The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEncyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Atherstone" to "Austria"

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEncyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Atherstone" to "Austria"This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Atherstone" to "Austria"Author: VariousRelease date: November 13, 2010 [eBook #34312]Most recently updated: January 7, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 11TH EDITION, "ATHERSTONE" TO "AUSTRIA" ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Atherstone" to "Austria"Author: VariousRelease date: November 13, 2010 [eBook #34312]Most recently updated: January 7, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Atherstone" to "Austria"

Author: Various

Release date: November 13, 2010 [eBook #34312]Most recently updated: January 7, 2021

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 11TH EDITION, "ATHERSTONE" TO "AUSTRIA" ***

Articles in This Slice

ATHERSTONE, WILLIAM GUYBON(1813-1898), British geologist, one of the pioneers in South African geology, was born in 1813, in the district of Uitenhage, Cape Colony. Having qualified as M.D. he settled in early life as a medical practitioner at Grahamstown, subsequently becoming F.R.C.S. In 1839 his interest was aroused in geology, and from that date he “devoted the leisure of a long and successful medical practice” to the pursuit of geological science. In 1857 he published an account of the rocks and fossils of Uitenhage (the latter described more fully by R. Tate,Quart. Journal Geol. Soc., 1867). He also obtained many fossil reptilia from the Karroo beds, and presented specimens to the British Museum. These were described by Sir Richard Owen. Atherstone’s identification in 1867 as a diamond of a crystal found at De Kalk near the junction of the Riet and Vaal rivers, led indirectly to the establishment of the great diamond industry of South Africa. He encouraged the workings at Jagersfontein, and he also called attention to the diamantiferous neck at Kimberley. He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of South Africa at Johannesburg in 1895; and for some years previously he was a member of the Cape parliament. He died at Grahamstown, on the 26th of June 1898.

See the obituary by T. Rupert Jones,Natural Science, vol. xiv. (January 1899).

ATHERSTONE,a market-town in the Nuneaton parliamentary division of Warwickshire, England, 102½ m. N.W. from London by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5248. It lies in the upper valley of the Anker, under well-wooded hills to the west, and is on the Roman Watling Street, and the Coventry canal. The once monastic church of St Mary is rebuilt, excepting the central tower and part of the chancel. The chief industry is hat-making. On the high ground to the west lie ruins of the Cistercian abbey of Merevale, founded in 1149; they include the gatehouse chapel, part of the refectory and other remains exhibiting beautiful details of the 14th century. Coal is worked at Baxterley, 3 m. west of Atherstone.

Atherstone (Aderestone, Edridestone, Edrichestone), though not mentioned in any pre-Conquest record, is of unquestionably ancient origin. A Saxon barrow was opened near the town in 1824. It is traversed by Watling Street, and portions of the ancient Roman road have been discovered in modern times. Atherstone is mentioned in Domesday among the possessions of Countess Godiva, the widow of Leofric. In the reign of Henry III. it passed to the monks of Bec in Normandy, who in 1246 obtained the grant of an annual fair at the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, and the next year of a market every Tuesday. This market became so much frequentedthat in 1319 a toll was levied upon all goods coming into the town, in order to defray the cost of the repair to the roads necessitated by the constant traffic, and in 1332 a similar toll was levied on all goods passing over the bridge called Feldenbrigge near Atherstone. The September fair and Tuesday markets are still continued. In the reign of Edward III. a house of Austin Friars was founded at Atherstone by Ralph Lord Basset of Drayton, which, however, never rose to much importance, and at its dissolution in 1536 was valued at 30 shillings and 3 pence only.

ATHERTON,orChowbent, an urban district in the Leigh parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 13 m. W.N.W. of Manchester on the London & North-Western and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1901) 16,211. The cotton factories are the principal source of industry; there are also iron-works and collieries. The manor was held by the local family of Atherton from John’s reign to 1738, when it passed by marriage to Robert Gwillym, who assumed that name. In 1797 his eldest daughter and co-heiress married Thomas Powys, afterwards the second Lord Lilford. Up to 1891 the lord of the manor held a court-leet and court-baron annually in November, but in that year Lord Lilford sold to the local board the market tolls, stallages and pickages, and since this sale the courts have lapsed. The earliest manufactures were iron and cotton. Silk-weaving, formerly an extensive industry, has now almost entirely decayed. The first chapel or church was built in 1645. James Wood, who became Nonconformist minister in the chapel at Atherton in 1691, earned fame and the familiar title of “General” by raising a force from his congregation, uncouthly armed, to fight against the troops of the Pretender (1715).

