Beadle's Dime Handbooks: Grand Book of Summer Sports

This is a handbook on summer athletic sports published by Beadle and Adams in 1880, edited by Captain Fred Whittaker. The volume covers walking, running, jumping, hare and hounds, bicycling, and archery, with complete American and English athletic rules. The pedestrianism section tracks the sport's evolution from Captain Barclay's thousand-mile record through Edward Payson Weston's 1867 Portland-to-Chicago walk, and into the competitive era of the 1870s. The text analyzes key walkers and runners—O'Leary, Rowell, Corkey, Weston—comparing their techniques, conditioning, and achievements in distance contests. It examines whether runners or walkers excel in six-day "go-as-you-please" matches, details from the 1878 Astley Belt contests at Agricultural Hall, London, and discusses fraud in the Bridgeport races and subsequent competitive disputes. The handbook emphasizes training methods, track preparation, scoring systems, and match conduct for both professionals and amateurs.