MAN'S SUPERIORITY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 228, 26 September 1907, Page 3

MAN'S SUPERIORITY.

INTERESTING ATHLETIC FEATS

In a short distance race (anything up to 67 or 70 miles) between a man and a horse, says a writer in the Grand Magazine, the man would certainly be vanquished. But as the distance increases the man's chances would become greater. Man's running record for 60 miles is 7h. 30m. 335., a record which a good horse could beat. But how many horses would equal man!?, running record for 100 miles, viz., 13h. 26m. 30s? And, supposing a horse were found capable of accomplishing this feat, could such an animal continue moving,, as the man did, till he had covered 150 niiles in 22h. 28m. 255?

Nor did this particular man, Charles Rowell, of Cambridge, cease work even at 150 miles. On the contrary, he put up_a record of 380 miles in 79h. 40m. _ 255. More than one horse, I imagine, would have been needed to cover such a distance in such a time. Yet Rowell's feat by no means represents the limit of' this particular form of human endurance. P. Fitzgerald, of New York, covered 500 miles in 109h. 18m. 205., and George Littlewood, of Sheffield, 623| miles in 14h. 57m. 30s. Where, then, would your horse be in a really long race? One of the greatest difficulties to be overcome in the performance of feats

of this description is the doing, more or less, without sleep. In this particular trying form of endurance a man' holds records that no living creature; —with the exception of the salmon or goldfish—could ever hope to equal. - Xn October, 1808, Captain Barclay, of Ury, made a match for 1000 guineas with Mr Weddeiburn Webster to walk 1000 miles in 1000 consecutive hours— one mile in each separate hour. The start was made on June 1, 1809, at Newmarket -Heath, and the course was a public road. Captain Barclay was 26 years old at the time and weighed at the outset 13 stone 4 pounds. The feat was deemed impossible, but the captain displayed such pluck and endurance that after a time odds of two to one were laid on his accomplishing it. Beiwe the finish these rose- to 100 to one. The last mile was concluded on July 12 at 3.37 p.m. and^the match won. > Captain -Barclay's feat, which only a human being could have accomplished, remained unequalled, in spite of many attempts to perform it, until the appearance on the scene of a pedestrian marvel named William Gale, who, in September and October, 1877, walked 1500 miles in 1000 hours, each mile and a half walk to be started at the commencement of the hour. The present writer saw the finish of that gigantic task. Gale, who was 45 years of age, appeared to be thoroughly done up. In the last walk but one he seemed as if he could never finish. Then, to everybody's amazement, he pulled himself together and positively sprinted the final jotirney, amid the frantic cheers of the onlookers. The tw-o last-mentioned achievements have put our four-legged friends completely out of court, but even they ,do not represent the ■-, full extent of man's powers in this direction.

Starting en Thursday, May 12,1898, and concluding on the evening of June 6, W. Buckler, of Newport, Monmouthshire, walked* 4000 quarter miles in 4000 consecutive periods of 9J minutes each, commencing at the beginning of each period. The majority of animals know how to swim by instinct. They have not to acquire the art, as man has, and yet, compared to man, how feeble they appear for the most part! On land it is admitted that a man in a short distance, contest must play second fiddle. In the wa ter—save as regards creatures whose natural habitat it is—a different story has to be told. Dogs swim well and fast, but where is the dog who could "live with" Joseph Nuttall or any other first-class man over the length of a bath, or a hundred yards? If it comes to endurance, again does anyone believe: cHat there is a quadruped in existence—except the hippopotamus, who would be poisoned by the salt water —that could swim the Channel? Yet Captain Webb did this, while Montagu Holbein and others have made vafiant attempts that have deserved, if they have not achieved, success. Drop a good swimming man and a dog in the water two or three miles from land—which would have the better chance of life? The man, beyond a doubt. ' If you take a man from the street and get him to leap a bar waist high, he will probably fail to clear it. Yet at the inter-university sports of 1876 Marshall Brooks walked under the bar with his cap on, and then cleared it, the jump being 6 feet 2J inches — still the Varsity-record. But in jumping as now practised the honours'go to Ireland. M. F. Sweeney has cleared 6 feet of inches in the high jump, and P. O'Connor 24 feet llf inches in the wide jump—both world's records. Jumping with weights as the oldtime professionals used to do, John Howard, of Bradford, cleared 29 feet 7 inches on the racecourse "at Chester on May* 8, 1854. He used five-pound dumbells and " took off " from a block of. wood raised four inches above the ground. The distance covered was within Bft of the longest known jump by a horse—the 37ft or Chandler, on Warwick racecourse, March 22, 1847. Curiously Chandler's great leap was made in taking a hurdle. John Howard also gained fame by leaping a full-sized billiard table lengthways—a feat requiring pluck as well as leaping powers. Judging by the way he cleared Butler's leap at Rugby, and by the fact that he could do 22ft wide as. well as over 6ft high, it is probable that Brooks the Oxonian s would also have been successful in this back-risking effort had he essayed it. A man—Shrubb—has run 10 miles in 50 minutes 40 seconds; another man —Hutchens—has run 300 yards in 30 seconds;' another man—George—has run a mile in 4 minutes 12f seconds. Of all running records this last appears most unapproachable, and it seems likely to stand for a very long time.

Men like Shrubb, Bacon and "Deerfoot," who have covered very close to 12 miles in the hour, could certainly hold their own with most carriage horses over a good road; if the gait chosen were walking instead of running, the quadruped would be badly worsted.