
 Generally presented, the diet of the Schweninger or 
 Aertel cure - is, to eat lean meat (roasted or boiled), 
 green vegetables, and not more than six ounces of 
 bread per diem, and during the twenty-four hours, six- 
 teen ounces of fluids are to be used, and not a drop of 
 beer is permissible. In satisfying thirst with tea, coffee, 
 or milk, never must more than five ounces of fluid be 
 taken at a meal. To walk three or four hours a day is 
 obligatory, and to mount a staircase once or twice a 
 day is part of the work. 
 
 About six weeks to two months brings some relief 
 from obesity. There can be no question, since, in addi- 
 tion to selection of food, exercise enters into the cure, a 
 patient would be benefited by the Schweninger system. 
 
 I am a little doubtful whether this cure is of any bene- 
 fit for heart disease. 
 
 In Banting's book many useful references may be 
 found as to the proportion of stature and weight desira- 
 ble from insurance statistics. According to these meas- 
 urements of height and weight : 
 
94 
 
 
 
 
 TRAINING. 
 
 
 
 
 A man of 5 
 
 feet I 
 
 should weigh 
 
 120 F 
 
 )OU 
 
 A ^ 
 
 
 n 
 
 2 
 
 
 << 
 
 
 126 
 
 
 A ^ 
 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 
 << 
 
 
 133 
 
 
 A ^ 
 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 136 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 
 ii 
 
 5 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 142 
 
 
 A * 
 
 
 a 
 
 6 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 145 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 
 a 
 
 7 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 148 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 
 a 
 
 8 
 
 
 <( 
 
 
 15s 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 
 i( 
 
 9 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 162 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 
 it 
 
 10 
 
 
 <( 
 
 
 169 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 
 it 
 
 II 
 
 
 <( 
 
 
 174 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 ' 6 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 ti 
 
 
 178 
 
 
 It will be seen that five pounds to the inch is not always 
 a constant factor. As to Banting's own experiences, he 
 states that on August 26, 1862, he weighed two hundred 
 pounds. By following out his system, on the 26th of 
 September, he had lost forty-six pounds. Let me take 
 the opposite condition : A man or a woman is thin and 
 wishes to take on flesh and fat. My best authority for 
 such matter is that presented by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. 
 He states that ''the quantity of fat which is healthy 
 for individuals varies with the sex, the climate, the hab- 
 its, the season, the time of life, the race, and the breed.** 
 This distinguished authority shows that women '' may 
 lose or acquire large amounts of adipose matter without 
 any corresponding loss or gain in vigor.*' 
 
 It looks as if were we to weigh forty English men and 
 women, the Britons would lower Ihe scales if the same 
 
TRAINING. 95 
 
 number of Americans were pitted against them, but that 
 does not mean that we have reduced our flesh by exer- 
 cise. It is probable that the English exercise on an av- 
 erage more than we do. Character, food, and beer- 
 drinking increase weight, but then, 'cHmate has much to 
 do with fat-making. 
 
 To fatten, then, artificially, is to feed carefully; to 
 give additional rest to the person, but not to neglect 
 muscular growth. How can muscular force be brought 
 about and a patient remain in repose? By massage. 
 This is a method of stimulating the muscles by friction. 
 Before this it has been stated that there can be no nor- 
 mal nutrition of the body without muscular movements. 
 For health we want currents of life to flow through the 
 body. " The lessened blood-supply is a result of dimin- 
 ished functional movement, and we need to create a con- 
 stant demand in the inactive parts. Every active muscle 
 is practically a throbbing heart, squeezing its vessels 
 empty while in motion, and relaxing so as to allow them 
 to fill anew. To artificially work the muscles to bring 
 about a healthy stimulation, to feed the body for lan- 
 guid and invalid patients, is to restore life.** 
 
 What do we see, then ? We have studied the meth- 
 ods of reducing fat. Diet will account for so much and 
 exercise for a good deal more. If we want to make fat, 
 we feed in a certain way, and we exercise the muscles 
 artificially. It is not at once perceptible how much this 
 exercise — the working of the muscle — has to do with 
 health. 
 
96 TRAINING. 
 
 The purposes of this book on training would not fulfil 
 their proper function if a vehement protest were not 
 made directed toward those wicked and poisonous sub- 
 stances known as ** anti-fats/' Any one who buys such 
 nostrums runs the risk of life. It is impossible, without 
 certain precautions, to change one's condition. There is 
 but one natural way to do it : by means of careful exer- 
 cise, combined with selection of food. If a man or 
 woman is over thirty, even this effort to reduce weight 
 should never be carried to excess. It is always wiser to 
 consult a physician. 
 
 It is the ignorance of the public which renders the 
 sale of such quack medicines possible. Every such com- 
 pound should be carefully analyzed before permission is 
 granted for its sale. If I wanted to thin a man down 
 rapidly I could do so, by means of acid solutions or by 
 the use of caustic substances. I might induce inflam- 
 mation of the bowels and so thin down a man, until I 
 had him reduced to a skeleton and ready for his coffin. 
 
 In treating of the subject of the reduction of fat, 
 pains has been taken to present the subject in its fullest 
 light. There has been nothing relating to training, 
 which has been more overlooked than this question of 
 fat, and misstatements in regard tojt are many. 
 
 Not to understand the common sense of the subject 
 is to fail in bringing up men to their utmost degree of 
 efficiency. To train down, to take all the sap out of a 
 man, is more frequent than is supposed. Fifteen years 
 ago, I rarely went to see an athletic event that I did not 
 
TRAINING. 97 
 
 notice two or three men who had been brought down 
 too low. In a pretty wide experience, I may have seen 
 a man worked '' too fine '' who won, and I have said, 
 " Well, an exception proves the rule/' But then when I 
 have followed the performances of 'this particular man 
 for a year or more, I have found that I had seen him win 
 only once, and never after that had the palm of victory 
 been his. He had lost his powder. He never had been 
 able to regain it. It seems to me to be little short of 
 wickedness to impair a man's vitality, as was once the 
 habit. To-day, I rarely notice such worn-out men, and 
 it is because better sense prevails. 
 
 I have occasionally entered protests about the light 
 weights of men when looking over boating crews, and 
 studying the totals of weight before the men went into 
 training and when stripped for the pull. I think an incli- 
 nation to fine down men still exists in the United States. 
 I notice, however, that in the, English Universities this 
 diminution of original weights in training is only carried 
 out to a moderate degree. Improved methods of diet 
 keep a man to-day in better condition. Phenomenal 
 work never is possible when the man himself is not nor- 
 mal, and that covers the whole subject, as far as I 
 understand it. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FOOD. 
 
 Food requirements vary with conditions — The Guacho — Why 
 we use meat — The Coolie diet — Quality of food — Water in 
 food — Concentrated food — What a man eats as to its weight 
 — The hydro-carbons — The nitrogenous food — What makes 
 muscle, what fat — The workman's power measured in tons — 
 Demand for food — Quality, not quantity — The cooking of 
 food — Regimen of the man in training — Why pork is not 
 used— When to eat — Why digestion stops — The tired woman 
 — Do no work on an empty stomach — Variety of food — Bolt- 
 ing — Quantity of food — Maclaren — The ravenous man — 
 Use of beer, wine, or alcoholic fluids — Tea, coffee, chocolate, 
 cocoa — Boils — Quantity of fluid — Restrictions — A dried-up 
 man — Method of assuaging thirst — Why ice-water is hurtful — 
 Cramps — Time of drinking — Adulterated and aerated drinks 
 — Ginger-ale — English methods with use of beer — Wine — 
 Bread and fat making — The starch in bread — Why bread 
 should be used stale and toasted — Doughy bread — Greasy 
 bread — Rice — Oatmeal — The Scotch — Advantage of the 
 frequent cooking of starchy food — Potatoes — Vegetables — 
 Salads — Onions — Fruits — Poultry — Personal experience — 
 Condiments^Changes in taste during training — Butter — To- 
 bacco — Use of medicines — Bad effects of pills and purges — 
 The trainer not a doctor — Blood-letting — Russian baths — The 
 oarsman and the Turkish bath — Powder — A pretty skin — A 
 clean skin — The use of water — The pores of the skin— Per- 
 spiration — What is in solution in perspiration — Use of soap — 
 Hot and cold bathing — The cuticle — The sponge bath — Rub- 
 bing down — When to bathe. 
 
 Food requirements vary with human conditions. Ac- 
 cording to the expenditure taking place, so materials are 
 
 (98) 
 
TRAINING. • 99 
 
 to be supplied in proportion to the waste. " Under ex- 
 posure to hard labor, to high and low temperatures, 
 consumption differs.'' The supply of food, then, should 
 be so regulated as to meet all these requirements. 
 
 What we want to do with the man who is under train- 
 ing, is to furnish him with such food as will increase his 
 muscular force, give him flesh-forming substances and 
 diminish fat-creating aliments. I am rather doubtful 
 if we gave a man under training a Guacho diet, that is, 
 one of pure meat without an ounce of bread or vege- 
 tables, whether we would not produce within the man's 
 economy a certain quantity of fat. What the man 
 under heavy exercise does is to burn that fat quickly off 
 so that there can be no surplusage of it. We must use 
 meat, because experience shows us that meat, more 
 quickly than anything else, gives quality to muscles. It 
 is not to be supposed, however, that eaters of farinaceous 
 compounds are not strong. There are Coolies of pro- 
 digious strength who have never eaten anything else 
 but rice and butter. 
 
 The quantity of food consumed by the ordinary man 
 at work is generally presented as weighing about 46 
 ounces. There is superabundance of water in these 46 
 ounces, because the food so dissolved in water is more 
 readily digested and so bulk seems to be a necessity. If 
 we were to take and dry these 46 ounces, they would be 
 reduced to a small volume. Instead of 46 ounces, we 
 would have about 13 ounces. Now we know that highly 
 concentrated food is not readily assimilated. 
 
lOO TRAINING. 
 
 Taking the various substances consumed — such as 
 meat, eggs, milk, bread, sugar, vegetables, and the fats — 
 we would get at something like the following divisions. 
 
 The workingman has used in the 24 hours : 4^ oz. of 
 meat, eggs or milk, or nitrogenous food ; 3 oz. of fat 
 (hydro-carbon) ; 14^ oz. of bread, sugar, or vegetables 
 containing starchy matter — the carbo-hydrates ; i oz. of 
 salt, as the components of lime, sodium, the phosphates, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 Prison diet may be generally represented to consist of 
 about 52 oz. of moist food, with a less proportion of 
 meat. 
 
 For all general purposes, we divide food into the two 
 categories of those which contain nitrogen and those 
 which do not. In the human body, considered as a 
 machine, nitrogenous food, such as exists in meat, eggs, 
 or milk, goes directly to make the muscles, the flesh, 
 and the bones. A perfect assorting process takes place 
 within the system. By some marvellous power, ni- 
 trogenous substances are converted into the springs, 
 levers, and couplings of the human mechanism. What 
 the nitrogenous substances do is not less useful. They 
 supply the coal which brings the steam up to its pres- 
 sure. When we exercise, the non-nitrogenous elements 
 are burnt. 
 
 There is generally great ignorance as to estimation of 
 the actual work a man does. Dr. Parkes says that the 
 average daily work of a man who labors in the open air 
 is equivalent to lifting 250 to 350 tons a foot high. In 
 
TRAINING. lOI 
 
 a heavy day*s work he would exceed a lift of 400 tons. 
 Take an ordinary twenty miles walk on a level country 
 road, and you have called forth a force which would 
 have lifted 353 tons a foot. If the road be up hill, it 
 would be measured by 75 tons more. 
 
 Can it not then at once be understood what are the 
 demands of the athlete who is going through hard work ? 
 Does any one imagine that a boating crew in training 
 has a scales and measure brought in on the mess table, 
 and that the coach acts as a dispensing apothecary ? A 
 mutton chop rare varies very much in size, its bulk 
 having to do with the breed of sheep and the peculiar 
 cut of the butcher. Within certain limits, quantity may 
 not be looked at. It is quality above all things which is 
 to be considered, and also the time when repasts are to 
 be taken. As to preparation of food, the cook should 
 have due notice given him of the requirements of 
 those who eat. There has been a great hue and cry 
 of late in regard to raw meat, and the dangers accruing 
 from the transferring of contagion in the animal to 
 the man who eats of that animal. Raw beefsteaks or 
 too rare mutton chops are not easily digested. The 
 strength-giving qualities are not as readily absorbed as 
 when a chop or a steak is properly cooked, neither too 
 rare nor too well done. Over-cooked meat is worse 
 than none at all. 
 
 From a meat diet, all veal and pork are to be excluded. 
 Veal is immature food, as is even lamb. Of course, the 
 cooking of veal like that of green apples changes its 
 
102 TRAINING. 
 
 character, but in the best cooked veal or lamb, to get 
 the same amount of nutrients, according to Professor 
 Attwater, you have to eat more of them. A call is then 
 made for increase of digestive power, and consequent 
 loss of vital force. Pork is tabooed because it is indi- 
 gestible, and contains less muscle-making ingredients 
 than any other meat. 
 
 As to the time of eating, nature generally suggests 
 that. Regularity is an important factor. A rule always 
 to be followed, is not to eat too near the time of taking 
 exercise, or too soon after it. Does it not stand to 
 reason that having consumed a meal and then taking 
 exercise, the digestive functions must be disturbed? 
 One set of vital currents has its full head on, trying to 
 assimilate the food, when another action diametrically 
 opposed to it is called upon. Then digestion stops, and 
 to the disadvantage of the stomach and the muscles. 
 You are drowsy or feel lassitude after a meal, and for 
 the good reason that the circulation is really being with- 
 drawn from your brain to work in other parts of the 
 body where its presence is required. 
 
 It is always bad to eat at once after a heavy pull. 
 You have not waited until an equilibrium of forces has 
 been brought about. The call you make has had too 
 brief a notice. Take the extreme case of a woman who 
 has over-walked, or over-shopped herself. She is just in 
 time for dinner, but is too tired to eat, though she does 
 try. She eats without appetite and her food is not 
 digested. Had she waited a half hour, her system would 
 
TRAINING. 103 
 
 have been in equipoise. Then she would readily have 
 accepted food. To work on an empty stomach is to 
 commit a first-class foolishness. In the morning spin, 
 I always advise taking some little thing to eat, if it 
 be only biscuit or a bit of toast before work. Two or 
 three mouthfuls often stop nausea, and that mean feel- 
 ing which spoils a whole day. 
 
 I believe in variety of food. I would rather vary beef 
 and mutton, giving a man one meal of beef, and another 
 of mutton. I have found some men who, even in 
 their senses, had an abhorrence for mutton, and I have 
 thought they were not quite as good for being addicted 
 to the one regimen of beef. 
 
 I despise bolting. When I have presided at such 
 meals, partaken of by a boat's crew, I must confess to 
 have given instructions to the cook that, once the repast 
 had opened, not to hurry too much the sequence of the 
 menu. I may have been laughed at, among well-bred 
 gentlemen, as one not acquainted with decent manners; 
 but I have said : " Gentlemen, pray do not bolt. I do 
 not perceive that you use your knives in lieu of your 
 forks, but you do not seem, some of you, to appreciate 
 the use of your teeth. Mastication, perfect mastication, 
 has much to do in the perfecting of muscle. Take your 
 time. I do not mean to say you stuff, only you show 
 immoderate haste. We are not pie-eaters bent on break- 
 ing the record.'' 
 
 Maclaren gives excellent advice as to the quantity of 
 the solid food to be taken. It will vary *^ with habits 
 
104 TRAINING. 
 
 and conditions of life and occupation, and age, and tem- 
 perament, and climate, and season, and time/' I have 
 never seen a man suffer from over-feeding when in train- 
 ing. Perhaps if a ravenous man were under my charge, 
 and I had seen an inclination on his part to excess, I 
 may have wanted to lessen somewhat the food supply, 
 but I never saw a glutton. I do not think gluttony ex- 
 ists in an intelligent man. Appetites are large, but not 
 beyond the call nature requires. 
 
 I am entirely opposed to beer, wine, or alcohol, in any 
 shape or guise, excepting its use as a medicine. I may 
 never have trained a man without having a bottle of 
 brandy handy, but it was only uncorked when the race 
 was over. I give tea, and only semi-occasionally coffee ; 
 and when I have served coffee, it has been weak. I 
 am not an advocate of chocolate or cocoa. I think 
 I can make fat, more fat than I want, by means of 
 chocolate. 
 
 There is one thing that wrecks a man, and that is 
 boils. With Maclaren, I am of the opinion that beer 
 induces boils. In three instances, in teams of eight 
 men, the only two men affected with boils had been 
 beer-drinkers. That they did not have a drop of beer 
 while I was working them, I am positive. The boils 
 may have come from prior lager-beer drinking. How 
 different are modern ideas from those of the past may 
 be seen in the statement that twenty-five years ago a 
 pugilist in training could not get along without at least 
 eight pints of ** old ale '' per diem. 
 
TRAINING. 105 
 
 As to the question of how much water or tea a man 
 may drink when in active training, that depends on the 
 individual and the weather. When a man is in fine 
 training, his exertions being minimized, he perspires 
 less. The awkward dancer has his shirt-collar always 
 limp. Not having gained mastery over his legs, he per- 
 spires all over. Nevertheless the athlete who is at his 
 work is not in normal condition when he does not sweat. 
 He must perspire, not to get rid of the water alone, 
 which, as it evaporates on the surface of his body, pre- 
 vents his over-heating himself, but the moisture carries 
 off with it some of the solid products which may over- 
 charge his system. He is getting rid of his surplus in 
 the simplest way. " Why,'' asks Mr. Maclaren, " should 
 there be restrictive laws on this subject of drinking?" 
 There used to be some stupid fancy that a man in train- 
 ing should have plenty to eat and nothing, or next to 
 nothing, to drink. Like food, it is only a question of 
 when to drink. 
 
 After a hard pull, or a stiff run, the tongue is some- 
 times so dry that it rattles apparently in the mouth. 
 The man has worked every drop of superfluous water 
 out of his system. The very blood in his veins craves 
 dilution. Then temperate use of water should only be 
 allowed. A man can cleanse his mouth with water, and 
 at once a great deal of it is naturally absorbed. Let ten 
 minutes elapse and then several mouthfuls of water can 
 be taken. In a quarter of an hour afterward the neces- 
 sary water can be taken. 
 
I06 TRAINING. 
 
 I am not an Englishman, and have no prejudices 
 against ice-water under ordinary circumstances ; but I 
 cry, "beware of ice-water*' to assuage extraordinary 
 thirst, especially when you are red-hot after training. I 
 have seen such cramps follow the douching the system 
 with ice-water as to make a prime man utterly worthless 
 for a week to come. I should saytithat water in sum- 
 mer, at not more than 55 degrees F., would always be 
 cold enough. I believe that more lasting injuries are 
 brought about by carelessness as to the time of drinking 
 than by anything else. There are many rules of thumb 
 as to the methods of drinking. Many books say only 
 drink after eating, not during the meal. I consider this 
 as having no scientific foundation to rest upon. I should 
 not advise pouring down your tea or your coffee all 
 at once, but take it during meals if you feel so inclined, 
 but never take a drink of ice-water while you are in 
 training. 
 
 I am chary as to the use of acidulated drinks, as 
 lemonade, even if taken at rare intervals. There is a 
 tendency among young men, who have been used to 
 stimulants, to crave for aerated waters, and a very mod- 
 erate employment of these waters I have not found 
 hurtful ; but ginger-ale, as a stimulant, I know from 
 experience is hurtful. Tyros on the cinder track have 
 often come to me, after sharp exercise, and have com- 
 plained of nausea, and have begged for a bottle of 
 ginger-ale. It seemed a simple thing to ask for, but I 
 have declined permitting it, for the good reason that I 
 
TRAINING. 107 
 
 have known it to spoil a man, for a day or two, when 
 he wanted just the next twenty-four or forty-eight hours 
 to make him perfect. For symptoms of nervous ex- 
 haustion I have found tea to be the best of stimulants, 
 and that tea taken warm, without sugar or milk. 
 
 The English system of training differs from the Amer- 
 ican one in the fact that the Oxford or Cambridge man 
 will take a pint of beer for his dinner or supper, and 
 some little wine. I should think that an Englishman, 
 being more accustomed to beer, might feel the depri- 
 vation of it more than the American. Difference of 
 temperament in the two races might account for its be- 
 ing advantageous at least to the Englishman. I believe, 
 however, since English trainers have very much curtailed 
 the quantity of beer, its value as a fluid-giving strength 
 has been estimated at its proper worth. I know, too, 
 that a great deal of care is taken as to the kind and 
 quality of the beer consumed by the Cambridge crew. 
 If ever I have given way in my opinions (and there is 
 no rule without an exception), I have occasionally ad- 
 ministered a wine-glass of sound red wine, but never 
 sherry or port. In certain slight losses of tone, and 
 looseness of bowels, I have found a small quantity of 
 French wine to act as a corrective. 
 
 How bread shall be taken, in what form, is of import- 
 ance in training. I want to be so thoroughly under- 
 stood about fat-making, that I needs must rehearse this 
 subject. Do what we please, unless we starve, we make 
 fat. We want to make fat. Because we are always 
 
I08 TRAINING. 
 
 creating it, that shows that nature craves for fat. But we 
 do not want to put it on in layers. To clog the muscles 
 with it, to enfold the bowels, to distend the abdomen 
 with fat, is to ruin a man for an athlete. If we want 
 fat, we would like it to go as fast as it comes. It is our 
 store of coal. We are like a steamship employed for 
 carrying the mail. This ship, because she is swifter than 
 any other steamer, is the one selected. She must carry 
 coal for the trip. She is not going to overburden herself 
 with two or three times more coal than would suffice 
 for that voyage. She only carries a quantity propor- 
 tionate to the wants of a single voyage. Every pound 
 more she carries would decrease her speed. That is 
 nearly the condition of the man with his store of fat 
 when exercising. 
 
 Bread, I do not care how you take it, contains starch 
 or farinaceous matter. It would not be made of flour 
 if it did not. All grain contains starch : wheat, 57 per 
 cent.; rye, 64; oats, 60; Indian corn, ()j\ rice, as much 
 as 88 per cent. The converting the starch into sugar 
 takes place within the body, and this starch so changed 
 becomes fat. Swallowed fat does not make fat. Hence, 
 in feeding the man under training, we do not want to 
 give him excess of the fat-producing aliments. In all 
 the '^cures'' tending to prevent obesity, it is the dimin- 
 ishing of the farinaceous or non-nitrogenous food that 
 the system depends on. When bread is stale, it is more 
 readily digestible. Not that any change has taken place 
 within the loaf, but because, having no longer its gluten 
 
TRAINING. 109 
 
 in a sticky condition, its crumb is more thoroughly mas- 
 ticated. When bread is toasted there is actually less 
 starch, because, through roasting the bread, an absolute 
 change of elements takes place. Of course this alter- 
 ation is only at the surface, but the bread inside is more 
 thoroughly dried, and therefore more easily divided by 
 the teeth. All doughy bread, or carelessly made bread, 
 with cakes, buns, and pies, should be expunged from 
 the dietary of the man in training. 
 
 Fatty substances mixed with flour prevent rapid di- 
 gestion. Whatever the man who is at work eats, he 
 eats for a purpose. Whatever takes away from his vital 
 force must be discarded. The principle ever to be re- 
 membered is that such food is the best for the man which 
 gives him bone and muscle, and the power necessary to 
 work it off with the least trouble. It is obvious that in 
 selecting the ordinary farinaceous foods of civilization, 
 the man in training would not stuff himself with rice- 
 pudding, for the simple reason that starch in rice repre- 
 sents not less than eighty-eight per cent., while in wheat 
 it is only fifty-seven. It is not always safe, however, to 
 rely implicitly on percentages. Individual powers of 
 digestion or assimilation act differently. I notice that 
 a crack English trainer gives oatmeal gruel. I can find 
 no possible fault with the build or courage of those who 
 eat oatmeal. If oatmeal be that foundation on which a 
 Scotchman builds, all I have to say is, that he has found an 
 uncommonly good material. The richness of phosphate 
 oatmeal contains, the potentiality it possesses as a bone- 
 
no TRAINING. 
 
 maker, makes me rather incline to its use. I regret, 
 then, never having tried it. I would not use it in quan- 
 tity, but give it to men who crave additional food at 
 their last meal. 
 
 There is something about preparing various kinds of 
 farinaceous foods which should be borne in mind, and 
 it is, that for certain purposes, the continuous cooking 
 of them really improves their nutrient qualities. When 
 they are thoroughly cooked or heated over, the starchy 
 substances approach nearer to conversion into sugar, 
 and the processes of digestion become both easier and 
 shorter. In fact, the repeated cooking of farinaceous or 
 starchy compounds, acts as if a digestive process were 
 carried on outside of the human economy. This is the 
 reason why toasted bread is recommended as a diet in- 
 stead of bread as it has left the oven. 
 
 Potatoes I do not deem to be good food for those in 
 training. Twenty per cent, of starch is not a great deal, 
 but the potato makes fat very easily — too easily, in fact. 
 With this exception, all other vegetables can be eaten. 
 I even advocate their use. To make a discrimination 
 between a cabbage and a green pea seems to be an act 
 of hyper-criticism. Green peas, beans, or such legumes 
 contain very much more farinaceous matter than pars- 
 nips or beets, butthequantity of common vegetable food 
 a man under heavy exercise in training craves for is 
 never large, and his wants in this direction should be 
 satisfied. Oxford and Cambridge both give vegetables 
 as a part of the day*s fare, and salads are introduced for 
 
TRAINING, 1 1 1 
 
 supper. I would rather give a little salad with the mid- 
 day meal. I advise particularly the use of a well-boiled 
 onion at times. As a mild natural purgative there is 
 nothing better. It may be noticed in studying former 
 English training bills of fare that fruits are never men- 
 tioned. The nearest approach is " a gruel with raisins and 
 currants/*given, if required, at a supper ; but this supper 
 is not recommended. I use fruits when in season and out 
 of season. Stewed apples or stewed peaches are better 
 than prunes. If ripe fruit is to be had, I give^it in 
 certain quantity. I am positive if fruit be used in 
 moderation, there is general improvement of the system. 
 I do not think that for a man hard at his work anything 
 tastes more delightfully than the half of an apple, or a 
 ripe peach. I have always considered that the cravings 
 of nature were not to be overlooked. It is a call for 
 exactly what was wanted. 
 
 I see no harm in using good poultry at times, but not 
 too frequently. At the commencement of the period of 
 training, when I have noticed a man not take his beef 
 with the zest he should, I have started his hunger with 
 poultry, but have never continued it. Certainly a man 
 could not train on a breast of chicken. 
 
 I am a fair, but not a large, meat-eater, excepting 
 when I have been under training. In my experiences,- 
 I was once in a situation where for three weeks the 
 only meat I could eat was such as was covered with 
 feathers. There was plenty of flying game, but no deer. 
 I lived then on the game I shot, and I had hard work to 
 
112 TRAINING. 
 
 get enough of it. I must confess that considering the 
 kind of food and the work I was doing, I fell off con- 
 siderably in weight ; that I did not care for much, 
 but I found that my general physical condition was 
 running down. I tired more readily, and was losing 
 energy. The diet did not suit me. On another occa- 
 sion, there being no butcher-shops within a thousand 
 miles, nor four-footed game to kill, I was forced to 
 subsist on a purely vegetable and farinaceous diet — 
 canned vegetables and fruits, with hard-tack. I had 
 plenty of hard work, and I bore the fatigue well. My 
 weight diminished rather more than it would have done 
 under a meat diet, but I was always fresh, and the 
 stimulant to work was never on the decrease. I am 
 not, however, prepared to state that changes of form 
 due to the presence or absence of certain kinds of food 
 invariably follow. 
 
