Another foe of the queue

Another foe of the queue

Photo of the pole vault competition accompanying an article by YMCA physical director Max Exner in "Foreign Mail," March-April 1911:

"For some time there has been a persistent agitation in China in favor of the cutting off of the queue. The sports contributed to this movement. Wherever athletes go the queue falls into disfavor because of the hindrance it presents. In the gymnasium especially, many vicious jerks of the head are occasioned on the account of the queues being wrapped around the bars, catching on parts of the apparatus, or being stepped on by a fellow gymnast. On the way to the games eight of the athletes of the North China team cut off their queues...Another young man who wanted to cut his queue off did not dare on account of the opposition of his family. In the pole vault this man cleared every successive height to the last. This he missed twice but on his last trial he cleared the bar nicely but displaced it with his flying queue. This lost him the contest. The next day he appeared on the field minus the queue. The incident has been given wide publicity."

Foreign Mail, April 1911.

Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota