Various

“ Days of merriment and revel welcomed her to the palace, and then the coronation came. The streets were gravelled from Tower to Temple Bar, and freshly hung with purple. The crown of Edward the Confessor was too heavy for the girlish brow, and a new one was made for the new Queen, mainly of rubies red as blood. You may see it in the jewel-room of the Tower with the other crowns and the Kohinoor of Queen Victoria.
There were vast processions of horsemen, Ambassadors with badges and decorations, and so many collars set with gems it was said whole estates were carried on men's shoulders. ”

“ There Flea nodded her thanks, lugged the bucket with both hands to the head of the room, and set it down upon a bench. She would not offer her tormentor what she had brought, as if she were his negro slave. In her absence her slate had been laid upon her seat. Both sides were bare! In fact, the teacher had found her work correct, and chose this ungracious mode of dismissing her for the day. She instantly concluded that he meant for her to do the sum over from the beginning. The match had touched the powder-magazine of temper. Rising to her feet she surveyed him with desperate eyes. ”

“ When you first begin to vault, it is best to place the bar at about six feet, and to work over this height until you have mastered the knack of the event, which is undeniably a complicated one. As in high and broad jumping, the athlete must lay out his take-off and his run. No rule can be set down for either of these things. Some vaulters like a long run, and depend entirely upon speed to carry them over the bar, while others take a short sprint, and throw all their force and energy into the leap. ”

“ The usual question which presents itself is the one of expense. How cheaply can a person make a trip from New York to England by steamer, ride through England for a month, and return? Many a boy and girl has the time in school or college vacation to take this trip if it could be done at a reasonable figure. Crossing the ocean is now a much cheaper, quicker, and easier matter than it used to be. There are very comfortable cattle-steamers leaving New York for London which make the trip in ten or twelve days, and which carry perhaps twenty-five passengers. ”

“ No effort that the athlete can now make to avoid the bar will avail him, as the motion in mid-air is practically uncontrollable after the pole has been abandoned. It is easy to learn how to fall limp into the soft earth below, and there is never any danger attending this drop. It will be noticed in the illustration that the twisting motion imparted on the hither side of the bar turns the body so that the athlete falls with his back to the posts, having performed one complete gyration in mid-air. ”

“ We can imagine he looked right kingly, for he was of heroic height, and had not reached the swinish shape that in later years made him the likeness of a prize pig at the fair, a monstrous brute. He kissed Anne, called her the desire of his heart and the delight of his eyes, and vowed to love her and none other while woods grow and rivers run to the sea. ”

“ Kellar, who is rather an exhibitor of stage illusions than a sleight-of-hand performer, since his "feats of prestidigitation," to quote the language of the show-bill, are of the most simple character, has made quite a name by offering what he is pleased to call "mental phenomena." In one of the most surprising of these he almost instantly tells the day of the week on which any date of the present century falls. ”

“ Otherwise you are sure to make the swing too straight up and down. Let the swing finish itself out, as the fly fisherman does when casting, and let the return be swift and even. Keep your shoulders loose and your body firm, and as your swing lengthens your body will turn to accommodate it. But it must turn on its own axis, as does a rudder-post, and not sway from side to side after the fashion of a boom. And all the time you must have your eyes fixed upon the ball or you will never hit it cleanly. ”

“ Some one has taught him a bad trick in practice—to run around an obstacle after knocking the previous one or losing his stride—and he suffered for it. He knocked the top bar off the eighth hurdle, played his trick of dodging the ninth, took the tenth, and beat Cheek to the tape. Of course he was disqualified, but as an O.H.-S. man won, his error was of less consequence than it might have been. It is always better to work in practice just as the rules require that you work in competition. Then you have an advantage over the other man. ”

“ There is no trick that makes a better impression on an audience, and requires less practice on the part of the performer, than that known as "The Protean Pitcher."
The performer has on his table an ordinary quart pitcher filled with water, and a dozen or more tumblers. To prove that it is pure water, a glass is filled and offered to the audience, and the performer drinks of it.
All suspicion being thus set at rest, the trick is begun by alternately filling with water and wine the glasses, which stand in a row at the front of the table. ”

“ Instead of turning your body, you will be inclined to sway it over the right leg; rising on the left toe will throw you off your balance, and you will only be able to get a long swing back by bending your wrists. Now all these things are wrong, and tend to inaccuracy and feebleness. The thing for you to do is to take a short or half-swing back, and trust to practice to lengthen it. It is very important that your up swing should be slow, so that the arms may go freely out from the body. ”

