NAVY OFFICERS WALK
"THE TEST" IN SNOW.
FIFTY MILES, THREE AN HOUR
IN 3 DAYS, THEIR RECORD.
Sore Feet Only Bad Effect of Feat
Performed by Lieut. Vanderbeck
and Dr. Cather in Compliance
With Roosevelt Order.
LIEUTENANT C. S. VANDERBECK.
Lieutenant C. S. Vanderbeck and Dr. David C. Cather, of the United States navy, have proven themselves pedestrians who defy the weather man when they elect to accomplish a walking feat. For three days, ending at 2:37 o'clock yesterday afternoon, they battled against the most turbulent elements given Kansas City thus far this winter and they came under the wire with a record of having traveled on foot a distance of fifty miles in three days, or an average of three miles an hour, every step taken being in ice, snow or slush. This is considered splendid headway for a pedestrian, especially as the ordinary walker these wintry days slips back a step or two occasionally.
ROOSEVELT ORDER.
The physical test to which the two navy officers have just subjected themselves was in compliance with an order promulgated by Theodore Roosevelt. The strenuous executive urged several tests, but the one in particular was the walking test, it being decreed that the army and navy officers keep in physical trim by covering a distance of fifty miles in three days as frequently as possible.
Last Thursday the two officers started out. On that day they walked to Independence and back, a distance of 19 1/2 miles, in 5 hours and 57 minutes. Friday 21 miles were covered in 7 hours and 33 minutes, while yesterday the pedestrians went ten miles in 3 hours and 52 minutes.
STEEL CLAMPS WORN.
The actual distance was 50 1/2 miles and the average of three miles per hour was made possible only by the officers wearing steel clamps on their shoes.
A physical examination of the men was made before and after the test and no bad result of his exertion and he says that he was not the least bit fatigued at the end of the journey, although his feet are a little sore.
