At the present day it will want a very Daniel to inaugurate a new system of judging in walking races.

The results of the loose practice of allowing 'shifty' walkers to remain on the path are serious. The many naturally fair walkers who take up the pastime, when they find in races that more unscrupulous opponents 'trot' past them with impunity, soon arrive at the conclusion that honesty is not the best policy, and upon the principle that corruptio optimi pessima become the worst offenders themselves. We believe that H. Webster the Northerner was a fair and fast walker in his early days, but in the championship of 1877 he simply trotted away as he liked from H. Venn, the London representative. The next year Venn had learnt a lesson, and although when he had first appeared on the path his fair form had been unmistakable, in the championship of 1878, when he met Webster again, the pair both ran more or less the whole way, Venn running rather faster than Webster and winning in the time of 52 min. 25 sec., which is in some quarters accepted as a best on record. Another result of the system is that novices learning to walk imitate their betters and so soon break into a run, leaning their body forward to trot as soon as they begin to tire. The result is what Westhall calls an 'undignified' trot.

The attitude is not only undignified, but is in most cases hideously ugly, which no fair running or fair walking is. In an ordinary walking handicap the public is thus treated to an exhibition in which more than half the competitors are in ridiculous and contorted attitudes. Naturally spectators are more inclined to laugh than to admire, and neither treat the affair as serious, nor take any interest in the result except upon the occasions when that rarest of specimens, the fast fair upright walker, is in the contest, when the interest immediately becomes genuine and unbounded. Once therefore let the walking be so reformed as to be unexceptionable in style, and walking matches will suffer from no lack of popularity. Then probably we shall see a new and improved class of fair walkers arise.

So much as to the evils in vogue at present; it remains to suggest a means of remedying them. To put it shortly, the judges must all see that each man is walking fairly, and not that he is not walking unfairly, by which dark saying we mean this: the three characteristics of walking which distinguish the exercise from running are these: (1) The weight of the body is on the heels when the step forward is taken; (2) One foot is always on the ground; (3) The knee is perfectly straight as the foremost foot reaches the ground. The judges should see that each of the three essentials is rigidly adhered to, and promptly disqualify the man who either gets on to his toes, bends his knees, or has both feet off the ground together. Then, and not till then, we shall see none but fair walkers upon the path.

From what we have said it will be seen that there is an art of walking fairly and another art of walking unfairly, but not so unfairly as to involve certain disqualification. About the latter art, the art of shuffling or of running on the heels, we do not propose to give any practical directions, although we have seen plenty of examples of it in high places, and will content ourselves with saying that it does not require any particular capabilities, but a good deal of staying power, and is certainly easier to acquire than the true art of walking fast. Indeed, any of our readers who likes to try for himself can find how easy it is to do a slow run on the heels, and what a relief it is to change the action to that style of progression when the legs are aching from fast walking.

All walking races are contests of more or less endurance, and staying powers are thus essential. Before beginning practice for a race the walker should therefore get his muscles as hard as possible with as much walking on the road as he can manage. Once in training for his race, however, he should be very careful not to get into slow walking, but should always go at a brisk pace with a good swing of the arms, and for the last two or three weeks should do all his practice on the racing track. Walking is perhaps the one sport where a man cannot afford to knock off work and trust to natural freshness to get him through. In this of course, as in other phases of athletic sport, if a man has got stale from overwork he must take it easy, but in walking it is absolutely necessary to have the muscles so hard all over the body that 'knocking off' for any space of time becomes fatal to all chances of success. It is not necessary, as in other races, to do the full distance at top speed often or even at all before a race, but the walker in his practice must take some laps at top-speed every day for fear of being taken with a 'fit of the slows.' It is almost indispensable, therefore, to have the assistance of a watch-holder, to learn how fast one is travelling; the walker practising should do at least a mile every day at top speed, and, as in training for longdistance races, at a uniform rate of speed, and moreover at the fastest of which he is capable.

A week's training for a three-mile race would probably be something such as this: On the first day 2 miles, on the second 1 1/2 mile, on the third 2 miles, on the fourth 3 miles, on the fifth 1 mile, on the sixth 2 miles, and for a seven-mile race double these distances. A thorough good rubbing after each day's exercise is almost indispensable, as there is nothing like fast walking to bring out aches and pains all over the body, and especially down the shin-bones. The walker is also liable to blisters and sprains, more perhaps even than the long-distance runners; but of the treatment of these we shall have to speak later.

In the early days of the athletic movement a seven-mile race was considered the proper test of a man's ability in this branch of sport, and a seven-mile race was the walking event included in the original championship programme. At the present day the public find an hour's walking race rather a slow event to watch, and in most club meetings shorter races of three or two miles, and occasionally of one mile, are more usual. The. result is that there has recently been some considerable agitation in favour of the championship event being reduced to something less than seven miles, or for the inclusion of a second walking race for a shorter distance in the championship programme. At the American championship meeting there are three walking races, at the Irish and Scotch championship there is only one race, at three miles, while in Canada the same distance determines the title of champion walker for the year. We think, however, that the Amateur Athletic Association will be right in retaining their present championship programme unaltered in regard to the walking race. There are already plenty of temptations towards unfair walking and the production of a vicious style of progression, and with a shorter championship race the temptations will be increased.