Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-07
WORCESTER.
wEDNEsDAY, JUNE a, 1871
CoIIcRe Bonn Rnc1nr.

1t is said that the college regatta" this
year, will lack the interest heretofore created by
the contests between Yale and Harvard. The
difficulty between the boat clubs of these two
colleges, arising out of the contest between
them, last year, has prevented another race fol
the championship. There will be "union re
gatta," but Yale will not appear. The difficulty
is to be regretted. We hope it will give way Il
those amicable feelings which ought to be cult
waited between young gentlemen connected with
the colleges; but, we should not be sorry to
hear that it will put an end to college boat rae
ing. Rowing is an excellent means of physical
exercise for students, SO hong as it is practleed
5niy for exercise and recreation, and not allowed
to interfere with their proper business. Boat
racing like that between Harvard and hale,
makes il much more than this, and connects 1t
with influences of very doubtful character.
Very naturally, the influence of the annual
boat race is felt among the boating men of the
colleges, through the whole year They buy
boats and practice with reference to it; and, as
the contest approaches, there is long period of
training when study is subordinated to rowing /;
for anticipation of the race, and indispensable
preparations for it, are too engrossing to allow
proper attention to anything else. Time and
money are wasted; the sporting temper is en-
couraged; and studies are more or less neg
lected. At the race course, sporting
men assemble from all parts of the
country, as at a horse race, bet, talk
and make all concerned feel the influence
of their character and habits. College students
have a right to aim at something higher than
this; and, certainly, no one much interested in
them, can desire to see their recreatiOns so mis-
used as to interfere with their application to
study, and connect them with such associations.
Rowing for recreation on Charles river or in
New Haven harbor, is one thing; rowing as an
absorbing occupation, practieed in preparation
for public race, with Walter Brown or some
other Sport of that sort, for coach" is
quite another thing. The distinction should be
understood and appreciated, especially by stu
dents.
In England, the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge are as much noted for their sporting
customs as for the uses made of them as insti-
buttons of learning. One finds in them young
men connected with the aristocracy, and others
whose ambition is to be educated gentlemen Of
leisure" the leisure with its sporting occupa-
tons meaning much more than the education.
These universities turn out thoroughly trained
sporting men, but the great majority of their
graduates are not remarkable for scholarship.
They are adopts at horse racing, boat racing,
and sporting practices of all kinds. Meanwhile,
Intelligent men, whose chief aim is to have
their sons thoroughly educated, send them to
the London university or to the university at
Edinburgh. 1t is said that most of The
thoroughly trained English scholars, those
especially whose scientific attainments have
made them eminent, are graduates of London
university. Oxford and Cambridge keep in
operation the EPSON, Derby and Newmarket
races. Once they had a different relation to the
business of education. AT present, they are by
no means proper models for imitation by colleges
in this country; and, above all, there should be
no imitation of their sporting practices, which
are not cultivated in other English institutions
of learning, and should not be allowed to get
possession of American colleges