16. No put or throw to count if the weight or hammer be delivered or followed with any part of the body touching the ground over the mark. All puts and throws to be measured from the edge of the pitch nearest the scratch-line to the scratch-line, and at right angles with the same.
17. In hurdle races, the hight of the hurdles when fixed to be 3ft. 6in., measured perpendicularly from the ground to the top bar.
[HARE AND HOUNDS.]
Inasmuch as this game has become a popular pastime in America we have thought it best to make our handbook complete by giving a short account of the sport and its success in this country.
Hare and Hounds is an old pastime of English schools, and it is essentially a healthy game, good for boys and young men. It requires only one thing, plenty of good runners; and all young fellows are fond of running. Two of the fleetest of the club are chosen for "Hares" and provided with a sack full of scraps of paper for "scent." The rest of the club are "Hounds." The Hares are allowed ten or fifteen minutes' start, and set off across the country, dropping scraps as they go, throwing a handful behind them every hundred feet and scattering gradually. It is their object to get out of sight as soon as possible. The Hounds are put on the trail at the sound of a horn, and have to catch the Hares if they can. This is the whole of the game.
The first Hare and Hounds Club in America was organized in 1878 in Westchester county, New York, and held its first meeting on Thanksgiving Day of that year.
The idea of the club originated in a conversation on the Harlem boat, and the members were carefully chosen. The officers elected for 1878-9 were: President, J. J. Brady; First Vice-President, W. W. White; Second Vice-President, E. Nelson; Secretary, G. Heilwig; Assistant Secretary, G. Dolde; Treasurer, F. N. Lord; Executive Committee, L. A. Berte, W. S. Vosburgh, W. C. Hamilton, W. I. K. Kendrick, and J. B. Haviland; Field-Captain, W. S. Vosburgh; Lieutenants, F. H. Banham and W. Smythe.
The field-captain of the club is also called the "pace-maker;" and he and the lieutenants—who are denominated "whippers in"—keep the Hounds together and prevent the pack from straggling. The "Hounds" must follow the "scent" and are not allowed to cut off corners after the "Hares."