ATHETOSIS(Gr.ἄθετος, “without place”), the medical term applied to certain slow, purposeless, deliberate movements of the hands and feet. The fingers are separately flexed and extended, abducted and adducted in an entirely irregular way. The hands as a whole are also moved, and the arms, toes and feet may be affected. The condition is usually due to some lesion of the brain which has caused hemiplegia, and is especially common in childhood. It is occasionally congenital (so called), and is then due to some injury of the brain during birth. It is more usually associated with hemiplegia, in which condition there is first of all complete voluntary immobility of the parts affected: but later, as there is a return of a certain amount of power over the limbs affected, the slow rhythmic movements of athetosis are first noticed. This never develops, however, where there is no recovery of voluntary power. Its distribution is thus nearly always hemiplegic, and it is often associated with more or less mental impairment. The movements may or may not continue during sleep. They cannot be arrested for more than a moment by will power, and are aggravated by voluntary movements. The prognosis is unsatisfactory, as the condition usually continues unchanged for years, though improvement occasionally occurs in slight cases, or even complete recovery.

ATHIAS, JOSEPH(d. 1700), Jewish rabbi and printer, was born in Spain and settled in Amsterdam. His editions of the Hebrew Bible (1661, 1667) are noted for beauty of execution and the general correctness of the text. He also printed a Judaeo-German edition of the Bible in 1679, a year after the appearance of the edition by Uri Phoebus.

ATHLETE(Gr.ἀθλητής; Lat.athleta), in Greek and Roman antiquities, one who contended for a prize (ἀθλον) in the games; now a general term for any one excelling in physical strength. Originally denoting one who took part in musical, equestrian, gymnastic, or any other competitions, the name became restricted to the competitors in gymnastic contests, and, later, to the class of professional athletes. Whereas in earlier times competitors, who were often persons of good birth and position, entered the lists for glory, without any idea of material gain, the professional class, which arose as early as the 5th centuryB.C., was chiefly recruited from the lower orders, with whom the better classes were unwilling to associate, and took up athletics entirely as a means of livelihood. Ancient philosophers, moralists and physicians were almost unanimous in condemning the profession of athletics as injurious not only to the mind but also to the body. The attack made upon it by Euripides in the fragment of theAutolycusis well known. The training for the contests was very rigorous. The matter of diet was of great importance; this was prescribed by thealeiptes, whose duty it also was to anoint the athlete’s body. At one time the principal food consisted of fresh cheese, dried figs and wheaten bread. Afterwards meat was introduced, generally beef, or pork; but the bread and meat were taken separately, the former at breakfast, the latter at dinner. Except in wine, the quantity was unlimited, and the capacity of some of the heavy-weights must have been, if such stories as those about Milo are true, enormous. In addition to the ordinary gymnastic exercises of the palaestra, the athletes were instructed in carrying heavy loads, lifting weights, bending iron rods, striking at a suspended leather sack filled with sand or flour, taming bulls, &c. Boxers had to practise delving the ground, to strengthen their upper limbs. The competitions open to athletes were running, leaping, throwing the discus, wrestling, boxing and the pancratium, or combination of boxing and wrestling. Victory in this last was the highest achievement of an athlete, and was reserved only for men of extraordinary strength. The competitors were naked, having their bodies salved with oil. Boxers wore thecaestus, a strap of leather round the wrists and forearms, with a piece of metal in the fist, which was sometimes employed with great barbarity. An athlete could begin his career as a boy in the contests set apart for boys. He could appear again as a youth against his equals, and though always unsuccessful, could go on competing till the age of thirty-five, when he was debarred, it being assumed that after this period of life he could not improve. The most celebrated of the Greek athletes whose names have been handed down are Milo of Crotona, Hipposthenes, Polydamas, Promachus and Glaucus. Cyrene, famous in the time of Pindar for its athletes, appears to have still maintained its reputation to at least the time of Alexander the Great; for in the British Museum are to be seen six prize vases carried off from the games at Athens by natives of that district. These vases, found in the tombs, probably, of the winners, are made of clay, and painted on one side with a representation of the contest in which they were won, and on the other side with a figure of Pallas Athena, with an inscription telling where they were gained, and in some cases adding the name of the eponymous magistrate of Athens, from which the exact year can be determined.