“ I say the "bar," but it were better to say the "bars," for the vaulter will do well to buy a dozen at a time, as they break very easily.
The posts are placed ten feet apart at the end of the runway, which should be from eight to ten feet wide, and as long as possible, say fifty feet. Like the high-jumping and broad-jumping runways, it is made of cinders rolled down hard, and must be kept well dampened so that it may be springy. Beyond the posts the earth should be turned over and raked, so as to make a soft landing-place. ”

“ Now although style cannot drive a ball, there is still a right and a wrong way of going at the problem, and the first thing is to clearly understand the conditions of that problem. Let the player imagine himself at the centre of a circle, the radius of which is the length of his arms plus the club shaft, and upon whose circumference is resting the ball that is to be swept away. ”

“ It is not permissible in vaulting in America to move the upper hand on the pole. The lower hand may be brought up, and Hoyt, the Harvard athlete who won the vault at the Olympic games of 1895, usually does this. In England, "climbing the pole" is allowed, and athletes there frequently bring the lower hand up above the other. Some of them manage to make better records by this method too.
When training for this event the novice should not vault oftener than fifteen times a day, and he should never work with the pole more frequently than three times a week. ”

“ But an event followed the loss of his five canoes that quite changed his opinion. As a messenger or runner he had hurried to the scene of the brutal conflicts on the border, and had there discovered that Captain Moseley, the old Jamaica pirate, was subject to some spell of enchantment; that he had two heads.
"Ugh! ugh! him no good!" said one of the Indians to Tommy; "he take off his head, and put him in his pocket. It is no use to fight him. ”

“ The proper grip was illustrated in last week's paper. It is not the natural position for the hands when at rest, but experience has decided that it is the best for the swing. In particular the left hand should be well over the club, or freedom of motion is impossible. Get your grip by grasping the club as though you were about to strike a blow straight down upon an anvil, and then swing gently two or three times directly over the ball, describing a flourish that shall resemble an elongated eight. ”

“ There once lived in New York an Indian warrior by the name of Peter Twenty Canoes. Tommy Ten Canoes lived at Pokanoket, near Mount Hope, on an arm of the Mount Hope Bay.
He was not a warrior, but a runner; not a great naval hero, as his picturesque name might suggest, but a news agent, as it were; he used his nimble feet and his ten canoes to bear messages to the Indians of the villages of Pokanoket and to the Narragansetts, and, it may be, to other friendly tribes. ”

“ The working of the arms begins just before this twist is made, and consists of pulling with the right arm, and pushing with the left. This lifts the body, and the twist carries it over, together with a strong push against the pole at the last moment, when the athlete feels his upward motion is changing to a fall.
After the pole has been let go, all is plain sailing. You have either made your vault or you have not, and all you have to do is to fall free, or bring down the bar with you. ”

“ George W. Rollins, Boston, Mass.—The best kind of training for a ten-mile bicycle race is to take short spins of a mile or two at speed on a track, and long rides of from fifteen to eighteen miles on the road, on alternate days, for two or three weeks previous to the date of the race. If you can ascertain what road the race is to be run over, it is well to become as familiar with it as possible; but do not try to ride the distance on time more frequently than once in ten days. ”

“ Go away by yourself to commit your lessons to memory, and then, over and over, slowly, carefully, with your mind and attention fixed on what you are doing, read phrases, sentences and formulas, over and over, and over and over, and by-and-by you will have them by heart. I have often done this when I have wished to learn a hymn or a poem, and I know that hearing what one is studying assists the mere seeing. Then having other people in the room, talking and laughing, is very distracting to the attention. ”

“ Finally ground the club close behind the ball for an instant, and then swing back for the real business of the stroke. About an inch of the shaft should be left above the grip to give greater command over the club. The thumb may lie along the shaft or be wrapped around it, or one thumb may be around and the other along the handle. In any case the grip of the left hand must be absolutely firm and close so that there may be no possibility of the club turning at the moment of impact. The right hand may be comparatively loose, but, generally speaking, that hand will take care of itself. ”

“ The borrowed watch he slips into a pocket which he has sewed to the back of the right leg of his trousers in such place that his hand can readily reach it.
As the dummy watch is ticking, the one who holds the handkerchief will not suspect anything. The performer, approaching him, catches hold of the handkerchief and gives it a shake. "Go!" he cries, and as nothing falls to the floor, the watch is supposed to have vanished.
The sealed box is now shown, and some one is asked to cut the tapes. The second box is taken out, and as it is securely bound, everything appears right. ”

“ Other authorities say that the club should be grounded with its centre and not its heel opposite to the ball. As a matter of fact, the difference of the inch involved amounts to nothing. You want to be far enough away to get in all the power of your swing and yet keep steady on your feet. [Pg 649] No one can measure that distance for you; you must accustom yourself to take it without thinking about it.
As for the position of the ball, it should be just in advance of the imaginary line drawn from the left eye over the hands and down the shaft to the face of the club head. ”