Men of Muscle, and the Highland Games of Scotland, etc.

IO I\lEN OF MUSCLE. thing travelling the Scottish Highland games, and competing at them all. Knocking about from one end of the country to the other, sleeping in one town one night, miles away the next, getting meals at any hour when convenient, hustling to catch trains, and cramped up for long journeys, in short, the hundred and one worries and annoyances in– separable from following the games put the Scottish athlete, when his distances are compared, at a great dis– advantage. The amateurs make good putts, but they have everything in their favour. Old men can never be made to believe that the youth of the times are in any way comparable to the athletes of their young days. This seems to have been the predominating opinion of the aged at all times. Conan Doyle beautifully expresses this sentiment through Old Buckhorse in" Rodney Stone." This ancient prizefighter of the then old school loudly proclaims that Jim Belcher, John Jackson, etc., were only carpet boxers, who, in his young days, would probably have gone without backers. It's the same yet, to-day's old men will always regard the present athletes with disfavour, and in that they only re-echo the fixed opinions of their forefathers. Still, there is always the possibility of falling into the error of misbelief ourselves, and while giving the men of the present full credit for their merits, forgetting the many good points of those who have gone before. The conditions in every branch of sport are much more favourable to the athletes of the present than of the past. In running the tracks are faster, in hammer throwing the handles are better, while in cycling the machines have im– proved so much that it would be unfair to compare the past with the present in the matter of time. In putting a ball or stone of a given weight on perfectly level ground, with 7ft. 6in. allowed for hopping, and measurement taken from the toe of the farthest advanced foot to the first break, the athlete who makes, say 47ft. with a 16lb. ball this year has