Olympic Finis

One last bugle note sounded in Colombes Stadium; a cannon boomed; down came the broad, embroidered Olympic standard from its masthead. Officials had gathered, had distributed prizes, had declared the Eighth Olympiad at an end. Tag-end events were won as follows : Weightlifting, Italy; yachting, Norway; equestrian sports, Sweden; cycling, France; gymnastics, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. The few athletes remaining in Paris paid bills, packed trunks, bought tickets, caught steamer-trains, held postmortems. Led by the London Times, British newspapers chimed in on the post-mortems with notes for the most part sour. The Times flatly asserted that the games had inflamed international animosities, bluntly suggested they be discontinued. The chief British grievances were: a boxing episode, when a Frenchman bit his English opponent on the. chest; the hooliganism of the French crowd at the fights. The Times also said: "It should be clearly put on record that the Americans behaved admirably." Italians were exercised over the disqualification of an overweening swords- man. Holland grumbled at general ill-treatment. France grumbled at a $500,000 deficit. American correspondents sat back in their chairs, deprecated the discontent, called it excitement of the moment, the complaining of tired children, mountainous molehills. They called attention, too, to the good feeling between the three leading competitors--England, Finland, America. Colonel Robert M. Thompson, President of the American Olympic Committee, and the French officials were impatient with the attacks upon their cause, characterized them as unfair, out of focus, absurd.