WRESTLING BY E. HITCHCOCK JR. an athenian wrestler using the pushing bag. from the vase of buchymides neck and arm hold.

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1 WRESTLING. 23 Soon I heard my comrades banging away, and then caught sight of two plover flying across the water straight toward me; stooping down I awaited their approach with breathless interest, fearing they would swerve either to the right or left and pass out of gunshot. But as luck would have it they came within range and I brought down one bird with each barrel, making a very pretty double, to my own great satisfaction. I saw no more game that day; the sun was slowly sinking behind the pine tops, and hastily joining my companions we finally regained the road and tramped merrily along toward home. An hour s steady walking brought the cheerful lights of home within sight, and we were soon seated at a bountiful supper, to which we were able to do ample justice, in spite of feeling rather tired after our thirty miles tramp. Then, lighting cigars, we counted the game, and found that the result of our day s sport consisted of eleven quail, thirty-nine snipe and five plover a fair bag, considering that we were amateurs. No ducks had been shot, for we were unfortunate and did not suc- ceed in getting near any on this particular day. The sleep we enjoyed that night was perfect, and the next day found us ready for another hunt. Days and weeks flew quickly by, and the time for our departure came all too soon. I advise those who have never made the trip to Florida to do so by all means. Nearly everyone takes a vacation in summer time. Why not change the programme a little for once and enjoy a few weeks of sunshine, with unlimited shooting and fishing thrown in, during the disagreeable Northern months of February and March? The expense is very slight, comparatively speaking. Better quail and snipe shooting cannot be had anywhere, and ducks are plentiful all through the winter. Deer and wild turkeys are to be found in certain parts of the State, though they are rather scarce, except in the wild, unsettled regions; still, good sport can be had in this direction if one knows where to go for it. The fishing is excellent, and good, satisfactory catches are the reward of those who follow the gentle art in this favored land. WRESTLING BY E. HITCHCOCK JR. in or most interest- edly watching a wrestling bout. You will feel repaid in becoming a spectator of such a scene. Perhaps you have admired the arm of the smith when, with upturned sleeves, he hammers bright sparks from the red iron which his skill and muscle are to transform into a shoe for your horse; or you have wished that you owned the back, shoulders, and legs of any of the eight men who step out of the Varsity boat after a practice spin on the river; but you will never be really envious of physical excellence until you see two wrestlers, well an athenian wrestler using the pushing bag. VISIT during the winter months to the gymnasia of any of our large colleges or athletic clubs will almost surely discover a group of figures either actively participating trained and in good condition, struggling for a fall. There is hardly a muscle of the body that wrestling does not directly lay hold of and pull out as though it were a spiral spring. Note how the long back ridges rise under the strain, and how calves and thighs and arms stiffen to their work as one or another of the contestants gets a hold. The arm of the marble Farnese Hercules is but little harder than is that of either of these struggling youths. But great muscular strength is not all from the vase of buchymides neck and arm hold.

2 24 OUTING FOR OCTOBER. among us the first case of injury, severe enough to be named, resulting from wrestling on the mattresses provided for the purpose. Bad temper? Not a bit of it. Lame arms and backs and necks? Yes, a great many of them, and there is no lesson in training more useful to the amateur than to learn that an overexertion hurts. A warm bath with a hearty rub succeeding the finishing cold shock, after the afternoon s sport, and soon the lamenesses have gone and enthusiasm to the wrestlers ufizzi gallery. that wrestling cultivates. A man who is simply strong cannot excel here. Anyone can wrestle, but to succeed in being at the top when the fall comes one must add to physical strength a rare combination of agility, patient endurance, quick appreciation of an opening, and as quick a muscular response to his mental alertness in perceiving an opportunity. Coolness, too, must be among the wrestler s virtues, for an angry man usually defeats his own ambition and throws himself. For a hearty, all round exercise nothing surpasses this sport, offering as it does an opportunity to develop both wits and muscles. It was a belief in this fact that led to its introduction to our Cornell University gymnasium, so that now every day the instructor, Mr. Nelligan (himself a very old, young wrestler), finds his time pretty fully employed in illustrating holds, breaks and doubles to a large number of ardent emulators. Accidents? No. I have yet to see greco-roman antique. the wrestlers ufizzi gallery. try a new application of a grapevine or Nelson is as strong as ever. None of our athletic competitions can boast of greater age foot racing, perhaps, excepted than wrestling. It is interesting to note how comparatively little change has been made in the rules governing catch-as-catch-can (which of modern styles practically comprises all others) since the time when Socrates used to go to his wrestling exercises, and when the other boys demurred about trying a fall with Alcibiades, because, as they asserted, he did not wrestle fairly and

