in the american consciousness as a national past time. as they like to call it. i talked a little bit about the etch thi? it was on the internet, so it has to be true. recently, there was a study that the average american takes 1,517 steps ada. mostly going to the copy machine. that's about half what's recommended. it's about five miles, for good hemt. and we really don't node how many step it is average american took in the 1870s or 1880s. but i did find one study that says in north carolina, the average housewife would walk an hour a day just fetching water.

walking was essential. it was the only way to fulfill your basic needs, food, watser and employment. so we're not a walk g nation, anymore. i doubt that competitive walking will make a grand comeback. although it still kbiss in the olympics. it's funny, modern race walking, the rule is that one foot must be in contact with the ground at all times. as observed by the human eye. just like the old walking matches, they have a team of judges who wask/zyñ looking ats everybody's feet was making contact with the ground. if you do it in really slow motion, almost all of the best competitors actually have two feet off the ground for an

instant. but the idea is to not be caught. and to not have it be visible to one of the judges. so in that way, it's very much like old come pettivism was. it's one of the few sports that has been at every single olympics since then there has been race walking. so you really can see a direct line from the old time pedestrianism to modern race walking. but in a larger sense, you can see a drekt line from the idea of support as entertainment and sport as spectacle. to today with the superbowl, i mentioned. and baseball. the idea that people attend a sporting event not just to watch

the event but to see the fireworks and watch the score board and hear the music between plays. and the music is so loud, you can't even talk. most of the pedestrians tried to switch to bicycles, but they weren't good at it. edward westin walked to san sfran sis cole and sods one of these pamphlets along the way.

the major sponsor was the pack ard car company. i guess he was desperate for ads, because he did not like cars. he thought they made people walk less. ironically, westin in 1927 was walking across the street in manhattan and was hit by a car and never walked again. oleary did a little better, he would go out and challenge the fastest runner on the team to run around the bases twice while he walked around the bases once. more often than not, he won. and then he would pass the hat through the stands collecting nickels and dimes. this is basically how he funded

his retirement. in the book, i have a seen where i imagine he performed before a game in chicago between the white sox and the as in 1927. i imagine the players in the dugout must have been amused by the site of this old man walking around the bases as fast as he could. but they would have been blown away to realize that, you know, 50 years earlier, he had made more in six days than any of them would make in the entire season of 1927. so it was a sport that flashed very brightly for a very short time and then disappeared almost as quickly as it came on the scene. i have written on the definitive history of it. that's all i have to say.

in fib has any questions, it's open. i don't know if we have a microphone. if not, we'll just speak loudly. what is the name of my book? you're a plant, aren't you? pedestrianism. when watching people walk was america's favorite spectator sport. and would you look at that? it's on sale right over there.

the questions were did the women ever compete against the men? as far as i know, they did not. at madison square garden, as far as i know, women did not pr tas pate in any of the major men's races. the sport was so popular, there was a department store in new york that department stores competes against each other. this would be a team affair. i have to say that werks estin and oleary were really the exception.

you hear many stories of guy who is died very young in their 50s. frank hart, a very famous african american as i mentioned, probably the most famous black athlete in america. >> what do you call the doctors who diagnose you? pathologists? their consensus was either he contracted enself it's or took a stroke. so it took a huge toll. you would think that walking would make you healthy, but walking for six days straight for 500 and toward the end they were walking 600 miles in six

days. that i wouldn't recommend as a health regimen. did they use special shoes? early on, no. many of them would walk in just their work boots. there were many stories of toenails falling off after two or three days. and serious injuries to their feet and legs. as it became more famous and more lucrative, and as the competitors could afford it, they would go to -- in fact, there were several competition ins london. apparently, they went to the most famous shoe maker in london that actually specialized in making shoes for pedestrians which were really a kind of soft leather that was bound very fightly to their feet. but this definitely improved. the equipment they worked with was pretty rudimentary.

