The only artificial event now remaining on the Inter-collegiate card, and on the cards of the more important interscholastic associations, is the mile walk; and there is good reason to believe that within a year or two this will be relegated, with the standing-high-jump and the high-kick and the tug-of-war, to those regions whence acrobatic performances never return. Nothing in this life is worth doing or working at unless it is for some useful purpose, or unless there is an advantage to be gained by some one in its successful accomplishment. If the man who labors at becoming proficient in the mile walk does so because he believes he can afford amusement to the crowd in the grand stand by his acrobatics, very well. It is commendable to desire to add to the gayety of nations. But if he trains at walking—I am speaking now strictly of the heel-and-toe method—because he thinks he is doing athletic work, he is deluding himself.
Nothing, however, that is said here derogatory to artificial walking, as practised by the athlete, should be construed as reflecting in any way upon natural walking. There are few exercises for the general run of men any better than walking—walking across country at a natural gait, head up, chest out, toes turned out, and arms swinging easily at the sides. Such walking is natural and healthful. "Athletic" or "heel-and-toe" walking—exaggerated stride, heel pounding, toeing in, and all that—is artificial, and of no particular benefit. It is not harmful, of course, because it is exercise, and all normal exercise is beneficial.
The true test of the value of any field or track event is that of common-sense. For instance, it is well to learn to run 100 or 220 yards at great speed, because there are frequent occasions when it is necessary to cover those distances in quick time. It is well to train for quarter-mile and half-mile running, because if one wants to go to any place distant a half a mile of so, the quickest way to get there unaided is to run. It is the same way with the mile or the three-mile run. If you come to a brook, you use your knowledge of the running broad jump to get over it—not the standing broad jump. If you want to clear a fence (to escape a bull, for instance) you try the running high jump—not the standing high jump. If it is a high wall, and you have any knowledge of the pole vault, you likewise have an advantage. Hurdle-racing teaches you to get across country fields and fences, and both the hammer and the shot events on the card give good training for emergencies that may arise.
But there is no emergency that I can think of where proficiency in the mile walk would be of the slightest service. When it becomes necessary to travel a mile, running is by far the easier and the faster gait. There is no good word of any kind, so far as I know, to be said, for the mile walk. Yes, I will make one exception: it is a great thing for the digestion. I recommend it to dyspeptics! The rolling motion of the hips keeps the digestive organs in such constant exercise that they cannot become stagnant, and so perhaps for the American nation a little heel-and-toe now and then may be of value. But still, there are less acrobatic methods of helping the digestion than mile-walking.
THE ONE-MILE WALK.
From Instantaneous Photographs of Phillips, the Harvard University Walker.