 All stimulants, such as condiments, are to be shunned. 
 The cook may dust the meat lightly with salt and 
 pepper, but do not touch the castors, and do not use 
 mustard. Condiments are incentives to poor appetites. 
 If you are not hungry in a natural way, then you are not 
 good for athletic exercises, and had better give them 
 up. You neither want pickles, catsups, nor sauces. 
 Hunger is that sauce which work should bring about. 
 You certainly will be thirsty enough after your run or 
 pull, and should never take anything which would tend 
 to excite unnatural thirst. The use of sour compounds 
 I have written about. In recommending salads, that 
 
From Harper'3 Young People. Copyright, 1888, by Harper & Brothers. 
 
 W. C. DOHM, SPRINTING, 
 
TRAINING. 113 
 
 comprehends the dressing, with a proper proportion of 
 good oil, and as Httle vinegar as possible. 
 
 There are little things which show the peculiar condi- 
 tions of the man, and changes which take place in 
 tastes. I have sometimes noticed that at the beginning 
 of a period of serious training a man has shown at first 
 a craving for salt. A careful coach who watches his 
 men should overlook nothing. Is it to be supposed 
 that I had the salt-cellar suppressed ? Not at all. The 
 man had all the salt he wanted. In a few days his 
 desire for salt in excess was gone. His system was cry- 
 ing for a good dose of sodium, and he took it, and 
 satiety came. I have heard a trainer say : 
 
 " Mr. , excuse me, but you won*t grow good 
 
 muscle, or make your wind sound by putting so much 
 butter on your toast. I wish you would take your 
 bread dry.*' 
 
 *^ What if it chokes me ? ** was the query. 
 
 I cannot, of course, enter into descriptions of the 
 oesophagus of the butter-eater, but I suppose he really 
 did suffer discomfort from eating " unlubricated '* dry 
 toast. The trainer was one of the old school, who be- 
 lieved in giving men just as little fluid as they could get 
 along with. Butter or no butter, the crews that man 
 trained won many races. 
 
 As to tobacco there is but one rule, and that is im- 
 perative. Stop it entirely. Neither smoke nor chew. 
 Tobacco may be a sedative or a stimulant, according to 
 the quantity used. It cannot be denied that it has some 
 
1 14 TRAINING. 
 
 action on the nervous system. The work you are doing 
 should act as your sedative and stimulant. I think that 
 with men of twenty who are smokers, who give up their 
 tobacco, there is a hard struggle, and that it is accom- 
 panied at first by real discomfort. I do not believe in 
 half ways of doing things. The instant a man makes up 
 his mind to go into training, let him present his cigars and 
 cigarettes to his friends. " Thou shalt not smoke, nor 
 shalt thou chew,'* is written as one of the laws on the 
 trainer's tablets. 
 
 Aside from the many advantages derivable from ath- 
 letic exercise, I know of none more marked than the 
 benefits obtained from a smokeless life. I have seen 
 the habit of smoking permanently broken in young men 
 who have gone into training. They never seemed to 
 care for tobacco afterward. As for the bad effects of 
 permitting smoking in your gymnasiums, I need not 
 describe them. Pupils may not smoke any more than 
 visitors. 
 
 I cannot help feeling amused when I read what was 
 an old habit invariably carried out when a man went 
 into training. The best thing that antiquated coach 
 did was to look wondrous wise, and to prescribe some 
 bitter dose or other, or a brace of pills. No matter 
 what was the condition of the man a purge was a neces- 
 sity. Some very good men of former times used to 
 take their regulating medicine every day, and keep on 
 at their work just the same, and rise triumphant above 
 their double depletion. It really was as if a man were 
 
TRAINING. 115 
 
 to take every day an ounce of blood out of his circula- 
 tion. This custom is of unknown antiquity. To "rad- 
 ically cleanse a man/* as an old authority has it, was to 
 prepare him for perfection. You could do it with tartar 
 emetic or ipecac, and wash it down with senna tea or 
 Glauber's salts. As often as not the trainer had some 
 potent abomination of his own with which he literally 
 dosed his man. Lately I read in some self-constituted 
 authority on training, that a purge was beneficial '^ at 
 the beginning." Then it went on to say : *^ It cannot 
 be denied in opposition to the professors, that drugs 
 hasten the man. It does not take so long to get him 
 into condition.*' A vast amount of concentrated igno- 
 rance is displayed just here. Everybody knows, or ought 
 to know, that there is a limit to the " hastening of the 
 man as to condition,** and that training is just one of 
 those things where to be precipitate is to spoil a man. 
 Nothing I could write could be better expressed than 
 what Mr. Maclaren says : " I should advise men in train- 
 ing to leave all drugs alone. If unwell let them go to 
 the doctor in whom they have faith and take what he 
 recommends, and take nothing which he does not. 
 There is no crudity either in bowel or brain so danger- 
 ous as this notion of amateur physicking.** 
 
 Those who have read so far of the practice and theory 
 combined relating to training, must be conscious that 
 for the proper understanding of the subject knowledge 
 both of a general and special character is necessary. To 
 appreciate the reasons for the doing of the many things 
 
Il6 TRAINING. 
 
 which make a man perfect in his body, physiological 
 conditions must be studied ; but a trainer who arrogates 
 to himself the skill of the doctor or of the surgeon is a 
 conceited idiot. Show me a trainer who gives a purge 
 in order to prepare a man for athletic work, and I put 
 him down as an ass, and a dangerous one at that. If I 
 employ the most condemnatory language I can think of 
 in regard ^to physicking a man, I can hardly find terms 
 strong enough to express my horror in regard to blood- 
 letting. I do not believe phlebotomy ever is in use 
 to-day, and I hope it never will be. 
 
 Not so long ago Russian and Turkish baths were oc- 
 casionally prescribed to reduce a man. That they are 
 debilitating in their effects, is positive. I know of a 
 man, the most promising of oarsmen, who had worked 
 through one season, and overtures were made to put 
 him in the college crew. Somehow there came a period of 
 enforced idleness, and he waxed fat. Returning to his col- 
 lege and resuming his oar, he found that his corpulence 
 did not decrease with work. Becoming impatient, and in 
 opposition to the advice of his coxswain, who was a cap- 
 ital coach, the young gentleman went through a whole 
 series of Turkish baths, and at once lost weight and was 
 delighted. Taking to his oar again, he found a certain 
 loss of vigor. He felt lassitude following what was 
 really moderate exertion, and his annoyance was ex- 
 treme. The sequel of this experimenting with Turkish 
 baths ought to have been that the man lost his place in 
 the crew. I am pleased to say he did not. He did less 
 
TRAINING. 117 
 
 work, husbanded himself, and slowly his powers were re- 
 stored. He eventually found his place among the cham- 
 pions. This is what he told me : 
 
 ** I only had eight of those Turkish baths, and they 
 nearly used me up. I got better of them, only it took 
 me not less than thirty days to get over their effects, and 
 instead of being in good condition in sixty days, it was 
 quite three months before I was all right. Now, here is 
 something which I make no secret of : We won. Maybe 
 I did my share in winning ; at least, I tried to ; but when 
 we finished, I was the worst used-up man in the crew, 
 and it took me longer than it did any of them to get all 
 right again.*' 
 
 As the late Professor Proctor explains it, Turkish 
 baths may diminish weight, but only for a short time, 
 and, in a day or so, bulk returns. The substances your 
 system has lost are at once taken up again. I doubt 
 very much whether you have removed any of your extra 
 fat. I maintain that any artificial process which tries to 
 bring about sudden changes is an ynnatural one, and as 
 pernicious as would be a purge. A pretty skin may be 
 the resultant of the extraordinary methods of cleansing 
 your system, but a pretty woman may have a pretty skin, 
 and by no means gain strength thereby. Russian and 
 Turkish baths, especially the latter, are admirably adapted 
 for jockeys, but not for athletes. 
 
 If I were asked what I deemed of the greatest import- 
 ance in training, after good food and good air, I should 
 say that it was the possessing a clean skin. The plenti- 
 
Il8 TRAINING. 
 
 ful use of water acts in more than one way. It is not 
 alone a tonic, but it is of vital assistance, inasmuch as it 
 frees the body of substances not to be gotten rid of in 
 any other way. The body, as we know, is punctured 
 with millions of small orifices through which the per- 
 spiration passes. We perspire not only in order to cool 
 the system, but so as to have drip from us those sub- 
 stances formed during exercise. Nature finds it easier 
 to do this through our pores than in any other way. 
 
 To have the pores clogged is to put stoppers into 
 some of these six or seven millions of the natural chan- 
 nels of discharge. The analysis of this perspiration 
 shows that it is water holding in solution the chlorides, 
 sulphates, and carbonates of sodium, and carrying with 
 it mechanically a certain oily matter. Except in the 
 very coldest weather, the body is always giving off 
 moisture, and this condition is known as insensible 
 transpiration. With a normal skin, say of ninety-eight 
 degrees, we can see how necessary perspiration is. We 
 are then always evaporating in order to get, not alone 
 cooler, but to clear ourselves of the excess of salts we 
 are making within us. In strong and violent exercise, it 
 is probable that we give off as much as six thousand 
 grains of perspiration in an hour. If it were continued 
 long at this rate, we should almost desiccate ourselves, 
 and exhaustion would be sure to follow. 
 
 In a physiological sense, the treatise has yet to be 
 written which will show the relationship between per- 
 spiration and amount of work done. This we know, 
 
TRAINING. 119 
 
 however, that in normal temperatures, the man accus- 
 tomed to work will sweat less than the soft man. If un- 
 der usual circumstances a man gives off in a day and a 
 night two pounds of perspiration, and under hard work 
 gives off very much more, it can be seen how vital it is 
 to have a clean skin. Nicety of person is, then, a law of 
 nature conducive to health, and this cleanliness is only 
 obtainable by bathing. If the salts carried from the in- 
 side to the outside of a man were not alone objection- 
 able, in addition to these are the glandular exudations, 
 which are positively offensive. Their adhesion to the 
 skin is more persistent than the saline productions. We 
 bathe, then, for that improved tone the body must re- 
 ceive and to get the skin in its primest condition, so 
 that its constant and delicate work should be best per- 
 formed. Some subtle theorist startled the world long 
 ago by insisting that the civilization of a country de- 
 pended on the soap it used. The question of having a 
 clean body includes, then, the use of soap and plenty of 
 it, not alone for mankind in general, but especially for 
 those who are in training. As Maclaren has it, in writ- 
 ing about hot or cold water for bathing, if you use the 
 latter, your cleansing abilities are lessened, though you 
 have the tonic. If you use the cold water, you have 
 "the brace/' but no detersive effects, for no washer- 
 woman ever did use cold suds. 
 
 When you bathe, have the water below the outside 
 temperatures ; for a hale man in good exercise the ef- 
 fects are capital. It is exercise in its mildest form. The 
 
120 TRAINING. 
 
 blood works all over the surface because it is mechani- 
 cally compressed. Absolute shrinkage of muscles and 
 veins takes place. Then the heart throbs a trifle more 
 strongly, and the flow of blood surging outwardly re- 
 sumes its force. This is pleasant stimulation. 
 
 There can never be fully described what a marvellous 
 creation is the human cuticle. It is not the thermome- 
 ter alone of our system, but its barometer. It tells at 
 once the least increase or decrease of temperature or 
 pressures. I am quite sure that it is to Maclaren that 
 the credit is due of making the two distinctions between 
 water to be used as a tonic and as an astringent. 
 
 When I am putting a man at his work, I incline at 
 first to the use of the cold sponge-bath, rather than of 
 the douche or plunge. Watching the pupil's condition, 
 if I have commenced with water at a temperature not 
 more than four degrees above normal outside tempera- 
 tures (in summer), I rarely have used it lower than two 
 degrees below. I know of no other rule than that a 
 man should take a sponge bath or a cold bath every 
 day. 
 
 I differ from some who advocate the using of the 
 tepid bath every other day. Once a week is plenty, and 
 then not for more than three minutes. It is on such oc- 
 casions that soap is used. I see no reason why, with the 
 hard rubbing a man gets from a daily cold bath, he 
 should not be clean all the time. For the cold bath, 
 there is, then, no time like that which comes early in 
 the morning just after a man is out of bed. If after 
 
TRAINING. 121 
 
 that he has been at work and he takes a cold bath, I dif- 
 fer from many respected authorities in advising an inter- 
 val of nearly twenty minutes. Unless my man is very 
 much used up, I have him walk about a little before let- 
 ting him take his cold bath. It is not a cooling-down 
 process, for a cooling-down process induces a shock, and 
 is rather dangerous. For the tepid bath just before 
 turning in after the day*s work is over, this is a good 
 time for it. It acts as a soporific. If I find a man is 
 just right I diminish his bathing. 
 
 In all cases, vigorous rubbing should follow the use of 
 water. A bath attendant who knows something about 
 massage is invaluable in a gymnasium, for how to rub a 
 man or a horse down is an art. It is not the cuticle 
 alone that is benefited, for the salutary effects of rubbing 
 down are shared by the whole body. It is exercise given 
 the man at somebody else*s expense. You gain some- 
 thing of the vital force another man is parting with. 
 
 I never would give a tepid bath with a temperature 
 over eighty degrees. I am not certain as to the advan- 
 tage of two cold baths per diem as a constancy. In our 
 hot American weather, I hardly see, however, how any 
 work could be done without two baths in summer. In 
 fall and winter I should rather incline to give the cold 
 sponge but once a day. If my man is over thirty-five, I 
 never permit it, winter or summer, more than once a day. 
 This question of two cold baths per diem is one into 
 which the personal equation enters. Strong men do 
 better with their two cold baths than with one, and yet 
 
122 TRAINING. 
 
 when least expected, I have seen it productive of harm. 
 A bath being in a measure a private performance, I have 
 sometimes thought that, for want of supervision, men in 
 training have been careless as to the temperature of their 
 water, or have indulged in too much of its tonic. An 
 occasional ^' blue look '' on the part of a pupil, I never 
 could account for in any other way than the transgres- 
 sion of some very common-sense rules. 
 
 It need not be insisted upon that the very worst thing 
 that anybody can do in want of training is to bathe after 
 a meal. Before eating is the time, or as late as possible 
 after it. Nature behaves in the same way at all times. 
 While engaged in doing one kind of work, she refuses to 
 be called off suddenly to do another, and that is why we 
 should neither eat, nor drink, nor bathe immediately af- 
 ter exercising. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 AIR— VENTILATION. 
 
 Where man differs from a machine — The want of pure air — Man 
 when he sleeps — Recuperative action — Growth probably 
 takes place during sleep — Automatic forces — Want of care in 
 securing proper ventilation — The man's vitiated breath — 
 Feeding on his own smoke — Keeping what we ought to get 
 rid of — How to kill a man — Experiment with a dog — Action 
 of lung, kidney, and intestines — Human miasma — The sleep- 
 ing-room — Parkes' rule — Windows must be open — Have access 
 to the outside air — Stuffy English rooms. 
 
 There is interdependence in the functions of the 
 human organism. Nature has adaptiveness. She is 
 subtle in her makeshifts. She rigs as it were jury-masts 
 on a man and gets him somehow or other into port. It 
 is obvious, however, that the best man is the one who has 
 provided for him the best selected materials which with- 
 stand all storms. 
 
 I do not think the favorite and somewhat threadbare 
 
 simile of the furnace and the coals, and the brass and 
 
 steel mechanism holds quite good as to air. Air 
 
 rather increases the combustion of my coals, if I put on 
 
 a hot blast, and I may help my heat by the introduction 
 
 and burning of certain gases. When a man is at work he 
 
 wants one thing, pure, unadulterated and in plenty, and 
 
 that is air. If air were consumed by him when he was 
 
 only at work, he might select it. If a gymnasium were 
 
 (123) 
 
124 TRAINING. 
 
 crowded and the air vitiated, he could take to the open. 
 He might then choose his kind of air. But the work of 
 respiration goes on when he is not awake. He uses air 
 when he sleeps. He wants it good then, quite as much 
 as when he is at work. Vital combustion goes on then 
 forever and ever, — never ceases until the spark of life is 
 extinguished. 
 
 When we sleep, recuperative forces are in action, not 
 as violent as when we are at work, but still with exceed- 
 ing power. How much conversion of food into muscle 
 takes place during sleep we do not know. It would 
 seem natural, however, to suppose that many of the 
 most important modifications occur during sleep, and 
 this has been gravely advanced, that growth of the body 
 in length and bulk, is more likely to occur during the 
 sleep of the individual than when he is awake. Anthro- 
 pometry, or the science of accurate human measurements, 
 may present some day this fact more clearly. Sleep 
 then is apparently rest to us, but absolutely as far as our 
 bodies are concerned, this is not the case. The food 
 taken digests in sleep more slowly but more surely. 
 Automatic forces, none the less potent because un- 
 appreciated, are at work. Here then is the body of the 
 man who sleeps. He has exercised freely. His food 
 and drink have been properly selected and in sufficient 
 quantity. So far we have done all we can for him, and 
 we leave him. Ought we to trust to luck for that other 
 most vital element, the quality of the air he is to breathe 
 for the next seven or eight hours ? 
 
TRAINING. 125 
 
 If we are careless about that, we are as it were filling 
 him with vital force through two-thirds of his day, and 
 taking it away from him in the last third of his twenty- 
 four hours, and just when he could least afford to lose 
 it. He may be doing the worst thing at the most inop- 
 portune time. 
 
 Do we not know that the man as he sleeps, is giving 
 off in his breath the internal combustion of himself ? We 
 are as it were accumulating poison, and for lack of 
 thought as to ventilation, making this unfortunate 
 creature breathe over and over the exhalations of his 
 own body. We feed him with his own smoke. Here is 
 your horrible mixture of carbonic gas, of sulphureted 
 hydrogen, some of the decompositions of water in the 
 air of the room. It is the waste products we are trying 
 to treasure up. Nature has been doing her best to get 
 rid of them, and we are bent on keeping them. 
 
 I can kill a man by means of introducing carbonic 
 acid into his room while he sleeps. Men who work at 
 the bottom of wells, perish that way. The breath with 
 its watery vapor carries this gas out of the man, but in 
 addition to this, there is a special nitrogenous substance 
 known as sudoric acid, which is found in perspiration. 
 The constant evaporation known as '* insensible trans- 
 piration '' is taking place. As to the many products of 
 cutaneous excretion the greatest authority of to-day 
 says, their poisonous power is well established. " We 
 have no names for them, but we know they are deadly 
 because they kill when not eliminated.'* 
 
126 TRAINING. 
 
 Whether the story of the poor child, who, coated with 
 gold-leaf, died because his skin could no longer give off 
 its secretions, be true or not I do not know, but this ex- 
 periment was made by a physiologist on a dog. The ani- 
 mal was closely shaved, then varnished with collodion. 
 Within the creature, all the secretions, aqueous or vapor- 
 ous, were sealed up. In eight hours the dog died. 
 
 We have the intestines, the kidneys, the lungs, and 
 the skin all functioning. We cannot overlook one of 
 them. The worst accidents arise by the repressing of 
 any one of these functions. Take the two functions of 
 the lungs and the skin. By exercise we have brought 
 these in the man under training to the highest degree of 
 efficiency. As he sleeps he is working at his best with 
 lungs and skin, and we are poisoning him by the preser- 
 vation of his own exhalations. Brown-S6quard shows 
 that the human breath '' contained a most active poison, 
 an alkaloid capable of killing in two hours an animal in- 
 to which it was injected.*' Human miasma is something 
 then to be dreaded. 
 
 The sleeping-room of the man who is in training must 
 have free access to the open air. I do not care to give 
 too much space to the exact quantity of free air neces- 
 sary for a room. Parkes, who is the soundest of 
 authorities, makes this general statement, that natural 
 ventilation would be such possibilities of air in a room 
 for one person, as would allow all the air to be renewed 
 in it four times during the hour. This change of air 
 would depend, however, on many accidental causes. 
 
TRAINING. 127 
 
 Men who are at work should sleep with windows 
 open. In our summer climate, to sleep with closed win- 
 dows is impossible. But do not close the window in 
 winter. In our badly constructed houses, where the 
 waste products coming from defective drainage permeate 
 them, an open bed-room door does little good. It may- 
 dilute the poison and nothing more. The man in train- 
 ing must learn to sleep in winter with an open window. 
 I do not mean a foot of open window, but certainly a 
 half inch. A healthy man well covered does not feel 
 cold when he sleeps. This question of ventilation has a 
 local treatment in the United States. On the Continent, 
 especially in the cities, death is supposed to follow a 
 sleeper who has a window open. The wretched sewer- 
 age of the past was possibly dangerous in its effects on 
 sleepers. 
 
 In England, an American going among boating men 
 attached to the universities, told me of his amazement 
 at "the stuffiness'' of the chambers in which men under 
 training slept. Expostulating with these young gentle- 
 men as to the miasmatic atmosphere, the reply was: 
 '* Oh see here now, open windows would not do here at 
 all. We would get awful colds and a generally nasty 
 feeling. Ours is a damper climate than yours, and what 
 would not hurt a Yankee would kill a Britisher.'* 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SLEEP. 
 
 Advantages of regular hours— Time of going to bed and getting 
 up — The hours a man may sleep — Eight hours none too 
 many — The dangers of insomnia — Precautions to be taken — 
 Early rising — Sleep during the day — Drowsiness— Shocking 
 a pupil — Over-mental stimulation — Necessity of watchfulness 
 on the part of trainers — Dawdling in sleeping-rooms — The 
 tonic of waking. 
 
 Little need be said in regard to the advantage of 
 sleep for the man under training. There are only two 
 points of advice to be given. One is, that there must 
 be regularity in the hours of going to bed and of getting 
 up. Active training being generally carried on during 
 the more pleasant season of the year, turning out early 
 in the morning brings no physical discomfort. The man 
 at work ought to be in bed at half-past nine and sound 
 asleep in the next five minutes. He should be up and 
 awake at half-past five o'clock. He would then have 
 had about eight hours sleep. 
 
 I have never yet seen any sensible book which insisted 
 on the serious curtailment of eight hours of sleep. 
 Sometimes a sleep of seven hours has been recommended 
 as bringing about a better condition. I doubt very 
 much if any good reasons could be given for exactly 
 seven hours, and representing them as the limit of a 
 
 (128) 
 
TRAINING. 129 
 
 natural rest. I should not be uneasy if a man in train- 
 ing continued over nine hours. If at the very beginning 
 of work, a man under my charge wanted to sleep his nine 
 hours, I have not awakened him for the week or so, but 
 after that I have thought it wiser to bring him down to 
 a sleep not exceeding eight hours. I have supposed, 
 and I believe correctly, that in this case Nature was 
 only asserting her claims on growing men, for men who 
 grow want their full eight hours. 
 
 Giving to physical expenditure its fullest value, I am 
 somewhat of the opinion that for the depletion of the 
 system it is not any more severe than mental work. 
 Men who labor hard with their brains ought never to 
 take less than seven or eight hours of sleep. The surest 
 sign of a mental break-up is when insomnia comes. The 
 duration of sleep alters with the age of the individual, 
 with his idiosyncrasies, and even with his surroundings. 
 A man sleeps badly because he may be too warm or too 
 cold, or his digestion is imperfect, or he has been men- 
 tally disturbed. Precautions should then be taken, that, 
 as far as bed-clothes are concerned, these coverings are 
 increased or lessened according to temperatures. 
 
 Generally a man, who is rising in the scale of physical 
 conditions, " sleeps like a top,** indifferent to his sur- 
 roundings. A well-tired soldier snores on, and a cannon- 
 shot does not awaken him. Differing in toto then from 
 some excellent authorities, I do not think six hours 
 enough, and I have encouraged a full eight hours* sleep. 
 I have always laid great stress on the time of going to 
 
I30 TRAINING. 
 
 bed, and think that when a man is up beyond lO P.M., 
 every minute after that is the worse for him. 
 
 I want him to be up and out when the air is freshest 
 and purest. We have given up the ozone fads, but 
 there is no question that the early morning air is full 
 of vital force. Between 6 and 7 a.m., that one hour 
 helps the man more than any other sixty minutes in the 
 whole day. The human coil which has been spent the 
 day before, has now recovered its temper. It is, as it 
 were, imbued with subtle power, and more than at any 
 other time it is ready to take its spring. 
 
 Sleeping during the day, the siesta, I have never fa- 
 vored. When I have seen an athletic pupil heavy and 
 drowsy during the hours when the sun shines, I have con- 
 sidered this as indicative not of some physical defect, but 
 that the work has been for a moment beyond his powers. 
 In such cases I have diminished the tasks. I have found 
 it of advantage to lengthen out the night's rest by 
 as much as an hour. I have had men under training 
 who began with the occasional drowsiness, but who got 
 gradually over it under judicious management, and 
 ended by becoming thoroughly proficient. When a 
 man is in his highest physical condition, he never is 
 sleepy save at regular hours. Above all, it is exactness 
 as to time of doing everything — eating, working, bathing, 
 sleeping — that makes the man. 
 
 I should impress this point on men who do the 
 training, and it is, never to shock a pupil. Say a man 
 is dull. To shake him up roughly is a mistake. As 
 
TRAINING. 131 
 
 well send an electric discharge through him. You do 
 him more harm than good. The worst conception of 
 your business is to expect of Nature more than it can 
 perform. 
 
 Sleeplessness may occur during the middle of train- 
 ing. I look at this as the graver of the two condi- 
 tions. Studying it carefully, this phase is evidently due 
 to over-mental excitability. The brain stimulation has 
 been carried on to excess. The head has worked more 
 than it should, and refuses to diminish its activity. 
 When this happens there must be instantaneous stop- 
 page from work ; I do not mean diminishing, but arrest- 
 ing exercise. The man must do nothing for twenty- 
 four hours at least. If work is resumed, it must then 
 be gradual. 
 
 There is no use in trying to do anything with a man 
 who does not sleep his full time. It is even dangerous. 
 The cure may come by dint of time and patience ; but 
 as far as concerns such a man taking a leading place in 
 athletic performances, it is impossible. He might as 
 well not eat. The breakdown is certain. If after a 
 warning of this kind an accident happens, it is not the 
 fault of the man at his work, but his trainer. 
 
 No major or minor incident should escape the train- 
 er's notice. He is bound to ask his pupil many ques- 
 tions, and on his part the pupil should be as open, frank, 
 and responsive as possible. Little things, which the 
 man in training would not think of any importance, 
 may become serious impediments, and prevent him from 
 
1 32 TRAINING. 
 
 occupying the place he might occupy. It is a trainer's 
 business to acquaint himself with all these details. If 
 he understands his business he may arrest the progress 
 of physical faults, and more than that, cure them. 
 
 I despise dawdling in a sleeping-room. When a man 
 after a sound sleep opens his eyes, he should try to get 
 himself at once awake. 
 
 I think the highest proof of a sound mental condition 
 is when a man rises, and in the next five minutes re- 
 members all that he has done the day before, all that 
 he intends to do during the coming hours. I cannot 
 describe the superb feeling of a man who, with his fine 
 muscular development, awakens like a young giant re- 
 freshed from his slumbers. It is the acme of physical 
 enjoyment. Life and strength stimulate every muscle. 
 It is the rapid transition from sleeping to waking, which 
 is the best of tonics. The man has forgotten all about 
 the toil of yesterday, and only thinks of the accomplish- 
 ment of his labors for to-day. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CLOTHING. 
 
 Bed coverings — Dress — Flimsy theories — Clothes never made an 
 athlete — Use of white — The shirt — The drawers — The proper 
 fit— The cut— Worsted hose and socks— Shoes— -When races 
 are to be run with bare feet — Indian races — Soles of shoes- 
 Leather or rubber? — Oil or vaseline for shoes — Overcoats 
 and wraps — In the dressing-room —Belts and buckles. 
 
