Olympic Cavalcade

CHAPTER V - - I II R n 0 L Y M P I C G A M E s- S T , L 0 U I S , U . S . A . , 1904 THE holding of the IIIrcl of the Moclern Olympic Games in 1904, at St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., was ·to reveal the perpetuation of the Paris mistake and quite a new fashion in athletics. It was to prove, also, that the Un.,: 'i States of America were at that time too far- from Europe for a Celel' a( n of the Games in so distant a vem~e to take on an international natu , .s has so often happened during the long hi~tory, of the Games, extr~ ous factors were greatly to _influence their course and their destiny. – In the first place tht; Russo-J apan~se war was still in progress. Alice, wife of Theoclore Roosevelt, the Pt"esident of America, filled the rok of Alice Blue_ Gown, and the Louisiana Purch<).s_§ Exhibitio~ had assumeq the proportions and the title of the World's,Fait.~- - Many of _these circumstances combi~ed to- dfstract the attention of tlie ~ nations from the Oly?lpic-Games themselves.-The re~val of the Games at _ _Athens in i 896 had -been brought about by~ pure "'enthusiasm for sport. Those at Paris in 1900 ha~ bec01pe a part oCthe Paris Exposition, and the countrymen of the very founder 6f the Modern 0 lymp'ic, G?mes had tak<m but little interest in .them. Britain ·had sent only a few runnets to compete, a~d the composition of th~_v_ery _iuccess~l .Americanj eam has beeri alreadi ' d1scussed. The fnen~who won for-U.8.A;,.at Athens haa beensent-to Greece by a sirtgle dub, 'the -Bost<?ir A-.1\.., with) he ad~ition of Jame"s B. _Cgnno1ly and Bob Garr~tt. In 1900 h~lf i'dozetfuniyersi~ie~, plus the N_ew:York A.C:, scored the victories· '!nd by f 904 America-as a y.rhole wq.s se<;!kil}g <?n he! ?Wn soil for._the Oly~pic chaplets-of v:ild oli~e-: Thes_e bad. b~en carried off m Paris by i:l:).e collegeJads ana -the alumn.i,::hut Am~rica WG\.S worl{ing ouC the salvatio!_l of a truly national teal!?.. The athletic clubs were ~o steal all the thund~r <!t St: Louis: And once again the Celebratio~ was to be an integral pa~t ofa much larg~r -ex'hibition-llie World's Fair~ _ - - _ So far as track and field athletics are c.om:erned the Celebration was to provide.U.S.A. with an alll}o~t cle~n- sweep. It ;.,as, in fact,-only the-appear- < ance of Etienne Desmarteau, a Montreal policeman, scoring for Canada by winning the 56 lb: Weight Slinging contest, which :broke- ~e serenity of America's conquests. ~ ·_ · . · _ The_British, who had finished -second in Paris, did not send a si~gle athlete to compete at St, Louis; neither did Fra nce; ·the 1904 Gam~s were boycotted also by Yale, Penn and other of the American Eastern Universities. A~ that time, however, the spirit of· inter-club rivalry was very much ahve in -the ~States, so that the Games, in which~America_;,.. carried off 21 35" -