Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1871-08-04
NUMBER 6.

IHE UNIVERSITY Boar RACE AT SPETSGFELD.-
In the College Regatta at Springfield, Mass, on
Friday, over which the Massachusetts, College
boys have been immensely excited, the Amherst
Agricultural College crew came cut ahead, beat
ing both the Harvard crew, who were second,
and the Brown University crew.
The Republican thus describes the close Of the
race, as the boats came in sight, on the home
stretch:
Some few seconds of profound silence. in
which you could hear your heart beat, and then
there began a nervous borrowing Of opera glass
es and comparison Of opinions-or rather Of con-
lectures. Then group of young gentlemen
wearing magenta ties and Boston clothes, made
sure in their minds that the boat which .wss so
far ahead sppertained to fair Harvard, AMI
shrieking Z" 'rah, 'rsh, 'rsh," tumbed down
the sandy bank to the beach There they
brought up standing, and one Of them concisely
remarked to the ladies whom they had deserted,
." It's Amherst" He was right 1t was An
herst. - The AgricGlturalists,' as snobs have
seen fit to call one Of the finest amateur crews
that ever pulled in New England waters, had
held their start, came round the corner in capi-
tai style. and essily kept their pursuers st
respectful distance. They won by an awful dis
tance-a dozen lengths, at least the en-
thusissm which greeted their entirely unlocked
for arrival was to say, the least, encouraging.
Their time was remarkably eood-l7 minutes,
AZ seconds-while Harvard came in second in
Is 80 (i3 seconds later, but better time than
they made when they pulled against the Allan
ta5), and Brown in lS-49
This brilliant victory OF the Amherst sgrieul-
tural crew fairly startled the public, being en-
tirely unexpected, and betting men especially
were shocked to an appalling degree. Nobody
placed any faith in those g country chaps" ; no
body 90 backed then. Everybody said, g What
jolly thing it would be, if these Amherst fa--
mers could whip Harvard - but every body
looked upon that result as only the remoiest kind
Of possibility, and too improbable for thought
The pools which we're sold al Ingleside during
the day showed Whist the betting men thought,
aud reflected also the average public opinion.
The proportions were usually these One hun
dred for Harvard, 60 for Brown, and 20 for An
herst One OF the last pools sold was Har-
ward 10, Brown 8, Amherst /. The Harvard
boys, having been pretty well " cleaned OUT
by the Atalanta race, expected to replenish their
purses with the income Of yesterdays wagers,
but that, alas, was also 0utgo, and if ever men |
were sore aud sad, those men were the sdheNnts
OF Harvard last night.
Probably there is just one man who il no, and |
va not surprised at the upshot O; the univer- /
s.ty FACE, and that man is Josh Ward. josh has |
trained the Amherst crew with consummate skill /
and consummaIe crsftiness. lie must have /
known their capabilities, hut he has somehow |
managed to conceal the facts completely from |
the public and every one. while seeing that |
they were stout and stslEart men, has looked /
upon them as unusined snd wholly incapable Of /
competing with such & crew as Hsrvard's. /
Josh, mo has had them but a short tine, has /
encouraged this iies, remsTking at one time in .
his peculiar way, ' Yes, they are good men .
enough,-if | could only make the id fools I
row i' Yesterdays rsce convinced more than .
one observer that if Josh could train this spler-
did crew a month longer, they would be a match 4
fur any s.x-0srel creR In the COUNTY,.