i don't think the clothing was comfortable. a lot of wool shirts, bad boots. if the conditions weren't great, they did not have any of the advantages of modern endurance athlete ins that record. >> this gentleman talked about how my book was the greatest book ever written. i'm writing that down for a blurb. harry truman's excellent add vanture is the story of 19 a 3 after they left the white house. they took a road trip. they lived in independence, missouri. just outside kansas city. harry had to give a speech in washington and had a daughter

that lived in new york. so they decided to drive their chrysler from the east coast to missouri and then back again: it took about 2 1/2 weeks. at the time, ex-presidents had no secret service provisions, no pensions. a lot of the expenses for the white house were paid directly out of his salary. when he left the white house, he had to take a loan out. he would not take lucrative speaking fees, he would not sit on corporate boards, that sort of thing. i'm glad the presidents still don't do that. so, anyway, he was kind of a poor kwie. he was the last president to become a regular citizen again, on the way. so on this last trip, they

stayed at hotels and ate at roadside diners and they crashed with friends in indianapolis one night. it's the story of this trip and how being an ex-has changed. they came to new york and actually stayed at the waldorf. i was curious how they could afford that. harry saved all of his correspondence. i found a letter from the general manager saying i hear you're coming to new york. we would be happy to have you as our guest. harry wrote back and said he thought that would be all right. so he went averse to taking a few trips here and there. he got pulled over on the pennsylvania turnpike for driving in the left lane. i don't know what it is in new york, but in pennsylvania, you have to drive right. if you keep right, only drive

left to pass. but harry, i guess, just liked to get in the left lane and just keep going. so he got pulled over by a cop. still alive, manly stampler and i found him, he's retired in arizona. and there were reports he had just pulled truman over to get his autograph. and i asked manly about this and he said, no, i didn't. i didn't, i wish i had. might be worth something today. but, he never got his autograph. >> -- american indians in pedestrian eminence maybe he wasn't allowed to compete? >> i don't know. the question was about american indians participating in pedestrianism matches. and i really did not come across much of that. i will say that most of the major matches took place in the east coast. new york, boston, philadelphia, and some of them in london. also, many of the pedestrians

were very poor. they were working guys. and so they had sponsors. they had to find somebody to put up the $100 entry fee for them. and you know obviously that person was hoping they would win. and so i would imagine it was difficult for some people to even to find someone willing to help them pay the $100 entrance fee. yes? >> i think you mentioned that the pedestrian -- there were trading cards? >> yes. >> did you find any of those? >> i -- i was able to find -- the question was about pedestrians on trading cards. and yes, i was able to find a reproduced one. the originals are actually quite expensive. i mean they can be $200 or $300. and as i've said, my books don't generate, you know, it's a tough one to get past the wife.

mind if i buy a $300 trading card of a pedestrian? ist not like it's going to be honus wagner and worth a million dollars some day. there are companies that reproduce vintage trading cards so i was able to get one from them, and it's in the book. which is on sale there. [ inaudible ] >> the cross country walks and the difficulty therein. yeah, there were really no marked roads. a lot of the walks cross country going east coast to west coast, also did a walk to los angeles, were done along railroad beds. a lot of the walking he did, which is even more difficult, i think, in some ways than walking on bad roads. and as i said, they really -- there were no reliable road

maps. and so he would often find himself off course. one of the problems with the walk from boston to washington that he attempted to do in ten days and was four hours late he got to philadelphia and took a wrong turn and it wasn't until he reached the next town, 10, 15 miles down the line, that you realized, oh, i took the wrong road, and you just had to circle back. and get back on track. so it was very difficult. [ inaudible ] >> the prizes. as i said, most of the six-day races, you would win a percentage of the gate. so you might win for a big race $20,000. often the long-distance races were done for gambling. so there would be wagers made. weston would find a backer. somebody who was willing to put up $10,000 and was confident that he could finish the race, finish the walk from portland,