3 Engraved by Burnham. A WINTER S MORNING AT CORNELL.

4 26 OUTING FOR OCTOBER. modern neck and arm hold. according to rule, but bit and scratched like an old woman. Historians tell us many interesting things of this sport which went to make up a part of the education of the Greek youth. It was by no means an unknown exercise among the people of Rome and of other then flourishing states. The sculptors, too, have written a good deal of history in stone and bronze, and the famous group in the Ufizzi Gallery shows, in the drawn lines in the face of the under man, that the arm up the back was quite as painful a punishment then to ancient contestants as you or I would find it to-day if our Japanese friend Matsada were to show us how it is done. If we compare what we know of wrestling in the past, from its rules as we have them and from the pictures and sculpturing which have been preserved to us, with what the camera shows us is being done to-day, we shall be rather surprised that the differences are so few. Here we have caught our young wrestlers in practically the same pose as that of the Ufizzi group, and it is safe to say that our later grouping is a better representation of what might have occurred in Greece than is that of the marble. The sculptor has changed the relations of the figures to make as fine an anatomical display as possible, but in so doing he has, to a considerable extent, lost sight of the fact that he has been distorting what might have been the real pose of his subjects. No professional wrestlers would allow themselves to be put in the positions represented. The man underneath would not stay as he is placed in the statue, because he has at his command an easy means for escaping a painful position. The upper man would not leave such an opportunity open for escape when he has it in his power to force his competitor down. Now, the under man has nothing to hinder him from slipping around to the right and out, while, if the upper one were to have changed his hold to a grip with his right hand, a little force applied to bending the elbow of the under man would have rendered him powerless. Still, the group shows that they were familiar with the hold, even though the sculptor has taken liberties with it. Another beautiful group is the one here represented. From the fact that the man evidently about to go to the ground has not caught his adversary s legs, we may fairly conclude the grouping to have been made from the Greco-Roman style, which permits of no hold below the waist. It is not at all uncommon to see such a hold as this among our wrestlers of to-day. The vase of Euchymides shows us, by a very bad sample of drawing, that the value of a neck and arm hold is by no means a modern discovery, though a somewhat similar application of much the same thing, taken from the gymnasium of to-day, illustrates better the possibilities of the hold. In Greece, at a given signal, amateur contestants immediately began to wrestle, but among professionals, after the signal was given, there was always a time when, with arms extended in front, the men with cautious step walked about each other looking for a hold. Audiences then modern wrestling after the ufizzi group.

5 WRESTLING. 27 had reason for getting impatient even as they have now. The wrist hold seems to have been a favorite in the olden times, if we may judge anything from the sculptured history of our sports. From the tomb of the Augurs, near Corneto, we get a representation of two ill-shaped gentlemen in this position. Near them stands the instructor of the game, with his wand of office in his hand. The same state of affairs is represented in this picture taken from a dish from the excavation at Vulci. Here also is the trainer with his staff of office in one hand, while the other holds the from a dish discovered in the excavations at vulci. split stick with which he touches the contestants to call attention to faulty or un- tance, as in the case of Leonatus, who, fair play. One cannot help thinking when he went into the wrestling ring, either that the artists have made mis- rubbed himself with earth brought on takes in their choice of profession or else camels from Egypt. that the subjects would make a better In this oiling and dusting there is not showing in some other walk of life. the difference one would expect to find Our modern rules prohibit oiling the between the ancient rules and modern skin, and in this we differ from the Athe- practice, for we occasionally hear runians, for not only did they allow it, but mors to the effect that professional wresta regular attendant was kept at the pal- lers, when just about to declare themestra, or wrestling place, whose especial selves ready for a competition to begin, duty it was to superintend the oiling. The seem to think their chances of success not entire bodies of the contestants were oiled at all injured if one of the attendants hapand then sprinkled over with fine dust. It pen to spill a few drops of oil on their is difficult to determine just the reason necks or upon some other parts of their for this dusting process. Its use may bodies where holds would be advantagehave arisen from superstition or from ous; and they seem to rather like the religious belief, or even from supposed idea of having a little rosin dust sprinkled strength-giving properties it contained. on the inside of their arms, though proba- According to Herodotus this dust or dirt bly not from any superstitious or religious was sometimes brought from a great dis- beliefs. To be continued. down.