 If the furnishing of beds is to be included under the 
 head of clothing, no over-quantity of bed clothing is to 
 be recommended. Any Spartan rules in regard to this 
 would be silly. The active season in this country for 
 athletics being spring and summer, a man may do just 
 as he pleases as to bed coverings, suiting his own incli- 
 nations. 
 
 As to dress, there is little to be said about it. There 
 have been theories of astounding flimsiness built up 
 in regard to a man's getting strong by only wearing 
 woolen garments. It would be just as reasonable to say : 
 ** He became an athlete because he sported a certain 
 kind of jumper.'* Any material that will absorb perspi- 
 ration rapidly, and can be easily washed and will not 
 shrink, does well enough, providing the stuff does not 
 chafe. I have no fancy for materials which are colored. 
 White is the best. It does not absorb nor retain the 
 heat. If it gets dirty sooner than colored material, then 
 
 (133) 
 
134 TRAINING. 
 
 it necessitates cleansing more frequently, which puri- 
 fication helps the man who wears the garment. The 
 shirt I like best is sleeveless. Tight-fitting things are 
 good for circuses, and nothing else. Collar-bands should 
 be loose, if collar-bands are used at all ; but a bare neck, 
 with no impediments for the throat-muscles, is the best. 
 I like a fairly loose, baggy cotton shirt, not made of 
 closely-knit fabric. I want ventilation, and plenty of it, 
 while I am at work. Drawers or trousers should have 
 broad bands that hold to the form, rather because their 
 surface covers the waist, and by contact prevents their 
 slipping. I think drawers for sprinters should extend 
 somewhat below the knee. If there happens to be a 
 slip and fall, there is less loss of cuticle. For hurdlers 
 I believe in long drawers, because they leave the knee 
 free, and keep out splinters which may be taken from 
 the wooden bars. 
 
 I am a strong advocate for worsted hose and socks. 
 I think they induce sound feet, and prevent abrasions 
 and bruises ; but I am of the opinion that the best time 
 is made on the cinder track by those who wear no socks 
 at all. The foot must become indurated. A shoe is 
 bad enough as an impediment, and perhaps some day 
 or other the barefooted ones will knock off a second in 
 sprinting. I know that human hands never could play 
 a violin or piano with gloves on as well as without them. 
 This barefoot idea is not original to me. It has been 
 mooted before. I have seen Indians race, and though 
 their moccasins were thin enough, they generally threw 
 
TRAINING. 13s 
 
 them away before running. I have noticed, ho'vi^eyer, 
 that the tracks they ran over were fairly smooth ones. 
 I cannot state that there had been a Shoshone track- 
 layer and supervisor, but it looked as if some prior care 
 had been given to the grounds. 
 
 It might take a very long time for a man to indurate 
 his feet for this kind of work, but I am led to believe 
 that if he did succeed in doing that he would gain some- 
 thing. Those flexor muscles of the toes, and that grand 
 muscle that covers the sole of the foot, might do better 
 work unhampered. I need not expatiate further on 
 this subject, because we run shod, as do our horses. 
 
 I am conservative enough to like a thin-soled leather 
 shoe better than a rubber-soled one. I am told that 
 rubber soles prevent slipping. My reply is, that a man 
 who knows how to run ought not to slip. A man who 
 is perspiring freely, the sweat pouring down his legs, is 
 sometimes hampered by actually running in the water 
 his rubber shoes hold. I want a man who is a runner 
 to have never less than three pairs of shoes, all precisely 
 alike, and of the same weight. While at work, use two 
 pairs pretty regularly, changing these two pairs daily; 
 the third pair put on only semi-occasionally. When 
 this last pair are perfectly conformed to the foot — 
 broken-in — they are to be put aside. Have this reserve 
 pair of shoes given, soles and uppers, a good rubbing with 
 vaseline, which as a preservative of leather, during short 
 intervals, I think better than grease. The soles of this 
 pair of shoes held in reserve must not be worn in any 
 
136 TRAINING. 
 
 one place more than another, but ought to be per- 
 fectly flat. If spiked, the prods must be well looked to. 
 For rapid work, as in sprinting, all precautions should 
 be taken as to rig. For other work this extreme care is 
 hardly so important. I have a great distaste for all 
 kinds of jaunty apparel and fancy costumes. The man 
 at work looks best who has on the plainest and simplest 
 of get-ups. 
 
 If in the open air, a fairly warm garment, an old fall 
 overcoat — something loose to throw over yourself — is a 
 necessity. You ought to be, in a measure, indurated to 
 changes of temperature, but after having become red-hot 
 through heavy work, when you come to a standstill, your 
 task having been accomplished, the wind may have 
 veered from south to north and the temperatures low- 
 ered. As there are chances of catching cold, or your 
 stiffening through sudden or long-continued exposures, 
 an additional wrap is a necessity. 
 
 I may add, when your work is over never dawdle. 
 Move around briskly. You will recover yourself event- 
 ually better that way than by coming to a dead halt. 
 Make haste to the dressing-room. Do not sit down 
 there. To cool down properly, if you are warm, is to 
 take time in the cooling down. If you take your bath 
 and sponging off, do not forget the clothes you were 
 working in. Give them the chance of becoming re- 
 freshed too by airing, and better than that, washing. A 
 man at work, to be comfortable, should have not less 
 than three complete sets of clothes. You will feel bet- 
 
TRAINING. 137 
 
 ter from the change, and the chances of having a clean 
 skin are improved. 
 
 The less I say about a belt the better. They are 
 fashionable and of all colors. Intended to keep up the 
 drawers, if broad and very supple, holding up the nether 
 garment by breadth of surface, they may do no harm, if 
 they do no good. A buckle no one should ever stom- 
 ach even for little spurty work, where no great exertions 
 are required. In lawn-tennis belts and buckles are nice, 
 but for serious labor where the least impediment galls, 
 chafes, and checks muscular work and impairs circula- 
 tion, the true athlete despises them. 
 
 I have known men of late (in the fashion) who work 
 and do good work, too, with broad scarfs around their 
 loins. These sashes, made of silk, the wearers have 
 thought helped them. I believe them to be useless. 
 The set of a man*s hips, if he is well-built, should, with 
 properly cut clothes, keep his trousers or drawers on 
 him without any of these fanciful adjuncts. Head cov- 
 erings are superfluities when exercising, at least when 
 the sun is not shining. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 WORK. 
 
 No royal road to perfection in athletics — " Samsons in five 
 minutes" — Running in a groove — Disadvantages of any sys- 
 tem — Apparatus — The true athlete not subject to either ma- 
 chinist or carpenter — What apparatus has done for us — The 
 sulky and the bicycle — The home gymnasium — Dumb-bells 
 and clubs — Foreign systems — The paver's rammer — Milo — 
 Machines which measure strength — General exercise — The 
 grading of exercise — The three distinctions— Quantity of 
 work — Difficult exercises — The trapeze and the Germans — 
 Gentle, moderate, violent exercises — The gymnasium the 
 place to create and store strength — Parallel bar — The oars- 
 man — Proctor — Where an oarsman is at fault — The runner 
 — How can a man acquire speed— The jumper — Improve- 
 ment of a single muscle impossible — Tendency to work too 
 much in one direction — Discrimination — The stout and the 
 thin lad — " The go-as-you-please " class in a gymnasium 
 comes to nothing — Production of better types through exer- 
 cise — Measurements taken in military gymnasiums — Wom- 
 en who exercise — Dr. Sargent — Gradual introduction of pu- 
 pils to their work — The medicine-bag— Exercises of grip — 
 Springboards — Where the Germans surpass us. 
 
 I NOW approach what is the pith and marrow of the 
 whole subject of physical exercise. As it may be seen, 
 to get into the finest condition and to keep to that con- 
 dition, there are many considerations as. vital as are the 
 exercises of the gymnasium or the track. Hours might 
 
 be spent in the gymnasium by an under-fed man or a 
 
 (138) 
 
TRAINING. 139 
 
 sleepless one, and instead of getting strength, he would 
 but weaken himself. All such helps as nature or art 
 can give being thrown into the balance, the normal man 
 who exercises must rise in the scale of bodily vigor. 
 
 At the very beginning I want to say, that like in any- 
 thing else, there can be no royal road to perfection in 
 athletic performance. You can get strong in a much 
 less time than you can get learned, but time is a neces- 
 sity for both conditions. No man ever mastered a sci- 
 ence by reading a single book, nor can a man be an 
 athlete who works only on the parallel bars. 
 
 I lose patience over such publications, which, though 
 not exactly, entitled '" How to Rival Samson in Five 
 Minutes,'' induce readers to believe, that by following 
 out one single system, the best results can be arrived at 
 in the briefest periods. Some of these works run in a 
 single groove, and vaunt their one method as capable 
 of accomplishing everything. Such books may do no 
 harm, — all they bring about is disappointment. 
 
 One peculiarity of a *' system '* is to expatiate over cer- 
 tain apparatus, as if the improvement of physical condi- 
 tions was a subject entirely under the control of the car- 
 penter and the machinist. No one questions the fact that 
 improved apparatus is of great importance. If in partak- 
 ing of food we consume but a single aliment, the palate 
 tires ; so in exercising, one apparatus induces weariness. 
 If there are better performers to-day with the more rapid 
 maturing of the man, it is not to be questioned that this 
 arises in no small measure from improved apparatus. 
 
140 TRAINING. 
 
 I am somewhat of the opinion that where speed is 
 the object, better time has been obtained from excel- 
 lence of track. The apparatus for work has made toil 
 easier, and when the supreme effort comes, it is accom- 
 plished under the most favorable circumstances. The 
 trotting horse cuts down his record by a second less, 
 not entirely from increase of speed, but because the 
 builder of the sulky knows how to distribute the weight 
 of the driver more evenly, and the axles on which the 
 wheels run have more perfect bearings. Comparing the 
 performances of the bicycle to-day with those of five 
 years ago, the greater speed is due less to the men, 
 and more to the machines and the tracks. It w^ould be 
 a bold man who would prophesy that the limit of excel- 
 lence has been reached, in any of these performances, 
 where there is a mechanical adjunct. A man*s legs do 
 not move as fast as his brain. 
 
 Variety of apparatus is, then, one of the great ad- 
 vances made in gymnastics. The point made here is 
 that they are adapted to varying capacities ; some are 
 for the untrained who begin, others for the trained who 
 wish to perfect themselves. Their variety has, too, this 
 advantage, that they call into play all the muscles of the 
 man who exercises. If that important factor, the brain, 
 which furnishes the stimulant, is not wearied, it has then 
 better opportunities when there are calls of different 
 kinds made upon it. I defy a man working with a sin- 
 gle apparatus to be a good all-around man. The impos- 
 sibility of such a thing is manifest. It is true that an 
 
TRAINING. 141 
 
 arrangement which costs altogether $1.50 to be rigged 
 up between the jambs of a door, will benefit the general 
 health of those who use it. You may, too, if you please, 
 discard all apparatus and move your arms, your legs in 
 certain directions without any clubs, wands, or dumb- 
 bells, and gain vigor. Sometimes this sole idea, how- 
 ever, is pushed to a ridiculous length, and an elaborate 
 argument has been presented to show how, by only ex- 
 panding and contracting the chest in a prescribed way, 
 and putting under control the muscles of the abdomen, 
 the result will be in time the creation of a pocket Her- 
 cules. Occasionally such stuff is carried to absurd lengths. 
 There are "foreign systems,'' which lay down gravely 
 the advantages of scratching your left ear with your 
 right hand, and the right ear with your left, and the 
 benefits are heralded of crooking your first and second 
 finger when your legs are in a pecuHar position. 
 
 You can no more educate yourself with a single book, 
 than you can become athletic with but one or two, or 
 even half a dozen movements. The trouble about the 
 man who works but few tools is that his body assimilates 
 itself in time to the tools. Suppose, for exercise, I were 
 to advise a man to take a course of " paving'' and give 
 him a paver's rammer. That is a fairly trying kind of 
 work. Say I begin by giving him a rammer weighing 
 but a few pounds and then gradually increase its weight. 
 In time my man might improve, but he would become 
 a lumbering creature with abnormal muscles developed 
 in his back, and with round shoulders. Milo is said to 
 
142 TRAINING. 
 
 have carried a calf on his back until it grew to be a 
 four-year-old heifer. But that Greek could never have 
 walked with head erect. 
 
 In going into a gymnasium the greater variety of 
 apparatus to be found there, the better will be the 
 effects of such apparatus on the man who works with 
 them. 
 
 Machines for measuring the increase of the actual 
 force of those who exercise, so that improvements can 
 be strictly determined, are necessities. More than that, 
 they are incentives to work. Anybody can say, ^* You 
 look stronger,'' but here is a machine which is alone un- 
 biased. It has no purposes to serve — does not flatter. 
 It tells the actual truth with its levers and ratchets of 
 steel. Certain mechanical appliances I may be partial 
 to, and I cite some of them later on as being advantage- 
 ous for special work. I am, however, treating of general 
 exercise, and I repeat, that I have in view the produc- 
 tion of the good all-around man, because from that ma- 
 terial the specialist is made. Do what you may, there 
 will always be some one who has in himself certain 
 inclinations for particular kinds of work, which must 
 exert their sway. 
 
 Lagrange makes the proper distinctions when he pre- 
 sents the three classifications of gentle, moderate, and 
 violent exercises. You may begin with the first, reach 
 the second without knowing it, and then arrive at the 
 third stage, and may pass through in all three of these 
 conditions and be barely able from your own conscious- 
 
TRAINING. 143 
 
 ness to discriminate between them. Difficulties are not 
 to be confounded with absolute fatigue. 
 
 Certain simple movements may be made difficult be- 
 cause of their accomplishment with a different class of 
 muscles. The heavy man mounts the steps leading to a 
 room without much trouble. If he were to go up the 
 rungs of a ladder to accomplish the same thing, he 
 would tire himself. He is doing with his arms the work 
 of his legs. Here is the point to be brought out, that 
 "quantity of work'' does not comprehend difficulty of 
 work. There are many things done in a gymnasium 
 which are rather the result of skill alone than due to 
 strength. 
 
 Referring to " the system," the trapeze brings out 
 conspicuously what is referred to when a single appara- 
 tus is vaunted, as the only one which should serve the 
 purpose of the gymnast. The trapeze is the constant 
 exercise of the Germans. It is good in its way when 
 used in conjunction with other apparatus. To acquire 
 proficiency on the trapeze is to bring into play the ut- 
 most nicety of muscular work — in fact, all its elegancies. 
 It needs more science than strength. How to overcome 
 difficulties is a part of the general study of gymnastics, 
 but not its exact end. A man may acquire all the details 
 of execution and not be strong. I may be a graceful 
 dancer and by no means strong. It is general strength 
 we should seek in a gymnasium. 
 
 What are we to do so as to determine what is mild, or 
 moderate, or violent exercise? When treating of the 
 
144 TRAINING. 
 
 respiratory organs the effect of quick or long-continued 
 work on the lungs was cited. We ought to have a ready 
 measure to sum up at once our capabilities. With La- 
 grange, then, I would say, that when a man of average 
 strength feels neither fatigue nor breathlessness, the 
 exercise may be called gentle. When the exercise has 
 caused local fatigue without inducing breathlessness, it 
 will be '^ moderate. '* It should be called " violent '* 
 when it is accompanied and followed by breathlessness. 
 
 When the question of sheer strength is to be sought 
 for, it is in the gymnasium where it can be best de- 
 veloped. Such displays of strength call not a single set 
 of muscles, but for the whole of them. To accomplish 
 an exhibition of strength, an effort is necessary, and in 
 this effort every part and portion of the man is at work. 
 It may sometimes, however, be so exerted as to be 
 barely perceptible to the looker-on, visible rather when 
 the effort is over, for then the breathless period follows. 
 It should be remembered, that any display of strength 
 never can be long sustained. The disturbances following 
 it are not, however, as lasting as those where there is 
 real nervous disturbance, such as is brought about by 
 running. The gymnasium, then, is the place for the 
 creation and storage of strength, not local but general. 
 
 Health is acquired by a gradual physical education. 
 Human drill takes place there, not special but general. 
 The parallel bars may impart their help to the arms and 
 shoulders of the man who is to be the stroke-oar in the 
 boat race to come, but the bars will not give him that 
 
TRAINING. 145 
 
 power alone. The arm is one thing, the attachments 
 another. There is the shoulder, the upper, the fore-arm, 
 the wrist, the hand, each of which want their thorough 
 education. As Mr. Proctor says, "rowing alone is an 
 insufficient exercise for the arms,'' and so the bars alone 
 are an insufficient exercise, if rowing be the objective 
 point. A better arm is acquired by a steady six weeks' 
 work with the clubs alone than a whole season's rowing 
 will give. That this is palpable, even the most enthusi- 
 astic of rowing men admit. Rowing tends to the 
 development of the back, loins, and the legs, but the bi- 
 ceps of the arm increases in no proportion to the heavy 
 work done. From particular anthropometric measures, 
 I question if the man of short stature who rows has the 
 muscles on the top of the shoulder or the deltoids im- 
 proved in the least. 
 
 Let us take the man who wants to run. Any school- 
 boy if asked, " What makes good running ? " would 
 answer, *^ Why, legs." Though the work on the legs is 
 apparently more constant than the arms, it is but rarely 
 that legs are well developed. They may be shapely 
 from inheritance, but they are not often " good working 
 legs." There is this about legs. Being more in use than 
 arms they are readier when provided with selected work 
 to improve than are the arms. Nothing comes up more 
 quickly from stiffness to suppleness than the knee-joint. 
 The leg includes the upper thigh, the knee, the leg from 
 the knee to the toes, but more than these are wanted 
 for speed. 
 
146 TRAINING. 
 
 To speed a man, a very thorough gymnastic exercise is 
 necessary. The gymnasium is the preparatory school. I 
 know of nothing which requires a more thorough de- 
 velopment of the abdominal muscles, with those of the 
 waist, than running. It is the combination of all things 
 from spring-boards to clubs which brings about that 
 proper condition. You never will do jumping unless you 
 are prime from the waist upward. You may not have 
 the great muscles of the hammer thrower, but you have 
 fined them down until they will give you all their spring 
 when you take the upward propulsion. 
 
 In the jump, the crural or leg-muscles play their part, 
 and are necessarily the more important, but ''that 
 cautious crawl '' the champion tells about, means that 
 when he straightens up every muscle of the back the 
 whole spinal system throws in its power to help the 
 spring. The thews, the muscles of the arms, help the 
 lift. The jumper jumps all over. The earth is the ful- 
 crum. The movement propagated at the point of con- 
 tact with the toes, fires the whole train of muscles, and 
 as a champion informs you, this general excellence has 
 come from gymnastic work. It was general at first. It 
 had to be. Afterward came local education. This 
 treatise has been but half understood if the main fact 
 has not been seized before this, that it is only the man 
 generally good all around who can become the pre- 
 eminent performer in a single direction. To repeat this, 
 it is to be trusted, will make its impress all the stronger 
 on the reader*s mind. 
 
TRAINING. 147 
 
 I have studied such works for information as have 
 presented the idea, how one kind of machine does im- 
 prove a certain muscle. They read something like 
 medical advertisements. ^* The diseases being named A, 
 B, and C, these want for their cure the swallowing of the 
 bottles marked X, Y, Z.'* There might have been some 
 reason in these assorted prescriptions. I am sorry to 
 say I never quite understood them. The muscles them- 
 selves were all properly designated. There might have 
 been some ambiguity as to their exact position, which 
 differed as to the position the man took. They might 
 have been not so much out of the way, only I refuse, as 
 ought any sensible man, to put entire credence in in- 
 structions I could not understand. 
 
 There is a tendency in the gymnasium for certain 
 pupils to keep too long at one special kind of exercise. 
 It is not to be supposed that this kind of preference 
 arises because some one kind of exercise is easier than 
 another. On the contrary, I have noticed pupils who 
 have seemingly at the outset set their minds on trying 
 to do what was not only a fairly difficult exercise, but 
 one of the violent order. Such work being unfitted for 
 their abilities, I have checked them. I have not found 
 fault with their ambition, rather praised it, but told them 
 that the accomplishment of the task was in their future. 
 All parallel bars, or all trapeze, or all ladder, or all rings, 
 or too much spring-board or horse vaulting, or jumping, 
 or too much of anything by a pupil is to be decried. A 
 man who is in charge of a gymnasium ought to have the 
 
148 TRAINING. 
 
 watchfulness of a schoolmaster, but at the same time he 
 must use discrimination, particularly with younger 
 pupils. Discrimination comes in right here. A short, 
 chunky build of a boy may never do much on the spring- 
 board, so you might think. He is ambitious and wants 
 to feel the pleasure of launching himself in the air. It 
 is possible that as he grows, he will vary not so much 
 from his younger form. But I am not to be too certain 
 about that. Let him jump and vault. You are helping 
 him on the side in which he is naturally deficient. Stop 
 him when he does too much of it. Incline him, how- 
 ever, to the greater suppling of himself. If his happi- 
 ness is in the spring-board business, let him do his 
 proportion of work with it. The tall, weedy boy may 
 turn out to be the runner and sprinter of the future. 
 What I want is to give him just that particular natural 
 development the chunky lad has in excess. They may 
 take to the same spring-board as ducks to water. They 
 improve in that direction at once. They alter from 
 their hips downward, but remain fixed in their upper 
 measurements. I require those lads then to do less of 
 jumping and vaulting, which are the easier things, and to 
 work on parallel bars, and with all such apparatus which 
 will develop them from the waist up. The natural bent 
 of the chunky lad when he becomes the well-trained 
 adolescent, may be to become a walker or a weight 
 thrower, or one of the crew of a boat. There are many 
 other things he might do and do well. The slimmer lad 
 will make the jumper, hurdler, sprinter, but his success 
 
TRAINING. 149 
 
 in the future will be due — not to his having done this or 
 that particular thing in the gymnasium, but to the fact 
 that he has been under the eye of an intelligent master, 
 who has made him do all things. 
 
 The "go-as-you-please" or " do-as-you-please *' class 
 of a gymnasium, will rarely bring forth any single man 
 of merit, and the general average of physical excellence 
 will be low. If I were asked how long systematic studies 
 should be carried out, I should say with a class for quite 
 eighteen months. In European military schools, where 
 discipline is necessary, the regulation method never 
 ceases. 
 
 To teach systematically is not to be monotonous. I 
 can vary the order of exercise. I can gain my object in 
 more than one way, I have by systematic exercise a 
 better opportunity of judging of the idiosyncrasies or 
 physical peculiarities of my lads. 
 
 In presenting the two types of the short and squat 
 lad, and the thin and spare one, and trying to get them 
 into good shape, I should be rightly held to task if I 
 held to the assertion that the chunky lad never would 
 make a sprinter, or the slim one never become a per- 
 former of heavy work. I have seen, as have all trainers 
 or teachers of physical exercise, many strange changes 
 brought about by work in the gymnasium. Careful ex- 
 ercise has, however, never failed in bringing forth fine 
 results. The lad of heavy physique has been propor- 
 tionately lightened, and the lighter man has been pro- 
 portionately made heavier. 
 
ISO TRAINING. 
 
 The plastic character of the body has sometimes struck 
 me as marvellous. The one thing proven is that, by- 
 good training, a higher type is always produced. Work 
 has not stunted growth or checked it. It has given it a 
 new start. If it were only a physical bettering that had 
 come about, that would be something, but physical and 
 mental improvements were distinctly appreciable. 
 
 What the gymnasium, with outside work, has done 
 for the man is better presented by foreign than by home 
 statistics. Careful studies having been made, it looks 
 as if military training, other than the mere manual of 
 arms, has very much improved physical conditions 
 abroad. Maclaren has presented some interesting sta- 
 tistics of the measurements and weights of a detachment 
 of non-commissioned ofificers sent to him to be qualified 
 as military gymnastic instructors. Being a picked class 
 of men, they show the best examples of a very thorough 
 system. 
 
 The men were all soldiers, from 19 to 28 years ; in 
 height from 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 1 1^ inches, and in 
 weight from 128 pounds to 174 pounds, so that extreme 
 types were represented. These men worked for eight 
 months and were systematically trained. It was found 
 that they had gained on an average of ten pounds, with 
 2| inches in girth of chest, | of an inch in the size of 
 the fore-arm, li of the upper arm, while there was in 
 every case an increase of height. 
 
 A man of 28 had grown from 5 feet f inches to 5 feet 
 8i inches. A man of 24 from 5 feet 8| inches to 5 feet 
 
TRAINING. 151 
 
 9i inches. Expansions of the chest were wonderful. In 
 one case, with a man of 24, the chest had grown from 
 35 to a diameter of 40 inches. This increase in general 
 muscular growth was not visible alone, but became 
 rather amusing, because very soon the men could not 
 get into their clothes. Military discipline had to be 
 relaxed for a while, and so non-commissioned officers 
 had to do duty in shirt-sleeves until the regimental 
 tailor could make the necessary enlargements of their 
 uniforms. 
 
 What I want to show is not so much the increase of 
 arms and legs, or chests, but actual growth due to gym- 
 nastic exercises. It is not the lads who grow naturally 
 with years, but the men, those of twenty-five, who can 
 take on parts of inches. 
 
 We all are hopeful that the time may come when that 
 dread arbiter, the sword, may be forever sheathed. Nev- 
 ertheless, if physical conditions are to be looked at, then 
 a healthy man is a happier one, with better capacities 
 for toil. Sound limbs give a sound brain. Military 
 training then, such as it is to be found in Germany, 
 does bring about great benefits to the Teutonic race. 
 
 Taking not alone men with such advantages as phys- 
 ical training gives them, women must derive benefit 
 from the same sources. English anthropometrists are 
 coming to the conclusion that their own women are in- 
 creasing in height, and rather in the well-to-do classes 
 than in the lower ranks. If there is any argument that 
 can be advanced explanatory of this physical augmen- 
 
152 TRAINING. 
 
 tation, it can only be due to this, that EngHsh women 
 have taken more and more to indoor and outdoor exer- 
 cise. Dr. Sargent's table of the average development of 
 two hundred young men at Bowdoin College, brought 
 about by simple apparatus, — as dumb-bells, Indian-clubs, 
 and pulley-weights, — shows how little complicated mech- 
 anisms have to do with physical increase. 
 
 I have often tried to formulate what should be the 
 precise routine of work to be undertaken in a gymna- 
 sium. I confess my inability to do so. With a pupil 
 before me, though I may be able to appreciate his re- 
 quirements, the task is not so easy. It has been some- 
 what my habit to make the tyro begin with light clubs, 
 rather to induce suppleness at first than strength. Lift- 
 ing of weights, pulley movements have been the last 
 things for him to do. You never read in a book on 
 physical exercise anything about ruptures, and these 
 brought about by want of care on the part of exactly 
 that person who should exercise the greatest care. I 
 know all about the spring, the elasticity of youth, and 
 how it is made to bend and never to break, and that 
 there is " a kind of Providence for children and drunk- 
 ards ''; but I have known, not children, but lads of fifteen 
 or eighteen, badly hurt by attacking too suddenly work 
 iiot apparently beyond their powers, but which by some 
 unknown cause brought about lesion. 
 
