Cinder Path Tales

MY FIRST, FOR MONEY A S we gatherat the "mark," waitingthe sound of the starter's pistol, I will say a word or two of explanation that will help us to get away together,and run straight to the finish. In the first place, I do not claim to have anything startling or sensational to spring upon the public; though it would be a bit strange, would it not, if the thirty years I have spentin the training of athletes for sports of field and track couldnot furnish me a few tales worth the telling? Then, again,I wish itdistinctly understood that I make no pretensions to literary skill. I am like a hammer-thrower of fifteen-stone weight who undertakes to top the high hurdles. It will not be a graceful perform­ ance, and no records will be in danger; I shall occasionally trip; it is not my game, and I know it. I propose to hark back over the good things of the past, partly to please myself.