P.S. (in an almost unreadable hand). I don't know what Sandboys has told you in this letter from me, but whatever it is, the head waiter says it must be a exagravation because Sandboys is given to exagravations—by which I mean he draws the long bow when he tells things about himself. Love to all,
Jack.
LONDON ATHLETIC CLUB GROUNDS.
The spring meeting of the London Athletic Club was held on the club grounds at Stamford Bridge on April 11th. There were three scholastic events on the card, and as they do things somewhat differently in England from the way we do them over here, it may be interesting to the readers of this Department to hear of how this meeting was conducted. The first event for the schools was a 120-yard hurdle race on turf over ten hurdles 3 ft. 6 in. high. The English hurdles are fixed firmly in the ground, so that hitting an obstacle there means a fall—and this happened at these games to at least one man in each heat. After all, however, it seems a better arrangement than our way, for it compels the racers to jump the hurdles, and if a fall does result it is a good deal more like sport to fall on turf than to carry away several ounces of cinders in one's face and arms. As may be seen from the accompanying illustration, the course is laid towards the grand stand, instead of past it, which does not afford so good a view of a race as might otherwise be the case.
One pleasant feature of the occasion was that the in-field was kept perfectly clear. None but the half-dozen officials whose business required their presence there were allowed inside the track. Another improvement over our method was that the contestants came out for their heats without any clownlike bath-robes about them, and trotted down to their stations unassisted and unaccompanied by a horde of attendants, trainers, or rubbers. Their costumes, too, were more sightly than those seen in America, each man's shirt being provided with quarter sleeves. In many cases the hem of the sleeves and the bottoms of the running trousers were trimmed with the school colors, and the emblem, when the contestant wore any, was generally small and inconspicuous. In America, as we all know, there is frequently more emblem than athlete. The crouching start has not yet become popular in England; in fact, in all these races only one man leaned on his hands. The rest stood up, and they were by no means as steady on their marks as they would have been if they had adopted the American method of starting.