Amongst the Romans athletic contests had no doubt taken place from the earliest times, but according to Livy (xxxix. 22) professional Greek athletes were first introduced at Rome by M. Fulvius Nobilior in 186B.C.After the institution of the Actian games by Augustus, their popularity increased, until they finally supplanted the gladiators. In the time of the empire, gilds or unions of athletes were formed, each with a temple, treasury and exercise-ground of its own. The profession, although it ranked above that of a gladiator or an actor, was looked upon as derogatory to the dignity of a Roman, and it is a rare thing to find a Roman name amongst the athletes on inscriptions. The system was entirely, and the athletes themselves nearly always, Greek. (See alsoGames, Classical.)

Krause,Gymnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen(1841); Friedländer,Sittengeschichte Roms, ii.; Reisch, in Pauly-Wissowa,Realencyc.

ATHLETIC SPORTS. Various sports were cultivated many hundred years before the Christian era by the Egyptians and several Asiatic races, from whom the early Greeks undoubtedly adopted the elements of their athletic exercises (seeAthlete), which reached their highest development in the Olympic games, and other periodical meetings of the kind (seeGames, Classical). The original Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain were an athletic race, and the earliest monuments of Teutonic literature abound in records of athletic prowess. After the Norman conquest of England the nobles devoted themselves to the chase and to the joust, while the people had their games of ball, running at the quintain, fencing with club and buckler, wrestling and other pastimes on green and river. The chroniclers of the succeeding centuries are for the most part silent concerning the sports of the folk, except such as were regarded as a training for war, as archery, while they love to record the prowess of the kings andtheir courts. Thus it is told of Henry V. that he “was so swift a runner that he and two of his lords, without bow or other engine, would take a wild buck in a large park.” Several romances of the middle ages, quoted by Strutt (Sports and Pastimes of the People of England), chronicle the fact that young men of good family were taught to run, leap, wrestle and joust. In spite of the general silence of the historians concerning the sports of the people, it is evident that they were indulged in very largely, since several English sovereigns found it necessary to curtail, and even prohibit, certain popular pastimes, on the ground that they seduced the people from the practice of archery. Thus Edward III. prohibited weight-putting by statute. Nevertheless a variety of this exercise, “casting of the barre,” continued to be a popular pastime, and was afterwards one of the favourite sports of Henry VIII., who attained great proficiency at it. The prowess of the same monarch at throwing the hammer is a matter of history, and his reign seems to have been at a time of general athletic revival. We even find his secretary, Richard Pace, advising the sons of noblemen to practise their sports and “leave study and learning to the children of meaner people,” and Sir William Forest, in hisPoesye of Princeelye Practice, thus admonishes his high-born readers:—

“In featis of maistries bestowe some diligence.Too ryde, runne, lepe, or caste by violenceStone, barre or plummett, or such other thinge,It not refuseth any prince or kynge.”

“In featis of maistries bestowe some diligence.

Too ryde, runne, lepe, or caste by violence

Stone, barre or plummett, or such other thinge,

It not refuseth any prince or kynge.”

Mr Montague Shearman, to whose volume onAthleticsin the Badminton series the reader is referred, notes that Sir Thomas Elyot, who wrote at about the same period, deprecated too much study and flogging for schoolboys, saying: “A discrete master may with as much or more ease both to himself and his scholler lead him to play at tennis or shoote.” Elyot recommends the perusal of Galen’sDe sanitate tuenda, and suggests as suitable athletic exercises within doors “deambulations, labouryng with poyses made of ledde, lifting and throwing the heavy stone or barre, playing at tennis,” and dwells upon “rennyng” as a “good exercise and laudable solace.” It is probable that the disciples of the “new learning,” who had become prominent in Sir Thomas’s time, endeavoured to combat the influence of athletic exercises, their point of view being exemplified by the dictum of Roger Ascham, who, in hisToxophilus, declares that “running, leaping and quoiting be too vile for scholars.”

