Athletics and Football (extract)

JUMPING, WEIGHT-PUTTING, ETC. 141 inability to take off at exactly the right distance from the bar. Thus, if the 'take off' is a little up-hill,a little down-hill,or so slippery as to make the jumper nervous of falling, he may rise from the wrong place, and jump into the bar instead of over it. It is sometimes amusing to act as judge in a high- jumpingcontest. One man wants to jump with the sun on his right, another with the sun on his left, one likes to alight upon the mattress which is always kept for the purpose, another is ' put off' if he sees the mattress in front of him ; another sticks a bit of paper into the ground to guide him as to his take-off, whileyet another hangs a blue handkerchiefon the bar to show himwhere he is to jump to. To all this a courteous judgecan raise no reasonable objection, but the competition in conse­ quence becomes undulyprolongedand wearisome to the public, Well over.