Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1914 — THAT RECORD JUMP BY WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

THAT RECORD JUMP BY WASHINGTON.

Alleged Origin of Thackeray’s Story of the 22 Foot Leap. Three college athletes have had an ideal shattered by reading a paragraph in a speech that Sir G. Trevelyan made in London before the Publishers Circle a|/a recent dinner. These men,An addition to being athletes, are'aevoted to Thackeray and “The Virginians.” There Is a reference in that book to the prowess of ■ George Washington as an athlete, particularly as a broad jumper. This is to the effect that Washington was able to jump 22 feet, which,' considering that It was away back In the eighteenth century, was some leap. Although the best American record how is >4 feet 7 % Inches, It has not been standing so long, and in the early "days of American athletics 22 feet was a remarkable performance in the broad Jump. These three used to pride themselves on knowing about that performance credited to Washington, and they pointed out how in 1876 and for three years following the American championship was won by leaps of less than 20 feet, and that from to 1885 Inclusive the champion did not do 22 feet, although close to it on several occasions. So they used always to tell folks who asked about great broad jumpers that Washington held the American record from 1752 to 1885. What shattered all this was the following from the Trevelyan speech: , “I was present at a dinner where Thackeray discoursed to a delightful audience of young people about “The Virginians,” which he was then writing and which seemed to fill his mind to the exclusion of everything else. Among other matters he asked us, all around the table, what was the widest jump any of us had ever known, and when we agreed upon twenty-one feet, he said: ‘Then I must make George Washington jump one foot more.’ ”