Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-07-28
THE FARMERS TO THE FORE.
From the New York Tribune.

At tournament the interest is always with
the unknown knight, who rides in late, unan-
nounced, attended by single squire, (Josh
Ward, for instanee,) with visor down, and
coolly defes the challengers in a body. to
mortal combat. Especially is this true when
the spectators, the majority of whom are Sax
on, have become restless under the insolence
OF their Mormon conquerors, against whom
no Saxon champion of equal metal appears,
and who makes the list ring with their dis
agreeable Norman French 'war-cry of ''Rah
'rab." When, then, the unknown. at the
critical pause, appears at the end of the list,
sounding his solitary trumpet, and advancing
strikes with the sharp end of his spear the
shield of the coptemptuous Brian de Bois-
Guilbert, indicating that the contest is to be
o5fraaee, the astonishment is extreme at his
hardihood, but the whole Saxon assembly put
up prayers for their champion and hope,
against hope, that the domineering Norman
will get some of the 's'rah" taken out of him.
s'Haye you confessed yourself, brother"
says the knight of Harvard, "and have you
heard mass this morning, that you peril your
life so frankiy?" II am filter to meet death
than thou art" answers the Farmer of Am
herst, for thus has the stranger recorded HIM
self Upon the books of the tourney. "Then
take your place in the list" says Bois-Guil-
the sun; for this night thou shalt sleep in
paradise" ''Gramercy for thy courtesy"
replies the Farmer; and they Ego for each
other Tin the language of chivalry.) The
world knows that Bois- Guilbert went down in
the encounter, horse and man rolling in the
dust together, amid the acclamations of the
spectators, and the comb of the Harvard
knight was 90 cut that he could not cry '''rah'
for month that he shut himself up in his
chamber, refusing to eat all vegetables, and
that he threw an attendant out Of the fourth
story window of his donjon for daring to use
the word "agriculturar in his presence.
History repeats itself. The Normans OF
Cambridge, who instituted the regatta at Ing
leside, were regardless of the Saxon churls
| of the interior. Wherever danger nigh,
come from, it was not to be apprehended from
the farmer crew Of the Agricultural College
at Amherst. Well-meaning fellows, these
| Saxons; broad shouldered, well-muscled
but no style, no training, no azure blood.
Good material, if they only knew how to
| row 1t was a queer idea, any way, that an
| Agricultural Institution should send out q
| crew to compete with the classic chivalry OF
| the wave. And the fact was that the farmers
| of Amherst were day-labOrers, SO to speak
on the college farm. They had no water fol
practice nearer than three miles, at which
| distance they found the Connecticut; ant
thither they walked daily, three miles
through the hot sun, to take their training a
the oars, coming home on the double-qnicl
after the row was over. And these are thu
i farmers who have beaten the splendid cres
of the champion university, In straight pull
of three miles, by 43 seconds! There nigh
not have been much chivalry about 1t, but
was a good square beat, farmer fashion, will
no preliminary Boosting and no airs. Brian
de schubert fought well, as he Away
does, but the crowd rejoiced in his downfall
as if conceited Templar had received
needed lesson.
The rowing Of the Amherst farmers (for tn
crew was wholly from the Agricultural Col
lege, which has no connection with Amhers
College proper had quality in it that di
seem to have been put there by few week
of training and dieting; it was genuine muscle
consolidated by steady labor, muscle OF thu
hard, enduring sort, that will not go ava.
when the effect of the temporary training Ina
ceased. 1t was stout crew, made health
by outdoor labor, which only needed I
know how to use its strength to send boa
over the water ut fearful pace. Boating
| men in other colleges will be likely to tax
notice of the new elements. We do nc
know what time this farmer crew might hav
made if it had been pushed 1t is certai
f that they will be considered dangerous ar
q tagonists in the future, against whom it wi
not do to pit mere training and skill. Th
: Brahmins will be little shy of the knigl
Y who rides into the list with wisp of hay a
his shield, and the motto, "Agricotd, CAGE,
and may possibly remember the prOverl
r sJ9aum habet in cornu."