 It is the gradual introduction of the pupil to his work 
 in the gymnasium which I would advise. By being 
 cautious you gain your end sooner. Of all modern 
 
TRAINING. 153 
 
 things in the gymnasium, I like the ^'medicine-bag'' the 
 best. Nothing improves the man more than this — that 
 is, after he has done some work. I have sometimes 
 thought that if I ever did prescribe a simple exercise, it 
 would be the medicine-bag. It takes room to work this 
 properly, and two men can get more good out of a 
 medicine-bag than one. It is a ball covered with leather, 
 about twice the size of a Rugby foot-ball, made of hair 
 and twine, and not too tightly stuffed. It should never 
 weigh more than twelve pounds. I think it as good an 
 all-around aid as I can find. The suspended ball, hung 
 about on a line with an extended arm, is also excellent. 
 If hung in a corner, so that it may rebound and be 
 stopped, or driven off, as it flies toward the gymnast, 
 or leaves him, this affords fine exercise. If it weigh 
 eighteen pounds, that is quite heavy enough. When 
 over twenty pounds, to strike it and work at it rap- 
 idly becomes violent exercise. I advise beginners to be 
 cautious, however. This suspended ball or bag, except- 
 ing that it does not strike back, represents very closely 
 the efforts made by the pugilist, and is on that account 
 very much in favor by the professional boxer. Parallel 
 bars are made not alone horizontal and perpendicular, 
 but on a slant from the floor. Perhaps some of these 
 are over-refinements. Still if some few of the fourteen 
 varieties I know of are really superfluous in a physical 
 sense, at least they are mental helps, for novelty stim- 
 ulates. I am very much in favor of the nautical wheel, 
 having noted its good effects. It works the biceps in 
 
154 TRAINING. 
 
 a new direction, and is good for the antagonistic mus- 
 cles. It is not because it has a nautical look that it 
 seems good. It has intrinsic merits. I never have, how- 
 ever, seen much in the various inclined planes for leg 
 developments. Special work for legs I believe in, but 
 benefits are to be had by simpler methods. Somehow, 
 though I have never slighted legs, as I have before 
 stated, legs in a normal man seem to better themselves 
 sooner than any other portion of the human structure. 
 The reason is, that unless we are asleep or seated, our 
 legs are always doing their work. If they were not au- 
 tomatically in business all the time, we would crumble 
 like a ruin, our props giving way. 
 
 Machines for improving the grip include the bettering 
 of the wrist, and consequently the whole arm. Grip 
 comes readily. There is hardly an exercise, the hands 
 being called into play, where the tendons in the fingers 
 have not to do their part. Sometimes I have thought 
 that the wrist exercise called on too much local energy. 
 I mean to say, I have known of pupils with wrist 
 troubles from the use of this machine. The effects were 
 transient, but there was no reason why they should have 
 existed at all. The other form of machines, called ^' fore- 
 arm developers,'' where a small handle is turned, ham- 
 pered by a mechanical device, I have found brought 
 about better results. 
 
 There is a tendency of late to put the spring-board as 
 among the lumber of the past, and I think not wisely. 
 For general leg-work — improving the knee and ankle, 
 
TRAINING. 155 
 
 teaching the toes their proper individual movement, and 
 reaching higher up than the thighs to the abdominal 
 muscles, with those of the waist — I know of nothing 
 better for beginners than the old-fashioned spring-board. 
 I do not like the coiled wire-spring with which modern 
 spring-boards are provided. Such metallic springs do 
 not work evenly. I favor the old-fashioned ash-built 
 spring-board that would send the lad flying into space 
 with but slight effort. As an exercise it certainly 
 brought out confidence and grace. A gymnasium without 
 a horse to vault over is no gymnasium. It is ** Hamlet '' 
 with the Dane left out. The horse is certainly the 
 oldest of all gymnastic paraphernalia, for the advantages 
 of it were at once manifest. It leads directly to the 
 more precise jump over the bars. The Germans beat 
 us all to pieces with their work on the horse. That spe- 
 cial exercise they have made perfect, and can show us 
 many feats of skill with the horse we never dreamed of. 
 The horse, and how to vault, might be almost called a 
 " Turn-Verein '' specialty. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 TRAINING WITH REFERENCE TO SPEED. 
 Sprinting — Running — Hurdling — Walking. 
 
 So far we have been directing our attention to all- 
 around work, such as has its formation in the gymna- 
 sium, and is practiced there without specializing any par- 
 ticular kind of work. Strictly adhering to the idea of 
 preparation as only obtainable in the gymnasium, we 
 now come to one of the most important specialties of 
 training, and that is the attaining of speed by the man. 
 If we consider it scientifically, speed is an exercise that 
 requires the repetition of certain precise muscular move- 
 ments. It is a type of violent muscular exercise. Run 
 hard and long, do over and over the same things with a 
 precise action, and there comes quickly enough the in- 
 dication that it is a violent exercise, for you suffer from 
 want of breath. The greatest amount of work is to be 
 done in the briefest time. You contract and expand, 
 and contract and expand one set of muscles. I do not 
 think a sprinter ever suffers much from any of those 
 physical aches which gymnastic exercises sometimes 
 produce. It is breathlessness that really stops him or 
 slows him. In no exercise a man takes is there such a 
 
 demand made on him for vital energy as in running, 
 
 (156) 
 
TRAINING. 157 
 
 and for that expenditure of energy the repairing pro- 
 cess is longer. 
 
 No work then tells so rapidly on the man as does 
 running at high speed. If the man keeps his weight 
 when in training he is doing well. He is giving more 
 away in the ten seconds, or the ten minutes, or the hour, 
 than he can get back in ten times that period of rest. 
 
 The preparation for the man who is to run must be 
 thorough, and yet over preparation hurts a man. Just 
 the time when a man may be in his prime, may not be 
 his race day. The art of the trainer is not so much to 
 keep his man back, as having in mind when is the exact 
 day of the race, to have his pupil ready for it. An ex- 
 champion said to me, ^^ The 100-yard dash needs the 
 nicest training of all the runs.'* I question whether 
 there is really more nicety required just then than for 
 the longer dashes. Perhaps more skill and practice for 
 this special work is requisite. But there is no question 
 that to get in ahead does require great perfection of 
 training. 
 
 If sprinting is considered as a fine art, it wants the 
 man to carry himself at the top of his speed from the 
 time the pistol is fired to the last inch of the track. He 
 may or may not quicken his time, for a 100-yard dash 
 does not permit of any nice calculations. As has been 
 previously stated, almost any fair-limbed boy can run a 
 good gait for 50 yards, but the ordinary young man who 
 had not been trained cannot cover the 100 yards, say in 
 20 seconds. Now this distance has been run over in 
 
158 
 
 TRAINING. 
 
 THE SET— POSITION FOR STARTING. 
 
 9^ seconds; 125 yards in I2| seconds; 150 yards in 
 
 I4f seconds; 220 yards in 2 if seconds; the quarter 
 
 mile in 47I seconds ; and 600 yards in 7 if seconds. 
 
 To train for speed, 
 a man must bear in 
 mind that it is gradual 
 work that helps him 
 most. Let distances 
 to be covered be at 
 first short. Never try 
 to be lightning. Keep 
 
 that commodity, if you have any of it, until the time 
 
 has come to use it, which will be later on. 
 
 If you are on the rise of your life and improving, you 
 
 can bear then that great exhaustion of trying to do your 
 
 very best once before 
 
 the time the race takes 
 
 place, but I should be 
 
 fearful of repeating it 
 
 too soon before the 
 
 actual contest. Occa- 
 sionally do your best 
 
 and spurt, but not for 
 
 , ITTI RAC:iNG. 
 
 too long. When you 
 
 slow down, try and consider exactly what is your condi- 
 tion. If you feel no worse for the extra exertion as you 
 finish the run, put in the speed again. Long, speedy 
 walks, at not too fast a gait, taken every day, are neces- 
 sities. If weather does not allow of it, find some covered 
 
TRAINING. 159 
 
 Space to walk in. All the time watch out, so as not to 
 over-train. It is so easy to jam your muscles, so as to 
 produce friction. Suddenly you become stale, and then 
 your chances diminish. 
 
 As to diet, it should be the same as for any other 
 kind of training. There is no special food for cham- 
 pions. Sleep the full eight hours, and be careful as to 
 the ventilation of your room. Sprinting, I think, is un- 
 fitted for lads. I never want to see a lad of less than six- 
 teen years old on the track. I know there have been some 
 marvels who were less than sixteen. I am afraid, and have 
 to be afraid of such lads, from a careful consideration of 
 the subject. I am always in dread of organic troubles. 
 When we kill a boy or so, because his heart literally 
 breaks, then the folly of this business will be seen. A 
 two-year-old is more mature as an animal than a boy of 
 sixteen, and a boy is more valuable than the best horse 
 ever foaled. 
 
 I have occasionally seen young human colts rushing 
 gallantly over the track, and I have made no bones of 
 asking trainers, " Why are such things permitted ? '' 
 Some years ago there was a public exhibition of boys 
 in an American city doing this kind of thing, and the 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children ought 
 to have interfered. Fox and hounds I have not the 
 least objection to. There are accidents of ground which 
 necessarily slacken speed. Boys get their breath again, 
 and no harm comes from such running. It is the tre- 
 mendous work imposed on an immature organism which 
 
l6o TRAINING. 
 
 hurts it. The consequences may not be immediate. 
 What I am sure about is, that a break down is certain 
 to come in the future. I have yet to see the fleetness 
 in a lad of tender years with sustaining power. We 
 race young horses, we force them by feeding. It is a 
 money problem. We race horses as soon as we can, in 
 order to get as speedy a return as possible for our out- 
 lay. If the horse breaks down afterward, he has secured 
 his owner's purpose. I am sorry to believe that if it 
 were possible to do the same thing with young boys, 
 there would be men found who would, work on such 
 immature subjects, and find, too, speculators willing to 
 abet such wicked performances. 
 
 For long-distance running nicer calculation may be 
 brought into play. It may be made a hot contest from 
 the beginning to the close. I have had champions tell 
 me that never more than once, during their training for 
 long-distance running, had they covered the whole dis- 
 tance at their best speed. They had done their utmost 
 for three-fourths of the distance, and so made the time 
 calculation of what it would have taken to get over the 
 last fourth. It must be near the close of the training 
 that the effort is to be made, but exactly when depends 
 on conditions. Trainers rightly object to a man giving 
 away his force when not called upon to do it. It is the 
 saving up of the capital until the time comes to spend 
 it, that they look to. 
 
 Men who run are very poor judges of their own time. 
 They never should worry over it. They ought to have 
 
TRAINING. l6l 
 
 their minds free from any anxieties. The longer race, 
 however, does admit of brain work in the observation of 
 one's competitors, and so conditions may be altered. 
 But decisions have to be made with great promptness. 
 When a man hesitates he is lost. A good runner, but a 
 man who schemes too much, often '^ gets left.*' Train- 
 ing for running long distances differs in no respect from 
 that for sprinting. Generally men fail from being too 
 fine. This overworked condition, with the additional 
 strain the man takes, does him the most harm. He 
 may lose his place, not only for the event of to-day, but 
 for a whole season. 
 
 Public taste rather favors sprinting. The reason is 
 that it is a contest which is of the shortest duration. 
 I openly confess a liking rather for the half-mile, the 
 mile, and the three-mile run. 
 
 There is more knack in sprinting, so much being de- 
 termined in the method of getting off. I have known 
 men who were hard to beat for the half mile, who never 
 could catch the knack of ^^ the set,'* and, som.ehow hav- 
 ing the personal equation slow, could not get away as 
 quickly as they might at the pistol shot. 
 
 In the longer running race, if a man knows his gait, it is 
 a good thing not to push himself hard until the finish ; 
 but then everything depends on the speed of those who 
 run against him. The spurt at the close may be too 
 late, and a man who has done his best from the first to 
 the last will win. The professional may not make his 
 run for time, for to be handicapped in the future is 
 
1 62 TRAINING. 
 
 what he is afraid of. The amateur ought to try and do 
 his best all the way through. I like ^* cutting the pace.*' 
 
 A man who can cover his mile in five minutes and ten 
 seconds has possibilities. Four minutes and fifty sec- 
 onds is very good time. Four minutes and forty 
 seconds is remarkable, and it has been done in 4:i8| 
 by the one man in the million. For the half mile the 
 time ought to be comparatively quicker, and it is. The 
 half mile in 2:12 is good, and anybody with that perform- 
 ance may trust some day to be among the illustrious. 
 For a number of years 1:5 5f was the top notch, but 1:5 5i 
 has been accomplished for the half mile. 
 
 A three-mile race calls for prodigious efforts. The 
 man, to make a record, must be in a measure matured. 
 There can be no sprinting in it. I think more than 
 anything else, a three-mile race shows the prowess of 
 the man, plus that improvement judicious training 
 gives. I never want it tried by any one who is not 
 sound from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes. 
 The least wind defects tell. 
 
 Taking 4:40 to be a very good record for one mile, for 
 three miles it ought to be about 14 minutes. But 
 the single mile has been run in 4:i8f. The time made 
 by the greatest runner, shows how distance increases 
 diflficulties. The best time yet recorded for the three- 
 mile race in the United States, is 14 minutes and 39 
 seconds. In England 14 minutes and 29^ seconds is 
 the astounding record. Anybody who ever can run 
 three miles in 17 minutes, may hope to do better things. 
 
TRAINING. 
 
 163 
 
 Men who run well, naturally take to hurdling. The 
 obstacles to be cleared give diversity to the race. 
 Though it looks easy, it is not every sprinter who can 
 become a good hurdler. You must not only be able to 
 run fast, but get the knack of managing your legs, so 
 that in the jurnps you do not impede motion. When 
 the hurdle is cleared, how to have the leg you light on 
 ready to take the im- 
 pact and yet retain 
 its force, so as to give 
 the impetus to a for- 
 ward move; requires 
 great practice. If 120 
 yards on the level 
 can be run in, say 13 
 seconds, or less, it is 
 a very able hurdler 
 who can clear hurdles 
 by the addition of 3 
 or 4 seconds to that 
 
 time over the same ground. With 30-inch hurdles the 
 jump is inconsiderable, and the effort of the hurdler seems 
 slight, but when 12 inches are added to the height of 
 the hurdles there is no skimming. Over a 42-inch bar- 
 rier it hampers the even stride, and yet to make speed 
 it must not do so. " Handiness '' with your feet is a 
 necessity. There is a great demand for skill in hur- 
 dling, much more than is usually accorded to it by the 
 public. 
 
 READY FOR THE HURDLES. 
 
164 TRAINING. 
 
 Hurdles are put 10 yards apart. There are 10 of 
 them. The run to them is of 10 yards, and the finish of 
 20 yards. The 120 yards and the 220 are the standards. 
 Generally the two sizes of 30 and 4oinch hurdles are 
 used, occasionally 36-inch ones. I have thought that 
 the expenditure of vital energy in hurdling, though very 
 great, was not, however, quite as severe as in straight 
 spurting. If measured by the lifting power it would 
 apparently be more, for the 10 additional rises of the 
 man would have to be considered ; but, nevertheless, at 
 that rise there is some slight change in the muscular 
 movement, which is of advantage to the hurdler, for 
 physiologically the thing that tires most is the working 
 over and over again of precisely the same muscles. 
 
 The ten 42-inch hurdles and 220 yards, have been 
 covered in 26f seconds, and twice this distance with 
 the same obstacle in 6i|. This last feat is a marvellous 
 performance, approaching the speed of the best man on 
 the flat. Not to lose sight of the physiological consid- 
 erations developed in exercises of speed, I want to call 
 attention once more to the enormous" power of the legs 
 and their endurance, and I refer back to the gymnasium 
 where the education of the leg is to be recommenced. 
 
 Legs and thorax may seem to have no immediate 
 connection, but they have. Try and run, or jump and 
 leap with your ribs rigid or hampered, and it is an im- 
 possibility. No motion can be given to the leg that 
 there is not development brought about higher up. We 
 breathe better because we can run well, and inversely 
 
TRAINING. 165 
 
 we run better because we breathe better. No man runs 
 
 well who has not commenced his apprenticeship in the 
 
 gymnasium. 
 
 WALKING. 
 
 How may I write about walking? I have already 
 acknowledged a certain amount of prejudice against it, 
 but only in the respect that I think it occupies too much 
 public attention, and men waste their time at it. No 
 human being is there, knowing anything about walking, 
 who does not openly declare that this performance on 
 the track calls for an artificial gait. Now, whatever is 
 " artificial '' never can have any positive or fixed rules to 
 govern it, so whenever there are walkers and walking- 
 matches, there are constant disputes over the performers 
 and their performances. 
 
 ^* What is that man doing ? Why does he go along 
 that way for, father ? ** I heard a lad of ten ask his father. 
 
 " I am sure I don't know. But really for a cripple, 
 my boy, he seems to be going really fast,** was the reply 
 of the father to his boy. 
 
 One advocate of *^ walking '* says something to this 
 effect : " Oh, it's grand, and for this reason : After you 
 know how to walk in what we might call an unnatural 
 way, it is just splendid to walk in a natural way ! '' 
 
 For my own instruction, I have had professional walk- 
 ers tell me what they considered to be the exact gait, 
 what was the irreproachable style, and I never could get 
 two of them to agree. I am led to believe that in one 
 or two respects only, are men of one mind in regard to 
 
1 66 TRAINING. 
 
 what is fair walking. One is, that " only one foot must be 
 on the ground at a time.*' Another is, that *^ the knees must 
 not be bent when the feet strike the ground, but remain 
 rigid until after they leave it.'* Now comes in a third rule, 
 which is the source of many disputes, and it is the enforced 
 one, that " the heel of the forward foot must strike the 
 ground simultaneously, as the toe of the rear foot leaves 
 it.'* I have sometimes thought that I never saw in my 
 life but three pedestrians who honestly kept to these rules, 
 and they were not professionals. I do not tax those 
 who have made records with unfairness, but unwittingly 
 they do get every now and then outside of the rules. 
 
 I have seen many amateurs who thought they were 
 walking, and were walking naturally it is true, but un- 
 naturally as far as athletic ordinances went. To patent 
 walking would be like the invention of that ingenious 
 man Dean Swift describes, who made a knife to cut cab- 
 bage with, which would cut it better than anything else, 
 save a common table-knife. 
 
 " Heel-and-toe '* walking is the common name for 
 such performance and is used for want of a better one. 
 To walk with a hip juggle is the common designation. 
 I do not hesitate in calling it an astonishing perform- 
 ance. There being 1,760 yards to the mile, a man to 
 go his mile within the 8 minutes, must cover 11 feet 
 each second, or about 220 yards the minute. That is 
 just a step of 1 1 feet a second. I give this, as does the 
 general public, the highest applause, but I think, as do 
 many who have a knowledge of this business, that it is only 
 
TRAINING. 167 
 
 those who have studied this artificial gait who know the 
 difficulties of it. It is '^ a technical pleasure/' which only 
 the Anglo-Saxon race has been educated to appreciate. 
 As to grace, it is the very opposite to it. The walker 
 must take poses which imitate those of a machine. If he 
 does overcome, in a measure, the right and left graceful 
 sway of the runner, his compensation is to bob up and 
 down, diminishing with an effort this horizontal movement 
 by means of his hips. He runs off his level at the waist. 
 
 I do not decry walking. I cannot see anything hurt- 
 ful in this exercise, only I am positive that walking has 
 been carried to too great an extreme. The public is 
 appreciating the walk less than it did. As a recent 
 writer expresses it, '^ the high-bred sprinter '' excites 
 the spectators ; the " common horse-gait *' does not. 
 Some of these walking performances are wonderful ; a 
 mile with all this hampering has been made in 6 minutes 
 29^ seconds; two miles in 13 minutes 48I seconds; 
 three miles in 21 minutes g\ seconds; five miles in 
 38 minutes ^ second ; seven miles in 54 minutes 7 sec- 
 onds, and ten miles in yy minutes 40^ seconds. 
 
 The fatigue of such performances is very great, and 
 the best training is a necessity. The endurance of the 
 man must be brought to its highest pitch. The use-up 
 after the performance I have thought was excessive. I 
 shall lay myself open to be called a man with a prej- 
 udice, but I cannot help thinking that a pedestrian is 
 a man wasted, and I repeat the maxim, that ^' the play 
 is not worth the candle.'' 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 TRAINING FOR THE RUNNING HIGH JUMP. 
 
 The jump is the most specialized of all athletic per- 
 formances. I can imagine of nothing in a physiological 
 sense, which required exactly the same concentration 
 of movements. With the jump, if it be the record- 
 breaking one, comes that electric discharge of acquired, 
 accumulated, or stored force, the effects of which Pfliiger 
 calls ** the nervous avalanche.'' In a previous chapter I 
 have presented at length the advantages derivable from 
 the gymnasium ; the champion jumper gives it the 
 weight of his experience. Mr. Page writes : 
 
 *' The first thing is to get strong, and a boy must at- 
 tend a good gymnasium, placing himself under the care 
 of the superintendent, who will direct what exercises he 
 requires, and how long he shall work at each kind. 
 Boys are apt to overdo exercise when left alone, and 
 nothing is so detrimental to athletic success as this, for 
 it transforms tissue that should be healthful and some- 
 what fatty into hard muscle, an unnatural development 
 for young boys. A competent director will decide when 
 his charge has had enough, and a year's work in a well- 
 conducted gymnasium will make out of a sickly boy 
 * a sound, sane youth.' 
 
 " The high jump being special work, particular atten- 
 
 (168) 
 
TRAINING. 
 
 169 
 
 tion is to be paid to vaulting over the bars. All tenden- 
 cies to become jammed about the ankles, the knees, 
 
 and the hip-joints should be 
 evaded. You do not always 
 work in a gymnasium to 
 strengthen certain muscles, as 
 much as to stretch and limber 
 others. It is not rapid but 
 gradual training which brings 
 about the high jump. 
 
 ** The training, as far as food 
 and rest go, is the same as 
 A FAIRLY STRAIGHT JUMP. for any othcr cxercisc. When 
 
 working in the open air, no over-exhausting trials of 
 strength are permissible.*' 
 
 Mr. Page thus describes 
 his method on the day of the 
 contest : 
 
 " I rise late and breakfast 
 at ten o'clock. The meal 
 consists of a good portion 
 of porridge, followed by as 
 many chops or as much beef- 
 steak as may be needed, but 
 no fluid except the milk on 
 the porridge. During the remainder of the morning I 
 take another meal, consisting of a slice of beef and a bit 
 of toast without fluid."* 
 
 A SIDE JUMP. 
 
 * Harper* s Young People, 
 
I/O 
 
 TRAINING. 
 
 Before the work the man is rubbed down and pre- 
 pared for the contest. To fuss about anything which 
 could have been attended to before is to waste energy. 
 What is to be done is to save yourself for the supreme 
 moment. There is a knack in the high jump, and this 
 
 
 f^'lllWIWlM ' 
 
 skill never comes but with long work. It all lies in per- 
 fect muscular adjustment. Style and elegance alone 
 
 From Harper's Young People —Copyright, 1888, by Harper & Brother*. 
 EASY STYLE IN A LOW JUMP. 
 
 exist when everything acts in unison. Mr. Page's final 
 expression is one worthy of remembering, and it is, " that 
 
TRAINING. 
 
 171 
 
 a man should do his best/' for it is far more honorable 
 for an amateur athlete to show a fine performance, than 
 to win all the prizes in creation by means of doubtful 
 handicapping. 
 
 I favor slight sprinting for jumpers in order to bring 
 about limberness and spring, but distances must be 
 
 ^ 
 
 From Harper's "Young People.— Copyright, 1888, by Harper & Brothers, 
 HORIZONTAL POSITION WHILE '* SHOOTING" ACROSS THE BAR, 
 
 short, and the runs at long intervals, — not more than 
 three times a week, and only one in the week when the 
 event is to be attempted. Never try the high jump 
 without spikes. 
 
 The fling of the body, the twist, when the man is 
 higher than the bars, takes a great deal of practice. A 
 man does it without trouble when vaulting by using his 
 
172 
 
 TRAINING. 
 
 hands. The thing is to try and do without any manual 
 help. Working this with a low jump is not so easy as 
 it seems, because the time of the rise is too short for 
 
 From Harper's Young People.— Copyrifrht, 1888, by Harper A Brothen. 
 LANDING IN GOOD STYLE. 
 
 the fling of the body. Begin with a fair high jump, 
 high enough for the parallel motion of the body with 
 the bar, to be carried on at the same time. It is an art 
 
 to do it neatly without 
 scraping the bar. To 
 turn facing the bar is not 
 so hard. Try so as not 
 to fall on your feet too 
 squarely. You can al- 
 ways recover and face 
 your jump in good time. 
 In an instant the good 
 jumper has resumed his upright position. 
 
 •In looking at the high jumps, what I have tried to 
 understand most was the preparation, — the take-off. If 
 
 READY FOR THE TURN. 
 
TRAINING. 173 
 
 the run is too long, the jump is lowered. The effort is 
 upward, horizontal, not so much forward. The foot — 
 the left one — gives not alone the impulse, but the spin 
 which is requisite, and the more amazing does it seem 
 when we consider that it is in no small measure the 
 foot and the one leg which fire off the human rocket. 
 There is some question as to how many different move- 
 ments there are in a high jump, — certainly twelve of them, 
 if not more. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 TRAINING FOR POLE VAULTING. 
 
 To use the pole in vaulting requires not alone the 
 utmost elasticity of the legs, but at the same time great 
 arm power. The movement is complicated. First, there 
 
 is the natural spring of 
 the man, plus that of the 
 pole, and at a certain 
 moment arm power is 
 required, which permits, 
 as in the English style, 
 of the man's climbing up 
 the pole. Pole climb- 
 ing is rather the Eng- 
 lish than the American 
 method of surmounting 
 the difficulty, 
 t The best American 
 pole vaulter never 
 changes the position of 
 his hands after he has his hold on the pole, but he does 
 lift himself over by its means when he is in the proper 
 position. When the hands of the champion Englishman 
 
 leave the pole, they are from three and a half to four 
 (174) 
 
 OVER THE BAR. 
 
TRAINING. 
 
 175 
 
 feet higher than when the first hold was taken. The 
 English record is two inches higher than ours, and their 
 method, though not so pretty, is perfectly legitimate. 
 
 Eleven feet and seven inches is a prodigious jump. 
 With certain improvements of the pole, such as giving 
 the points where it 
 takes the ground a 
 tripod form, great- 
 er heights may be 
 scaled. This work 
 requires the utmost 
 nicety of execution, 
 for with the least 
 hitch or want of co- 
 ordination a fall, and 
 a heavy one, is com- 
 mon. 
 
 The training is not special, only greater attention 
 must be paid to the muscular development of the arms 
 and chest. Together with sprinting, there should be a 
 good deal of work given to the arms and muscles of the 
 back. As in all these special performances, to over- 
 train is to spoil a man, yet constant practice is a neces- 
 sity, and just here lies the dilemma. Save yourself, and 
 the sleight-of-hand of the thing escapes you. The only 
 way is to keep working at such lower heights, which do 
 not call for the whole of a man's powers. He must 
 keep his supreme effort for the time when he is to do 
 his best. 
 
 LETTING GO OF THE POLE. 
 
176 TRAINING. 
 
 It is worth mentioning that in some of the older 
 countries, as in France and Holland, the long jump 
 with the pole (not the up jump) is of very ancient date. 
 Where small brooks and rivulets abound, or even canals 
 or ditches, poles have been used from time immemorial 
 by shepherds and hunters. A new sport, and not an 
 uninteresting one, might be presented in this direction. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 TRAINING FOR CYCLING. 
 
 I BEGIN at once by the statement, that more young 
 men are damaged in a physical way in cycling than by 
 any other athletic performance, for want of training. 
 That speed which is kept up without consideration as 
 to stamina, too often ends in a break 
 down. It is not so much the green- 
 horns who go to pieces, as men 
 who having trained, stop work, and 
 then without any precautions go in 
 again. I have tried to study partic- 
 ularly the causes for this use-up and 
 failure, and I am of the opinion that 
 rigidity of the arms, the somewhat 
 over-strained position of the abdo- 
 men, with great expenditure of 
 force from the waist downward, 
 bring about the trouble. 
 
 The perfectly trained man feels no more inconven- 
 ience from sharp or protracted work on the wheel than 
 from any other athletic performance ; but the half-trained 
 man is sure to suffer. The bicycle, as I have heard a 
 well-versed athlete describe it, " is Circe.'' By that he 
 
 (177) 
 
178 TRAINING. 
 
 meant that the exercise is so delightful, that it leads 
 you on and on, and then you suffer, before you know 
 how it happens, from its blandishments. 
 
