Trowsers are in fact the worst dress possible for all active exercise. They cramp the knee and prevent its free action in a manner which, while it does not interfere materially with walking at ordinary rates of speed, affects a runner seriously by the time he has passed over a few yards at top speed.
[TRAINING FOR A MATCH.]
The word "training" in modern times has come to comprise two separate branches of athletic science. The first is a system of practice on a special feat till the trained man accomplishes it with ease and certainty; the other and more important branch aims to bring the trained man to the highest pitch of health and strength.
When he has attained this point he is said to be in "condition."
It is plain therefore that a perfect system of training cannot afford to leave out either of these branches. A man may be trained to walk or run in the best possible style and fail in a race on account of poor condition; or again he may be in the finest physical condition and fail on account of defective system of walking or running.
The many races of the late champion Daniel O'Leary illustrate both these facts very sensibly. When he went to England to meet Weston and the great pedestrians, he kept himself in good condition, and used the best system of walking known. The consequence was that he was prepared at all points and beat all comers. When he came back to the United States he was pitted successively against Hughes and Campana, men whom he despised as opponents. Hughes was in excellent condition, but did not understand the science of either walking or running; and so tired himself out early in the race, which was easily won by O'Leary on a small record.
Next the champion met Campana, a man who began to run too late in life, and who then understood nothing but the jog trot for a day or two. As a walker he was nowhere, his system being so bad that he tired himself out when going at only four miles an hour. Here also O'Leary had an easy victory; but it is worthy of remark that he was more distressed to do four hundred miles in the Campana match, than he had been to accomplish five hundred and twenty in the first Astley belt match.
The whole reason was that he had allowed himself to get out of condition, and so found his system feverish when it should have been vigorous; while blisters that should have yielded to care rapidly increased in size and made the greater part of the walk a positive torture to him. It became evident that if he were to be pitted against a man in good condition with a good system, he would go under, and the next race realized the expectation. Coming against Rowell, Harriman and Ennis, all in fair condition, he broke down utterly and left the track for good.
Rowell, the winner of the match, is an example of the success which is sure to meet a man who combines perfect system and perfect condition. His opponents, Harriman and Ennis, while not in bad condition, were not models in that way. Harriman was too much of a vegetarian, and Ennis was always cursed with a rebellious stomach. The little Englishman on the other hand was in perfect condition and used a system of progression that exactly suited him. His short legs made a long walking stride impossible; therefore he took to trotting; but by dint of long practice acquired a trot which he could keep up for hours at a time, with no more fatigue than that involved in fast walking, while it covered more ground.