Physical culture . DAN OLEARY was born inCounty Cork, Ireland, 63 yearsago, and came to this countrywhen he was 19 years old. Hewas a book agent in Chicago when hediscovered that he possessed unusualpedestrian ability. At that time the possibility of a manwalking 500 miles in six days was scof-fed at. Several noted pedestrians hadtried and failed. OLeary said he coulddo it, and was laughed at. He tried itin the old Randolph Street Skating Rinkin 1874, and turned the trick. He then defeatedseveral of the bestwalkers of the dayand challenged thechampion EdwardPayson Weston. Itwas not withoutsome
Physical culture . DAN OLEARY was born inCounty Cork, Ireland, 63 yearsago, and came to this countrywhen he was 19 years old. Hewas a book agent in Chicago when hediscovered that he possessed unusualpedestrian ability. At that time the possibility of a manwalking 500 miles in six days was scof-fed at. Several noted pedestrians hadtried and failed. OLeary said he coulddo it, and was laughed at. He tried itin the old Randolph Street Skating Rinkin 1874, and turned the trick. He then defeatedseveral of the bestwalkers of the dayand challenged thechampion EdwardPayson Weston. Itwas not withoutsome difficulty thatthe men werebrought together inChicago, in Novem-ber, 1875. OLearywon the contest in adecisive manner. Another mate hwas arranged totake place in Eng-land, and it provedone of the mostmemorable on rec-ord. For three daysthey divided style ofwalking pleased theEnglish, and hisstubborn determination won their ad-miration. Early on the final eveningWestons backer, Sir John Astley, con-. A RECENT PHOTOGRAPH OF DAN OLEARY ceded the race. OLeary twice won thefamous Astley Belt. He has walked inEurope and Australia as well as in Am-erica. His greatest performance was only re-cently accomplished in Cincinnati. Atthe Norwood Inn he walked a mile atthe beginning of each hour for 1,000 con-secutive hours, finishing October 20. This feat is considered by many themost remarkable display of human en-durance, mental and physical, ever madeby a man of his age. In speaking of his extraordinary walk,OLeary said: To walk 1,000miles in 1,000 hours,one mile at thebeginning of eachhour, seems not adifficult perform-ance; in fact, I wasa little bit deceivedmyself with theseeming simplicityof the task, probablyfrom the simplicityof the statement, butthe problem onefaces is one of en-durance, and thewalking of each mileis but a small prob-lem compared to theovercoming of Na-tures efforts tocause one to live asthe ordinary humandoes; that is, sleepseven hours and spend the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookde, booksubjectphysicaleducationandtraining