 These remarks are intended, of course, for those who 
 put themselves in training for a race, and not for those 
 who jog along country roads. Even to these latter Dr. 
 B. W. Richardson gives a word of advice. He says that 
 all riding which tends to bend the body forward must, 
 if continued, ''produce stooping." This excellent au- 
 thority insists that when amateurs ride, one mile in 
 every eight ought to be made on foot ; or that in a 
 fifty- mile excursion with a bicycle, a man should walk at 
 least six miles. 
 
 In training for cycling, I particularly advise a great 
 deal of work, without any machine at all, especially at 
 the beginning. The right method of how to ride must 
 have been acquired long before. A man should take a 
 sharp forty minutes* walk every morning and sprint oc- 
 casionally. If he is on the track with the machine later 
 on, say at midday, he may take not more than an hour's 
 work, and though he may run at a good speed he should 
 refrain from doing his best. When he has been rubbed 
 off, bathed, and dried, I advise his doing nothing at all 
 until the afternoon. Then he ought to be in his primest 
 condition and able to face big work. He may then try 
 for speed, still not giving himself entirely away. The 
 instant he feels breathlessness, that moment he must 
 put on the brakes. Slowing up he recovers. He can 
 then try a fast spurt again, arresting motion the instant 
 
TRAINING. 179 
 
 distress is apparent. He should make these tentative 
 efforts in order to see for himself what is his condition. 
 In a few days he ought to experience little trouble with 
 more speedy recoveries. 
 
 I have said that the position of the man on the bicy- 
 cle was one of constraint. " Always sit straight '' is a 
 rule found in every book, but this position is rarely fol- 
 lowed. " Hold the body still and sit down/' is another 
 canon of cycling which is not often observed. See 
 any print of a cyclist on the full go, and the artist sits 
 him like a jockey. Look at the next bicycle race for 
 yourself. The man cannot go fast in any other way. 
 The abdomen is compressed and folded in, and if that 
 position is to be retained to accomplish the work, it re- 
 quires special education. Plying the pedals so as to be 
 master of the machine and to get every second of speed 
 out of the wheel, is given only to the few. 
 
 In my own experience, I am certain that I have had 
 more complaints made of pupils " feeling badly after 
 hard cycling work,*' than from any other exercise. I 
 have seen good results from having cyclists take an inter- 
 mediate course of such exercises as would develop the 
 muscles of the back and chest. I have tried to straighten 
 out the curved upper portion of the body and to flatten 
 the stoop. I do not mean to say that I am infallible, 
 but just as I can almost always spot a fencer by the un- 
 usual development of his right shoulder, and strangely 
 enough a depression of that side, so can I indicate the 
 cyclist. He is good from the waist downward, and 
 
l80 TRAINING. 
 
 nothing like as good from the waist upward. He has a 
 little crook forward. This only tends to show that the 
 man is plastic and moulds himself to his apparatus. His 
 form fits itself to its requirements. A great cyclist 
 would not be great if this was not the case. It is the 
 selection of the fittest. 
 
 I should fail in my duty did I not give my opinion as 
 to the effects of cycling on those who, having made rec- 
 ords, are inclined to indulge in too many performances. 
 I think they use themselves up more rapidly than any 
 other class of athletes. Dr. Richardson may not be an 
 expert in training, nor as well acquainted with the 
 events of the track, as the reader, but he certainly is a 
 physiologist of great distinction. He writes in regard 
 to cycling, not in a general, but in a special way, directed 
 toward those who make or break records : ** They are 
 exhausting their capital stock of vitality, and that there 
 is no going back for more capital, no making up by rest 
 prime loss from the original capacity." 
 
 I may be brought to task for giving my opinion about 
 cycling, but what I mean is this : That there must be 
 moderation in cycling. I believe with the best of Eng- 
 lish authorities, that the intervals between events are 
 too short in the United States, and that in their con- 
 tests, often repeated, men are spoiled. I have endeav- 
 ored in a measure to account for the peculiarities of the 
 bicycle. I am right in a physiological sense. The same 
 movement is repeated over and over again with the 
 utmost celerity, which is just the thing to call on local- 
 
TRAINING. l8l 
 
 ized muscle for all it can do. That condition, it may be 
 said, follows many other performances. To this I give 
 my assent, but I add that neither in running nor sprinting 
 is the position of the body constrained. You always 
 want as much wind as you can get with open draught 
 and furnace capacity, and when you have to stoop double 
 and choke the flues, as when cycling, it is that which 
 brings on the troubles. 
 
 There ought to be a rule of age adopted by athletic 
 clubs, which would prevent any one competing in a race 
 for even a single mile, who was not of age. I sum up 
 what are the advantages of the bicycle. Under the 
 supervision of a doctor, I have used it with marked 
 advantage to develop the leg of a child, where there 
 was one limb showing a decided tendency to shrinkage. 
 
 In moderation for the business man, I know of no ex- 
 ercise tending more to dissipate the trouble of sedentary 
 life than the bicycle. Excess of anything is to be depre- 
 cated, and because cycling is the most alluring of all 
 outdoor exercises, I have wanted to show the harm 
 which follows the abuse of the wheel. 
 
 TRAINING FOR BASE-BALL. 
 
 Good all-around qualities are necessities for the base- 
 ball player. He must not only be strong but swift. 
 Distances between bases are short, but considerable 
 speed must be shown in covering these. General run- 
 ning, with sprinting, brings of course fleetness. The 
 apparatus to induce strength of arm, and the increase of 
 
1 82 TRAINING. 
 
 particular muscle for throwing, are well brought out by 
 the use of the rings, and particularly by the " spool/' 
 This is a piece of hollow wood, strung on a rope, which 
 rope is stretched from about the man's shoulder to the 
 wall, the incline being fairly rapid. By repeated use of 
 the spool, the art of throwing a ball is acquired. Dumb- 
 bells, clubs, boxing, running, — all help the base-ball as- 
 pirant. Practice in wire cages so as to pitch, is only 
 good up to a certain point. Winter training as special 
 for base-ball amounts to a great deal. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 « 
 
 TRAINING FOR OARSMEN AND SCULLERS. 
 
 To give the uninitiated ones any of the instructions 
 common to Yale, Harvard, Cambridge, or Oxford, as to 
 the art of rowing, would be to make them demented. Take 
 the first direction, ^^ to keep a stiff back and row ''; that 
 alone would seem impossible. 
 
 The scope of this work is not such as to lay down the 
 methods of rowing, but it ought to show what are the 
 muscles called on in pulling an oar. Mr. William Blaikie 
 brings out in a striking manner the fact that rowing 
 does not develop the man, in that all-around, general 
 way the public supposes. The position is one which 
 tends to cramp the body. It does call on certain mus- 
 cles for all they can perform, and has no use for others. 
 Remembering the law that development follows stimu- 
 lation, as effect does cause, we have then the construc- 
 tion of certain muscles, and the destruction, or rather 
 the lessening, of the growth of others. A rower's arms 
 and back are not always good, especially the upper 
 arm, while legs and thighs have increased strength and 
 bulk. The English rule of the scientific school of the 
 oarsman, is that the biceps must not do the entire work, 
 but that the shoulder muscles should give their power 
 
 (183) 
 
1 84 TRAINING. 
 
 too. In the best school of oarsmen there are twenty- 
 seven distinct movements. 
 
 I have never known anything akin to deformity arise 
 from over-rowing. Cases of vital exhaustion may hap- 
 pen, but such would occur with any exercise. I do not 
 look then for any great power in an oarsman's arms. 
 The biceps are certainly not prominent, but where the in- 
 crease comes is to the extenders of the vertebral column. 
 If there was a mechanism which would distinguish be- 
 tween arm and leg power, in scientific rowing (all the 
 apparatus of stretchers and sliding seats being in use), 
 such mechanism would inevitably show that most of 
 the power came from the loins. Lagrange intimates, 
 that if after a long rest, an oarsman takes to his work 
 again his arms may tire, but it is his legs that hurt him. 
 I think this shows which portion of the system has been 
 most taxed. I am certain that the astounding power of 
 a great oarsman who pulls alone (not making one of a 
 crew), and above all his endurance, arises from the fact 
 that, though he moves like a machine, it is the necessity 
 for constant change of position which keeps him up. 
 Examining the action, the vertebrae never are jammed. 
 The chest may be at one moment of the pull some little 
 compressed when a man rows alone, but that only hap- 
 pens for the briefest interval of time. 
 
 In the study or analysis of the principal movements, 
 not for rowing alone, but for all other exercises, I have 
 wanted that the physiological or body conditions should 
 never escape me. If we can understand them, we can 
 
TRAINING. 185 
 
 make up the defects arising from either the want of 
 strength in particular muscles, or if they be over-devel- 
 oped by particular work, how best to modify them. 
 
 TRAINING FOR BOATING. 
 
 Taking the collegiate as the type of material, it is ex- 
 cellent. It is supposable that the man who aspires to 
 row in the College boat is neither indolent nor has 
 acquired bad habits. Necessarily, he cannot have the 
 hardihood to assume such a responsibility as being one 
 of the crew without having been through the gymna- 
 sium. Generally the young man has been rated by his 
 mates, and his all-around proficiency has been gauged. 
 It is raw material capable of improvement. 
 
 The coarser methods of training employed many years 
 ago were driven out of the field when this better ele- 
 ment was presented. Personal differences in the indi- 
 vidual will, however, always remain. 
 
 The men of the crew ought to b,e out of their beds by 
 5.30, if in June. If it be in May, by 6 o*clock. They 
 ought to have had their full eight hours' sleep. If 
 some want a half or even a full hour's sleep more, let 
 them go to bed earlier, for there is to be no sleeping in 
 the day. As soon as men are mustered, they should 
 have a piece of stale bread and a half tumbler of milk. 
 The men should take a brisk walk of a mile, or a mile 
 and a half, before breakfast. Any running should be 
 then strictly prohibited. On returning to quarters they 
 should have a good sponging off with cold water, fol- 
 
1 86 TRAINING. 
 
 lowed by a sound rubbing. It ought to be now eight 
 o'clock, and the nearer to eight the better, and break- 
 fast should be ready. This is a serious meal. The 
 men may eat beefsteak or mutton chops, not rare or 
 over-done, but just about middling cooked. Bread 
 ought to be stale, and that stale bread toasted and 
 eaten cold. I do not limit butter, and never exclude 
 it. I do not want to stint food in any way. I have not 
 the least objection to berries. I limit the fluid and its 
 kind, and it should be tea, and that not too strong, with or 
 without milk, and never more than two moderately-sized 
 cupfuls, to be taken at one time. I think sugar makes no 
 difference. I do not give eggs for breakfast, boiled or 
 fried, nor in an omelet. I would very much rather see a 
 man eat heartily than the contrary. I do not believe that 
 after Milo had carried his four-year-old heifer, he ate it 
 all up ; but certainly he ought to have had appetite 
 enough to polish off a good deal of beef. 
 
 The midday meal, because the most serious work of 
 the day comes after it, must be light. I am afraid of 
 over-taxing the digestive powers of the men. The mid- 
 day meal may be a mutton chop, a beefsteak — not as 
 much in quantity as at breakfast — with a salad. Bread 
 always must be stale. Beverage should be water. I 
 make it a point to have meat at the midday meal. 
 When the work is over for the day, then comes the 
 sponging and rubbing off, and the crew is ready for din- 
 ner. Excepting that all greasy or high-spiced sauces 
 are absent, and that the bread is stale and there is rarely 
 
TRAINING. 187 
 
 any wine, the dinner may be pretty much like anybody 
 else's dinner. I think roast meat as good as broiled. I 
 see nothing objectionable in having fresh fish or chicken. 
 Vegetables may be of all sorts. Men are not inclined 
 to make their dinner on potatoes, as a general rule, but 
 green vegetables are what are wanted. At dessert there 
 are to be no puddings nor pies, but fresh fruit if it is 
 procurable; or if not in season, stewed canned fruit. 
 Some of the English crews have calves*-foot jelly at 
 dessert. If this is made from the feet, there is nutri- 
 ment in it. If manufactured from gelatine, it is per- 
 fectly useless as food. 
 
 I like to have my men accustom themselves to tea at 
 dinner, and think I have noticed general benefits arising 
 from its use. Not more than two cups of tea should be 
 taken at any meal, or two tumblers of water, and never 
 ice water. At the beginning of work I have seen real 
 distress arising from thirst. If this is evident, I have 
 increased the quantity of fluid to as much as twice the 
 above-mentioned amount, then gradually diminished it 
 to the prescribed quantity. I have never given ale or 
 lager-beer, because I have a wholesome dread of boils. 
 
 Now, as to the exceptions to this regimen. Two 
 years ago I commenced giving a man, who wanted tone, 
 a little sound French wine, mixing it with water. It 
 did him an immense amount of good. I can almost say 
 I noticed improvement within twenty-four hours in this 
 particular case. Then, of course, the rest of the crew 
 wanted red wine. The stock of Burgundy gave out and 
 
1 88 TRAINING. 
 
 a sound California wine was substituted for it. This was 
 certainly a heavier wine, with more alcohol in it than 
 the French wine. I could see no bad effects from 
 it. I am not so tied to an opinion as to insist that it 
 did not do the men good. If visible conditions were 
 not improved, at least I thought I noticed at once 
 greater alacrity for work. 
 
 In recent works on English training, not for rowing 
 exclusively, but for all kinds of work, I think the use of 
 light wine in moderation is becoming more general. I 
 see no reason why it may not be given occasionally. 
 Sherry and Port I never would give countenance to. As 
 to whiskey and brandy, it is simply impossible for a 
 man to train who uses them. A work on training is 
 not a temperance book, but nothing inculcates moder- 
 ation more positively than those processes necessary in 
 order to bring men into the best condition. 
 
 I do not see this recorded in books on the subject, 
 but for exhaustion, minor cases of collapse, especially 
 after the race, the very best thing I know of is cham- 
 pagne. I notice in recent volumes of African travel 
 that when the explorers have been brought to a stand- 
 still, they all vaunt the magical effect of champagne. 
 After the event, then, some little champagne can be 
 taken ; in fact, I endorse its use as a restorative. 
 
 Occasionally, but not always, just before going to bed 
 men may be hungry. It is perfectly well known that 
 hungry men never sleep well. If there is anything I do 
 want, it is that men going to bed shall sleep like logs. 
 
TRAINING. 189 
 
 A crust of stale bread and a tumbler of milk will often 
 then be found of great advantage. I may say there is a 
 stupid prejudice against milk, which arises entirely from 
 ignorance. Milk holds in solution all the substances of 
 beef or mutton. I do not want to make men work on 
 infants' food, but a little milk does good. I believe in 
 giving it at night before men go to bed, and its use is of 
 advantage early in the morning. It sustains while the 
 work of early morning goes on, before a regular meal, 
 and at night it arrests that hunger which disturbs sleep. 
 
 There is nothing easier than for a man to accustom 
 himself to cutting down the bulk of the fluids he uses. 
 The drinking of very cold water is the one thing that 
 helps more than anything else to bring on dyspepsia. 
 There can be no greater arrester of digestion than ice- 
 cold water. Remember that all you have swallowed has 
 to be brought up to blood-heat before digestion can 
 take place. The solid food you have eaten is influenced 
 by the cold water you drink. Until it gets up to the 
 general body temperature, normal functioning stops. 
 To warm it up you must expend much vital energy. 
 
 There must be no smoking nor chewing. For the 
 man in training, Cuba, North Carolina, Virginia, and 
 Kentucky might have remained undiscovered coun- 
 tries. 
 
 I need not advise against the use of medicine of any 
 kind during training. If a man is ill he must acquaint 
 his trainer with his condition at once, .who, if he be 
 wise, will send for a doctor. I have before warned men 
 
190 TRAINING. 
 
 about dosing themselves, or being dosed, before train- 
 ing. This habit arose because in the past, athletic exer- 
 cises were mainly carried on by men who had no con- 
 trol over their appetites. With gross and coarse men 
 inclined to drinking and debauchery, it became a neces- 
 sity when they were trained to wrench them, physically 
 and mentally, from their prior unfortunate conditions. 
 Hence the purpose of a ^* black draught,'' as Morrissey 
 advises. 
 
 Utter abstemiousness from liquor was promulgated 
 from these former unfortunate conditions. This was in 
 the time when there wore no amateur athletes. *^ Rule 
 of thumb '' often exerts its sway ; and methods of train- 
 ing have in some cases been continued which have no 
 good reasons for their existence to-day. 
 
 The twenty-four hours may be divided into the two 
 parts of sleep and work. Sleep and the preparation 
 for it not being less than nine hours, there remain fifteen 
 hours. This cannot be used for work entirely. Now, 
 there is the widest latitude given in various systems of 
 training, as to the time which should be devoted to 
 work. Much depends on the original condition of a 
 crew. The greatest amount of work any men who are 
 to work in a boat can stand with profit, is four hours. 
 Beyond that there is no advantage. I am very positive 
 that four hours is excess of work, and inclined to make 
 men stale. I think three hours in a boat is ample. If 
 in the three weeks', or even six weeks' training, a man 
 has not by that time learned how to acquire skill with 
 
TRAINING. 191 
 
 his oar, he is the duffer— better out of the boat than 
 in it. 
 
 The question a trainer must ask himself is this : " Am 
 I working these men for skill or for strength?*' It is 
 supposable that both skill and strength do come by prac- 
 tice, but rarely in equal proportions. With the fine mate- 
 rial at hand, the condition of the men being favorable, 
 and giving them credit for intelligence, I think that under 
 such care as they receive, strength comes more readily 
 than skill. To acquire all the points, it takes more 
 time than the six weeks or two months usually given to 
 getting the men ready. I should advise then with a 
 good, strong crew, to bring them up early to their con- 
 dition. But here is the rub, and it is to keep them there. 
 It always is difficult to have precision of stroke without 
 some loss of power. It is not a question of how fast 
 men can go, as how steady they can work. Put on the 
 speed then slowly. The time must come, however, when 
 about what is the speed the men can make has to be 
 known. About four days before the race the course 
 must be covered at the best time. After that, work of 
 this kind ceases, otherwise the crew are likely to become 
 "stale." 
 
 Here comes in something in regard to which the best 
 and most observant of trainers, coachers, or coxswains 
 are at sea. Say the course has been run on a trial on 
 satisfactory time. Will the crew repeat the time, or 
 will they do better ? I have made many mistakes about 
 this. As often as not the time of the actual event has 
 
192 TRAINING. 
 
 been slower than the trial. Occasionally, but not often, 
 very much better. I think on race days some men dis- 
 play a nervous energy which is amazing ; while others, 
 with something akin to mental disturbance, fail in every 
 way. Sometimes the advice is given to feed sparingly 
 the day before the race. I think this advice to be hurt- 
 ful. On race day I would watch more closely than at 
 any other time the dietary of the crew. If the race is 
 in the afternoon, I would make no particle of difference, 
 only as to quality. If it be at midday I even want the 
 men to eat a good, hearty breakfast. 
 
 This general idea of training for boating has its bear- 
 ing on getting men into condition for almost any kind 
 of exercise. It is not special to boating. 
 
 I use the scales, but not every day. I must know a 
 man's weight at the start. If he be over-fat I expect 
 him to lose some of it. I am uneasy if the fat man 
 goes aw^ay too fast and keeps going. Men of moderate 
 build I expect to weigh a little more before I am through 
 with them. Not that they have gained fat. They have 
 gotten rid of it. They have taken on muscle and con- 
 densed their bones. Why should empirical laws be given 
 about these things ? The way to increase and diminish a 
 man*s weight depends upon work. I can reduce a man 
 until I kill him. 
 
 I am not prepared to say what shall be the perfect 
 weight of a man of 5 feet 6, or of a man of 6 feet. It 
 varies according to conditions. Take boat crews that 
 make their records, and their total averages differ a 
 
TRAINING. 193 
 
 great deal. There is no rule which gives me the infalli- 
 ble *^ tip '' of weights and winners. With the horse the 
 added weights tell, but not with the man, for he ougnt 
 never to be handicapped in that way. In the record of 
 any season, not of this year alone, but of the past, it 
 will be seen how weights of men vary as to size. I 
 do know that a crew of dwarfs could not win, and I am 
 almost as certain that a crew of giants would find them- 
 selves nowhere with men of normal size. 
 
 When two oars are used by the man, the exact amount 
 of work done is by no means greater than when both 
 arms are applied to the single oar. In many respects, 
 however, sculling has certain advantages. The sculler 
 is his own master and can regulate his own method. 
 He is not necessarily subservient to the command of 
 another, and is not forcedly automatic. Though in the 
 race he must exert himself to the utmost, he has his 
 own methods of relief. How to make slight changes of 
 position — these acquired by long practice — is one of the 
 arts of sculling. If not as automatic as were he one of 
 a crew, the sculler has to exercise more judgment and 
 has to call on his mental powers. It must not be under- 
 stood that the power of thinking is in antagonism to 
 muscular movement. The work being then less monot- 
 onous than in pulling with a crew, the sculler has some 
 advantages considered here only as motive power. The 
 command of himself does not, however, always tend to- 
 ward his benefit. Pretty generally amateurs lose races 
 through their own want of judgment. Want of control 
 
194 TRAINING. 
 
 makes them overtax their energies at the beginning, 
 and they are spent when three-quarters of the course is 
 rowed. 
 
 The question of training is of all importance in scull- 
 ing. I am of the opinion that in the carrying out of 
 all the work of the athlete there is nothing that tells as 
 much on sculling as condition, and the worst thing is to 
 train down too fine. In the delicately constructed boat 
 of to-day, fractions of inches lower or higher in the set 
 of the craft in the water makes differences of feet in the 
 progress of the race ; but that is of secondary importance 
 to the status of the sculler. 
 
 I would rather have a man a little over-weight from 
 his training, if he is to pull a pair of oars, than too light. 
 There are so many collapses brought about from having 
 a man '' stale '' before he begins serious work. 
 
 A sculler ought to take his own time under favorable 
 and unfavorable circumstances and so get his average. 
 I should not care for his trying to do his very best but 
 once during his actual training, and then, if possible, 
 four or five days before the event comes off. This is 
 something not so easy to carry out, for the surface of 
 the water is rarely exactly the same. A lumpy river is 
 much harder to overcome than a heavy track. Let him 
 take, then, if he can hit on it, the most favorable condi- 
 tions for his own particular trial. As he never ought to 
 be without friends, these ought to consider what are the 
 exact directions of the wind and tides, which may vary 
 every fifteen minutes, and so correct his time. 
 
From The Illustrated American. Copyright, 1890, by lU'd American Pub. Co 
 
 GEO. R. GRAY. PUTTING THE i6lB. SHOT. 
 
TRAINING. 195 
 
 Brute force will win an occasional race, but the major- 
 ity of the scullers* triumphs are due more to skill than 
 sheer strength. 
 
 From using both arms equally, the general develop- 
 ment of the sculler is better than that of the single 
 oarsman. I have rarely seen a sculler who had not a 
 fine chest, but with Mr. William Blaikie, I, too, have 
 noticed more than one who, good at the single oar, had 
 chests which were unmistakably poor. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 WORK FOR HEAVY MEN. 
 
 When a man can show a 39 or 40-inch chest, and a 
 15-inch biceps, and will scale from 180 to 200 pounds, 
 then let him go in for such heavy work as putting the 
 shot, throwing the hammer, and the tug of war. Men 
 
 THROWING THE HEAVY HAMMER. 
 
 who are up in gymnastic work generally know what are 
 their limitations. Physical build determines the selec- 
 tion of the things to be done. 
 
 As I have before explained it, Nature says early, this 
 
 lad when he grows to be a man will be a sprinter ; that 
 (196) 
 
TRAINING. 
 
 197 
 
 other one will be a mighty putter of weights, or the " an- 
 chor*' of the tug of war. 
 
 Endurance has some little to do with the making of 
 men who gain merited renown as heavers of hammers, 
 but like in the jumper, it is the intensity of muscular de- 
 velopment called upon at a certain time to come to the 
 front, and to carry out some prodigious effort, which 
 tells. No man can do any of these heavy tasks who is 
 not mature. Strength is one thing, actual weight of 
 the man who throws the hammer, or puts the shot some- 
 thing more, and skill counts for a 
 good deal. These want for their 
 proper management " big and bra* 
 men.** No stripling in his teens who 
 trips like a deer over the turf, can 
 stand a chance against these adult 
 human catapults. When a man has 
 to take a hickory or oak stave, 
 capped with a 1 6-pound mass of 
 iron, and send it over 90 feet, the 
 force, the skill of the performance 
 can be appreciated. A hot ball shot in by a fielder has 
 its merits, but what of the weight of this mass of iron, 
 as it comes like a skyrocket through the air ? 
 
 There is more knack, probably, in hammer throwing 
 than in putting the 56-pound weight, but as to main 
 strength, both these performances call on the athlete to 
 have an abundant stock of it. No one would suppose 
 for a moment that there was anything like a correlation 
 
 From Harper's Young People. 
 Copyrit;ht, 1888, by Harper A Bro*. 
 
 PUTTING THE WEIGHT. 
 
198 TRAINING. 
 
 of action between the high jumper and the hammer 
 thrower, but in a physiological sense there are close 
 resemblances. To clear 6 feet 4 inches from the ground, 
 or to throw a 16-pound hammer 123 feet 6^ inches, re- 
 quire that every muscle in the man shall tend toward 
 the accomplishment of these two feats. It is because 
 the hammer thrower or shot putter has the help of his 
 heavier avoirdupois, that he puts that, plus his superb 
 muscular development, all into the mass of iron. The re- 
 sultant is the propulsion of the iron to its last inch. 
 
 When the man jumps, it is his own body that he cares 
 for. He is lighter in proportion as to weight, but his 
 muscles are all-powerful. That represents, as far I can 
 make it out, the reasons for the differences of build in 
 the kinds of men. 
 
 The heave is a fairly prolonged act. The man gets 
 the swing by turning on himself. Every muscle, from 
 his neck down to his toes, extending to the tips of his 
 fingers, performs its duty. I have been sometimes 
 told that '* elasticity of muscle was quite unnecessary on 
 the part of the shot thrower.'' This I deny. The least 
 stiffness shown by the shot thrower would check move- 
 ment. No one can refine on this muscular play, and it 
 is nonsense to tell me, ^' that it is not necessary for the 
 heaver of the shot that his muscles should move quick- 
 ly. '* This is assuming a knowledge of muscular devel- 
 opment not discoverable in the scientific study of the 
 subject. I grant that the physical education of the man is 
 such that rapidity of movement does not seem necessary, 
 
TRAINING. 
 
 199 
 
 and yet here is the mistake. If anybody supposes that 
 the champion hammer thrower is as deliberate in his 
 movement, as is a languid young lady plying her fan, 
 he is very much mistaken. The character of the perform- 
 ance precludes such an idea. Centrifugal motion has 
 for its one element that of speed. A slowly revolving 
 wheel never does fly off its centre. 
 Rapid circular movement takes, 
 when interrupted, the tangential line. 
 The muscles move as quickly as 
 they can, and the hammer and its 
 handle spin in the air, if not as fast 
 as a drum-major*s baton, at least 
 with great speed. Some men may 
 have a slower action than others, 
 but it is generally conceded with 
 adepts throwing heavy weights that 
 it is best accomplished when celerity 
 is used. '^ I can be so slow,'' said 
 to me a champion, '^ that in the 
 preparation of putting the weight 
 I can use up and waste force. It 
 is like slow burning powder ; too 
 much fizzle about it. I know what is meant by overcoming 
 the inertia of a thing. At the very instant I clutch the 
 hammer handle or the weight, I do not use much exer- 
 tion, but I try and accelerate motion after that. I 
 throw with a gradual increase of movement, otherwise I 
 never could get distance. Now, do not understand that 
 
 POSITION FOR SIDE THROW 
 56-POUND WEIGHT.— LEFT- 
 HANDED THROWER. 
 
