The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-05
The University Race-Where Ought
1t To BE Held This Years

<AooONA0eiShA "a
American Colleges, preparatory to their as
sembling in July, is to take place day after to-
morrow at Springfield, Mass, where, doubt
less, all questions connected with the great
event itself-the University race-will be dis
cussed and settled.
We took occasion, Immediately after the
race last summer, to impress upon those hay
ing these matters in charge, not merely the
expediency, but, in the interests OF fair play
and good racing, the necessity of having the
course allotted to each boat marked off by
row of flags on each side throughout the
whole three miles, and we are glad to see that
they have adopted the suggestion, and, under
the superintendent of Mr. John Eustis, who,
as winner Of the students seven-mile walking
race, captain of the Wesleyan crews OF 1873
and 1874, and at present captain of the
ATLANTA Club of this city, is TOO we'll known
to need further introduction, have taken
advantage of the winters ice and
indicated the thirteen courses by some
three hundred buoys on which flags
are to be put This plan places the buoys
some seven hundred feet apart, and even in
ordinary practice, but especially in the excite
ment Of the struggle itself, we submit that
they are not near enough together. They
should be at most two hundred feet apart,
while one hundred would be better yet. Then,
with the flags on each row OF the color of the
college whose crew is to have them on their
right or LETT as the case may be, the matter of
keeping each boat in its own water is reduced
to as great certainty as keeping it IN creek
hundred feet wide, and the position OF the
bow oarsman, instead of being as now,
most onerous one, becomes at once almost
sinecure, while such an unfortunate event as
last July threw away the whole years work
of two of the principal com peritors and very
greatly married the whole affair would become
next to impossible.
But far more important question to be
settled this week is where the race itself shall
be- Twenty-Five years have not decided 1t,
and we were in hopes that last season would
have ended this cropping about and have
fixed and determined on one course as the
best, and hence the national one As all will
remember, the place selected then was Sara
toga Lake. Previous contests there-notably
the international races in September, 1871
had proved this course in many respects ex-
cellent But for the competing colleges it is
manifestly not central, and at the first trial
proved so exposed to even the gentle breezes
Of an ordinary summer afternoon that the
great race had to 60 over from Thursday to
Friday, and then till Saturday morning, and
was finally rowed in the presence of an as
sernbly much thinned by these vexatious
postponements-
But another objection to Saratoga de-
veloped itself then. more formidable than
either-one which, regarded in its best light
did the place no sort OF good, and which was,
as it was at the time very freely character
lied, an outrageous swindle. This was the
extortion practised in carrying passengers
over the four miles between the town and the
lake by every man who had an apology for
vehicle, from the regular hackmen with their
customary di1idence to the gentle CHANGERS
from the whole country twenty miles
around with the rig ordinarily de-
voted to the hauling OF that which
enriches the soil. A contract lad been
signed and generally published, by which,
under a penalty, the price of ride either way
should be but fifty cents. When the crash
came and q crowd greater than Saratoga ever
before knew was there and must be trans
ported the poor contract was found delu-
sion and snare. Several dollars were needed
to secure q seat in anything at all, the father
OF the captain Of one Of the principal crews,
for instance, paying ifty-fve dollars for a
carriage for, We think, one day, and hun
dreds of people were forced to remain at the
lake long after dark from being simply IN
able to procure conveyance at any price.
And how is it proposed to remedy this mat
ter in the coming July? Why, by having the
penalty in the contract considerably enlarged
Well, if the good people Of Saratoga think
that this will restore public confidence it
does little credit to their sagacity. This slip
ulation, like its predecessor, will not be worth
the time it took to write it. What right in
deed, have the authorities there to say that
any man may not drive over a public high
way at his own free will, and with any such
freight as he likes be it living or dead, and
impose exactly such tariff rs be can prevail
on any one to pay? There must be some bet
ter guarantee than this of comfortable convey
ance and at n reasonable rate, and that guar
antee, and the only one at all adequate, was
suggested last year by Captain Reese, Of the
winning Columbia crew. when, shortly after
tho race, in response to the question whether
he would vote to 60 to Saratoga again, he
said, mo, not unless they have q railroad !"
Saratoga has yet three months and one week
to work in. All intelligent men know that
this is abundant time TO build over very
easy grade three or four miles of railroad.
They know, too, if, as was generally
conceded, the regatta drew nearly or quite
twenty thousand people to Saratoga last year,