maine, to chicago in less than 30 days. that was that bet and find another gambler who was willing to put up $10,000 to say he couldn't. it was interesting because in races like that, it wasn't really a race. you're racing against time, but in walking feats like that there was a lot of fear that someone might try to sabotage him so he wouldn't make it. he had actually brought a food taster along with him when he did the walk from portland, maine, to chicago to make sure no one tried to poison him. even if you made him sick for two days it might be enough for his schedule to be off. and weston was meticulous about his schedule. he scheduled every minute. every race. a six-day race or a walk from new york to los angeles. he had everything scheduled out. when he would sleep, when he would eat, those sorts of things. if he was taken, you know, if he was taken off that schedule, he would be in trouble.

[ inaudible ] truman was famous for being a walker. every day he took his constitutional. >> referring to the speed of the pedestrians, in the competitive races, i think, and it's hard to tell, we have no photographs, much less moving pictures. it's a shame with still the age of, you know, line drawings and engravings. but the way people describe westin's walk really sound similar to what race walking is today. they said he had a wobbly walk that he moved his hips, he swung his hips. so i have a feeling that he walked fast. much like modern race walkers do.

and as far as truman, you mentioned harry truman. yeah, he walked, i forget what it was. what was his old military pace of 60 steps a second, or 60 steps a minute or something? he was famous for his walks. liked to walk around washington. there's a good story where secret service hated it. well the secret service had been protecting fdr, you know, for 12 years, and really didn't have to worry about fdr going on long walks. and so they were all used to sitting around smoking all day and one day harry bounds out of the office, he's got to go deposit his check at the bank, and it took him two blocks to catch up with him. and then the secret service did a thing where they decided they were going to fix the traffic lights so he would always hit the walk signal whenever he was out on one of his walks in washington and of course as soon as he found that out he was furious. that they would do that. he kept walking in -- he

returned independence missouri and he walked right up to the very end. he died in '73. i think he was 88 years old. but right up until the end, he was still walking. he was a firm believer in walking. in fact, he was probably young enough. i know i think he remembers the 1884, at least he would have heard from, you know, his parents or other older people about the great walking matches that had taken place about ten years before he was born. okay. one more? [ inaudible ] >> how would timing work when athletes took a nap? you were on your own when you took a nap. you could sleep as long as you wanted. you were sacrificing all that

time on the track. now in the arenas, especially the major arenas, i know in new york and chicago, there was a large clock on the wall, and so everybody could kind of keep track about how long people slept, how long they were on the track, that sort of thing. but nobody really kept statistics on exactly how long somebody was on the track or exactly how long somebody slept. if you took a nap you were really taking your chances. because the rest of the field could just continue walking. it's -- yeah, it's interesting. the idea of timing and timing to the second and minute. it was -- you can't really trust all the times you hear sometimes. you know, where somebody would say oh, i walk ed 500 miles in five days. 14 hours and 23 minutes. well, you know, how good was the clock?

at the arena. they didn't have quartz timing or anything. so a lot of that in the book, i try to take with a grain of salt when people say oh, you know, he walked 100 miles in 19 hours. it's not always easy to be sure. yes. [ inaudible ] >> good question. how did they eat? they ate while they walked. and they were allowed to have an attendant who would help them, i don't know, cut a steak or something while they were walking. i don't know what they did. but they took their meals and they took their drinks while they walked. obviously to save time. maybe they'd have a big old piece of rare meet and just chew on it and that was it. i don't know how you would eat the greasy eel broth while you were walking without burning yourself. but, yeah, meals were taken while they walked.

all right. well, thank you so much, again, i really appreciate your attention. our special history programming focusing on the 150th anniversary of the civil war continues over the next several hours with a look at the overland campaign. a series of virginia battles that took place in may and june of 1864 between the forces of ulysses s. grant and robert e. lee. we'll begin with an overview of the campaign, including comments by scholar james robertson. in an hour, author gordon ray talks about the significance of the battle of cold harbor. and then a panel of historians and representatives of the national park service co commemorate the conclusion of the overland campaign.