200 TRAINING. 
 
 there is not a limit as to speed. If I were twice as 
 strong as I really am, I might be able to put in a more 
 rapid motion, and at the same time not lose control, 
 but being only an ordinary man, I regulate my speed to 
 my power, but it's quick. I never have had to watch 
 out for my leg development. They always seemed to 
 take care of themselves ; I do not, of course, pretend 
 
 PUTTING THE 16-POUND SHOT. 
 
 that my make is the same as other men. Where I have 
 worked hardest was toward the development of the 
 muscles of my abdomen, waist, and back. If you ever 
 write about this particular line of work, which is not 
 well understood, tell your readers that it is all nonsense 
 that a weight heaver is not a supple man. He must be 
 
TRAINING. 20I 
 
 limber, or he becomes jammed up at once. I am not 
 more in love with my specialty than with any other. I 
 sometimes think that I would rather have made a record 
 in other directions, but this I am positive about, that it 
 takes a man sound to the core to gain proficiency in 
 hammer throwing. The extra inches that tell come 
 from hard work, constant practice, and a limber back. 
 Don't forget the limber back. General all-around devel- 
 opment is what I try to get at, with special pains to ap- 
 proach to the supple spine the cat has.'* 
 
 Of the two, hammer or weight throwing, I prefer the 
 first, for though there is art in both exercises, the first 
 calls skill more into play. The development of the 
 man is, too, generally better. As to style, it does not 
 enter into the province of this work to expatiate on it. 
 When a man throws the hammer, and does it well, there 
 is nothing awkward about it. With art he hides the 
 difificulties of the performance. To train for weight 
 throwing or hammer putting, the preparation must be 
 perfect. Though but a few seconds of a minute is all 
 the time necessary to make a record, this only can be 
 obtained after months of hard work. 
 
 Beginning with exercise in the gymnasium of a gen- 
 eral character, particular attention is to be given to 
 such work as will increase and strengthen the muscles 
 of the back and waist. Waist muscles, I think, are 
 built up rather slowly, and so progress maybe apparent- 
 ly tardy. I have found for the biceps that the wheel 
 was invaluable. There is an upward movement of 
 
202 ' TRAINING. 
 
 the forearm which is called upon when a weight is to 
 be thrown, which under other circumstances is not 
 often worked. I would, of course, keep up the legs, 
 but not give them additional duty. They take care of 
 themselves. 
 
 As to diet, it should be generous. Big men really do 
 not eat any more than those of sparer build, but I think 
 their inclination for drink increases. Now, a little com- 
 mon sense here is worth more than any quantity of 
 theory. If I have a small lot of ground to water, I fill 
 my watering-pot once, and that suffices. But the same 
 " quantity of water will not do for a garden bed twice the 
 size of the first one. A big man has more area to sup- 
 ply with water, and consequently wants more, and then, 
 too, with increase of surface, he must have a broader 
 evaporation. It stands to reason he requires more water 
 than a thin man, and the bigger bulk ought to get it. 
 
 A man begins with the weight he wants to throw, 
 but restricts himself as to distance. Gradually he ap- 
 proaches near to his best, always restraining his powers. 
 I know of no exercise which calls forth more patience 
 than hammer throwing or weight throwing, nor one 
 which brings with it less hope of success at the first. 
 Strength acquired by good training does tell in the end, 
 and skill is acquired. Do not attempt to lose bulk. I 
 should advise constant use of the scales for this special 
 exercise. If the diminution is too rapid, slacken off the 
 work. 
 
 Hammer and weight throwing is the work cut out for 
 
. TRAINING. 203 
 
 big men. A 200-pound man is really not a heavy man 
 for the exercise. A noted champion will stand 5 feet 9 
 and weigh 210 pounds, and such tremendous propor- 
 tions as 6 feet 4f , and 240 pounds are claimed for the 
 giants. I know j\o limit of time to be cited as fixing 
 the period of training. I am inclined to believe that 
 it must be continued over a long period of years before 
 perfection comes. PubHc taste does not run toward 
 mountains of flesh, but no one can become a weight 
 thrower who is not built for it, and then, in addition, 
 has improved natural conditions, by constant and judi- 
 cious training. 
 
 THE TUG OF WAR. 
 
 As to the status of the men for the tug of war, the 
 conditions do not vary a great deal from those of the 
 weight throwers. A team of four of 700 pounds is none 
 too heavy; a 635 one is rather too light. I think the 
 resistance of natural dead weight helps. 
 
 There has been some inclination on the part of Amer- 
 ican athletic associations to give rather the cold shoulder 
 to the tug of war, as it has been alleged that men are 
 often hurt in such contests. If I were asked my opinion 
 about it, I should very certainly join with those who do 
 not encourage the tug of war. I might even incline 
 toward its abolishment. I have always thought that 
 athletes giving themselves entirely to this contest, were 
 men wasted. I have known men who were very badly 
 hurt in the tug of war. The strength of the chain de- 
 pending on its weakest link, I have seen this weak link 
 
204 
 
 TRAINING. 
 
 break, and that breakage was a bad internal lesion. 
 The reasons why it is dangerous is because, differing 
 from a boat crew, where if a man in eight or six does 
 cave in, his boat loses; he himself is only for the 
 moment discomfited. In the tug of war, the strain 
 being on the four men, and not on the apparatus (the 
 boat), one man may suffer. Professing to show what 
 are the advantages to be derived from manly exercises, 
 
 TUG OF WAR— OLD STYLE. 
 
 I see nothing that is good in the tug of war, and I be- 
 lieve that I am not singular in this respect. 
 
 Picking out the athletic associations in the United 
 States who have crews who make the tug of war their 
 specialty, the individual improvement in a physical 
 sense, of such members, is generally null. I am not pre- 
 pared to make the statement that the condition of the 
 men had been lowered, but from such information as 
 has been furnished me, it looks as if the loss were great- 
 er than the gain. I know there are exceptions, and 
 men who have been of the tug of war have improved, 
 but there are sometimes exceptions to rules. Is the 
 
TRAINING. 205 
 
 tug of war worth a rupture ? In the older ways of pre- 
 paring the ground for the pull, there was less danger 
 to the men than there is now. To-day the idea is ad- 
 vanced that with the later appliances there is no danger. 
 Cleats, I think, rather increase chances of hurt. If this 
 contest must be continued, I like better the old method 
 of work, which was of man to man. Then the personal 
 skill of the one athlete is more quickly perceptible, and 
 risks diminished. 
 
 I should never allow the tug of war to be tried in any 
 gymnasium under my control, and until its advantages 
 
 A FULLY EQUIPPED TEAM ON CLEATS. 
 
 are more clearly defined, I never would. If there has 
 been a revival of this so-called pastime during the last 
 few years, the same reasons that took it out of the list 
 of athletic performances in the past continue. As the 
 mechanism has become more complicated, danger to 
 the men has not been diminished. In a physiological 
 sense, looking only at conditions arising from the tug of 
 war, I am certain that nothing could be imagined which 
 is worse. 
 
 It wears out muscle by strain, and continued strain, 
 with no chances of recovery. I may be brought to task 
 for this opinion, but I honestly believe it blunts a man's 
 
2o6 TRAINING. 
 
 power of thought ; for it does happen that when the 
 muscles are overworked, the brain power wanes. It 
 may be seen that, if mental advantages are credited to 
 some exercises, to others disadvantages are to be noted. 
 To train a man for the tug of war, the conditions are 
 the same as for putting the hammer. The men must be 
 mature. Anything like stinting them is impossible. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 TRAINING FOR BOXING. 
 
 Absolute perfection of form is a necessity for those 
 who would excel in boxing. Of all athletic exercises it 
 
 
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 ON GUARD. 
 
 requires more care to make a man proficient in this 
 special calling than in any other. It is the work which 
 wants a man to be in his absolute maturity. He must 
 
 (207) 
 
2o8 TRAINING. 
 
 have not only great muscular strength, but agility and en- 
 durance. That peculiar excellence of the athlete known 
 as ** wind '' is wanted, for it is called on to its utmost by 
 the boxer. The brain stimulant in regard to which I 
 have so frequently commented, must always give its 
 force to the pugilist. 
 
 Two years of active gymnasium work are none too 
 little for the man of i8 or 19 who wants at 20 or 21 to 
 put on the gloves, and though he may work but little on 
 the track, it is in running that he will best acquire that 
 automatic lung power which is so necessary, for without 
 having the fullest capacity to breathe, no man is worth 
 anything. All those exercises which incline toward in- 
 creasing the strength of the arms must be cared for. It 
 is not sufficient to be a heavy hitter, but a man must be 
 a quick one. It is the rapidity of the recovery, the 
 alertness of a man's legs, the ability to escape a blow 
 that is effective. 
 
 Perfection of condition best resists the effects of 
 blows. You can hardly bruise a man, though you may 
 fell him, if his muscular condition is excellent. In the 
 very highly-developed condition of the prize-fighter, 
 though doggedness goes for a great deal, real pain has 
 less effect on the individual. How otherwise account 
 for a man with a broken arm still standing up and fight- 
 ing to the last ? 
 
 In absolute training, unless a man be very gross, when 
 he may lose some flesh, working a man down from his 
 weight is to be deprecated. If a man is sound, I would 
 
TRAINING. 209 
 
 rather he had gained two pounds than to lose one. It 
 is not fat nor pulpy flesh he has put on, but muscle. 
 The utmost care as to diet must be observed, and the 
 same rules are to be adopted as for boating men. Smok- 
 ing is to be absolutely prohibited. Exercise should be 
 evenly distributed, and never much of it before break- 
 fast. It is before the midday meal that a fair amount 
 of work is to be done. Walking, and a little running, 
 are the great helps to making a sound wind. I never 
 advise swimming, for the reason that the exact amount 
 of strength it requires is not well ascertained. 
 
 A man in training for boxing must work with dumb- 
 bells and Indian clubs, but with not too heavy ones. I 
 believe, too, in doing what is often neglected, and that is, 
 vaulting and trying to fit the man for vaulting from right 
 to left, and from left to right. I find too many men sadly 
 deficient in the muscles of their waist, and neglectful of 
 those exercises which would supply them. A certain 
 rigidity of form is acquired from the position assumed in 
 boxing. I have seen good boxers with a bad stoop. 
 
 The use of the bag has been the great improvement 
 in the training of the boxer. A quarter of an hour 
 wdth a heavy bag gives a man muscular power, with 
 that rapidity which is so necessary. Learn not only to 
 strike the ball with one, but with both hands, and what 
 is more, try and dodge the ball, and as it swings over 
 you, how to turn and strike it. 
 
 Including all the various exercises, with the mile walk, 
 three hours a day of active work with the ball, and spar- 
 
2IO TRAINING. 
 
 ring with a master, is amply sufficient. It is only a very 
 choice man who would not suffer from a moment's longer 
 work than this. The trouble of the trainer is in getting 
 his pupil exactly ^' ripe.'' Work, then, should be allotted 
 in just such a way that anything like staleness should 
 be prevented. Attention to bathing and rubbing down 
 is of the utmost importance in training for boxing. 
 
 I want in the first place a very strong man, and I 
 want to keep him up to the highest notch of muscular- 
 ity all the time. How much agility has to do with 
 prowess in pugilism the professors can tell, for a lum- 
 bering giant has really but little chance on the platform. 
 The man who is the glutton is rarely the champion. It 
 need not be said that the art of pugilism is to give more 
 than you take, but to do that skill is necessary, and to 
 be awkward means to be wanting in nimbleness. In 
 six weeks a man should be in good condition for boxing, 
 providing always he has had some years of gymnasium 
 before that. A good boxer must be a good all-around 
 man. 
 
 For those with a decided taste toward boxing, I would 
 advise such exercise as is found in the game of rackets. 
 This fine sport it will be found teaches rapid improve- 
 ment. I know of nothing which requires greater quick- 
 ness of motion, with moderate display of force, than the 
 game of rackets. A man has to be on the alert, and 
 have precision of eye, in order to play well. I have 
 found that rackets, for improving wind and for reducing 
 unnecessary fat, had many advantages. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 TRAINING FOR WRESTLING. 
 
 When in romance literature I have read descriptions 
 of wrestling matches, where " the lithe and sinuous man 
 wound himself like a serpent around his burly adver- 
 sary/' I have always been satisfied that the gifted writer 
 had never seen a wrestling match. 
 
 The conformation of a man to be a wrestler must 
 incline him toward 
 bulk. The greatest 
 WTestler of modern 
 times stood 6 feet 
 i^ inches, and 
 weighed 280 pounds. 
 I do not mean that 
 he should be a moun- 
 tain of flesh, like a 
 J apanese wrestler, ' 
 
 1 , I 1 AN UNDER HEAVE. 
 
 but he must have 
 
 that weight which tells, and united to that, great mus- 
 cular power and endurance, for to be a good wrestler 
 calls upon the man to use his utmost efforts. 
 
 I am well aware that to be well up in the " chips '' which 
 make Cornish and Devon men such dangerous adver- 
 saries, skill is an important factor ; but holding wrestling 
 
 (211) 
 
212 TRAINING. 
 
 only as an exercise, three-quarters of it is main strength. 
 If boxing is a performance which calls for a thoroughly 
 good all-around man, so does wrestling. Any flaw in 
 the make or condition of the wrestler tells against him. 
 I know of nothing where brute strength is so important. 
 As often as not wrestling is a test of endurance. Two 
 men locked together strive for mastery. Apparently 
 they are motionless, but every muscle in their bodies is 
 exerted to their utmost capability. Then comes for 
 one or the other inclination toward physical weakening, 
 and at once the better man gains the supremacy. I 
 eliminate here the skill of the wrestler for the moment, 
 but still I am satisfied that it is pure muscular force, 
 with the capability of storing it up, which gives the 
 wrestler his efficiency. 
 
 I know of no illustration which serves my purpose bet- 
 ter than does wrestling, in order to show how an apparent- 
 ly motionless exercise produces the most marked effects 
 on those who take part in it. The movements are but 
 slight to the eye, but every muscle is doing its best. 
 As a competent authority expresses it, " under the great 
 pressure occasioned by their athletic effort, the larger 
 vessels have been distended until they have momentarily 
 lost power of recoil.'' Compression of the heart and 
 lungs necessarily follows, and difficulties of respiration 
 increase. There is more or less congestion. It is the 
 panting, breathless condition of the men which makes 
 this at once apparent. This congested state must arise, 
 too, from the fact that muscular action is carried on with- 
 
TRAINING. 213 
 
 out movement, and just this brings on additional exhaus- 
 tion. If wrestling were without any movement at all, 
 the congestive tendency would soon incapacitate men, 
 but quick as a flash comes the brief period of activity, 
 the man is thrown into the air, or doubled over, and the 
 period of high tension is past. 
 
 I may not hold wrestling as among the highest of 
 athletic performances, and yet it calls upon the two 
 most important factors, that of human endurance and 
 of the supreme effort. 
 
 Only a grown man should wrestle. It is a sport un- 
 fitted for boys. Taking for build, the man who is fitted 
 for a hammer thrower, continued work at the gymna- 
 sium is a necessity. There are muscles, especially those 
 of the neck, which must be cultivated. If you look at 
 a wrestler with a reputation, you will see how, by work, 
 these peculiar muscles have been so exercised that they 
 sometimes apparently deform the neck. As a fall may 
 be claimed when the middle of the back touches the 
 ground, wrestlers to prevent this so arch their bodies as 
 to prevent their backs from touching the ground. This is 
 accomplished by curving the neck in a fall, and support- 
 ing the body on the heels and the back of the head. 
 In this position, unless an adversary has prodigious 
 strength, a telling fall becomes impossible. 
 
 In matters of diet, the same regimen should be fol- 
 lowed as in training for boxing. Anything like stinting 
 food is dangerous. A wrestler after training ought not 
 to have lost an ounce. I would rather he had increased 
 
214 TRAINING. 
 
 in bulk. Walking, with a little running, is necessary ; 
 for it is the wind, the automatic respiration, which tells 
 so much in wrestling. 
 
 Wrestling, save as a secondary performance, has never 
 been encouraged by our leading American athletic so- 
 cieties. The reason why this happens, arises in part 
 from the fact that as carried out by professionals, wrest- 
 ling has been degraded. The profession has introduced 
 into wrestling certain cruel methods the public are little 
 aware of. It is possible for a man to get such a hold on 
 his adversary's arm or leg as to be able to break it. Hav- 
 ing him in this position, the threat is made : " If you 
 do not acknowledge a fall, I will break your arm or leg.*' 
 We see no good reason why wrestling should be put on 
 the records. Lately a leading English authority urges 
 on amateurs the revival of wrestling, and this statement 
 is made, " that the chief enemies of the art are often 
 those who should be most in favor of it, the schoolmas- 
 ters and the instructors in gymnasiums.'* The reason 
 why such instructors oppose wrestling is the proper 
 dread (not *^ the exaggerated dread '') of broken bones. 
 I may not have seen so many broken bones arising from 
 wrestling bouts as I have lesions and ruptures. 
 
 If I want to get rid of stiffness and awkwardness, 
 there are many better ways of doing that than by means 
 of wrestling. 
 
 In examining the records, I certainly find more seri- 
 ous accidents arising to professionals from wrestling than 
 from pugilism. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 TRAINING FOR LONG DISTANCE WORK. 
 
 It will take all of six weeks for a man to prepare him- 
 self for any long distance work. Exercise should be 
 steady all the time, long distances being left for the 
 last two weeks of training. The best men all begin 
 with the use of dumb-bells and clubs. As all gaits are 
 permissible, a steady runner has great advantages. After 
 bursts of speed, he is enabled to take up a fast walk and 
 so relieve the strain on particular muscles. 
 
 Diet should be careful as to quality, and taken with- 
 out stint. Frequent bathing and rubbing down help 
 the condition of the athlete. The feet for long distance 
 work are sources of trouble, and great attention should 
 be paid to them. 
 
 In a physiological sense, it would look as if long dis- 
 tance going w^ere the greatest strain that could be put 
 on a man. This, however, when a man is perfectly 
 sound, is not found to be the case. The reason why he 
 is able to stand up against such excessive work, arises 
 from the fact that he is not held down to one particular 
 gait. 
 
 No exercise calls for greater precautions on the part 
 of the trainer than for long distance work. Attention 
 
 (215) 
 
2l6 TRAINING. 
 
 to the man who is at work should be continuous. Dur- 
 ing the performance food should be varied as to kind, 
 and the inclinations of the individual followed, but al- 
 ways within the rule of giving him such aliments as are 
 most readily digestible. I am quite satisfied that during 
 the last thirty-six hours of long distance covering, train- 
 ers do administer champagne. I think the quantity did 
 not exceed a half tumbler, and that only repeated three 
 times. 
 
 If men working at long distances could carry on their 
 performances in the open air, there is no question but 
 that additional miles would be added to their scores, 
 and for this reason : forced to sleep in the buildings 
 where their exercises take place, the air they breathe is 
 in a measure vitiated, and the recuperative process 
 hampered. After the work is over a long period of 
 rest is a necessity, for reasons before explained. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 EXERCISE FOR YOUNG MEN WHO HAVE NEVER BEEN AT 
 A GYMNASIUM. 
 
 If a young man has leisure the early walk is 
 
 everything. Even providing a young man never has 
 
 worked in a gymnasium, he ought to know how to 
 
 walk, and to walk is not to slouch. He should take a 
 
 brisk spell, beginning slowly, and putting in every now 
 
 and then a spurt. It may not be possible, however, 
 
 from bad weather, to take this early walk. As often as 
 
 not there is no time, then exercises at home are in 
 
 order. Take the dumb-bells and use them for fully 
 
 fifteen minutes. The more movements you have at 
 
 your command the better. All the lateral movements 
 
 of the dumb-bells are excellent, especially those which 
 
 call into play the muscles of the waist, for in ordinary 
 
 life it is these and the abdominal muscles which are 
 
 neglected. 
 
 Never tire yourself if you can help it. Exercise must 
 
 depend somewhat on occupation. It is, however, the 
 
 use of the legs which tends more than anything else to 
 
 keep a young man in good form. If you can spare the 
 
 time, walk to your place of business, even if you live 
 
 four miles from your office. Try and do that much, 
 
 weather permitting, at least once a day. Early in the 
 
 (217) 
 
2l8 TRAINING. 
 
 morning, when streets are unincumbered, it is wonderful 
 how quickly four miles can be covered. Young men in 
 business have more time for physical work of an evening. 
 Before going to bed, ten minutes of dumb-bell work, 
 carried out more leisurely than in the morning, will 
 complete the day's work and insure sound sleep. 
 
 A man has not, however, exercised who has not walked 
 his four miles in the twenty-four hours. There are many 
 who, in the general round of their duties, accomplish 
 more than this, but the methods used and the rests 
 taken spoil the walking as an exercise. 
 
 I am very much in favor of dumb-bells, but not so 
 much of weight-pulling for young men who only want 
 to keep in ordinary training. A plentiful use of water 
 naturally helps physical conditions. 
 
 EXERCISE FOR MEN PAST MIDDLE LIFE. 
 
 I should say walking is the panacea for half the ills 
 men in the latter days of their lives suffer from. Meth- 
 ods of locomotion, such as are procurable in all large 
 cities, economize time, and shorten life. A business 
 man may not be able to spend an hour in walking in 
 order to reach his ofifice. Let him ride half way, then, 
 and walk the other half. A half-hour walk in a day is 
 very little, perhaps barely suflficient. 
 
 I have a case in point of a business man who believed 
 he had no time to walk. He adopted, however, the 
 half-time method as a kind of solemn duty. After two 
 weeks* walking he found himself so much improved, that 
 
TRAINING. 219 
 
 in time he walked the whole distance from his home to 
 his place of business. At once the benefits of exercise 
 became evident. After a while, walking away, he cut 
 down his record, and it was amusing to hear a man of 
 fifty-five, in the crowded city streets, express his pleasure 
 at having made his four miles inside of the hour. 
 
 If a man of fifty or past that, has a horse, riding is 
 among the best of exercises. Generally in our climate 
 it is the liver that goes wrong, and the movement of 
 the horse stimulates the hepatic functions. For men of 
 sedentary habits there is nothing, then, like a horse. 
 Dumb-bells are good for men past the half century, but 
 should be used with moderation. Men of a certain age 
 lose much of their spring and elasticity, and so I have 
 little inclination to have them use any mechanical ad- 
 juncts. If exercise is to be taken, it ought to be carried 
 out in the morning on rising. For the man of fifty, five 
 minutes of dumb-bell exercise is sufficient. When there 
 is the least indication of heart trouble, anything like 
 violent exercise should never be indulged in. I find in 
 studying the best authorities on this subject, that the 
 man of fifty is invariably supposed to be normal, whereas 
 in too many cases he is not. 
 
 Advice as to using the striking-bag for men of fifty or 
 past, I should oppose. I do not think that one city 
 man in five hundred should attempt it. I should rather 
 he played billiards. Something I strongly advise for 
 men who, with age, take on stomach, is an exercise 
 which is purely local. In some respects it is singular of 
 
220 TRAINING. 
 
 its kind. It is to work the muscles of the abdomen. 
 By a pecuHar movement, easily acquired, the muscles of 
 the abdomen are rolled over themselves, and there be- 
 ing no muscular action possible, without disintegration, 
 some of the fat of the abdomen is removed. 
 
 I have known decrease of abdominal fat become plainly 
 evident by means of this muscular abdominal movement, 
 with improvement of the digestive functions. The move- 
 ment may be made up and down, and down and up. It is 
 an exercise which old age requires, because it brings into 
 play those muscles which in constant use in former days, 
 with increasing years are neglected. I unhesitatingly 
 recommend this movement for both men and women, 
 and am positive that the benefits derivable from this 
 exercise are very great. Begin by exercising these abdom- 
 inal muscles for one minute, then stop for the day. The 
 limit of such exercise should never exceed five minutes. 
 People who are of spare habits, without tendency to 
 corpulency, will find improved digestion by this exercise. 
 
 After all, it is walking which is the natural exercise 
 for those who are past their prime. Men who in their 
 younger lives have used the gymnasium, still have capa- 
 bilities at fifty, and because they were trained to stand 
 fatigue in their early days, they suffer no inconveniences. 
 
 It is walking which saves more men's lives than any- 
 thing else. In certain portions of our country an ex- 
 tended walk is not always possible. It may be too hot 
 or too cold. But still advantage should be taken of 
 temperate weather. 
 
TRAINING. 221 
 
 Many business men who have means beheve they find 
 recreation and exercise in driving. Recreation they cer- 
 tainly get, but with a minimum of exercise. If horses 
 are speedy, then skill on the part of the driver is a 
 necessity. Attention to horses must be constant. The 
 man is only exchanging his powers of thinking from 
 his business to his horses. This is a mental advantage, 
 but it is nothing more. In pulling at the reins, if the 
 horses are not well broken, the character of the work is 
 absolutely hurtful. Driving has none of the advantages 
 of riding. Secretaries of State, in Washington, who are 
 generally hard-worked men, find riding to be of the 
 greatest advantage to them. An hour or two on horse- 
 back is all they require, and in this special exercise they 
 follow the wise example of English Cabinet officers. 
 Care should be taken on the part of the writer of any 
 book in which advice as to exercise is given to men of a 
 certain age, because questions of food enter very much 
 into particular conditions. 
 
 With the adult I have tried to show all the salient 
 facts in regard to his diet. Old age is a return, in a 
 certain way, to conditions of childhood. The child 
 wants food at closer intervals than the adult. The 
 child may be wearing himself out, but he is at the same 
 time building himself up. The old man's waste may 
 not be so rapid, but he does not build himself up. All he 
 can hope for, then, is to remain in statu quo. He may 
 require, according to his special organization, a certain 
 amount of food which varies with the individual, but it 
 
222 TRAINING. 
 
 stands to reason that he cannot assimilate his nutrients 
 as rapidly as when he was young. He should eat less 
 at the one meal, or divide his food, as to its consump- 
 tion, over a greater time. 
 
 It cannot be questioned but that a man of past fifty 
 should eat less of certain things. If the question of 
 diet with the athlete has been, we trust, carefully rea- 
 soned out, the old man, because he is old, cannot be an 
 athlete, and can no longer assimilate the food which was 
 necessary for him when he was a younger man. The 
 object of this volume is to advise caution under all con- 
 ditions of life. An old age is always possible, and one, 
 too, comparatively free from bodily suffering when ju- 
 dicious exercise is carried out, but with it must be com- 
 bined certain dietetic principles. The principles are 
 better explained by the physician than by he who teaches 
 methods of training. 
 
 I dislike the cockahoop methods of insuring longev- 
 ity. All we can say is, that we certainly diminish our 
 span of life by want of care. We can lengthen our 
 days and make them free from pain by following out 
 the natural laws of diet and exercise, but I place exer- 
 cise in old age as a necessary but secondary factor ; and 
 I am certain that the physiologist is of my way of think- 
 ing : that diet in old age is of the greater importance. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 EXERCISE FOR WOMEN. 
 
 Although much has been written applicable to this 
 particular subject, L e., the better development of the 
 woman, I find but little that is really satisfactory. If 
 physical education has not commenced early, when the 
 woman was a child, certain confirmed habits have set in, 
 and then when later on exercise is tried, it becomes a 
 painful duty rather than a pleasure. Physical conditions 
 vary with women, and whether they are married or not, 
 make all the differences. 
 
 The utmost precautions are necessary when even girls 
 of sixteen or past that age are given a course of gym- 
 nastic exercises. Were my opinion to be asked, I should 
 insist that a woman alone should act as teacher for her 
 own sex. 
 
 There are many radical vices of carriage in a woman 
 which she herself could correct, which, if corrected, she 
 would find added to her comfort. I think it is rather 
 rarer for women to stand in the proper position than 
 men. Generally, it is the inclination to throw the abdo- 
 men forward which tires them. The forward stoop is 
 also common. The ordinary setting-up drill, as is in use 
 for children, will be found of great advantage in correct- 
 ing these faults. 
 
