The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1874-08-17
THE sCULLENG CONTEST.
The Three Mile Race Between
Bright and Corcoran-The Latter
Wins I'm 27:23. -. ..-

p.
The Three Mile Race Between
Bright and Corcoran-The Latter
Wins I'm 27:2S. 81. Cd
The single scull race between Fred
Bright, of the Nail City Boat Club, and
James Cocoran, of the Hegner Boat Club,
took place Saturday afternoon, over what
is known as the upper course, from the
neighborhood ofthe Top Mill mile and
ahalf up the river and return. The con-
test has been on the taps for some time
and both men have been practicing
steadily for the last three or four
weeks. 1t was generally believed
that the men were evenly matched,
vet from some cause the impress
sion became prevalent that Bright
would be the successful contestant and
consequently bets were offered freely on
him. some of which were taken, while
others were refused. On Saturday, how
ever. Cocoran stock seemed to go up and
all bets offered on Bright were snapped
up.
The weather was all that could have
been desired. Old Sol shone out in all
his magnifcence, and at the same time
gentle breeze was stirring, which cooled
the atmosphere and made it most enjoy
able. As early rs 2 o'clock the crowd
commenced winding their way toward
the northern part of the city and
by four o'clock the crowd on
the Virginia side must have aggregated
nearly four thousand, alarge proportion of
whom were ladies. The river was dotted
with small boats of every description
and the sight was something unusual and
surprising for Wheeling. The vast
crowd waited patiently for the appear
ance of the rowers, and about quarter
of five.
CoRCORAN
Sided gently out into the river from the
Hegner boat-house. His friends inn
mediately commenced yelling in the
most enthusiastic manner. In about ten
minutes
RRTGUT
followed, and took his position near his
judges, amid the applause of his
numerous admirers. The colors of
Corcoran were white, and those
of Bright blue The former had been
lucky in getting the choice of positions,
which was toward the Ohio shore.
THE START.
At the word ego" the men got off well
together, Cocoran showing at first Il little
to the front. The eddy water was toward
the Ohio shore, and both men seemed
anxious to get there as soon as possible
Cocoran took diagonal course to attain
his object, but Bright for some unac-
countable error of judgment or down.
right blunder, made direct shoot across
the river much to the surprise and cha
grin of his friends and hackers. BY the
time both men had reached the
eddy on the Ohio shore, Corcoran
was between twenty and thirty
yards ahead, and it was evident to
most all present that it was his race.
Going past the Martins Ferry blast fur
mace, however, Bright made noble eff
fort and shortened the distance consider
bly, between himself and opponent. This
put confidence in his friends, and
half a dozen voices around us on
the Nail City boat house, where
we were standing shouted "ffty
COLLARS on Bright" but no one in that
locality cared about taking the bets. The
men got out of sight and nothing more
of the result was known to the crowd un-
til the white colOrs Of the Hegncr boys
were observed on the return, but the
man in blue was no where to be seen.
When both of the rowers could be seen
Corcoran was fully two hundred
yards ahead and was tax
ing his ease in coming in on the "home
stretch winning the race and stakes.
His time was twenty-sevcn minutes and
twcnty-three seconds.
The result of the race was very unex-
pectcd to all who witnessed it, and very
and we doubt if ever such
u crowd could be drawn together by
any future contests of this kind. !
1t was fully expected that the race
would be close no matter which man won, |
but such tame affair was not anticipated !
As usual in such contests, some of the f.
parties who were out on bets, immediate |
" raised the cry that the race was sold |
We don't believe anything Of the kind. |
We think that Bright did the best he |
could, but he made the fatal error in |
the start, in his dead shoot across !
the river for good water. This WAS An |