The New York herald., 1873-12-25
Amsriesn Amateur ana PreSsssionsl
Rowing In 1879.

The ff0sts, which have been shutting up the
canals and hardening the ground during the
past few days. have probably given the quietus
to rowing. both amateur and professional.
throughout the country for the year now
rapidly closing, and hundreds, and even thou
sands, of outriggers and lapstreaks have been
slung upon shelves and davits, not to come
down until, in ninety days from now, the
great university race on the other side of the
water has been trained for, rowed and won.
Among the professionals the year was q
very quiet one, there having been no event
which drew out the champion crew at all, and
nothing which added any especial lustre to
the name of our best single sculler, while, pos
Sibly excepting Scharf, of Pittsburg, no second
or third rate man has obtained any particular
prominence. Indeed, the year has helped to
make it plain that we have no first rate single
sculler, John Bigln's walk over with Ellis
Ward at Springfield atoning not at all
for his defeat by two oarsmen of the
British provinces, but one of whom had
before more than local reputation
at the sculls. Should Sadler (the English
champion), Kelley and Chambers, Bagnall and
Bright, conclude to come again among us, with
Fulton and Brown to fill up the quota, there
is small reason to hope that Biglin would show
at all well up among these master oarsmen,
unless he does power of work this winter at
the rowing weights and on the road We take
no very deep interest in professional rowing;
but so long as these Britishers continue to
make inroads on our shores and challenge our
countrymen to a trial of their mettle we hope
that they who represent us with the sculls will
do as WELL or at least, nearly as well, as four
renowned sons of one old man at Cornwall
have done at the oar; and when this is actually
possible, if only abundant downright hard
work be done during the next few months, it
is too bad that it should not be. The face of
Renforth, and even of the obsolete Hamill,
told Of almost vast reserved power and stay,
while both were known to be prodigious
workers. To row as fast as they one must
work as hard.
But from among the amateurs comes no
such sorry story, and the Potomac and Schuyl-
kill, the Hudson, Saratoga Lake and the Con-
necticut, and even the Monongahela and the
lakes, have all sent good reports. At the mus
ter on the Connecticut, where but two colleges
used to meet, eleven this year responded to
the call, and well nigh clogged the broad,
shad-bearing river with their long, fral craft
and projecting oars, as they darted swiftly
about or lay at the start drawn up ia line of
battle; and even outside of the colleges there
has been unprecedented life, thirteen and
even fourteen scullers entering the lists where
there was formerly difficulty in getting more
than two or three; while six and seven four-oars
at time have, more than once, met each other
in the friendly strife.
One noticeable feature in the work of each
and nowhere was it more apparent than at the
college race-is that there is still no recog-
nized standard of rowing which all, or most,
admit to be the proper or the only way.
Boats have assimilated naturally enough,
few favorite builders getting most of the
orders; oars differ but little; sliding seats
are numerous. Men are using their common
sense little more as to the kind and guam
ity Of food and work and rest, two out of the
three leading crews at Springfield, for in
stance. being among the most liberal and
rational ivers 1t is being seen that the
variance in height and weight and strength is
much less than was supposed, and deal else
has been learned that will well repay the
knowing. But, out of all the styles of rowing
exhibited by these many crews and scullers-
for but few of them row alike-who shall say
to-day, as they say in England, there is but
one way to row, and no other has yet been
discovered which is SO effective and success
full? One college sent man over there pur-
posely to bring back all the light he
could gather from the first amateur oars
men of the world-the London Rowing
Club. He studied faithfully, came home
who proved apt pupils and did far better work
than any of their predecessors But up, al
most alongside of them, to the very last inch
Of the homestretch, lay q crew that would not
be shaken of, and yet instead of doing clean
and skilful work, their rowing was in some
respects execrable. More power, perhaps q
little, lay with them; but it was only little.
And trife further over on the river six more
backs rose and fell as gracefully, as uniformly,
as one could wish to see; and yet, undeniably
swift as they were, their style differed from
the imported one their reach out to their
work, for instance, being far less deliberate
Early in 1867 John Stuart Mill told the
students Of St Andrews that there is right
way to do everything, and correct descrip-
tion of that way is the rule, and the only rule,
that will, if followed, insure successful else
will fail. Who of all these oarsmen shall say
we have found that rule in rowing? That it
exists few doubt. Bat what is itp
Again, in these college contests, at any rate
if not universally, would it not be well, instead
of the long, unwieldy, six-oared outriggers, to