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a barrel-head three feet in diameter shall be suspended in the air.

A fair throw shall be one where no part of the person of the competitor shall touch in front of the circle in making an attempt, and where any part of the weight or handle touches any part of the barrel-head. A foul throw shall be one where the competitor touches outside the circle before letting go the weight. The measurement of all throws shall be from a point on the ground drawn directly under and parallel to the lowest point of the barrel-head. The order of competing and number of trials shall be the same as for the running broad jump. Weights shall be furnished by the Games Committee. Any contestant may use his private weight, if correct in weight or shape; in which case the other contestants must also be allowed to use it, if they wish.

Besides these standard games, the following are sometimes included: Throwing the Base Ball. The thrower is generally allowed to run a certain distance before he throws, and the distance is measured from the line where he delivers the ball to the place where it strikes. This contest is seldom found on the programmes at athletic games of the present day.

Tossing the Caber. This is a Scotch feat, and is a feature of Caledonian games. It is, however, seldom an event in the meetings of American athletic associations. The caber is the trunk of a young tree and is heavier at one end than at the other. The athlete holds it perpendicularly, large end upward, balanced against the chest, and running, endeavors to toss it so that it falls on the large end and turns over. It is usually made so large that at first none of the contestants can perform the feat, and then a piece is sawn off each time, after all have tried, until some one succeeds. If more than one is successful, the one who tosses the caber farthest is the winner.

The Sack Race is a race between contestants enveloped up to the neck in cloth bags or sacks. Such a race is usually held to furnish amusement for the spectators, but sometimes as a genuine athletic sport.

High Kicking. A tin plate is suspended horizontally by three strings, like the pan of a balance, from an arm arranged to slide up and down an upright post. The pan is raised gradually higher and higher until only one of the contestants is able to touch it with his foot. A high kick may be made either running or standing, and jumping may or may not be allowed. The conditions are fixed by the club holding the contest.

A Threo-Legged Race. This race, like the sack race, is run chiefly for the amusement of the spectators. The athletes run in pairs, the left leg of one being fastened to the right leg of the other, both at the knee and ankle. The men are obliged to keep perfect step, and with practice are able to

Kicking the Football also finds a place in many college athletic exhibitions. The competition is sometimes for accuracy and sometimes for distance, and the ball is kicked either from the hand or from the ground according to agreement. When the contest is for accuracy, two tall posts are set in the ground twenty feet apart, and between these a crossbar is fastened at a height of ten feet from the ground. The contest-attain considerable speed. ants then take their stand behind a Wheelbarrow Race. Sometimes line twenty-five or thirty yards from the poles, and the contest lies in seeing who can cause the greatest number of balls to pass between the posts and over the bar, in a given number of kicks.

in games held for amusement merely, the contestants are required to wheel wheelbarrows. The sport is increased when the racers are blindfolded.

Records. When a person has performed one of the standard athletic

tracks.

is generally agreed, also, that a running record must be made at one of the standard distances (see above), and that it is absurd, for instance, to talk of the best record at 155 yards. Any one, if this were allowed, might make himself a champion by running some particular distance which no one had been timed on before. A list of the usual championship games has already been given. The record rules of the National Amateur Union are as follows:

feats and has been properly timed or his distance properly measured, such time or measurement is said to be his record. The athlete who has made the best record for a given feat is said to "hold the record." There is much difference of opinion as to what a "record " is, some thinking that the measurement of any feat at any time is enough to make it good, while others insist that the feat must be performed at a public meeting and under the superintendence of proper officers. Many so-called remarkable records are accounted for A new record at any distance in by the fact they were improperly walking, running or hurdling, in ortimed or made on badly measured der to stand, shall be timed by at

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least three time-keepers, and a new record at jumping, pole vaulting, or in the weight competitions, shall be measured by at least three meas

urers.

The Amateur Athletic Union will not recognize any new record, unless a report of it is made to the Secreary of the Union, properly supported by the affidavits of the time-keepers or the measurers, as the case may be.

History. Among the ancients athletics were held in high esteem. The grand athletic contests of the Greeks are described in C. P. P., in

the article OLYMPIA. (See also the history of GYMNASTICS.)

Athletic games have always been in favor in England. In the reign of Henry II., the youth of London had assigned them, near the city, fields where they practiced "leaping, wrestling, casting of the stone, and playing with the ball."

Henry V. was fond of athletics, especially of running, and is said to have been" so swift a runner that he and two of his lords, without bow or other engine, could take a wild buck in a large park." Henry VIII. excelled in throwing

"I can both hurle and sling,

the hammer, and his secretary, classes became divided in opinion on Richard Pace, advised noblemen's the subject, but athletic sports consons to devote themselves to athletic tinued in favor with the common sports," and leave study and learn- people. In a poem, published in ing to the children of meaner 1608, a shepherd is made to say: people." But with the rise of what is called "the new learning," some scholars began to speak slightly of athletics, and even Roger Ascham in his book on Archery says that "running, leaping, and quoiting be too vile for scholars." The upper

I run, I wrestle, I can well throw the bar."

