The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-20

become rich with the money of other people.
The English University Raes-Ths
International Contests ~ the Con-
tennial.
At one o'clock this day, London time, Ok
ford and Cambridge will make o thirty-second
trial Of their skill and stay at the oar, and
over the usual four mile and three furlong
course from Putney to Mortlake. For five
successive years Cambridge has not been
beaten, and, even should she be to-day. it
would only again render her victor as many
times as her rival, the score now standing six
teen for her against fifteen for Oxford. There
is promise, too, of q closer struggle than
last year, and we hear of no such long odds
as the five to two then offered on Cambridge.
Both crews retain their old strokes, and Mr..
Way, of Cambridge, has been much praised
for his work, promising, should his team win
to-day, to take q place among the famous
stroke oarsmen, such as Darbishire and
Brown, of Oxford. and Goldie, of his own
university. OF the sixteen rowers three in
each boat, we believe, have rowed in former
inter-university races one of the three in the
Cambridge party (Mr j. E. Peabody, of First
Trinity being also an American. Though
every year brings it's new force of graduate
oars, who are able and willing to coach,
tho time made in these races of
late years has not been better than occa-
sional former records, which, after making
large allowance for all uncertainties Of weather
nd <,,l
whether the only right way to row was not
really found and practised long ago. Nor do
the famous sliding seats seem to make such
marked impression on the time after all. The
style aimed at in both boats is probably more
like that which Captain Cook learned and
taught his Yale men so well last summer than
that of any other crew then at Saratoga
or in this country. In 1866 Sir Charles Dixie
showed it to the Harvard men on the Charles,
and they laughed at it as egregiously stiff
and formal Three years later, on the
Thames, they were beaten by it, and even
then four years more passed before it was
seen on our waters. Yale, Harvard and Col
umbia all had something much like it in 1874,
and, doubtless, in the contest now less than
four months of, many of the eleven other
crews will believe in it.
Those, however, who do nothing but stick
to the old plan, with its five or six moro
strokes minute, seem in fair way to bring
their favorite theory to practical and most
excellent test Thanks to the enterprise of
the Schuylkill Navy, its Commodore,
Mr.. Ferguson, visited last summer the
principal amateur oarsmen of Europe to in
vite them to come and take part in the races
on the Schuylkill next year in connection
with the Centennial Exhibition, and brought
back the gratifying word that no less than
nine English clubs, among them, too, the
amateur champion oarsmen, probably, of the
world, the justly famous London Rowing
Club, besides such well known organizations
as the Kingston Rowing Club and the Royal
Chester, of Liverpool, and last but
far from least, the renowned Gesling
crew, of Paris, would be on hand
on the Schuylkill to try conclusions with all
who would be there to meet them. Such
meeting has long been hoped for, but never
yet been brought about, and there is hardly
young man in the country with any claim
to healthy views and feelings who would not
keenly enjoy witnessing this which promises
thus to be great international struggle.
And the time falls most OPPORTUNITY, for the
Fourth of July comes but ten days or so
before the great race at Saratoga, thus giving
the strangers ample opportunity to row
at Philadelphia on the former date
ha kho 1ou
University race to row the winner
and whatever other crews dare to try.
The time is really not far of, and as an op-
portunity of meeting SO many distinguished
foreign oarsmen on our waters will probably
never come again in the lifetime of any man
now young not moment should be lost nor
a stone LETT unturned toward having our side
represented in that contest as we would like
to be.
Moreover, as the gentlemen of the Schuyl-
kill Navy have doubtless already seen, it will
afford an admirable opportunity for intro
ducing feature thus far unknown among
our oarsmen-namely, a graduates race.
In this city alone, what with such
good men as Bacon, OF Yale; Cornell
and Rapallo, of the winning Columbian team
of last year; Eustis, of Wesleyan; Gunster, of
Williams, and Eldred, of the "Aggies," four
could be quickly put together which it would
be very hard to beat while the ground would
then exist for inviting not only the Oxford
and Cambridge crews of that year, but doubt
less faster rowers than either-to wit, their
own graduates. Any rowing man can see
in minute what field there is here for
glorious sport if the opportunity is only
promptly seized and improved.
Again, besides such good men as the
Beaverwycks of Albany and their many rivals
of last August, there is in this city abundant
material for brilliant showing among