In the 16th century the great football match played annually at Chester was abolished in favour of a series of foot-races, which took place in the presence of the mayor. A list of the common sports of that time is contained in some verses by Randel Holme, a minstrel of the North country, and makes mention of throwing the sledge, jumping, “wrastling,” stool-ball (cricket), running, pitching the bar, shooting, playing loggets, “nine holes or ten pins,” “football by the shinnes,” leap-frog, morris, shove-groat, leaping the bonfire, stow-ball (golf), and many other outdoor and indoor sports, some of them now obsolete. Shakespeare and the other Elizabethan poets abound in allusions to sport, which formed an important feature in school life and at every fair. The Stuart kings were warm encouragers of sport, theBasilikon Doronof James I., written for his son, containing a recommendation to the young prince to practise “running, leaping, wrestling, fencing, dancing, and playing at the caitch, or tennise, archerie, palle-malle, and such like other fair and pleasant field games.”

An extraordinary variety of sports has been popular in Great Britain with high and low for the past five centuries, no other country comparing with it in this respect. Nor have Ireland and Scotland lagged behind England in athletic prowess. Indeed, so far as history and legend record, Ireland boasts of by far the most ancient organized sports known, the Tailtin Games, or Lugnasad, traditionally established by Lugaid of the Long Arm, one of the gods of Dia and Ana, in honour of his foster-mother Tailti, some three thousand years ago. For many centuries these games, and others like them, were kept up in Ireland, and though the almost constant wars which harried the country finally destroyed their organization, yet the Irish have always been, and still are, a very important factor in British athletics, as well as in America and the colonies.

The Scottish people have, like the Irish, ever delighted in feats of strength and skill, especially the Celtic highlanders, the character of whose country and mode of life have, however, prevented organized athletics from attaining the same prominence as in England. Nevertheless, the celebrated Highland games held at Braemar, Bridge of Allan, Luss, Aboyne and other places have served to bring into prominence many athletes of the first class, although the records, on account of the roughness of the grounds, have not generally vied with those made farther south.

The Briton does not lose his love of sport upon leaving his native soil, and the development of athletics in the United States and the British colonies has kept step with that of the mother-land. Upon the continent of Europe sports have occupied a more or less prominent place in the life of the nations, but their development has been but an echo of that in Great Britain. A great advance, however, has been made since the institution of the modern Olympic games.

About the year 1812 the Royal Military College at Sandhurst inaugurated regular athletic sports, but the example was not followed until about 1840, when Rugby, Eton, Harrow, Shrewsbury and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich came to the front, the “Crick Run” at Rugby having been started in 1837. At the two great English universities there were no organized sports of any kind until 1850, when Exeter College, Oxford, held a meeting; this example has been followed, one after the other, by the other colleges of both institutions. The first contest between Oxford and Cambridge occurred at Oxford in 1864, the programme consisting of eight events, of which four were won by each side. The same year saw the first contest of the Civil Servants, still an annual event.

In 1866 the Amateur Athletic Club was formed in London for “gentlemen amateurs,” most of its members being old university men. Its first championship meeting, held in that year, was the beginning of a series afterwards continued to the present day by the Amateur Athletic Association, founded in 1880, which has jurisdiction over British athletic sports. The most important individual English athletic organization is the London Athletic Club, which antedated the Amateur Athletic Club, and whose meetings have always been the most important events except the championships.

In America a revival of interest in athletic sports took place about the year 1870. Ten years later was formed the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America, which, in 1888, became the Amateur Athletic Union. This body controls athletics throughout the United States, and is allied with the Canadian Amateur Athletic Association. It is supreme in matters of amateur status, records and licensing of meetings, and has control over the following branches of sport: basket-ball, billiards, boxing, fencing (in connexion with the Amateur Fencers’ League of America), gymnastics, hand-ball (fives), running, jumping, walking, weight-putting (hammer, shot, discus, weights), hurdle-racing, lacrosse, pole-vaulting, swimming, tugs-of-war and wrestling. The Amateur Athletic Union has eight sectional groups, and is allied with the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (founded 1876) and the Western Intercollegiate Association. The first American intercollegiate athletic meeting took place at Saratoga in 1873, only three universities competing, though the next year there were eight and in 1875 thirteen. Professional athletes in America are confined almost entirely to base-ball, boxing, bicycling, wrestling and physical training.

The Canadian athletic championships are held independently of the American. Annual championship meetings are also held in South Africa, New Zealand and the different states of Australia. For the Australasian championships New Zealand joins with Australia.

