Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-25

Races are among the doubtful things, which,
as some one has remarked, are "mighty onsar-
tin" The result of the college boat races yes
teriay is another illustrationof the truth. The
issue last year astonished all the wiseacres and
destroyed much of the prestige of the older
colleges, where boating has long been practiced
and its incidents are among the favorite college
traditions. No future triumph can cause so
much surprise, since the fact that anybody may
win was pretty thoroughly learned then. The les
son is repeated this year. 1t is not of much conse-
quenee, TO be sure, but we shall probably have
some brilliant theories proposed to account for
the success of the Amherst crew. Last
year the neral was obvious. The college
which sent the winning crew was called Gag
ricultural," therefore its students must
be farmers boys, aud their prowess at the oar
showed the superiority of muscles braced and
hardened by farm labor. As matter of fact
no larger proportion of those students had been
brought up on farms than of the boys in other
colleges, but the theorists found the name so
excellently adapted TO suggest moral that they
couldn't be troubled with anything so trivial as
facts. We have no doubt that an entirely salts
factory reason can be given for the Amherst vic
tory of yesterday, and one so apparent after the
event that the failure to discover it in advance is
a great discredit to the acuteness of the observ-
ers and experts who have thronged our neigh
boring city for the past two or three days.
Whether the increased uncertainty of the
issue will be an incentive or discouragement
to future college races, remains 10 be seen. We
arp inclined m bnlipafn bof los &
likely. When only two colleges were rivals the
chance of winning, if there was no manifest
difference in strength skill or equipment, seemed
to be even, and that chance might appear TO
warrant the neediul expenditure of time and
money. But now there is at best only one
chance in six, with the added Encouragement
to the older colleges that, so far as the result of
the last two races proves anything, it seems to
show that the least experienced competitor has
the best prospect of success,-that boating ira
ditions and opportunities are a disadvantage,
and that the two colleges which have heretofore
taken the lead in boating, have no chance, or a
very slender one. We imagine that the stu
dents in more than one college, next year, will
ask themselves whether tits worth while TO give
so much time, labor and money for so meager a
prospect of hOnors.
If the college rowing matches, for this reason
or any other, fall into dsfavor, there will be no
reason to regret their loss. Athletic sports prac-
ticed in moderation are of course, not to be con
demned; the college races, though they involve
much spending of money by young men who
can i'll afford it and the loss of time, which for
mental, moral or physical advantage could be
much better employed, would be regarded with
out strong disapproyal if it were not for the
associations and tendencies which experience
has shown 10 be inseparabe from such trials
Besides the under graduates and few alumni
who have left the various coll eyes within few
years, the attendants at the regattas are of the
same qualify with those who throng the race
courses Of the country. The horse is
Il noble animal, as We all know, though
it is a melancholy, hut indisputed fact,
that the influence of intimate association with
| the noblest of thar species is demoralizing to
| human nature. 1t is curious too, that the bet
ter the horse the worse his influence upon men.
A man may sustain quite intimate relations
with horses worth a few hundred dollars each,
and not be sensbly the worse for it; but let him
have much to do with horses worth as many
thousands, and he becomes almost inevitably a
good-for-nothing, if not blackleg and cheat
The college races are already surrounded by
the associations and influences which have
made the horse race the most insidious and mis-
chievous school of gambling in the world. The
business of Tuesday in Springfield was SELLING
poos,' which is nothing but gambling, and of
kind that appeals most strongly to young
men eager to show their confidence in their col
lege and their comrades. The practice has
grown of late years, and will grow while the
college races are kept up.