The title which Wefers won at Mott Haven in the spring of 1896 he defended with consistent and invincible running under all sorts of condi tions and on all sorts of tracks. He won the intercollegiate championship in the hundred again in 1897, and at the national amateur champion ships, where he had already won both the hundred and two-twenty in 1895 and in 1896, he repeated the feat in 1897. At this national championship meet in 1897 Wefers did 95 seconds again in the hundred and came within one-fifth of a second of equalling his world's record in the two-twenty. In addition to these well-known performances, Wefers did record time and better at all sorts of distances from forty yards up to three hundred, the latter of which distances he ran at the Traver's Island track on September 26, 1896, in 3o seconds. Wendell Baker's famous straight-away quarter in 474 seconds was probably as near as any one had come to such time before. Just what it means to do three hundred yards in Sag seconds may be vividly understood when it is considered that such a performance is the equivalent of doing three consecutive hundred-yard dashes, each in mi. seconds. When such a runner could hurl himself time and again down the hundred-yard stretch and not break the tape in less than the 95 seconds, set by young Owen six years before, it began to look as though man's limit had been definitely reached and that the best the human machine could ever do was one-fifth of a second better than even time. Six more years went by and then Duffey came.
Duffey had won the hundred at Mott Haven in 1901 on a sodden track and in a pouring rain. Fast time was impossible, of course, but in the same year, on another track, he had been credited with 95 seconds, and that he was a natural sprinter had for a long time been known. When, there fore, he came down to the intercollegiates in 902 and ran one of his trial heats in 9/, every body knew that something was going to happen in the final. The day was a perfect one, warm and fair, with only the gentlest of breezes stir ring ; the track hard and fast. Crouching beside Duffey in the final heat were Schick of Harvard, Westing of Pennsylvania, Moulton of Yale, and Cadogan of California. At the pistol, Schick got away first. At the middle distance the Har vard sprinter was still ahead, and Duffey said afterward that he thought this was what made him break the record. He and Schick had run as boys together, and Duffey had always been able to beat him. Yet, when he could see out of the corner of his eye that his rival was still a shade in the lead at the fifty yards, Duffey began to get frightened. It struck him that Schick was going to beat him at last. Now Duffey, like many other sprinters, ran the hundred in two bursts, so to speak, or beats. Many veteran sprinters actu ally perfect this method of running a hundred so that they breathe only twice during the distance. They take one long breath when the command is given to "set," hold it until just before the final effort is to be made, and then take another full breath for the last burst of speed. However this may have been in Duffey's case, the George town sprinter knew that the race was half over, that Schick was still ahead of him, and if his second " burst " didn't carry him beyond his rival the race was lost. He took the challenge, threw every ounce he had left into the running, and he broke the tape in 91 seconds and established a new world's record.
Every man of the five who ran with Duffey that day ran very fast. All were well up at the finish, and Schick, the 19o4 intercollegiate champion, probably did better than To seconds flat. A fifth of a second at that point in a race means six feet, so that a runner within twelve feet of the winner must have beaten even time. Moulton of Yale was third ; Westing of Penn sylvania, fourth ; and Cadogan of California, last. The unquestioned accuracy of the time of Duffey's sprint, and of the length of the course, established Duffey's record beyond the slightest question of a doubt. Four of the most experienced timers
in the country held the watches that day — Mr. Evart Jansen Wendell, Mr. Robert Stoll, Mr. Mortimer Bishop, and Mr. C. C. Hughes. The watches of the first three gentlemen all regis tered 9i- seconds ; Mr. Hughes's watch registered 495 seconds, the strongest possible corroboration of the testing of the other watches, and at least a vague encouragement of the belief that even Duffey's time may yet be beaten. The course was measured directly after the race, and found to be one inch longer than the required dis tance.
With the record of world's champion thus attained, Duffey proceeded to establish his claim to the title by consistent performances on all sorts of tracks, and under all sorts of conditions, both here and abroad. He won the hundred at Mott Haven again in r9o3 in gt seconds, mak ing his third consecutive intercollegiate victory.
He had already won a national amateur cham pionship as far back as 1899, and he had won the hundred at the English championships in 1900 and 190i. Duffey went abroad again with his new honor fresh upon him, and although the climate disagreed with him, and he went away off in form, he defeated all comers and at the championship meeting won again. For the fourth time, in 1903, Duffey again invaded England, and again he won at the championships and van quished all comers with consistent ease in various parts of the United Kingdom.
Duffey was the typical " born " sprinter. Even as a boy he found it easy to outrun the boys he played with, and although he tried the pole-vault when he first became interested in athletics, he soon gave that up for the thing he was made for. In 1899 he met and defeated Quinlan of Harvard, and the same season Quinlan went to England with the Harvard-Yale team and won. When Duffey won that year at the national championships, he began to suspect what he had in him. In shape and running form Duffey was again a typical sprinter. He was built like a watch. He had no waste tissue nor awkward joints. Rather short, but muscular and com pact, and with a limitless amount of explosive energy, he combined many of the qualities of a high-power electric motor and a rubber ball.
He was a rubber ball at the " trick " distances up to fifty yards, and the high-power machine for the last fifty yards of the hundred. The low, lightning-like scrambling start, such as men like Bloss were masters of, was Duffey's too, and he was able to add to it for the rest of the distance the steady express-locomotive action of the per fect sprinter. Duffey covered the distance, as we have already said, in two bursts, so that he not only finished as strong as he started, but there was in the last twenty or thirty yards an explo sive rush, corresponding somewhat to the rush away from the mark at the start, which was pecul iarly effective in beating out his opponents.
The limit of speed which the unaided human body, propelled by its own energy, can attain, has, obviously, very nearly, if not completely, been realized. The human body is at best but an awkward machine for producing speed. Any self-respecting hound or rabbit could make all our Duffeys and Weferses look like thirty cents. Every sprinter knows the difficulty of avoiding " climbing stairs " when stretching his stride to the utmost ; those who overreach themselves and fall merely because the brain's ambitious com mand cannot be obeyed by the muscles, the tendons that snap now and then at the supreme moment, show how weak are the runner's means compared with his desire. Some one may yet run one hundred yards in three-fifths of a second better than even time. One stop-watch said that Duffey did. We may know, at any rate, that the limit is only a hair's breadth away, and for what one calls practical purposes it has already been attained.