The organization of university sports in America differs from that at Oxford and Cambridge, where there is no official control on the part of the university authorities, and where a man is eligible to represent his college or university while in residence.In nearly all American universities and colleges athletic and other sports are under the general control of faculty committees, to which the undergraduate athletic committees are subordinate, and which have the power to forbid the participation of any student who has not attained a certain standard of scholarship. For some years prior to 1906 no student of an American university was allowed to represent his university in any sport for longer than four years. Early in that year, however, many of the most important institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Pennsylvania, entered upon a new agreement, that only students who have been in residence one year should play in ’varsity teams in any branch of athletics and that no student should play longer than three years. This, together with many other reformatory changes, was directly due to a widespread outcry against the growing roughness of play exhibited in American football, basket-ball, hockey and other sports, the too evident desire to win at all hazards, the extraordinary luxury of the training equipment, and the enormous gate-receipts of many of the large institutions—the Yale Athletic Association held a surplus of about $100,000 (£20,000) in December 1905, after deducting immense amounts for expenses. The new rule against the participation of freshmen in ’varsity sports was to discourage the practice of offering material advantages of different kinds to promising athletes, generally those at preparatory schools, to induce them to become students at certain universities.

At the present day athletic sports are usually understood to consist of those events recognized in the championship programmes of the different countries. Those in the competitions between Oxford and Cambridge are the 100 yards, 440 yards, 880 yards, 1-mile and 3-mile runs; 120 yards hurdle-race; high and long jumps; throwing the hammer; and putting the weight (shot). To the above list the English A.A.A. adds the 4-mile and 10-mile runs; the 2-mile and 7-mile walking races; the 2-mile steeplechase; and the pole-vault. The American intercollegiate programme is identical with that of the Oxford-Cambridge meeting, except that a 2-mile run takes the place of the 3-mile, and the pole-vault is added. The American A.A.U. programme includes the 100 yards, 220 yards, 440 yards, 880 yards, 1-mile and 5-mile runs; 120 yards high-hurdle race; 220 yards low-hurdle race; high and broad (long) jumps; throwing the hammer; throwing 56-℔ weight; putting 16-℔ shot; throwing the discus; and pole-vault. Of these the running contests are called “track athletics,” and the rest “field” events.

International athletic contests of any importance have, with the exception of the modern Olympic games, invariably taken place between Britons, Americans and Canadians, the continental European countries having as yet produced few track or field athletes of the first class, although the interest in sports in general has greatly increased in Europe during the last ten years. In 1844 George Seward, an American professional runner, visited England and competed with success against the best athletes there; and in 1863 Louis Bennett, called “Deerfoot,” a full-blooded Seneca Indian, repeated Seward’s triumphs, establishing running records up to 12 miles. In 1878 the Canadian, C.C. McIvor, champion sprinter of America, went to England, but failed to beat his British professional rivals. In 1881 L.E. Myers of New York and E.E. Merrill of Boston competed successfully in England, Myers winning every short-distance championship except the 100-yards, and Merrill all the walking championships save the 7-miles. The same year W.C. Davies of England won the 5-mile championship of America, but, like several other British runners who have had success in America, he competed under the colours of an American club. In 1882 the famous English runner, W.G. George, ran against Myers in America in races of 1 mile, ¾ mile and ½ mile, winning over the first two distances. In 1884 Myers again went to England and made new British records over 500, 600, 800 and 1000 yards, and world’s records over ½ mile and 1200 yards. The next year he won both the British ¼-mile and ½-mile championships. The same year a team of Irish athletes, among them W.J.M. Barry, won several Canadian championships. In 1888 a team of the Manhattan Athletic Club, New York, competed in England with fair success, and during the same season an Irish team from the Gaelic Athletic Association visited America without much success. In 1890 a team from the Salford Harriers was invited to America by the Manhattan Athletic Club, but the evidently commercial character of the enterprise caused its failure. One of the Harriers, E.W. Parry, won the American steeplechase championship. The next year saw another visit to Europe of the Manhattan athletes, who had fair success in England and won every event at Paris. In 1895 the London Athletic Club team competed in New York against the New York Athletic Club, but lost every one of the eleven events, several new records being established. During the previous summer (1894) occurred the first of the international matches between British and American universities which still retain their place as the most interesting athletic event. In that contest, which took place at Queen’s Club, London, Oxford beat Yale by 5½ to 3½ events. The next summer Cambridge, as the champion English university, visited America and was beaten by Yale (3 to 8). In 1899 both British universities competed at Queen’s Club against the combined athletes of Harvard and Yale, who were beaten by the odd event. The return match took place between the same universities at New York in the summer of 1901, the Americans winning 6 to 3 events. In 1904 Harvard and Yale beat Oxford and Cambridge at Queen’s Club by the same score.