 (223) 
 
224 TRAINING. 
 
 It is in walking that women will find their best exer- 
 cise. I never have cared to see anything like exhibitions 
 of speed on the part of women, nor yet sluggishness in 
 their walk. Women walk quite differently from men, 
 and probably have to use more real exertion, due to a 
 different form of construction. Their powers of endur- 
 ance are apparently less, and therefore not so much in 
 the way of pedestrianism is expected of them. Our 
 climate, too, with its extremes of heat and cold, renders 
 such walking exercise as English women take almost 
 impossible. 
 
 We must all be grateful for such a capital exercise as 
 is tennis, for it gives our women just that opportunity to 
 use their arms and legs which croquet did not afford. 
 
 Any woman, whether a mother or not, can use the 
 light dumb-bells to advantage. Exercises with them 
 should not be long. Five minutes in the morning and 
 the same at night suffice. I never advise the pulling 
 of weights, believing them out of place for women. 
 Many very extraordinary positions are indicated in the 
 books as tending to give strength and elasticity to the 
 female form. They are supposed to be special for 
 women, though they differ in no respect from those in 
 ordinary use for men. Their value may be questioned. 
 
 Riding for women is about the best of exercises. I 
 am not so much in favor of rowing, unless precautions 
 are taken as to the stretchers on which the woman rests 
 her feet. The fault is to have them at too short a dis- 
 tance from the seat. It is much better that a woman 
 
TRAINING. ' 225 
 
 should row entirely with her arms, and depend for no 
 additional force from the legs. 
 
 The question of endurance in a woman depends very 
 much on her own stimulating powers. She can dance 
 all night, because she likes to dance ; and cannot walk 
 two miles without complaining of lassitude. In a fairly 
 active game of tennis the exercise is by no means slight, 
 and yet woman does not suffer. That unknown quan- 
 tity, the endurance of the woman, ever escapes us. As 
 Dr. Mitchell tells us, " women will take on fat, or lose it, 
 and show no differences in vital force." 
 
 What are called calisthenics for women, I have no great 
 faith in. It is good for little girls and those in the be- 
 ginning of their " teens.** With walking and riding, ten- 
 nis and ten-pins, a woman^s repertoire of exercises is 
 filled. Bicycling may be indulged in when in a tandem 
 machine, but in moderation. Swimming is good exer- 
 cise, and better than skating. A billiard table in a house 
 affords excellent opportunities for exercise for women, 
 and is among the best of home games. 
 
 The difficulty about women who crave exercise, is 
 their want of knowledge of just when to stop. The 
 least excess does harm. The pleasurable excitement of 
 a game of tennis, extended an hour or two more than 
 it should be, takes away from the condition of the wom- 
 an much more than it has given her. 
 
 The abdominal movements, which I have before de- 
 scribed, will be found useful to women. It is impossi- 
 ble to carry this on when a woman wears corsets. They 
 
226 TRAINING. 
 
 must be taken off for this special exercise. Women, 
 from the constant application of stays, have little flexi- 
 bility of the waist, and just these muscles want relaxing 
 through exercise. 
 
 To woman has not been given the muscular activity 
 of the man, yet wonderful is her endurance. That her 
 physical condition is capable of improvement need not 
 be questioned. The methods to be employed must be 
 gradual ones. 
 
 That the conditions of the woman are ever changing 
 should always be borne in mind. What a woman may 
 do to-day, she cannot do to-morrow. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 GYMNASTICS FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 A NORMAL child generally takes about as much exer- 
 cise as is good for it, and the endurance of a healthy 
 and active lad of eight, is often apparently beyond what 
 might be expected of his years. Though he may be 
 active, it is quite possible that he shows awkwardness 
 in carriage. Such awkwardness often corrects itself nat- 
 urally. I am not an advocate of having children put in 
 gymnasiums at too early an age. I am inclined to be- 
 lieve that any other than the natural exercise a child 
 takes is hurtful to him. 
 
 Certain lessons of carriage may be taught a child 
 which, because they are not fatiguing, will be found of 
 help. The simplest is a modification of that exercise 
 called the setting-up drill, such as is used at West Point. 
 For the setting-up drill, these changes from the regula- 
 tion method are best adapted to children. Teach the 
 child to stand straight. This attitude is best acquired by 
 having it stretch out its arms straight above the head, 
 sometimes bringing together the palms of the hands, 
 sometimes the backs of them. This simple drill may be 
 varied by having the fingers interlace. The movement 
 
 of the arms upward should be gradual, ending by hav- 
 
 (227) 
 
228 TRAINING. 
 
 ing the palms or the backs of the hands brought directly 
 to the front. When the arms are lowered, the hands 
 should be brought invariably down, palms forward, and 
 then applied to the sides of the thigh. 
 
 Heads may be raised by having the children look up- 
 ward at their hands when they are held with outstretched 
 arms above their heads. The feet should be slightly 
 turned, and not kept parallel. I would advise not more 
 than two minutes of this drill at the beginning, the arms 
 to be lifted and lowered, say six times in the two min- 
 utes. The time may be increased to ten minutes, but 
 not more than that, and with quicker movements. 
 
 The use of light dumb-bells made of wood, not to 
 weigh more than one pound each, will help to amuse 
 and,, at the same time, straighten out a child. I never 
 look for development of strength in such exercises, nor 
 care so much for the suppling of the pupil. It is the 
 early acquirement of control over the antagonistic mus- 
 cles I most want. I have seen, by these simple methods, 
 children who stooped badly made perfectly straight. 
 
 One thing always to be borne in mind is this, that 
 the work done by children should never be for a long 
 time, nor should any movements be made too rapidly. 
 The use of light wands, which boys and girls take to 
 quickly, gives opportunity for gentle exercise. I like 
 wands about a yard long, and they should never weigh 
 more than a pound. 
 
 The setting-up drill can be carried out, as to the up 
 movements of the arm, with wands, and with them, too, 
 
TRAINING. 229 
 
 movements of precision are in order. Girls have not 
 the muscles of the wrist as strongly developed as boys, 
 while girls' fingers are very much more flexible. Wands 
 seem to give both boys and girls just what they want. 
 
 At school, it is wise to break in on the monotony of 
 study by twenty minutes of such exercises everyday, the 
 twenty minutes being divided into equal parts, one car- 
 ried out in the morning, one in the afternoon. All 
 slovenly movements must be at once corrected. 
 
 Always try and get children to sit straight in their 
 chairs, if you can. Unfortunately, many must stoop 
 who have defective eyes. Poorly printed school-books 
 not only destroy eyes, but backs. 
 
 I do not want a lad under ten to put his foot in a 
 gymnasium unless as a spectator. After that age it 
 may be time to begin. I do not care that parallel bars 
 should be attacked too early. I have found greater 
 benefits derivable from the apparatus he takes to natu- 
 rally, such as the swinging rings, and even the spring- 
 board. Boys like the newer sensations of jumping, sim- 
 ply because their legs have always been in some kind of 
 training. A lad acquires on the rings, or on the spring- 
 board, a better consciousness of his physical limitations. 
 
 Gymnasium exercise, as to duration, depends very 
 much on the lad. It is always better to have boys work 
 too little than too much at the start. I try to get lads, 
 when in the gymnasium for the first time, to work on 
 the upright bars ; this relaxes their muscles, but I will 
 have no lifting nor pulley business. If the lad is light 
 
230 TRAINING. 
 
 weight, he has acquired already some cognizance of his 
 arm-power on the rings. If heavy-bodied he has an 
 acquaintance with the difficulties of overcoming such 
 extra weight. It may be four months before I put him 
 to the parallel bars. Then I have no objection if even 
 he does try the grasshopper movements, for I have 
 every reason to believe he is now fairly supple, has lost 
 awkwardness, with some little gain of muscularity. 
 
 I want to know all the time the. growth of the young- 
 ster. I take monthly measurements of his height, to 
 the 32d of an inch, and this is possible by means of a 
 nicely adjusted thin and pliable steel bar. I am some- 
 what indifferent to the increase of arm or leg develop- 
 ments, but I watch the chest closely. I am not satisfied, 
 if, the lad being normal, he does not show some little 
 growth after the first five months. I have seen cases, 
 apparently of arrested growth, suddenly start after the 
 first four months of easy gymnastic work, then seeming- 
 ly come to a standstill, when harder exercises were com- 
 menced. Then natural growth would begin again. 
 
 I have tried to study the question of heredity in lads. 
 Often it has happened that the boy at fourteen was nearly 
 as tall as his father. Occasionally some extraordinary 
 things have occurred under my notice, as lads, the off- 
 spring of a man and woman of low stature, suddenly 
 starting to grow, and when these lads were young men 
 of nineteen they would measure over six feet. They were 
 the giants of the family. 
 
 If a lad enters a gymnasium at twelve, and works 
 
TRAINING. 231 
 
 carefully under judicious treatment, when he is fifteen 
 he may be pushed, but never before that age, and then 
 only in a few directions. 
 
 And this brings me to the important subject, and 
 that is of allowing boys to sprint. I am positive that 
 until a lad is past sixteen sprinting is the most danger- 
 ous of performances. I have not the least objection to 
 a boy's running — you never ought to stop that — but I 
 mean by sprinting is to have a lad, by means of train- 
 ing, attempt to cover a hundred yards within thirteen 
 seconds. I do not care whether it is easy for him to do 
 or not. You are taxing that lad beyond his powers. 
 He may cover the ground in less than the twelve sec- 
 onds, and even in a year or two cut that down, but the 
 chances are that you have ruined that boy's health in 
 the future. 
 
 When the lad has grown to be a man, all of a sudden 
 he develops heart disease, and off he goes. I look at 
 sprinting when lads are engaged in it, as nothing short 
 of murder. I would rather see a lad run a mile than 
 the short 100 or 150 yards. It is the quick, headlong 
 burst of speed, as it must be taught, that wrecks imma- 
 ture systems. As I have said before, the Society for 
 the Prevention of Cruelty to Children should peremp- 
 torily stop any exhibition of this kind, and parents 
 should forbid their children from sprinting. Sprinting 
 is as cruel and in just as bad taste as if a pugilistic 
 contest were made up between children, only the con- 
 sequences of sprinting are likely to be more serious. 
 
232 TRAINING. 
 
 I am sorry to believe that there are many executive 
 committees of leading athletic clubs who have overlooked 
 this matter by allowing undeveloped lads to enter for 
 serious contests, not only in foot races, but in bicycle 
 matches. It may sound highly creditable, and bring 
 applause to a club, to have ** a very young one *' run first 
 in a leading event, but if next year or the year after, 
 that committee had to attend that young member's 
 funeral, some of the club might accuse themselves at 
 least of want of care. I do not think bicycle racing for 
 young lads brings the same dangers, because the tax on 
 the vital system is not so great. The danger of it all 
 lies in too rapid work. A man has more self-control 
 than a lad, and knows when to stop, whereas a lad 
 does not. 
 
 One simple exercise for children consists in their 
 standing erect, with the position of the body above the 
 waist kept fairly rigid. Place the hands with the arms 
 bent, and the palms touching above in the position to 
 be assumed in diving, then lower the arms until they 
 are on a line with the shoulders. In bringing the hands 
 down, let the palms be upward. Begin slowly with chil- 
 dren, and let them in time work up the movement more 
 rapidly. I have found this expanding the chest and 
 modified a tendency to round shoulders. It broadens 
 the chest and takes away inclinations to stoop. Five 
 minutes of this work is enough at any one time. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 BLISTERS OF THE FEET. 
 
 The sprinter, runner, hurdler, walker, even cyclist will 
 have blistered feet occasionally. If he is used to the 
 work, this may arise from an ill-fitting shoe or a seam 
 in the sock. Sometimes how a blister comes is a mys- 
 tery. If the blister be small, relief is often had by tak- 
 ing a bit of gummed paper and applying it to the blis- 
 ter. If the blister is large, use a needle, never a pin. 
 Do not open it in the centre where it is highest, but at 
 its lowest side, for then the dead skin will act as a pro- 
 tection until the new cuticle is formed. I have found 
 benefit from the use of vaseline for tender feet. It is 
 much better than soap for the foot. 
 
 This general advice may be given to those who under- 
 take any pedestrian exercise where speed is not the ob- 
 ject. Shoes must be broad and heels low. A shoe 
 with a heel more than an inch in height is not fitted 
 for walking. The sole of the shoe ought to be four 
 inches in width. I do not believe in a tight fit for the 
 toes. There should be room enough for the big toe to 
 rise. I have found great benefit, in long walking trips 
 (having but one pair of shoes), by the introduction of 
 small bunches of horse-hair just at the toes. If any 
 
 (233) 
 
234 TRAINING. 
 
 one has ever walked down a mountain side, or a long 
 slope for some hours, he will notice that the big toe, 
 pushing too far forward, is oftentimes bruised. Very 
 slight changes in the fit of the shoe, by use of a little 
 wad of horse-hair, prevents blistering. 
 
 BOILS AND CARBUNCLES. 
 
 The boil is bad enough for the man of ordinary occu- 
 pations, but for he who is in training, it is the most ter- 
 rible of visitations. A bone felon is worse, but that is 
 hardly a consolation. A man may have to grit his teeth 
 and keep somehow along with a boil, but with a bone 
 felon, all work necessarily stops. Some romance writers 
 have made a man pull and win in a race with a bone 
 felon, but that is amateur athletic novel writing. 
 
 I have said, what I believe to be the case, that beer 
 drinking induces boils. The most abstemious of men 
 are, however, likely to have them. The system is doing 
 what it can to eliminate what is foreign to a healthy 
 body, and it starts some bad germ, forces it to the front, 
 and there is trouble. A man who is in training or his 
 trainer should watch out for any little localized form 
 of irritation. Pure carbolic acid, applied to the cuticle, 
 often checks growth of boils, as does iodine. Poultices 
 of bread, of linseed meal, and even the old method of 
 using soft soap and sugar, tend to soften the dense skin, 
 and allow the boil to come more readily to the surface, 
 and so find its discharge. If the knife has to be used, 
 and in many cases it is the best thing to do, if the cut 
 
TRAINING. 235 
 
 surface be treated at once, with boracic or zinc ointment, 
 a speedy cure comes. 
 
 Anything that chafes, as a shirt collar, may bring a 
 boil on the back of the neck. Men who row are prone 
 to boils, caused by the friction of their buttocks on the 
 seat of the boat. Such boils are very painful. Some- 
 times they entirely incapacitate a man for work. The 
 sooner you get rid of them by surgical method the bet- 
 ter. Boracic ointment or an ointment made of simple 
 cerate and oxide of zinc, spread on a piece of kid glove, 
 brings about rapid healing for these boils. For bruises 
 I think applications of flannel, steeped in boiling water, 
 bring about the quickest relief. When a man bruises 
 too readily, or retains the mark of a bruise over long, 
 his condition is not good. 
 
 RUPTURE. 
 There is but one advice : go instantly to the doctor. 
 
 SPRAINS. 
 
 Good men are subject to sprains. Generally the 
 greater number of them happen to the ankle. With 
 men in prime condition, such accidents are rarely, if 
 ever, serious. The muscle has become used to violent 
 tension, but you have tried to stretch it more than it 
 could stand. Dr. J. F. Little's treatment is the best I 
 know of. Instantly after the trouble is determined, 
 stroke the injured part firmly toward the body. You 
 must handle as tenderly as possible all the adjacent 
 
2^6 TRAINING. 
 
 parts. Use an animal oil only, because it facilitates the 
 rubbing. Try to flex the limb by massage. The re- 
 markable part of this heroic treatment lies in the idea, 
 that the limb must be used, so that stiffness shall not 
 follow. The trouble about this method is that it is 
 rather painful at first. I have, however, seen this method 
 employed with wonderful results. If the sprain has not 
 been treated instantly, if there has been delay, send for 
 a doctor. The quick recovery of men in training from 
 sprains is astonishing. To relieve pain from strains, cold 
 water is excellent. 
 
 ULCERATION. 
 
 Sometimes, in long distance performances, chafing and, 
 finally, ulceration occur. I might modify the ^' some- 
 times '* very considerably, by stating that it is rare when 
 in a long distance performance men do not chafe, and 
 so badly that it is a wonder how they can get along at 
 all. Lint, soaked in carbolic oil, one part oil and twenty 
 of lint, is excellent. Apply it by means of a bit of 
 oiled silk, and bandage carefully. The tighter part of 
 the pressure ought to come from below. Change the 
 dressing at least twice a day. Use lukewarm water for 
 cleansing. When the surface is limited, applications of 
 zinc ointment or boracic ointment answer all purposes. 
 
 BLEEDING AT THE NOSE. 
 
 This kind of bleeding will occur at times, and if too 
 constant, the man had better stop work for a short 
 
TRAINING. 237 
 
 time. It is, however, rarely serious. Some very small 
 vessel, generally of the nose, has been ruptured. There 
 is a method to stop bleeding at the nose, which is often 
 effective : It is to stretch out the arms above the head, 
 but not to make them too rigid. The reason for it 
 may or may not be correct. I give it for what it is 
 worth, and it is, that the blood being called on to do 
 more work, presents itself at the broken vessel with less 
 force, and so hemorrhage ceases. 
 
 SUNSTROKE. 
 
 It has been clearly shown that sunstroke is rather an 
 effect of overwork than due to sun action. As sudden 
 exhaustion takes place, generally in the daylight when the 
 sun shines, the action of the sun is supposed, in a certain 
 measure, to produce this comatose condition. It is rare 
 in the tropics — more common in the temperate regions. 
 
 Sunstroke ought never to occur on the track. It 
 is the part of the trainer to prevent any heavy work 
 when the sun is directly over the heads of pupils. Con- 
 ditions of the men, especially those at work on a hot or 
 oppressive day, should be looked at. Weed out the 
 weaker men. It is often wise to peremptorily decline 
 work for all hands. I have mortal dread of sunstroke, 
 because I firmly believe that if a man has sunstroke, he 
 never is as good a man after it, — that is, for athletic ex- 
 ercises. , It has premonitory symptoms, such as over- 
 dryness of the skin, difficulty of perspiration, and it is 
 not unusual to lose distinctness of sight. 
 
238 ' TRAINING. 
 
 ** Things looked rather blurry to me/* I heard a young 
 man say, as he came home panting after a sharp two hun- 
 dred and fifty yards run on a scorching September day. 
 Next day I saw him again on the track. I had no busi- 
 ness to interfere. There was his trainer. The day was 
 hot, but lower by several degrees than the day before, 
 but too hot for the work the young man was trying to 
 accomplish. I had a premonition of disaster, and left 
 the grounds. The next day I read that the young man 
 had fallen down with a sunstroke. Subsequently he re- 
 covered, but his doctor said that his patient's athletics 
 were to be postponed to a far distant future. 
 
 If a man feels like " going down,'* take towels, steep 
 them in cold water and apply them to the back of the 
 head and the back of the neck. If the stroke comes, strip 
 him, carry him in the shade, lay him down with head a 
 little up, and with a basin, bucket, or dipper, douche 
 him with cold water on the head and chest. Send for a 
 doctor post-haste. You have done all you can. 
 
 DROWNING. 
 
 A boating man never drowns, so it is believed, but 
 awkward men do get out of their boats into the water, 
 and occasionally give a great deal of anxiety in the 
 efforts made to resuscitate them. 
 
 Methods of treatment to bring back to life those who 
 have approached the condition of being drowned, can- 
 not be too often printed, because there is the crassest 
 ignorance displayed in regard to the proper treatment. 
 
TRAINING. 239 
 
 A man who is drowned is dead ; but a man can come 
 near drowning and yet not- be dead. What is his condi- 
 tion ? His flame of life only flickers. Now, suppose 
 you had a lantern, with a wick in it, which was barely 
 lit. In order to increase the flame, would you swing 
 the lantern about ? There is no question but that, if 
 you did that, by your rough motions the lamp would 
 go out. Careless and brutal movements are never to be 
 employed when resuscitation is attempted. 
 
 Anybody who, aX the close of the nineteenth century, 
 rolls on a barrel a man taken inanimate from the water, 
 is nothing short of a criminal. 
 
 The best method I can find for resuscitation is that 
 printed in the " Hints to Travellers,'* published by the 
 English Geographical Society. '* Efforts to restore the 
 breathing must precede all other means. Remove cloth- 
 ing down to the waist, laying the patient on the ground, 
 face downward, bending one of his arms under his fore- 
 head ; wipe his mouth. If breathing does not then re- 
 turn, turn the patient on his side ; stimulate the nostrils 
 and rub the chest vigorously. The patient must now 
 be replaced briskly on his face, turned back to his side 
 and a little beyond, and then briskly back on his face 
 again, and repeat this about every four seconds ; each 
 time that the patient is on his face, press sharply on 
 the back between the shoulder-blades. If unsuccessful 
 within five minutes, place patient back with his clothes 
 under his shoulders, draw forward the tongue, and attach 
 it with an elastic band or cord under the chin. Then 
 
240 TRAINING. 
 
 Standing behind his head, grasp the arms below the 
 elbows, and draw them steadily upward above the head 
 to expand the chest, and keep them stretched upward 
 for two seconds, then turn down the arms and press 
 them firmly for ten seconds against the sides of the 
 chest to expel air. Repeat this fifteen times per 
 minute.'' 
 
 This treatment is excellent. What you are trying to 
 do is to work mechanically on the patient, and induce 
 inflation of the lungs. If he breathes, that starts the 
 human machinery. 
 
 LINIMENTS. 
 
 Save in a special way, I have not the least faith in 
 liniments or embrocations. I am pretty certain that 
 trainers who understand their business never use it, 
 save for a distinctly local trouble, as of a strained ten- 
 don. All such stuff as is printed about the sovereign 
 power of this or that liniment, is pure quackery. A 
 man in good form never wants any other external appli- 
 cations than those which water and soap give. Dr. W. 
 L. Savage says in regard to a strain and the use of 
 liniment : 
 
 *' It is the friction in rubbing that helps the athlete, 
 the liniment playing a small part, although it serves as 
 a lubricant and enables the trainer to get hold. But I 
 do not believe there is any good derived from the bare 
 application of a liniment. The principal compound of 
 the various lotions is alcohol, but this having an irritat- 
 
TRAINING. 241 
 
 ing effect may prove a sort of stimulant, but is merely 
 superficial/' 
 
 Some men of experience have advocated the general 
 use of camphorated oil, but its advantages are question- 
 able. I should rather think camphor would do harm. 
 I prefer pure vegetable or animal oils, simply because 
 they act as lubricants for the hand of the masseur, 
 for, after all, the rubbing down of a man is vigorous 
 massage. 
 
 I would advise that the purchase of any compound 
 advertised for athletes, with testimonials showing how 
 by its use a man won a race, be severely let alone. 
 Some years ago, I had a man placed under my charge 
 whose skin was badly blotched, the cuticle inflamed, 
 from having used a liniment. There really was neither 
 poisonous nor irritating substance in the lotion, only 
 the skin of the man was over-sensitive. The substances 
 useful to a man training when accidents occur, I pre- 
 sent. The medicaments are all officinal, and such as a 
 doctor would prescribe. 
 
 INDURATING MIXTURES. 
 The idea that there is anything which will harden 
 the hands, with the exception of work, is nonsense. 
 All washes and nostrums are useless. You can color 
 your hands blue if you want to, but the blue is only 
 skin deep. The true bronze of the hand, with its per- 
 fection of epidermis, which never bruises, is only obtain- 
 able by exercise. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE TRACK— HOW TO MAKE IT. 
 
 Discussions are endless as to the exact form of the 
 track, whether it should be circular, parabolic, or ellip- 
 tical. The ideal track would be the straight line. A 
 curve is an impediment to speed. When the track is 
 straight, the ground is made level. Where there are 
 curves, the slope begins from the outer to the inner 
 edge, and depends for incline on the width of the track. 
 The true line is run about eighteen inches from the 
 inner edge. Ten inches of digging up the original 
 ground is none too much for the making of a track. 
 The width ought to be thirty-five feet. You cannot 
 have two tracks, one for runners, another for bicycles ; 
 but it would be better, if this were possible, because a 
 broad track for machines prevents upsets. 
 
 The first thing is to line both sides of the edge of the 
 track with timber of fully two inches in width, and this 
 timber should be coated with tar. Then coal-ashes, 
 with plenty of clinkers, are put on the broad track and 
 carefully rammed. To turn a good head of water on 
 the first layer and to apply fresh cinders where it sinks, 
 insures lasting qualities. After four inches of ashes are 
 
 laid, then comes two inches of loam. Loam containing 
 
 (242) 
 
TRAINING. 243 
 
 too much clay is not fitted for the purpose; it packs too 
 soUdly. This loam should be screened and every pebble 
 rejected. It must be rolled flat. It is part of the foun- 
 dation of the track. 
 
 You cannot hurry it, and it ought to take a month to 
 settle. Finally, the top layer of cinder is put in place. 
 I should say that an inch of top cinder is all that is nec- 
 essary. It need not be packed. Rolling would hurt it. 
 This top dressing receives careful raking arid smoothing 
 and natural settling. A track wants constant attention. 
 The effect of wind in a certain quarter or of rain may 
 make differences. The cinders may accumulate in cer- 
 tain places or be too thin in others. 
 
 In such -establishments as maintain a first-class track, 
 a superintendent and two helpers find plenty of work. 
 The trouble is to keep the track flat in its long stretches. 
 It will not do to take advantage of the natural methods 
 of road building, such as of making the track rise in the 
 middle, so as to drain itself. Patent arrangements of 
 covered drains have been used, but I do not think with 
 advantage. 
 
 No fencing is admissible. How to do so simple a 
 thing as to mark distances on the track has been much 
 discussed. Fixed posts are dangerous, not to the run- 
 ners, but to the spectators. Bits of stone planted in 
 the ground trip up sightseers, and are not to be thought 
 of. Whitewash markings on the track are sometimes 
 used, but are prone to cause disputes. Pieces of wood, 
 not more than four inches square and four feet long, 
 
 \x 
 
244 TRAINING. 
 
 driven into the ground until flush with the track, with 
 the distances branded on the top, will be found useful. 
 They should not be, however, on the track, but six 
 inches from the outer edge. 
 
 Spent tan bark is not in favor. It makes a dull, 
 heavy track. It is not stable. In wet weather it 
 holds the moisture too long, and a sharp trial of speed 
 may take place just after a rain. Tan bark has its use in 
 the making of an impromptu track where lasting qual- 
 ities are not required. The best runners think that a tan 
 bark hurts the feet more than the firmer, but more 
 elastic, cinder track. It is undoubtedly a slow track. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 AXIOMS FOR AMATEUR ATHLETES. 
 
 Defective dissimilation of fat produces obesity. In- 
 sufficient combustion of nitrogenous materials induces 
 gout. 
 
 Exercise is a regulator. It eliminates what are over- 
 growths in our bodies, and increases the stock of what 
 is wanted. 
 
 There must be reserve material in the human body. 
 How could you run a mile, sending out the manufac- 
 tured products by one door, if the raw material did not 
 come in at the other ? 
 
 Try and understand the relationship of fat to the 
 whole system. When you swallow fatty matter, it is 
 not converted into fatty substances. Some fat may be 
 absorbed, but the starches make the fats, being first con- 
 verted into sugar. You never could destroy all the fat 
 in you. If you did that you would be likely to die. 
 When a man is emaciated, he may be said to have no fat 
 in him. 
 
 A man over-reduced is a man spoiled. You have 
 burned all the oil, and nothing is left but the wick. A 
 wick alone will give little light. If you do get it to 
 flame, it at once burns itself out. 
 
