The New York herald., 1874-07-19
The Great Regatta-Knick ksrbockers 60
tho Front.


OF the people of this city, both those who
were at Saratoga and those who were not.
Two disappointments, though they had soft
ened the enthusiasm of some visitors and dis
gusted not few, had apparently sharpened
the appetite for sport on the part OF the less
irritable and more considerate thousands who
figure as the great public of the occasion.
People who go so far as Saratoga to see a race
would rather, we fancy, wait forty-eight hours
in the hope of q thoroughly successful contest
than to lose their journey in witnessing an un-
satisfactory struggle in rough water 1t is
easy 10 say that they ought to have boats fit
for rough water, and not racing machines; but
when the boats are chosen they must at least
have the sort of water contemplated in their
construction.
As New Yorkers it is extremely gratifying
to us that Columbia has won the race. She
has not been one of the noisy ones as to what
was in her. Self-glorifcation, or even ex-
treme self-assertion, has neither now nor ever
hitherto been in the number Of her faults;
and to this was due the fact that she was not
heard from as loudly as some others in this
new field of academic endeavor. Her
decorous modesty of demeanor adds to
the lustre of her victory. 1t is
to be regretted that events occurred
which must give rise to disputes and recriu-
nations between some of the crews. Acct
dents of the kind that occurred between Har-
ward and Yale are not always to be avoided in
the excitement Of the struggle Fortunately,
in this case they do not bring in issue the
results of the race, which is clear triumph
for the New Workers. Doubtless both the
other crews will indulge their imaginations as
to what might have been ''if' there had been
no mischance. Either will believe it could
have overhauled and passed the winner if it
had had an open course before it; and freedom
in such imaginations is always conceded to the
| losers. Some one must lose, and the losers
must always have theory to explain it. Vic
tory is In these cases too much contemplated
as the result solely of the adequate amount of
straightforward pulling. On the contrary, it
should be contemplated as equally the result
of skilful handling, of the cool temper and
quick eye ard aptness at maneuvre which
avoids collisions and broken rudders and
damaged oars If the New Englanders claim
that their rate of speed would have won they
must show that they had the power to con-
tinue it and the skill to keep themselves in the
right place in order to continue it. In this
latter very important particular they were
clearly at fault. Speed may be conceded
them, but other elements of equal consequence
have turned the balance against them. On
the whole with generous allowance for con-
tretemps, disappointments and complainings
the race was fair and satisfactory contest,
and in few days, we have no doubt, all un-
pleasant feeling will have passed away, and
the defeated crews will be willing to concede
the honor and credit that are the rightful due
of the victors. To believe otherwise would
be but small encouragement for the future
success of those friendly struggles which have
grown to be national events in England, but
" .ch are as yet in their infancy with our own
universities. There will be some heartburnings,
no doubt, at what will be regarded as errors Of
the judges in the placing of the boats that
came after the winning crew; for next to the
great prize of victory comes the honor of po-
sition in the beaten list. Upon this point we
can only say that the interesting map pub
lished in our columns to-day, in which the
exact position of each boat is shown at the
moment the winning boat crossed the line,
can be relied upon as strictly ac-
curate. Before the line was crossed
by the defeated boats these positions
may have somewhat changed, and the
ind <c
doubt the HERALD correspondents, whose ex-
perience guarantees the correctness of their
decisions The best advice We can offer to the
crews who followed the victorious Columbians
is to decide their respective positions for
themselves and to insist upon the correctness
of their decisions. This may occasion some
differences Of opinion, it is true, but as MIR.
Toots would say, 'it's Of no consequence
The loser of this year, whatever his position
at the close of the race, may be the winner in
the next contest.
Only fifty-four men rowed at Saratoga, but
they are the people of the United States
for the next generation just as the
Horatii and Curati of Livy were the
people of Rome and her rival in
their day, or as the men at Olympus
were Greece-the products Of system and Of
ideas that were universal though individual
lied for festive occasions of glorious rivalry.
Here, in each case, six men stand for all of
Yale, Harvard or Columbia, and the aggre-
gate of the college clubs who thus associate
themselves with the glory or defeat, runs into
thousands; WHILE if we contemplate the still
larger circles into which the enthusiasm in
evitably spreads itself--the whole number Of
the alumni and the friends and families of the
students-we shall find that the interest will
penetrate in some degree to every part of the
country, and involve the sympathies and emu
lations of all the men upon whom the