Various

“ The responsible person can be trusted. Not long ago, in New York city, a fire broke out in the upper stories of a great apartment-house. Two young women, one, a young lady visiting the family in a certain home on the sixth floor of the house, the other a maid in the same home, were confronted suddenly with black volumes of smoke, red tongues of flame, and no way of escape but by the iron ladder that hung along the side of the house. ”

“ The white-skinned, large-limbed wolf is the most ravenous, untiring, and dangerous of all arctic animals. Its tireless gallop, sharp teeth, snappish bites, and powers of a concerted action with its own kind make it possible for this predacious animal to live wherever game of any considerable size is to be found. In Grinnell Land he subsists almost entirely on the musk-oxen, who find their only safety by travelling in bands. When attacked they form a circle, and placing their calves and feeble members in the centre, by opposing horns and desperate bellowings stand off the encircling wolves. ”

“ With it all the lad was filled with such an exulting sense of liberty that he wanted to jump and shout and share with every passer-by the glorious news that at length he was free—free to be a boy among boys, and to learn how to become a man among men. He did not shout, nor did he confide his happiness to any of those who were coming up from the wharf, where they had just witnessed the departure of the great ship; but he did jump from the log on which he had been sitting and fling his baseball high in the air. ”

“ The enthusiasm of some of the English High-School team's supporters at the E.H.-S. games recently was so reckless that one young man thrust a hurdle across the path of a rival racer. The E.H.-S. men won the team race easily by about forty yards, but some one in the crowd upset a hurdle in front of Lincoln, the second Boston Latin runner, and of course the race had to be awarded to the Latin School on the foul. Fouls seem to be frequently the result of the enthusiasm that breaks loose over a team race—especially in Boston. ”

“ To his great astonishment and chagrin, as he neared the wounded animal the fox, lamed and bleeding, sprang up and ran off at such a pace that he escaped.
It may be added that the arctic fox, while noted for his courage and endurance, is not skilled against traps or pitfalls, but shows a proneness to be caught that borders at times on stupidity. ”

“ Speed between the hurdles is of the utmost importance. The secret of obtaining this lies in starting the foot, which has crossed last over the hurdle, forward for the first step before the forward foot has reached the ground, thus making the first step after the jump a very short one, yet a very quick one. This is a difficult movement to learn, but the athlete will find that it will lower his time perceptibly if he can master it. The instinctive act upon landing after the leap is to take a long stride forward with the view of covering distance. ”

“ Again and again he besought Frank to discover some tangible clew to the robbery. Frank had racked his brain in the effort to do so, without avail.
Tom Wetherby returned to his home in New York early on the morning of the day following the storm. He knew nothing of the robbery until weeks afterwards, when a long letter from Will Vaughan arrived, detailing the terrible plight of Wentworth, and rehearsing all the circumstances.
"Too bad! too bad!" muttered Tom, as he finished the letter. "I don't believe Wentworth guilty any more than Will does. His face is as honest and open as the day." ”

“ There is little to delay the wheelman in Albany if he is on a trip from New York or Boston to Buffalo and Niagara. The city, apart from its Capitol, is not one that you would naturally choose for sight-seeing, and with a good night's rest the wheelman is advised to go on his way rejoicing that he has not got to pedal over more badly paved streets. ”

“ Did you ever think of the flowers, how different they are one from another? And yet each is a flower, each belongs to its own family, each has its own place in nature, its own little mission to the world, its time to bloom, its hour to be sweet and to live in the sunshine. ”

“ There are two things of vital importance for the hurdler to work at in order to acquire speed; he should drive himself as fast as he can go from the crack of the pistol until he stops running, and each hurdle should be rushed at as if it were the last. ”

“ Chesterfield was sleeping in the desert one night, when a real lion came his way and was about to devour him, when, with a sudden perspiration, he remembers the toy lion in his pocket, takes it out, blows it up, sets it down before the real lion, who, reckonizing his match retreats, but immediately returns. Of course the oil-silk lion remains cool. He hasn't got any nerves to get excited on. The real lion roars. The oil-silk lion says nothing. The real lion advances. The oil-silk lion doesn't say a word. The real lion gets mad. The oil-silk lion stays cool. ”

“ Evidently the Albany authorities have not yet become aware of the importance of bicycling, for when they do the streets of the city will be paved in asphalt with more care as to continuous routes than at present. There are more asphalted streets in the city than are marked on the accompanying map, but few of them extend more than one block, and none of them carry you to any definite point. They are of no use to the wheelman, therefore, unless he is riding to some particular house within the city, when it is, of course, some help to be able to take advantage of even one block of this pavement. ”

“ A hurdle race is a constant drive from start to finish.
The hurdles should be cleared by as narrow a margin as possible. From the standpoint of speed it is better to strike the top bar lightly rather than to clear it by several inches, for this margin makes a loss of time. The athlete shown in the illustrations is E. H. Cady, and these photographs give a very good idea of the position a man should train himself to assume when clearing the sticks. The eighth illustration gives a very good idea of the distance of the landing-spot from the hurdle, as shown also in the diagram. ”

