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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Paul Thompson 



THE FINISH OP A YALE- HARVARD BOAT RACE AT NEW LONDON 



Rowing is one of the oldest known means of transportation and the newest form of 

 racing. Trials of speed on the w T ater w T ere not cornmon until a little more than a century 

 ago, and to that fact is ascribed the slight advance of vessels of that day over those of 

 ancient times. But as soon as boat and oar making were touched by the magic wand of 

 sporting competition, radical improvements resulted. 



boxing" as it is practiced today, is be- 

 lieved to have invented the modem box- 

 ing glove and the division into rounds, 

 but he scorned to train in order to meet 

 a butcher named Slack, who belied his 

 name, with a blow like a cleaver, and 

 put the idol of British sportdom in the 

 ex-champion class. 



Slack's "punch" recalls the story of 

 the mighty swing of Glaucus, a Greek 

 farmer boy, whose father, after he saw 

 him use his bare hand to pound his plow- 

 share into place, thought him fit material 

 for Mount Olympus. Matched with an 

 adversary skilled in the fine technique 

 of Greek boxing, Glaucus waxed de- 

 cidedly "groggy" until, so the story 

 goes, his father shouted "Strike, my son, 

 as you did on the plow ;" whereat the 

 lad from the farm lulled his opponent 

 to a swift sleep with a hammerlike blow. 



Avoidance of brutality in even the 



most grueling of the early Greek con- 

 tests is indicated by the heavy penalty 

 a contestant was compelled to pay if he 

 inflicted death upon his opponent, and 

 again in a peculiar style of boxing, 

 which consisted almost wholly in defen- 

 sive tactics. There is a legend concern- 

 ing Hippomaches, who defeated three 

 opponents successively by sheer attrition 

 and left the field without having inflicted 

 a single blow. 



football was a rough game even in 

 Elizabeth's day 



Running, throwing, hitting, and kick- 

 ing are the fundamental muscular op- 

 erations of America's characteristic 

 sports — baseball, football, tennis, and 

 golf. The peoples of antiquity mani- 

 fested all these instincts in cruder form. 



Luzon hillmen, the Polynesians, and 

 the Eskimo and Sumatra islanders had 



