The style which every good jumper eventually drifts into or consciously perfects, is to a certain extent modified by his physical make-up and mannerisms, and it would be difficult rigidly to define what constitutes nowadays perfect jump ing form. Good jumpers run straight at the bar nowadays, instead of approaching it from the side. The body is in a horizontal position as it goes over the bar, and the jumper generally turns in the air, so that he lands facing directly toward the direction from which he came. Slender men of considerable length of limb would naturally be expected to excel at high jumping, and generally would so excel were the jumper's motions re stricted to a mere spring, with a gathering up of the legs and little movement of the body. By kicking down and out with the jumping leg, and thus turning the body round just as the jumper is clearing the bar ; by kicking out alternately with first the leg that is not used in jumping and then the jumping leg, and giving a jerk to the back, shoulders, and hips ; by various movements of the legs and body, in short, athletes of all shapes and sizes utilize their various personal advan tages, overcome their defects, and make of them selves good jumpers. Nothing can compensate, of course, for lack of spring ; and this, which is quite another thing from mere strength or muscle, can scarcely be acquired by training, but is born into an athlete, like the sprinter's speed or a viva cious temperament. Given this " spring " and proper form, and almost anything is possible ; and one continually sees stocky little men, like Rice of Harvard, tying at the same height with long-legged men, and heavy athletes, like Ker nan, meeting slender, graceful jumpers on even terms.
With the high jump is always associated the name of W. Bird Page. Even though his record has been broken, no high jumper has begun to acquire the widespread fame that came to him, and there are any number of persons to-day who have heard the name of Page and associate it with extraordinary performances in the high jump who would have to examine the books to find the name of the present holder of the world's record. Page was the first man to clear six feet, which was enough to make him famous, and he backed this up by such a series of consistent per formances both here and abroad that when he finally cleared the bar at the then unheard-of height of 6 feet 4 inches, he was hailed on all sides as a phenomenon.
Page commenced jumping when he was four teen years old. His legs at that time were unusually weak, and he was advised to try jump ing to strengthen them. He followed the advice, and, as often happens when a man has some such incentive for physical exercise, he had soon made himself stronger than those who, being naturally possessed of normal strength, were not impelled specially to develop it. When he had attained his growth and his championship jumping form, Page was 5 feet 65 inches in height and pretty well built. He first appeared at Pennsylvania in the fall of 1884, when he won the high jump with a jump of 5 feet 5 inches. It was on the grounds of the Young American Cricket Club, in Philadel phia, on May 14, 1885, that Page first demonstrated he could clear 6 feet. The actual measurement of this jump, according to some authorities, was 5 feet ill inches, but there was a mound of loose earth directly under the bar which those who saw it declared took away at least an inch and a half from the actual height which Page cleared. He had jumped 6 feet a few days previous to this occasion. On the record-books of Pennsylvania this jump is given as 6 feet / inch. Page, repre senting the University of Pennsylvania, won at Mott Haven in the spring of 1885 with a jump of 5 feet I z 8 inches ; the following spring with 5 feet z 1-1 inches ; and again in 1887, although in this latter year he was called upon to do only 5 feet 72 inches. None of these records repre
sented Page's best jumping form, and, therefore, although his 6 feet 4 inches stands as the col legiate record, his best Mott Haven jump has been surpassed several times. In the spring of 1887, at the Pennsylvania games, Page cleared 6 feet i inch, making a new American and colle giate record.
Page's remarkable six-foot-four jump was made at the Pennsylvania fall games in 1887. The meet was a testimonial given in honor of Page, as the champion high jumper of the world, and he appropriately used this occasion to put his record where it would remain for a good many years. The same seasons in which Page won at Mott Haven he also won at the national amateur championships, his best performance at these meets being in 1888, when he won with a jump of 6 feet 2 inch. In 1887 Page went to England, where he was almost as invincible as he had been at home. Jumping from turf instead of hard clay, he tied at the English cham pionships in 1887 with G. W. Rowdon at an even 6 feet, and at the Irish championships with P. J. Kelly at 6 feet z-g- inches; and later at Stonebridge, on August 15, 1887, he broke the English amateur record with a leap of 6 feet 34 inches. Page's jumping style was practically that of the best jumpers of the present day. He approached the bar directly from the front slowly, took off from his right leg and twirled his body as he was clearing the bar, so that he landed on the other side facing the way he had come. That his best performance seemed al most incredible at the time it was made is not to be wondered at. It is an extraordinary feat, when you come to think of it, for a man to leap with out artificial aids from solid ground to a height 94 inches above his head.
Once the six-foot mark was cleared there ap peared a number of athletes to keep the record high, just as plenty of ten-second men appeared after Owen had done better than even time. From Harvard came George R. Fearing, Jr., to win the high jump at Mott Haven, in 189o, 1891, 1892, and 1893, once at 6 feet, and again at half an inch better than that. Fearing's 1891 jump at Mott Haven of 6 feet was made after he was pretty well tired out from running several heats in the hurdles. He never, oddly enough, was able to jump as well out-of-doors as from a board floor, and in the spring of 1890 at some indoor games in Boston he made his best record of 6 feet 24 inches. Fearing was 6 feet 1 inch in height, and he weighed one hundred seventy pounds — proof that in order to jump one does not need to be a gazelle. A number of club athletes of the early nineties were good for 6 feet and over, but the greatest of them, and the only one to break Page's record, was Sweeney. Sweeney got into the game by winning at the national championships in 1892 with a jump of 6 feet. He defended his title successfully for three con secutive years, and in 1895, with a jump of 6 feet 51 inches, he broke all previous records both in this country and abroad. Sweeney already held a world's record with his 6 feet 5 inches made at the trials for selecting the men to represent the New York Athletic Club team against the Oxford-Cambridge team, and on the day of the international games, September 21, 1895, after every one had dropped out, Sweeney was sent against his own record. There seemed to be something in the air that day which made almost every member of the American team surpass himself. After two trials in which he grazed the bar, Sweeney cleared it cleanly at 6 feet 5-g inches. The measurement was made by both the English and American judges and its authenticity put beyond question.