Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1878-12-28
4 CHASTITY BOat-Race.

4 CHASTITY BOat-Race.
An episode Of truly thrilling charac.
ter last week startled the community OF
that small seaport town Charlottesburg.
South Carolina. Charlottesburg 10
situated on . small, land-locksd bay, a.
those familiar with its location will re.
member. Rowing is consequently .
favorite pastime, throughout the sum-
mer months, with not few OF the resi-
dents. During the last summer, two
young men, respectively named John
Fordyce aud Asa B. Williamson, some.
what distinguished themselves by their
proficiency in rowing. They were both
athletic, handsome young fellows,
Fordyce being in his twenty eighth
year and Williamson being little past
thirty. They each possessed "shell"
boat of remarkable lightness and beau
ty, in which they would frequently
row impromptu matches together,
neither of them, as far as can be ascer-
tanned at present ever having been dis
tinctly awarded the palm Of victory.
Their friends in the town had repeated
" expressed the wish that some special
day should be set apart, during which,
according to regular boat racing rules,
their powers to row q certain stipulated
distance might be once and for all &C.
curately tested. But both Fordyce and
Williamson had for several weeks past
demurred against any such arrange
ment. The real reason for their hest
tation was partially surmised, though
never clearly understood, through
out the neighborhood. 1t seems
that both young men were passionately
attached to Miss Olivia Janeway, the
daughter of q well-to, do hardware
merchant, highly respected in the town.
Miss Olivia was young lady OF very
coquetish disposition; she possessed
undoubted beauty, and unfortunately
added to it the worst instincts of firt.
She had been wickedly "playing" one
sutton against the other for months
past. Both Williamson and Fordyce
we're willing to row the proposed
match, but they desired that it should
have double significance in Miss
Janeway's eyes, and that he who came
back winner should be awarded the
prize of the fair Olivia as his future
wife. After a great deal OF dainty in
decision, Miss Olivia gave her permits
sion that the match should take place.
1t was accordingly held one delightful
afternoon during the succeeding week.
An umpire was chosen, a large number
of people assembled on the shore, and
q precise course was allotted to the two
contestants. This course was one Of
about two miles in length. The racers
were to round q certain dark, oblong
mass of rock at the west side OF the en-
trance to the bay, and return to the
starting point. 1t was observed that
both young men looked unusually pale
and serious while waiting in their
"shells" for the word to be given.
When it sounded, they darted of, side
by side, like one man. It seemed q
wonderfully even race. The spectators
watched it in breathless interest. Once
Fordyce's boat got half length beyond
that of Williamson, but the latter soon
reduced this difference to an absolute
nulity. The two boats were literally
side-and.side as they presently disap-
peared behind the mass of rock. Then
they we're hidden from sight. The
multitude waited in suspense to see
them re-emerge from this temporary
obscurity. But five minutes elapsed.
and there was no sign of either boat.
Then five minutes more passed, and
still no sign of them. Then another
five minutes went by. The crowd was
now strangely excited. What had hap
pened? To round the rock would have
been, at ordinary rowing, not more
than seven. minutes work. Boats be.
gan to put off from the shore. But
presently cry of alarm rose from the
waiting throng. Two dark objects,
borne in by the tide, had appeared in
the direction which Williamson and
Fordyce should have taken. They were
the empty shell-boats of the two rival
rowers! What had become of the &C.
cupants themselves? It took many
hours before that question was an
swered, and then their bodies, washed
upon q sand-bar at the further side of
the rocky extension, were discovered
by o company of alarmed searchers.
The bodies were locked so tightly to.
gether, in An awful murderous grip of
death, that, because of their stiffsned
condition, they could with difficulty
be separated. The affair has created
immense excitement in Charlottesburg.
The intimate friends OF both Viii.
Hanson and Fordyce declare most pos
itively their certainty that ono must
have capsized his boat accidentally, and
that his companion, seeing the danger,
lost his own life in an attempt at rescue.
1t is fact that Fordyce was . very in
swimmer, as all his friends
testify. Miss Janeway, it is said, has
been delirious ever since the sad affair,
and her life is still despaired ON. Y.
Weekly.
Maximilian's widow continues to re-
side at Tervueren, near Brussels. Her
first hallucination was that AN attempt
had been made to poison her in Mexico,
and that this design was still directed
against her. and she refused all food
which her sister-in.law, the queen Of
the Belgiums, had not tasted. None
now see her without the queens per-
mission, as o strange face produ ses ser.
ious excitement. Sometimes che puts
on q splendid dress, her rooms are