Frog Jump

Had Mark Twain seen the 20,000 people who milled about last week in the little town of Angels Camp, Calaveras County, Calif, he would have been astounded. Yet they were there because he once wrote a story called "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,'' which told how Jim Smiley's frog Dan'l Webster was defeated at Angels Camp when the opposition loaded it with buckshot. In 1926 Angels Campers, grateful for their town's only fame, instituted an annual International Championship Standing Broad Jump for Frogs to honor Mark Twain and to have fun. Last week they dedicated a Mark Twain Monument before the jumping began.

The sport has grown so that there were 150 frogs assembled, of all types, all sizes. The rules allowed the owners to place their entries on a line, say "Go!", make them hop three times. Only other rule: Each frog might be shaken to insure against the traditional buckshot.

All the way from Berlin and "streamlined" by a bath in wart-remover, the frog Wilhelm was a betting favorite. But while the crowd shrieked, jostled, fired revolvers, he covered only 4 ft. 8 in. in his three jumps. A pampered creature called Zenobia, imported from Kinston, N. C. in a tub of native water, raised cheers by doing 8 ft. 6 in. Then Angels Camp went wild as the bright green veteran Budweiser thrust thrice with his long green legs, shot down the course 11 ft. 5 in., was declared winner.

Prouder and richer was Louis Fisher of Stockton, Calif., Budweiser's owner, who also won with him in 1928 and whose other frog. Pride of the San Joaquin, won las: year, establishing the record of 12 ft. 10-in. (TIME, June 2).

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