“ In truth the arctic wolf is relatively the strongest, as he is in fact the most courageous and enduring of arctic animals, [Pg 458] and these qualities are supplemented by unusual craft and caution. They average some twenty pounds greater weight than the dog, which animal views their appearance with terror, realizing his small chance of safety in an encounter. The single wolf tempers his desperate courage with caution, and so rarely attacks man. ”

“ As the last hurdle is cleared, the head should be thrust forward as the athlete lands on the ground, and so held, for this will greatly aid in the sprint for the tape. There is a difference of opinion among the best men in this event as to whether the standing start or the crouching start is the better. Those who take the upright start assert that they can get off quicker and are in a better condition to take the first hurdle, which is only fifteen yards away, and say that it is difficult to rise to the proper jumping position in such a short run. ”

“ The tenacity with which arctic animals hold to life was frequently instanced in our experience, and the thought occurred that it arose from the survival of the strongest and hardiest individuals in a clime where nature ever seems at strife with nature's life. A few days later two of our hunters ran across a pack of wolves, of which two were shot, but both escaped. A rifle-ball went completely through the body of one animal, which bled profusely. The wolf was followed for several hours by its trail of blood on the snow, but it finally escaped. ”

“ While the remaining wolves gave anxiety to us, yet this was not unmixed with a certain feeling of satisfaction that a brute of such courage, endurance, and craft had been able to hold his own against man, as he had against nature in her sternest mood. ”

“ But the athlete must restrain this inclination and force himself to take a short step, even if he has to work over it for months, or he will never be able to acquire skill or speed as a hurdler. That first short step after clearing the hurdle gives the runner his impetus, and the other two steps easily follow. The third step is shorter than the second in order that the runner may gather himself slightly for the spring over the next hurdle. ”

“ There have been a number of scholastic in-door games in and about Boston the past month, and about the most interesting feature of each has been the team race. I was sorry not to see a team race at the Long Island games a week ago. Such races are always exciting, and create a great amount of enthusiasm, the interest being shown for the school rather than for the individual athlete. ”

“ That was only about a month ago, and now I'm first mate."
"You are?" cried Alaric, at the same time regarding his young companion with a profound admiration and vastly increased respect. "Seems to me that is the most rapid promotion I ever heard of. What a splendid sailor you must be!"
Although the speaker was so ignorant of nautical matters that he did not know a sloop from a schooner, or from a full-rigged ship, for that matter, he had read enough sea stories to realize that the first mate of any vessel was often the most important character on board. ”

“ When wolves assemble in packs they seem to act without any fear of consequences whenever the community interests of the pack demand it. They seem to realize that by concerted action the pack is bound to prevail, and they accept the chances of death very much the same as a soldier does when sharing the dangers of a victorious charge.
The British expedition of 1875 to Grinnell Land saw several wolves following a herd of musk-oxen, on which the wolves of that region subsist. Despite repeated efforts the sportsmen could not get within three or four hundred yards of these very wary animals. ”

“ The Whitonville Camera Club was to meet at Will Vaughan's house Wednesday evening. Whitonville is a town of some size in the western part of New York. Mr. Vaughan, Will's father, one of its earliest residents, lives in a large old-fashioned house on the main street, opposite the Whitonville Bank, of which he is president. All day the overcast sky had given promise of a downpour, and the sultry atmosphere, charged with electricity, presaged plenty of thunder and lightning before midnight. ”

“ The tame fox broke his chain and made a burrow in the snow wall that surrounded the house. As daylight was then continuous, and there were about thirty dogs around the quarters, it was thought that the fox would fear to attempt an escape. After ten days, however, he took the chances, and successfully ran the gauntlet of Eskimo dogs.
Doubtless the female fox has the hardest life, her energies being severely taxed in caring for her young. She is always in poorer flesh than the male, and as a rule she is much more vicious, and less amenable to kindly treatment. ”

“ Before taking up the question of Chicago maps it will be wise to extend the route from Albany somewhat further into New York State. To begin this, we give this week a map of the city of Albany itself. The wheelman approaching Albany from New York will cross the Hudson at South or Greenbush Bridge. After crossing into the city, turn right into Broadway, and proceed along Broadway until State Street is reached at the Post-office. Turning left into State Street, go on to North Pearl Street, stopping at the Kenmore Hotel.
The city of Albany is not by any means a bicyclist's paradise. ”

“ Their dinner always awaits their coming. With the fox and wolf the question is more serious, for they live on flesh, either of animals or of fish. The long silky hair makes the arctic fox beautiful in winter, and, indeed, quite the whole year, for in the farthest north his color remains quite unchanged from a snowy whiteness. They are much smaller than the common fox, the total length, including the bushy tail, varying from two to three feet, and their weight is from eight to twenty pounds ”