Athletics of To-Day 1929

PART Ill-The Field Events CHAPTER XV THE HIGH jUMP THERE are known to me no legends of great high jumps being accomplished in the pre-historic days of athletics. Donald Walker, writing in r834, states that " A good high leaper will clear 5 ft. ; a first-rate one 5! ft. ; and an extraordinary one 6ft." And yet, in r876, when M. J. Brooks, O.U.A.C. (No. z, Plate r) actually did clear 6 ft. zt ins., the famous Scottish professional all-round athlete, Donald Dinnie, wrote to the press to prove on d priori grounds that such a feat was physi– cally impossible. That Brooks did his jump is, however, proved beyond all possibility of doubt, and I am open to believe that long before the b ginning of the last century feats as great had been accomplished. The late Major R. V. Mostyn once told me that in Canada he had seen a lumber-jack in his rough clothes clear 5 ft. 8 ins., and I well remember one afternoon as a boy riding home from hunting and stopping on Redbourne ommon, near t. Albans, to watch some boys jumping; one of them in corduroys and plough boots cleared a bar at 5 ft. 4 ins. In entral Africa I have seen barefoot savages jump close on 6ft. and h ard often of a tribe in the far interior who had men said to be capable of clearing over 7 ft. And what black men are doing to-day I suppose our own white ance tors were able to achiev , when they too enjoyed the freedom of savagery. or the rest, I am bold enough to believ we have to-day in the United Kingdom high jumper , and indeed all classes of field events men, as strong, springy, and naturally gifted as any others the world can produce. But our men do not d velop 184