Outside Great Britain and America the most important athletic events are undoubtedly the revived Olympic games. They were instituted by delegates from the different nations who met in Paris on the 16th of June 1894, principally at the instigation of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the result being the formation of an International Olympic Games Committee with Baron de Coubertin at its head, which resolved that games should be held every fourth year in a different country. The first modern Olympiad took place at Athens, 6th to 12th April 1896, in the ancient stadium, which was rebuilt through the liberality of a Greek merchant and seated about 45,000 people. The programme of events included the usual field and track sports, gymnastics, wrestling, pole-climbing, lawn tennis, fencing, rifle and revolver shooting, weight-lifting, swimming, the Marathon race and bicycle racing. Among the contestants were representatives of nearly every European nation, besides Americans and Australians. Great Britain took little direct interest in the occasion and was inadequately represented, but the United States sent five men from Boston and four from Princeton University, who, though none of them held American championships, succeeded in winning every event for which they were entered. The Marathon race of 42 kilometres (26 miles), commemorative of the famous run of the Greek messenger to Athens with the news of the victory of Marathon, was won by a Greek peasant. The second Olympiad was held in Paris in June 1900. Again Great Britain was poorly represented, but American athletes won eighteen of the twenty-four championship events. The third Olympiad was held at St Louis in the summer of 1904 in connexion with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, its success being due in great measure to James E. Sullivan, the physical director of the Exposition, and Caspar Whitney, the president of the American Olympic Games Committee. The games were much more numerous than at the previous Olympiads, including sports of all kinds, handicaps, inter-club competitions, and contests for aborigines. In the track and field competitions the American athletes won every championship except weight-throwing (56 ℔) and lifting the bar. The sports of the savages, among whom were American Indians, Africans of several tribes, Moros, Patagonians, Syrians, Ainus and Filipinos, were disappointing; their efforts in throwing the javelin, shooting with bow and arrow, weight-lifting, running and jumping, proving to be feeble compared with those of white races. The Americanized Indians made the best showing.

The Greeks, however, were not altogether satisfied with the cosmopolitan character of the revival of these celebrated games of their ancestors, and resolved to give the revival a more definitely Hellenic stamp by intercalating an additional series,to take place at Athens, in the middle of the quadrennial period. Their action was justified by the success which attended the first of this additional series at Athens in 1906. This success may have been partly due to the personal interest taken in the games by the king and royal family of Greece, and to the presence of King Edward VII., Queen Alexandra, and the prince and princess of Wales; but to whatever cause it should be assigned it was generally acknowledged that neither in France nor in America had the games acquired the same prestige as those held on the classical soil of Greece. In 1906 the governments of Germany, France and the United States made considerable grants of money to defray the expenses of the competitors from those countries. These games aroused much more interest in England than the earlier ones in the series, but though upwards of fifty British competitors took part in the contests, they were by no means representative in all cases of the best British athletics. The American representatives were slightly less numerous, but they were more successful. It was noteworthy that no British or Americans took part in the rowing races in the Bay of Phalerum, nor in the tennis, football or shooting competitions. The Marathon race, by far the most important event in the games, was won in 1906 by a British athlete, M.D. Sherring, a Canadian by birth. The Americans won a total of 75 prizes, the British 39, and the Swedes and Greeks each 28.

The games of the 4th Olympiad (1908) were held in London in connexion with the Franco-British Exhibition of that year. An immense sensation was caused by the finish for the Marathon race from Windsor Castle to the stadium in the Exhibition grounds in London. The first competitor to arrive was the Italian, Dorando Pietri, whose condition of physical collapse was such that, appearing to be on the point of death, he had to be assisted over the last few yards of the course. He was therefore disqualified, and J. Hayes, an American, was adjudged the winner; a special prize was presented to the Italian by Queen Alexandra. In the whole series of contests the United Kingdom made 38 wins, the Americans 22, and the Swedes 7. In the Olympic games proper, British athletes, including two wins by colonials from Canada and Africa, scored 25 successes, and the Americans 18. In the track events 8 wins fell to the British, including two Colonials, and 6 to American athletes; but the latter gained complete supremacy in the field events, of which they won 9, while British competitors secured only two of minor importance.

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