The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-13 00:00:00

el!c (3tourbritige OfThurber.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1875.

ATHLETICS AS A POPULAR STUDY.

The few weeks immediately preceding Palm
Sunday have for years past been full of interest
to vast numbers of our countrymen. What is
the subject which calls it forth ? Most of us
know that just shoat that time London is gradu-
ally filling for the season, that Parliament is
sitting, and that the scientific and philosphical
societies are in session. But is the interest of
which we speak concentrated upon the debates
in the Legislature—upon the, question how to
fill the army, or to man the navy? Are the
people absorbed over discussions upon foreign
policy, or upon the thilms. of Liberalism and
Conserva'istu respectively to the gratitude of the
nation? Are they wrapped up in the probable
success or the possible failure of the new Arctic
expedition? Do they study the prospects of
Women's Suffrage, the enfranchisement of the
agricultural labourer, the Disestablishment of
the Church, or the chances of the Permissive
Biil heing passed into a law? There is little
doubt that to these inquiries a reply must be
given in the negative—at all events it must be
given in a comprative sense. For the time
national and social events p Ile in importonee be-
fore the records of the doily practice f so.oe
sixteen young gentlemen in n couple of loats—
one upon the Isis end the other upon the Cam.
Their respective weights are followed front dev
to day, touch more attentively than the pr, teed-
ing of Parlionient ; the doings of the " closet,
upon the batiks ere e,igerly persued; the chances
of le heavy sweated down to 3 ,
featherweight are feveris'ily debated ; the :kill
of the stroke and the tardiness of the thwiirts
are much more familiar thou the n.:tues of many
of the Cabinet Xlieiiter.4. Ili a id-bye the
competing crews leave their own rivers, and
, come up to try their prowess upon the famous
' stream which iiitem:eis the intiropolis. Their
~ew day e of prat:tic:: on the Tirau: a prior to the
final hour of trial are tones or tx.irenunt
tens of thonsandr, crow,' to the banks t,o
wi!in sh the spins. The surface of the rivt r it-
self is alive with et flotilla of ail dese,ipt,i,ms ~f
eratt. Then the e ventrul elate fixvd for the, con-
test arrived. The trattic upon the Thames lei
bet% eel' Putney and Mortlake is suipended tor
hours while it is fought on ; peop'e literally lei
hundreds of thousand line the shores of Middle-
sex and Surrey through the four mile route.
*they stand in myriads upon the beidtfea; they
cluster upon the suspension chains like bees; they
fill windows and balconi s; they climb the tees
swarm upon the housetops, gather in multitudes
upon iniprovided wood etands occupy coigns of
advantage upre vast number of vehicles let out
for the oceasisti by enterprising proprietors and
Aid what come they all out to see? Two narrow
boats, each coutaieing eight flue young men, pro-
pelled through the water at a speed which taxes
the capacity of the swiftest river steamer to
keep pace with them. One set of ores is tipped
with dark blue and the other with light, and
from each boat it little pennon flies with the
same distilictire hues. They might he two sets
of ne.ellinery feir any notice they take of the
shouting and 4 acited throngs upon the banks.
It is hard, stern work in those heats. without a
boubt. With eyes set firmly to the front, their
hacks bending at the same instant like a piece
of the most exquisite mechanism, the- -oars tak-
ing the water at the same moment—there they
go up. ,n the full flowing tide, doing the four
miles- in twenty minutes, and arriving at Mort-
lake amid a confused din of cheering end
commiseration. No one who has witnessed the
lasi :el of the mess AL th, WjiiOjll point Clll
ty, i; A the entnth•nia 6raiti upon the
•ii iuoovod in smell is Carlipniti(lo.
VtliLIS ektill to stand out like whipcord upon 1
tho brow; aid Kai 91 Om, uoiwithetiudiug