 (245) 
 
246 TRAINING. 
 
 Muscle IS started from the brain, and there is reflex 
 action. Therefore judicious exercise results in brain im- 
 provement and body improvement. You can overtax 
 muscle and impair brain. • 
 
 Stagnancy of brain from want of work is as common 
 as muscular feebleness from want of exercise. Inter- 
 stimulation is constant. The brain works the muscles ; 
 the muscles work the brain. How, otherwise, could it 
 happen that savages can work themselves into a frenzy 
 by dancing ? 
 
 Men who are nervously excitable are those who must 
 be most careful as to the exercises they take. In such 
 cases, with tire of muscle, may come over-excitation of 
 brain. 
 
 Fatigue for those who exercise is a matter of temper- 
 ament. It may arise because the work to be done has 
 not been made automatic. 
 
 No muscle works when it is cold. The stimulation 
 or warming of muscle may come from the brain without 
 any perceptible movement of the body. 
 
 Fatigue manifests itself early, like hunger. A man 
 does not die because he is either fatigued or hungry. 
 Fatigue is a premonitory symptom, as is thirst. It 
 must claim attention in time. Fatigue, then, is a kind 
 of regulator " warning us that we are exceeding the 
 limits of useful exercise, and that work will soon become 
 dangerous.'* 
 
 Americans are more prone than any other race to nerv- 
 ous exhaustion, Methods of life, the drive of business, 
 
TRAINING. 247 
 
 and great climatic changes bring this about. " Manufac- 
 turers and certain classes of railway officials are the most 
 likely to suffer nerval exhaustion. Next to these come 
 merchants in general, brokers, etc., then as frequently 
 clergymen ; still less often lawyers, and more rarely doc- 
 tors ; while distressing cases are apt to occur among the 
 over-schooled ones of both sexes.*' 
 
 There is every reason to believe that a man can be 
 stroke-oar of his boat and win the first academic honors 
 in his class. It is good to be ambidexter. 
 
 ^' Puddlers and boiler-makers, plumbers and carpen- 
 ters, coopers and smiths, shipwrights, carriage-makers, 
 tinners, and all who follow trades calling for vigorous 
 muscular action, not only constantly work on one side 
 more than on the other, but many of their tools are 
 purposely right-handed, so that they could hardly use 
 them with their left hands if they wanted to. Take 
 the mechanic where you will, in the vast majority of in- 
 stances, his right arm and side are larger and stronger 
 than his left, and quite as often his vocation does little 
 or nothing to develop and strengthen his legs.'' — 
 Blaikie. 
 
 '* When a man who does not know how to run stops 
 short, it is simply a man whose system is under the in- 
 fluence of transient intoxication with carbonic acid, re- 
 sulting from exercise. A horse urged into a very rapid 
 gallop, and forced to run until he drops, dies over- 
 worked. The accident which kills it is due to the car- 
 bonic-acid gas with which its system is saturated. The 
 
248 TRAINING. 
 
 man ceases running. No harm comes, because he is his 
 own master. In the case of the horse, the animal is not 
 his own master.'* — LAGRANGE. 
 
 ** I would urgently recommend the man in training to 
 rise early. To him who would build up his body in 
 health and strength, this would be the corner-stone of 
 his edifice. There is in the morning air an ifivigorating 
 freshness which is sought in vain at any other period of 
 the day.'* — Maclaren. 
 
 *' Most of the training lore that has come down to us 
 is of the professional stamp, the outcome of much hard 
 and sharp experience, largely diluted with ignorance 
 and absurdity.'* — HiLLlER. 
 
 *^ To perform exercise of strength with impunity, the 
 food must be sufficiently abundant to supply losses. If 
 the food is not sufficiently restorative, the work is done 
 at the expense of the materials of the body ; the worker 
 succumbs then, and is quickly exhausted." 
 
 ** That horse has eleven chances in the ten to win." 
 
 " How eleven in ten ? That is not possible in an 
 arithmetical sense." 
 
 '' Yes, it is. The beast and his fine blood stand for 
 five, the best oats and hay for two, and then there are 
 four more points for his training." — Race Talk. 
 
 Over-forcing is rapid wearing out. 
 
 " Unless a rowing man does other work especially in- 
 tended to correct defects, he has invariably poor arms 
 above the elbow, a marked inferiority in the develop- 
 ment of the chest compared with the b^ck^ and he gen- 
 
TRAINING. 249 
 
 erally has round shoulders and a forward hang of the 
 head and neck;*— PROCTOR. 
 
 Say there are as many members of an athletic club as 
 there are letters of the alphabet. Mr. A and Mr. B 
 make records. But what of all the rest of the members? 
 A and B may be proud of their honors, and have a right 
 to feel so. The rest will have to be satisfied with the 
 distinction accorded to A and B. But it would have 
 been better if there had been four good men instead of 
 two, or eight instead of four. What I mean to express 
 is this : An athletic club, wishing to do the most good 
 to its members, must look rather to general than to 
 special excellence. Try and make yourselves good all- 
 around men, rather than manufacture isolated stars. 
 
 ^' The climatic peculiarities which have changed our 
 voices, sharpened our features, and made small the Amer- 
 ican hand and foot, have also made us in middle and 
 advanced life, a thinner and more sallow race, and pos- 
 sibly adapted us better to the region in which we live.*' 
 —Dr. S. W. Mitchell. 
 
 *' The exact relations of fatty tissue to the condition 
 of health are not yet well understood, but since in great 
 exertion or prolonged -mental or nerval strain, or in low 
 fevers, we lose fat rapidly, it may be taken for granted 
 that each individual should possess a certain surplus of 
 this readily lost material." Even thin people have it in 
 some quantity, and despite fluctuations, every one has a 
 standard share, which varies at different times of life. 
 
 To walk a great d^al in a man'g or a woman'^ middle 
 
250 TRAINING. 
 
 or later years, is to extend the duration of life. If in 
 the large cities means of locomotion, such as cars, were 
 non-existent, men and women would live longer. 
 
 It has sometimes been said that in training, an animal 
 has advantages over a man, because the animal is forci- 
 bly more obedient to the trainer's will. A horse may 
 be made to exercise only so much. His feed may be 
 given him in exact quantities, and of specified quality. 
 But the advantage should all be in favor of the man, 
 due to his superior intelligence, for he alone appreciates 
 (or ought to appreciate) the laws which govern physical 
 development. 
 
 " Of all animals, man is the most susceptible of im- 
 provement by means of training, and next to him ranks 
 the race-horse. The severity of training is rendered 
 comparatively light by a cheerful companion ; one who, 
 while enforcing completion of work, encourages and 
 diverts the worker. In short, a very important portion 
 of the duties of the trainer, is that of always keeping 
 the mind as well as the body of his charge profitably 
 employed.*'— Haney. 
 
 Draw a sharp line of distinction between exercising 
 and training. A child runs, exercises, but does not 
 train. Exercise is one of the preparations of training, 
 but alone, without other conditions, it f emains only ex- 
 ercise. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 DEFINITION OF AN AMATEUR ATHLETE. 
 
 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AMATEUR ATHLETES OF 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 An amateur is any person who has never competed 
 in an open competition, or for money, or under a false 
 name ; or with a professional for a prize, or where gate 
 money is charged ; nor has ever at any time, taught, 
 pursued, or assisted at athletic exercises for money, or 
 for any valuable consideration. But nothing in this 
 definition shall be construed to prohibit the competi- 
 tion between amateurs for medals, cups, or other prizes 
 than money. 
 
 And it is hereby expressly declared that this defini- 
 tion is not retroactive, and that all past acts of amateurs 
 shall be judged in accordance with the provisions of the 
 old definition ; and that the foregoing definition shall 
 take effect on and after the first day of May, 1885. 
 
 To prevent any misunderstanding in reading the 
 above, the Association draws attention to the following 
 explanations and adjudications : 
 
 An athlete has forfeited his right to compete as an 
 amateur, and has thereby become a professional, by — 
 
 (a) Ever having competed in an open competition 
 (/. ^., a competition, the entries to which are open to all, 
 
 (251) 
 
252 TRAINING. 
 
 irrespective as to whether the competitors are amateurs 
 or professionals, and whether such competition be for a 
 prize or not) in any athletic exercise over which this As- 
 sociation has declared its jurisdiction. 
 
 {b) Ever having competed for money in any such ath- 
 letic exercise. 
 
 {c) Ever having competed under a false name in any 
 such athletic exercise. 
 
 {d) Ever having knowingly competed with a profes- 
 sional for a prize, or where gate money is charged in any 
 such athletic exercise. 
 
 (e) Ever having taught or pursued as a means of live- 
 lihood any such athletic exercise. 
 
 (/) Ever having directly or indirectly accepted or re- 
 ceived remuneration for engaging in any such athletic 
 exercise. 
 
 An athlete shall hereafter forfeit his right to compete 
 as an amateur, and shall thereby become a professional, 
 if, at any time after the foregoing definition shall take 
 effect, he shall — 
 
 (i) Directly or indirectly receive payment for training 
 or coaching any other person in any athletic exercise 
 over which this Association shall declare its jurisdiction. 
 
 (2) Directly or indirectly receive payment for services 
 personally rendered in teaching any such athletic ex- 
 ercise. 
 
 (3) Directly or indirectly receive payment for services 
 rendered as Referee, Judge, Umpire, Scorer, Manager, 
 Director, or in any other capacity, at any profe3siQnaI ex- 
 
 \ 
 
TRAINING. 253 
 
 hibition or contest of any athletic exercises whatso- 
 ever. 
 
 Note. — Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit 
 the acceptance by any amateur of his necessary travel- 
 ling expenses incurred by any Referee, Judge, Umpire, 
 Scorer, or Starter, in going to and from the place of any 
 amateur contest. 
 
 (4) Directly or indirectly run, manage, or direct for 
 prospective profit any professional exhibition or contest. 
 
 An amateur shall not hereafter forfeit his right to 
 compete as an amateur, and shall not become a profes- 
 sional, by — 
 
 {a) Receiving compensation for services rendered as 
 ticket-taker or ticket-seller at any contest or exhibition 
 of amateur athletics. 
 
 {b) Receiving compensation for services personally 
 rendered as Secretary, Treasurer, Manager, or Superin- 
 tendent of any amateur athletic club. 
 
 (c) Receiving compensation as editor, correspondent, 
 or reporter of, or contributor to any sporting, athletic, 
 or other paper or periodical. 
 
 {d) Running, managing, or directing, for prospective 
 profit, any sporting, athletic, or other paper or period- 
 ical. 
 
 {e) Receiving compensation for services personally 
 rendered as official handicapper under the direction and 
 authority of the National Association of Amateur Ath- 
 letes of America. 
 
 (/) Receiving from a club of which he shall be a mem^ 
 
254 TRAINING. 
 
 ber the amount of his expenses necessarily incurred in 
 travelling to and from the place of any amateur contest. 
 
 AMATEUR ATHLETIC UNION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " One who has not entered in an open competition ; 
 or for either a stake, public or admission money or en- 
 trance fee ; or under a fictitious name ; or has not com- 
 peted with or against a professional for any prize or 
 where admission fee is charged ; or who has not in- 
 structed, pursued, or assisted in the pursuit of athletic 
 exercises as a means of livelihood, or for gain or any 
 emolument ; or whose membership of any Athletic Club 
 of any kind was not brought about or does not continue, 
 because of any mutual understanding, expressed or im- 
 plied, whereby his becoming or continuing a member of 
 such club would be of any pecuniary benefit to him 
 whatever, direct or otherwise, and who shall in other 
 and all respects conform to the Rules and Regulations 
 of this Organization." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 RECORDS. 
 
 The following are the best Amateur Records made in 
 America and England, at championship events : 
 
 75-YARDS Run. 
 
 America, 7f seconds. — F. G. Saportas, New York City, Jan. 5, 1878 ; 
 A. Ing, New York City, Sept. 14 and Nov. 28, 1878 ; M. McFaul, 
 New York City, Jan. 5, 1879 ; H. H. Lee, New York City, April 5, 
 1879; L. E. Myers, New York City, Jan. 31, 1881; J. B. White, New 
 York City, March 16, 1883. 
 
 loo-YARDS Run. 
 
 * America, 9I seconds, — John Owen, Jr., Washington, Oct. 11, 1890. 
 England, 10 seconds. — A. Wharton, London, July 3, 1886. 
 
 150-YARDS Run. 
 
 America, I4f seconds. — C. H. Sherrill, Jr., N. Y. City, May 17, 1890. 
 England, 14I seconds. — C. G. Wood, London, July 21, 1887. 
 
 2 20- YARDS Run. 
 
 America, 22 seconds. — ^W. Baker, Boston, June 14, 1886. 
 
 England, 2i| seconds. — C. G. Wood, London, June 25 and July 22, 
 
 1887. 
 
 300-YARDS Run. 
 
 America, 3if seconds. — L. E Myers New York City, Oct. 22, 1881. 
 England, 31J seconds. — C G Wood London, July 21, 1887. 
 
 * Not yet allowed by the Amateur Athletic Union. 
 
 (255) 
 
256 TRAINING. 
 
 440-YARDS Run. 
 
 * America, 47I seconds. — W. C. Downs, Boston, July 9, 1890. 
 England, 48 1 seconds. — H. C. L. Tindall, London, June 29, 1889. 
 
 600-YARDs Run. 
 
 America, i:iii. — L. E. Myers, New York City, July i, 1882 ; W. C. 
 
 Downes, New York City, May 17, 1890. 
 England, 1:12. — H. C. L. Tindall, Cambridge, March 16, 1889. 
 
 880-YARDS Run. 
 
 America, i:55|. — W. C. Dohm, Travers Island, N. Y., June 29, 1889. 
 England, 1:54.— F. J- K. Cross, Oxford, March 9, 1888. 
 
 looo-YARDs Run. 
 
 America, 2:13. — L. E. Myers, New York City, Oct. 8, 1881. 
 England, 2:14^. — L. E. Myers, Birmingham, July 19, 1884. 
 
 I -MILE Run. 
 
 America, 4:2if. — W. G. George, New York City, Nov. 11, 1882. 
 England, 4:i8f. — W. G. George, Birmingham, June 21, 1884. 
 
 2-MiLES Run. 
 
 America, 9:32^. — W. D. Day, New York City, May 17, 1890. 
 England, 9:i7f. — W. G. George, London, April 26, 1884. 
 
 3-MILES Run. 
 
 America, 14:39. — W. D. Day, Bergen Point, N. J., May 30, 1890. 
 England, 14:29!. — ^J. Kibblewhite, London, Aug. 31, 1889. 
 
 4-MILES Run. 
 
 America, 2o:i5f.— W. D. Day, Bergen Point, N. J., Nov. 16, 1889. 
 England, 19:395. — W. G. George, London, May 17, 1884. 
 
 '' Not yet allowed by the Amateur Athletic Union. 
 
 J^ 
 
TRAINING. 257 
 
 5-MILES Run. 
 
 America, 25:23!. — E. C. Carter, New York City, Sept. 17, 1887. 
 England, 25:07!. — W. G. George, London, July 28, 1884. 
 
 6-MiLES Run. 
 
 America, 31:29!. — E. C. Carter, New York City, Nov. 6, 1886. 
 England, 30:27-!. — W. G. George, London, July 28, 1884. 
 
 7-MILES Run. 
 
 America, 36:54. — E. C. Carter, New York City, Nov. 6, 1886. 
 England, 35:37. — W. G. George, London, July 28, 1884. 
 
 8-MiLES Run. 
 
 America, 42:19. — E. C. Carter, New York City, Nov. 6, 1886. 
 England, 40:57!. — W. G. George, London, July 28, 1884. 
 
 9-MILES Run. 
 
 America, 47:4Tf. — Sidney Thomas, West New Brighton, S. I., Oct. 26, 
 
 1889. 
 England, 46:12. — W. G. George, London, April 7, 1884. 
 
 lo-MiLES Run. 
 
 America, 52:38!. — W. D. Day, West New Brighton, S. L, October 26, 
 
 1889. 
 England, 51:21. — W. G. George, London, April 7, 1884. 
 
 I -MILE Walk. 
 
 America, 6:29!. — F. P. Murray, New York City, Oct. 27, 1883. 
 England, 6:32^. — H. Whyatt, Birmingham, May 3, 1884. 
 
 3-MILES Walk. 
 
 1^ America, 21. 09^ — F. P. Murray, Ne\t York City, Nov. 6, 1883. 
 \England, 21:254. — C. W. V. Clarke, London, June 29, 1887. 
 
258 TRAINING. 
 
 4-MILES Walk. 
 
 America, 29:401. — T. H. Armstrong, New York City, Nov. 6, 1877. 
 England, 29:10. — W. H. Meek, London, July 12, 1884. 
 
 2-MiLEs Bicycle. 
 
 America, 5:2if. — W. A. Rowe, Springfield, Oct. 23, 1885, 
 England, 5:i2j. — W. A. Illston, Coventry, May 21, 1889. 
 
 120-YARDS Hurdle. 
 3 feet 6 inches. 
 
 America, 16 seconds. — H. L. Williams, Morris Dock, N. Y., May 17, 
 1890; F. T. Ducharme, Washington, Oct. 11, 1890. 
 
 England, 16 seconds. — C. N. Jackson, Oxford, Nov. 14, 1865 ; W. R. 
 Pollock, London, April 18, 1884 ; C. F. Daft, London, July 3, 1886 ; 
 S. Joyce, Crewe, June 30, 1888. 
 
 200-YARDS Hurdle. 
 3 feet 6 inches. 
 
 America, 26| seconds.-— F. C. Puffer, Boston, April 14, 1890. 
 
 220-YARDS Hurdle. 
 2 feet 6 inches. 
 
 America, 25J seconds.— J. P. Lee, Morris Dock, N. Y., May 17, 1890. 
 
 300-YARDS Hurdle. 
 America, 37f seconds.— A. F. Copland, New York City, June 18, 1887. 
 
 Running High Jump. 
 
 America, 6 feet 4 inches. — W. B. Page, Philadelphia, Pa., October 7, 
 
 1887. 
 England, 6 feet 3} inches. — W. B. Page, Stourbridge, Aug. 15, 1887. 
 Indoors, America, 6 feet.— W. B. Page, Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 23, 
 
 1888, and Baltimore, Md., Dec. 16, 1887. 
 
 / 
 
TRAINING. 259 
 
 /■ 
 Running Broad Jump. 
 
 * America, 23 feet 3| inches (measured from Scratch Line). — A. F. Cop- 
 land, Washington, Oct. 11, 1890. 
 
 England, 23 feet 3 J inches (measured from toe to heel), — E. J. Davies, 
 London, March 27, 1873. 
 
 Running Hop, Step, and Jump. 
 
 America, 44 feet io| inches. — ^J. B. Connolly, Boston, Sept. 25, iSgo. 
 Great Britain, 48 feet 3 inches. — ^John Purcell, Limerick, Ireland, June 
 9, 18S7. 
 
 Standing High Jump. 
 
 America, 5 feet ij inches. — W. Soren, Mott Haven, May 29, 1880. 
 Great Britain, 4 feet 10 inches. — F. Hargreaves and E. Moore, Pendle- 
 bury, Eng., Aug. 5, 1871. 
 
 Standing Broad Jump. 
 
 America, 10 feet 9} inches. — M. W. Ford, New York City, April 23, 
 
 1885. 
 England, 10 feet 5 inches. — ^J. J. Tickle, Manchester, Sept. 2, 1871. 
 
 Pole Vault for Height. 
 
 America, 11 feet 5 inches. — H. H. Baxter, N. Y. City, Oct. 15, 1887. 
 England, 11 feet 7 inches. — E. L. Stones, Southport, June 2, 1888. 
 
 Pole Vault for Distance. 
 America, 26 feet 4^ inches. — A. H. Green, Boston, April 14, 1890. 
 
 Throwing 5 6-pound Weight for Height. 
 
 America, 15 feet 2 inches. — J. S. Mitchell, Boston, April 14, 1890. 
 Great Britain, 13 feet ^ inch. — J. S. Mitchell, Ballylanders, Ireland, 
 Oct. 8, 1887. 
 
 Throwing 5 6-pound Weight for Distance. 
 
 America, 32 feet 10 inches. — C. A. J. Queckberner, Washington, Oct. 
 II, 1890. 
 
 * Not yet allowed by the Amateur Athletic Union. 
 
26o TRAINING. 
 
 Putting i 6-pound Shot. 
 
 * America, 46 feet 2 inches. — G. R. Gray, New York City, Sept. 20, 
 
 1890. 
 Great Britain, 44 feet loj inches. — J. O'Brien, Dublin, Ireland, July 
 
 II, 1885. 
 
 Putting 24-pouND Shot. 
 America, 33 feet 11} inches. — G. R. Gray, Boston, April 14, 1890. 
 
 Throwing i 6-pound Hammer. 
 
 America, 133 feet 8 inches. — ^J. S. Mitchell, Elkton, Md., Oct. 10, 1889. 
 Great Britain, 126 feet 4 inches. — P. Lawless, Cork, Ire., Sept. 5, 1889. 
 
 * Not yet allowed by the Amateur Athletic Union. 
 
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 Yankee, Irish, French, Dutch, and Negro. Containing 500 pages. 
 Bound in cloth, with characteristic design in black and gold stamps. 
 Price $1.50 
 
 THE STANDARD HOYLE.-A new and reliable 
 authority on all games now played in the United States. This book is, 
 without question, the most complete on the subject, containing in ad- 
 dition to all the games of skill and chance, thirty-five new games never 
 before published in any book. Every game in our Hoyle can be played 
 from the Rules and explanations there given, which is not the case with 
 every Hoyle published. All the new games given are now popular in 
 some portion of our country. In short, there is no book of its class that 
 contains so much matter ; so much that is new, or presents it so accepta- 
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 BEALE'S CALISTHENICS AND LIGHT 
 
 Oymnastics for Youngp Folks.— 120 Illustrations 
 from Life by Photographic Process, containing Broom and 
 Fan Drills, Marches, Fencing, Club, Wand, and Dumb Bell 
 Exercises, Swimming, and Music for marching. This is the 
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 MANUAL OF SWEDISH DRILL, based on 
 liing's System, as used in the London Board Schools. Com- 
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 to the Young Men's Society and Youn^ Men's Christian 
 Association. This valuable little Handbook is reprinted here 
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 understood, and embrace Marches, Drills, and Gymnastic Ex- 
 ercises in sufficient variety for most occasions. Containing 110 
 illustrations, diagrams, etc. Board cover. Price. .50 cts. 
 
 HOW TO BO WL.— A new and complete man- 
 lial* " Ten-pins" is an old and favorite game, and has re- 
 cently sprung into fresh popularity, both as an exercise and as 
 an entertainment. Our manual has been prepared with the 
 assistance of the ablest experts. Within its pages will be 
 found the Rules of the Game, as recently adopted by the 
 Convention of players ; Advice to Beginners ; Instruc- 
 tions IN Scoring, Etc., Etc. Every point needing it is 
 illustrated, and we are gratified to add that it has the appro- 
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 amining it in its published form. 100 pages. Paper cover. 
 Price 25 ct§. 
 
 DUMB BELLS, INDIAN CLUB, AND 
 ottier Atliletic Exerc38e§.— Clothing, Time of Exer- 
 cising, Weight of Bells, Position, Caution. Dumb Bell Ex- 
 ercises : First Position, Heavy Dumb Bell Lifting. Indian 
 Club Exercises: A Word to Beginners, Position in Club 
 Swinging. The Trapeze. Suspended Rings. The Gymna- 
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 Archery. Muscular Training. Striking-Bag Exercise. The 
 most complete manual published. Containing 128 pages. 
 Illustrated. Price , ... 25 ets. 
 
 DE VERE'S ORIGINAL LAUGHABLE 
 
 Reeitations in Prose and Poetry. We are pleased to in- 
 form our patrons that we have induced ** Mr. Wm. De Yere," 
 the great humorist and poet, to bring out his original Gems in 
 book form. No doubt a great many persons have heard these 
 pieces recited by different " stars " of the profession, and will 
 be delighted to get them all together in this convenient form. 
 Containing 62 original pieces which cannot be found in any 
 other book. Illustrated. Paper cover. Price 25 ets. 
 
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 A RITUAL OF THE FIRST THREE 
 
 Deg^rees of masonry, being an authentic and 
 reliable work of the Entered Apprentice, Fellow 
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 etc., etc., compiled from the works of Pythagoras, Herodotus and 
 Plato, and carefully compared with Rites and Ceremonies of Modern 
 Freemasons, by G. Kadmus. Illustrated by the Mystic Star, and 
 several sections of the ancient Egyptian Labyrinth. Adopted for 
 modem use by W. M. Senior, Jr. 200 pages, cloth gilt, price $1.50. 
 Leather cover, pocket book style, price ... . $2.00* 
 
 PAYNE'SSOCIAL LETTER WRITER.-Acomplete guide 
 
 and assistant for Polite Correspondence. Containing rules and direc- 
 tions for writing on various subjects, together with specimen letters 
 on Friendship, Relationship, Love, Congratulations, Condolence, Favor, 
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 BILLY EDWARDS' ART OF BOXING, AND 
 
 Iflannalof Atbletic Training; Illustrated.— This work will 
 bo recognized by experts as one of the most thoroughly practical and 
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 boxing ever laid before the Public. The subject is treated so as to 
 afford every useful information to the y<JUng beginner as well as many 
 valuable hints and points to the proficient. The course of training 
 advocated will be found useful in every branch of Athletics, whether 
 it be Rowing, Running, Wrestling or any other kind of out-door 
 exercise. The illustrations are from Instantaneous Photographs of 
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 HOFFMAN'S TRICKS WITH CARDS^ containmgaU the 
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 other, to throw a card. Large octavo volume containing 142 pages, with 
 handsome paper cover. Price 50ct8. 
 
 ALBUM OF FANCY ALPHABETS-A practical work for 
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 of Haney^s Fancy Alphabets which sold at 50 cents each number. 
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 THE WATCH AND HOW TO i^EPAIR IT.-ContainB 
 instructions on adjustment of main-spring, escapement, passing hollow, 
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 ing pinion, conical pivots, selection, polishing, and mounting wheels t« 
 lever watches ; Irostini?, snailing, forms of teeth of wheel-, crown wheel-*, 
 defects of watches, and a most u'^^e^ul set of tables of verse watch trains ik 
 reference lo their conversion to levers. A very useful book. 57 illustra- 
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 PAYNE'S RULES OF ORDEf?, an a B C Guide to Parlia^ 
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 PAYNE'S BUSINESS LETTER WRITEF (VND 
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 JIOYLE'S O AMES.— -A newr.iid complete authority on all games 
 as played at this present time. It includes ail the Card Games, Chess, 
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 other field games. The -ules ot all the games in this book are in accord- 
 ance with the modern practice of experts in every case, and the rules are 
 expressed in clear language so as to be readily understood ; and where it 
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 FITTER'S BOOK OF MOCK TRIALS. -An entirely novel 
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 daily life, adapted to performance by amateurs or professionals. Cloth. 
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 DE VERE'S WIT, HUMOR, PATHOS, AND PARO- 
 
 dies,— Being a new and original collection of the author's best efforts 
 in the field of wit, humor, and pathos. These beautiful selections have 
 been delivered by some of the great '' stars " of the *' profession,"' and no 
 doubt the *' public" will be delighted to get those gems in such a com- 
 pact form. Cloth. Price $1.06 
 
 THE COMPLETE DEBATER -Containing Debates Out- 
 lines of Debates, and Question^ for Discussion. ''How to Debate, and 
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 enibracing nine complete Debates and 108 Debatable Questions, with 
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 DUNBAR'S COMPLETE HANDBOOK OF ETI- 
 
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 POEMS OF GEO. R. SIMS, author of -The Life Boat " -Ostler 
 Joe," -Old Actor's Storv," -Kate Maloney." -Christmas Day in the 
 Workhouse," -Billy's Rose," etc, etc. The Poems of .VIr. Sims are 
 especially adapted to recitation : indeed, many of our leading Elocution- 
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