The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-04


Club, Of this city, spurred on, doubtless, by
the intense and universal interest awakened
by the Oxford Harvard contest, challenged
the London Rowing Club (the crack amateur
oarsmen of Europe) to six-oared race on
American waters. and very generously offered
to defray all the expenses of their journey and
stay But the lack of the requisite number
Of Trustworthy men," ESQ we understood that
their answer was worded), prevented the
strangers from coming; aud there the matter
seemed to have ended. But by their card
in our issue Of Friday, our countrymen,
nothing deferred by one rebuff, have again
thrown down the gauntlet, and now offer to
go all the way to England, right to the very
threshold Of its mighty metropolis, and there
| try conclusions with them on their own stamp
Ing ground-the very track they know every
foot and inch of by heart. Unless the restric-
lions imposed stand in the way we scarcely
see how the Londoners can again decline.
These condition are two: First, that our
men must be allowed to dispense with cox
swain, while with the others CHS Is optional.
Tradition, usage and Englands narrow and
crooked streams, have all conspired to make
the little steersman a necessity, so they over
there have always held, though the Harvard
men would have eagerly seized the opportu-
nifty to show them what their own professional
oarsmen have found while over here-that this
burden of hundred pounds or 50 In the stern
of the boat is utterly superHuous and a severe
tax on the rowers.
The challenged party, then, will have to
first learn hew to do without him and to guide
their craft entirely by the rudder yoke at the
feet of one of the oarsmen and, with English
elaboration in introducing Innovations, there
would seem hardly time between now and four
months later to become properly acquainted
with this mysterious device, though we have
seen one of our oarsmen become an adept in
its use inside of three weeks.
| The other condition Is that the race must
take place ''either in June or early in July"
and this because of present engagements of
the Atalantas for the rest of the season. But
where races come 80 thickly together as in
England it is highly probable that the London
men may, for the same reason as our own,
find 1t inconvenient to bring about the con-
templated meeting within the period named.
Certainly we trust nOt for, If the present
offer is declined, we shall probably have to
wait long before another nearly so accommo-
dating-indeed, magnanimous-in It's terms
will again be sent across the water; and if
no better excuse comes back than came before
we ought surely to hear no more Boosting
about the superiority of the English oarsman
or athlete, which, by the way, the Wards have
done 80 much to dissipate.
Harvard yielded every single point trav-
cling three thousand miles, meeting their
opponents in their own climate, on their own
track, in their own fashion, one entirely new
to them, and with a crew sadly out of
condition, and though she fought terribly for
every inch of those long four miles and
quarter, met with defeat at the hands of men
better trained, entirely used to just the sort
of race they were rowing, and sixteen pounds
per man heavier, and these no pounds of use
less weight, but of the very choicest bone and
sinew among all the hundreds of tried and
proved oarsmen of Oxfords famous Univer-
sity.
And now four more Americans essay not
only the same, but, in some respects, more
difficult task. The London Rowing Club,
from its proximity to the city, its location
right on this famous Putney-to- Mortlake
course, its grand opportunity to gather in the
very best of the Varsity oarsmen as soon as
they graduate, and, chiefest Of all, from the
fact that, not as at the Universities, its crews
may be kept together even for years. and
hence more and more nearly perfected, may
well justify the belief expressed of them in
this same card-that they ''stand at the
head of amateur oarsmen throughout Europe"
Is there, then. good and solid ground for be-
lieving that these Atalanta men can meet
them with reasonable hopes of winning2 The
four specified are four out of a six-oared crew
that average when trained but about one hun
dred and forty five pounds man, manifestly
light-eleven pounds apiece less, for instance,
than the famous champion professional crew of
England which came over here last season to
see its best man row his life away by the
banks of the Kennebecasis And what have
they done?
Their record in the regattas of the Hudson
Amateur Rowing Association shows no re-
markably fast time, their best up to 1871
being beaten when they were by the Gulicks.
And last year they easily beat the crews of
Harvard and Yale. But the former, at least,
were weaker than any Harvard has turned
out since 1864; while, at about the same
time, some Amherst farmer boys who were
never heard of before or since made the dis
lance, If the timekeepers statement is cor
rect, in over o minute and half less than
these same victorious Atalantas.
AcJ khoUx OoI 60 IT,