The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-28

The Race st Spring Gcld-Win It Be
the Last or Its Kind!
In q country where most men work too much
and rest too little, and where holidays, as
such, or even half holidays, are well nigh
unknown, we welcome nearly anything which
gives reasonable pretext for dropping work,
especially in the hot weather, even for single
day, and resting the weary brain or arm, be it
yacht race on the bay, shooting match at
Creedmoor, or trial of speed at Jerome Park.
In hailing the great rowing race, soon to come
of on the Connecticut as q valued accession
to the list, We have not lost sight of the fact
that that event has this year assumed proper
tons not only unprecedented. but which may,
unless especial care is taken with II, prevent
its repetition. Two or three boats. fifty feet
long and as wide as an ordinary chair. can
run well enough side by si.le On . river Of any
breadth. But when IN 4 "a excitement
of race, for which saesss - men have
been preparing for weeks aud months,
not two or three alone. but ten
| or eleven such craft must ell start abreast.
and hardly hundred feet apart, and that too
when no single steersman in all the company
has been put to such test before; and when
any crew sees all its work thrown away or
thinks it sees it, through the bungling of some
other rowing near it, it is easy to conclude
that the rowers will in the future be clear
of q trial in which they can do themselves no
justice.
Nor, again. is the feeling without its sup
porters that the two time-honored institutions
which initiated this glorious sport among our
students, and for many years had it, as do
the two famous Universities over the water, all
to themselves, have made mistake in thus
opening the door to let in whole raft Of
| smaller colleges, some of them very little
known. It certainly is not comforting to the
| dignity of the youth raised in wealth and ease,
and well satisfied with his connection with an
institution, venerable, afiuent, and most
respectable, to sec his representatives
suffer sudden and almost ignomi-
| NOUS defeat at the hands Of some
obscure rustics whose rowing alone has res
! cued them from oblivion. But the country
where is possible ''the sudden change, as by
rub of Aladdin's lamp, from the attorney 8
Office in country town Of Illinois to the
helm of great nation" in perilous times is not
the one to stand long on such an objection as
this. Such a feeling might we'll enough
obtain in England; but this is not England,
and is altogether too democratic place to
allow such feeling to be general. Make sure
Of broad enough river and proper manage
ment and then let come every college man
who may.
| There is one lesson to be learned from last
years race, and, indeed, not from last year
only, well worthy Of mention now. Already
all the competing crews are or certainly ought
to be rowing several times each week over the
course or an equivalent con time"-that is,
doing the entire distance without halt and
at the best pace they can command. Now,
the point to which we would look is the
distribution of their strength in this work.
Until 1870 these meetings usually took place
+! on Lake Quinsigamond, two miles from
Worcester. There the track ran not to sew
eral parallel stakes, allowing 66s for each
boat, but to single one mile and half
away and then return. Naturally on such
O course the crew which could first reach that
| stake could also round it first and its rival,
| if anywhere near, must make much longer
turn in rounding and entirely outside Of the
leading boat, thus doing more than three
miles, or else lie on its oars till the latter got
| out of the way either Of which plans brought
| her decided disadvantage Manifestly, then,
the thing to do was to make o fierce struggle
on the outward mile and half and so get the
first turn, as they who could gain this advan-
tage were about sure to win. Beside the great
danger of foul at the stake this plan did
not fairly prove which crew could row three
| miles the quickest, as Yale we'll held in 1870,
but only mile and halt. In the coming
conflict each boat will travel three miles
straightway down the river on course meant
to be wide enough to give it ample room.
Now, last year happened what seemed most
remarkable, but was really most natural,
thing, though it brought great credit to the
doors of it. While Harvard and Yale and all
the rest were tearing down the first two miles
at tremendous rate, frequently squirting and
quite OVERRIDING themselves, Amherst, away
in the background, had taken steady stroke,
and was holding it, never slackening, never
quickening, apparently unmindful of all but
her own business She seemed either to have
reasoned it out or found by actual trial that
by this plan she must conquer, if she did at
ALL and that by this way only could she do
her very best And right well had she learned
her lesson and sound was her conclusion, for, so
gradually that you could scarcely detect it, line
by line, inch by inch, foot by foot, rod by rod,
she crept slowly up, now overhauling Yale, then
Williams, now Bowdoin and then the Agri-
culturals, until she was actually up in the
front rank and alongside of Harvard, and
there, so close to the finish that all had con-