The illustrations, taken from an old manuscript, show favorite trials of strength in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

Athletic sports were usually prac

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ticed also on church festivals, but the Puritans objected to them and from that time became opposed to all such sports. James I. issued in 1617 a "Book of Sports," in which he named those that were lawful on Sunday. When this was re-published by Charles I. it was severely condemned by the Puritans. When the Stuarts were restored, however, foot racing, wrestling, and other such contests were revived.

Great annual athletic meetings were held before the Norman con

quest in different parts of England, in very ancient times. One of these, at Bath, is described by Addison in the Spectator (Vol. II., 161). These meetings, which were generally in connection with fairs, lasted almost until the present time, and gave rise to modern athletic associations. In the 18th century, besides these rustic meetings, people began to walk and run on wagers or for prizes, and persons of high rank, who for many centuries had looked down on such exercises, sometimes took part in them.

Many of the contests were ridiculous, as for instance when there was a race between cripples, or a man on stilts raced with a runner, or when a jockey bearing a man on his shoulders contended against a fat man. Some accounts of records made in those days are absurd. For instance, a man is said to have walked 102 miles in twelve hours. But athletic sports did not become popular with all classes till the present century, during which they have been reduced to a system, especially in England and the United States.

There are now in the United States several thousand athletic societies, many of which have gymnasiums, some of them elegantly equipped. There are more than twenty such clubs in New York City alone. The New York Athletic Club, formed in 1868, has a large club-house containing bowling alleys, swimming tanks, and one of the largest and best gymnasiums in the country. Nearly every college in the United States has its athletic association and gymnasium. The college clubs are united in the Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and this, with most other athletic associations in the country, is governed by the rules of the Amateur Athletic Union, which regulates nearly all the athletic contests held in the United States.

scription and supposed money value. One of the players is chosen for auctioneer, and the counters are distributed equally among the others. The auctioneer then takes the cards and reads the description of the first article to be sold. The players bid for it, as in a real auction, and it is sold to the highest bidder, who puts the counters representing the price by themselves in front of him. The auctioneer then sells the next card and so on till all are sold. The player who has made the best bargains wins, and this is found out by counting the value of the articles he has bought, and that of the counters he has paid, which are in a pile in front of him. He wins, whose purchases exceed in value the price paid for them by the greatest amount. If a player bid more money than he has, it is a Bluff Bid. Unless he succeeds in getting the article, no notice is taken of it; but if, when he is called upon to pay, he is unable to do so, he must return one of his cards to the auctioneer. If he have none, he must return the first one he purchases.

AUCTIONEER, THE, a game played by any number of persons, one of whom acts as auctioneer. Each of the other players writes on a slip of paper the name of some article, and folds it once. The auctioneer then marks one of the slips, adds a blank one, and mixes them all in a hat. Each of the company draws a slip, and he who gets the blank slip is put up at auction by the auctioneer, each player bidding the article on his slip. The holder of the marked slip bids last, and the person bid for is sold to him. He may then require his purchase to perform some feat, and then the game is repeated. The auctioneer, instead of marking a slip, may simply open one and look at AUCTION, a game played by any it, afterwards accepting the bid of number of people with counters, rep- the person who draws it whenresenting money, and cards, on each ever it may be offered. One slip of which is a picture of some article always remains in the hat. The to be sold by auction, with its de-auctioneer should look at it, and if

The first association of the kind was the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America. A few years ago dissensions arose in this association, and in October, 1887, a large number of the clubs withdrew and united under a new organization known as the Amateur Athletic Union. The two associations continued thus for two years, but in the summer of 1889 they united, retaining the new name of the Amateur Athletic Union.

it be the blank or the marked slip, the players must draw again. The auctioneer should give a comical description of the person to be sold, praising his appearance and good qualities.

AUCTION PITCH. See ALL FOURS.

AUNT SALLY, a game played by any number of persons, who throw sticks at the head of "Aunt Sally," a block of wood shaped and painted to resemble the face of an old colored woman. This is placed upon a

in a given number of throws is the winner.

AUTHORS, a game played by any number of persons with cards, on which are printed or written the name of an author and the titles of several of his works. The printed cards may be bought at toy stores, but much amusement may be had by writing them out, introducing recent books and new authors The same titles, including that of the author, are on as many cards as there are titles, but arranged in different order, and the name at the top, which is in larger letters than the others, is called the name of the card. All the cards with the same words on them, taken together, form a book. Thus two of the cards in one book may appear as follows:

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Aunt Sally.

pole set into the ground, and decorated with an old woman's cap. A dress is then put upon the figure and a tobacco pipe is stuck into the mouth. Sometimes pipes are stuck into the ears also.

The players stand about twentyfive feet from the figure, and, in turn, throw sticks, twenty inches to two feet in length, at Aunt Sally's head, trying to break the tobacco pipes. The side pipes count, each, one point, and the front one, two points. He who scores most points

In this book there would evidently be five cards. Sometimes there are six or more cards in a book, but all the books in the pack are of the same size, and there are usually twenty books in a pack. Sometimes the cards have numbers at the top, which are the same for all of the same book. The cards are distributed evenly by any one of the players, and then the one on the dealer's left calls by name for any card he wants from some one of the other players. If the player asked has the card he must give it to him, and the first player then calls for another card, and continues thus to call for cards till he asks for one which the other player does not have; then the privilege of asking passes to the next player at his left, and so on. As soon as any one succeeds in get

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