What I want to speak of principally this week is 'cross-country running. It is a branch of sport that receives far too little attention from school and college athletes in this country, yet is one of the oldest, simplest, and healthiest pastimes on the calendar. In England it has been popular for years, where there are a number of 'cross-country running clubs of long standing, but in America we have known the sport scarcely twenty years, and not very intimately at that. It was first introduced to us in 1878 by some members of the old Harlem Athletic Club, their first paper-chase being held on Thanksgiving day of that year. The American Athletic Club then took it up, and later, in 1883, the New York Athletic Club held a race for the individual championship of the United States. The sport became firmly established in 1887 with the organization of the National 'Cross-Country Association of America. This is a very brief history of the sport; but it is brief of necessity, for 'cross-country running is still in its youth. There are two kinds of 'cross-country running--the paper-chase, sometimes called hare and hounds, and the club run over a fixed course. In the former there should be two "hares," a "master of the hounds," and two "whips." The hares carry a bag of paper torn up into small bits, and it is their duty with this paper to lay a fair and continuous trail from start to finish, except in the case of the break for home. The master of the hounds runs with the pack, and has full control of it. In other words, he is the captain. He sets the pace, or, if he chooses, he can appoint any other hound to do so. It is usual to travel no faster than the slowest runner in the pack. The whips are chosen from among the strongest runners, because it is their duty to run with the hounds, and to keep laggards up with the bunch, or assist those who become seized with the idea that they cannot move another step. These five men are, so to speak, the officers of the chase. There may be any number of hounds.