CROSS - COUNTRY RUNNING IN AMERICA It is pleasant to turn from the artificial cinder track to the and freedom of the open country and from such gruelling contests as the long-distance races to the exhilaration of the cross country run. There is excitement in any sort of racing; and in spite of the strain and struggle of such events as the quarter or half or mile races, in spite of overwrought nerves and dizzy senses, veteran runners learn even to like these treadmill battles — to enjoy, in a way, their thrilling pain. But few, even of the oldest and most successful campaigners, would assert that races as we run them nowadays are " fun." Too many men run fast nowadays ; the margin of chance is too small. It is fun enough after the race is over and you have won ; there is infinite satisfaction in fondling the cup you have captured and thinking of the fight you were able to put up to win it — there is fun to come to you in a hundred different ways from the strength and confidence and running skill which your racing has given you. But as for the race itself — as for those nerve-racking seconds between the whistle-wail and the moment you breast the tape and are taken care of by your friends—in that there is no fun.
Cross-country running, and, above all, hare-and hound running, is fun while you are doing it. The farther you go the better you feel — it is an increasing joy as long as it lasts—you are free as a bird almost. Clothes, sidewalks, ridiculous stiff boxes called hats, ridiculous narrow grooves called streets, trolley cars, " L " trains, and other artificial means of locomotion are thrown aside; you're yourself and the world's your own. Are there ten miles or so of rough country between you and home — ten miles of thickets and meadow-land and brooks and rugged hillsides ? You've got your legs and you've got your lungs, and you know them and know what they can do. And so it's up the hills and through the thickets and over the meadows — hit up the pace and the devil take the hindmost ! In all the list of athletic sports there is none that will do more to brush away from you the dust of overcivilization, that will do more to set you on your feet and give you a grip on the world than the run across country.
Cross-country running started, of course, in England. English schoolboys were going in for hare-and-hound runs as far back as the beginning of the nineteenth century. The famous " Crick Run " of " Tom Brown's School Days " was started at Rugby in 1837, and at Eton an annual steeplechase was established in 1845. The boat clubs followed the lead of the schools and the general athletic public followed the boat clubs, and to-day the cross-country championship in England brings out hundreds of competitors.
Although taken up in a desultory way by American schools and colleges during the fifties and sixties, the first regular hare-and-hound club — the West chester Hare and Hounds — was not organized until 1878. A book of rules was secured from England, officers were elected, and the first run was held on Thanksgiving Day. Frank Bunham, one of the fast half-milers of that day, finished at the head of the pack, and W. S. Vosburgh, who was the leading spirit of the club, and the man most active in furthering the new sport, was second.
" They had a grand feast that afternoon," writes E. H. Baynes, in an article in Outing for October, 1893, " and wound up the day with speeches and songs. They awoke next morning to find them selves famous. The newspapers devoted whole columns to the chase. The comic papers also took a hand and represented the runners in any thing but stained-glass attitudes." The American Athletic Club Harriers, the next club organized near New York City, held its first run on Wash ington's Birthday, 1879. A. A. Jordan, the hurdler, was among its active members. As other clubs were organized the sport gradually changed and races over measured courses began to be interspersed between the paper chases. The first important race of this sort was the five mile run for the individual championship, held by the New York Athletic Club in 1883, over a course at Mott Haven. The third of these in dividual championships, in 1885, was won by E. C. Carter, the " Little Boy in Pink," who had just come over from England, and who was presently to prove himself one of the most consistent dis tance runners in the country. Club athletics were at the height of their popularity at this time ; the general public interest naturally spread over and included the new sport, and presently the Prospect Harriers and the Suburban Harriers were organized — the two organizations which were to have the greatest influence on cross-coun try running. The Suburban Harriers were or ganized in New York City, while the Prospect Harriers were a Brooklyn organization and named after the park where so many of their runs were to be held. Finally, in March 1887, all the clubs in the neighborhood of New York City got to gether, the National Cross-Country Association was organized, and the first team championship was contested. The Prospect and Suburban Harriers and the Manhattan Athletic Club each entered a team. The Suburban runners under the captaincy of Carter won, and Carter himself captured the individual championship hands down.