1861, was hardly more than a sprint and the stake was microscopic, but here it is as an example of the way just about every racing event was handled in those days:
Scrub Race.—A 300-yard horse race came off yesterday on the bottom, below the Distillery. The nags were, Charles Lawrence's "Big Lummux", and George Fuller's "Fancy Grey", and the wager was $15 a side. "Big Lummux" won easily by three lengths.
An odd form of pedestrianism was a popular sport in the 60's and 70's and came in for a good bit of newspaper space as a fore runner of the six-day bicycle race, which was to come later. It was much the same type of endurance contest. It was, in fact, a remote ancestor of the waltzing marathons which had a certain unaccount able following a few years ago, but it was regarded as sport rather than social diversion, although the spectators, at some of the exhibitions, could listen to a piano or so-called orchestra as they watched the agony.
The Morning Oregonian's account of such an exhibition, in the issue of February 6, 1861, gives an idea both of what this type of thing was like and how the papers handled it. Here's the way it went:
Pedestrianism.—A pedestrian named Brady is engaged at the gymnasium building trying to walk eighty hours without ceasing. Our latest reports indicate that after walking thirty hours he showed but little sign of fatigue. The manner of achieving this feat explains the apparent impossibility of it. The walker puts himself in thorough training for a week or two before commencing. He walks very slowly, taking from eight to ten seconds to turn at each end. The feet are not lifted from the floor, but both of them bear some part of his weight all the time. Upon the last day he supports himself upon horizontal bars with his hands. Now, this is no fair test of the endurance of a man. There is no rapidity of action. The amount of muscular force expended is not equal to that ordinarily used in ten hours brisk walking. Besides, some minutes are taken every four hours to bathe. External stimulating applications are made frequently, and everything that diet and the most perfect physical training can do is done to ensure success. The feat only proves that a man can keep upon his feet eighty hours if somebody is always present to encourage him and all the precautions mentioned are taken. The feat, if accomplished, is not comparable to Kennovan's—who has walked upwards of a hundred hours, and then was quite brisk in his motions.
The item closes with 100 words more of comment, with no hint of description of how the particular man Brady was getting along
