The Indianapolis journal., 1885-09-13
MR.. W. A. CROFFUTS LETTER.
The Race Between the Genesta and Pu-
ritan Has Absorbed All New York.
General Viele's RecOllections of Ride with
Mr.. Lincoln-The Intimacies of
Revenue Cutter Bunk.
Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal.

Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal.
NEW YORK, Sept. 1O-The battle is not always
to the swift, as General Mcdowell used to say.
For fortnight now, the chief and absorbing
theme of interest has been the yacht race, best
two in three, over three sorts of courses The
excitement eliminated on Monday, and with the
failure of Eolus on that day came general
letting down of interest till now the public pulse
is very calm, and only handful will turn out
and sail to the Horse shoe tomorrow.
The race on Monday was pretty poor one,
but the exhibition was tremendous l don't
believe the display of steam and sailing craft
has ever been equaled in our waters, not even
on the occasion of receiving the statue from the
French lsere. And if it has never been equaled
here, where has it? London possesses no harbor
and no steamboats, to match ours. Liverpool
wallows on the muddy Mersey. and Glasgow is
up the Clyde, neither of them having any chance
for holiday festival afoat Halifax and Naples
have harbors that perhaps equal the harbor of
New York. but they have very small fleets Of
pleasure craft, and make poor exhibit.
In fact, l believe it may be truthfuly stated
that no other port in the world could make such
display of steam and sail craft as that which
formed the royal escort to the yachts on Mon
day. Our city papers have not done justice to
It, There was every variety of floating thing
from ships and ocean steamers to dories-pa
trician yachts and p,ebean tugs screws and
sidewheels, launches barses, and one grotesque
looking thing with sdewheel aft, if | may say
so, vast churning contrivance in the stern,
looking like lunatlc saw mill escaped from it's
keeper.
At one moment, about 3 O'Clock, when the
so-called race had fairly begun, I counted l4S
steam craft of all sizes, and there were, sup
pose twice as many sailing vessels. These were
scattered for miles around, but many of the
steamers tried to regard the injunctions of the
manager and kept astern of the Genesta, the
British yacht. There were at one time sixty or
seventy steam vessels thus packed in solid bank
closely side by side, and as | glanced northward
down the line of level prows decked in rainbow
hues of motley foreign flags, it reminded me of
one of the gorgeous carnival days upon the
Riva of Venice, or the shores of the grand canal
of Mexico, made brilliant in honor of the Feast
of Flowers, which HAS come down the ages,
sweet legacy from the Aztecs.
There good deal of nautical talk in the
conversation of the $4,000 people aAoat. They
casually alluded to larboard and starboard,
20 cutter aud sloop, to flying jib and spinnaker,
to the bilge and the spars and the uff and the
list TN glad they have given the handicap to
the Puritan" exclaimed guileless Poughkeepse
girl on our boat, and then she gigeed with joy.
''Why so!' asked yachting man who had juet
been introduced.
"O," she sad gazing at the blue heavens,
because; we'll, it'll look nicely, l suppose and,
maybe, help along! And she giggled again,
with idiotic glee, and asked. Have they put it
out yet!'
She actually thought handicap was much
desired possession-some sort of honor or dec
oration-perhaps, flag to be unfurled.
We went around the floating buoy twenty
miles out, then steamed back, meeting on the
way the beated yachts, feeling their way through
the gathering darkness And shortly they
turned about too, and gave up the struggle
against dead sky and lazy
Tuesdays accident has about snuffed out
whatever enthusiasm there was left in the race
for it is widely and deeply felt disgrace. If
the Puritan should now win two out of the three
races. half the honor would be gone for not
only has the owner of the Genesta disdaned to
accept the race which the rules clearly give him.
but there has not been, and will not be- any
attempt to enforce against the Puritan the
other rules Of the yacht club, one of which dis
qualities yacht which fouls another from re
ceiving any prize" The offense of the Puri
tan's captain was very grave one, and our
national pride is likely to pass it too lightly
The Puritan will need to conduct herself chval-
rously hereafter, and to win two Of the races by
a clear exhibition of superior sailing qualities to
disperse the cloud that now hangs about her
spars.
AMONG THE ARISTOCRACY.
Every little while, for the last twenty five
years, there has been talk of laying the tracks
of street railway through Fifth avenue. At
every mention of, it every Fifth avenoode has
put up his back defantiy and exclaimed over the
desecration Finally, to put stop to the terrible
menace a score of wealthy gentlemen banded
themselves together agreeing to stand as solid
wall against the encroachment of the vandals of
the parallel rails To be able to act more effectively
for the defense of their beautiful thoroughfare,
they playfully designated themselves The Fifth
Avenue Railway Company thus forestalling. AS
it were, the mercenary hordes who weres in earn
est.
1t is sad to record that these virtuous gentle
men have been tempted aud have fallen. They
have suddenly concluded that they had better
get ahead of the Goths and Huns in the most
practical way-by building the road themselves.
so they nave nleo new articleS OIL incorporation
bearing life of 1000 years, which is longer
than any Of them will live, ard stocked at So,
500, OOO The road will start at Canal street and
run, via Washington square and Fifth avenue, to
Harlem river. A shudder of delirious agony
/ runs through Fifth avenue this morning, but it
is observed to have the same earmarks as the
historical shudder which for a quarter Of a
century kept cars off from Broadway-if the
indulgent reader will permit me to allude to a
shudder as having aural appendages. Street
cars do not hurt Broadway they help it. They
will not hurt Fifth avenue, which is broader than
our diagonal way which is called broad, and
quite as much in need of transit facilities
Our cable cars are failure. They 60 and
will by and by, perhaps, 90 regularly, and with
out hitch, but they are expensive. There is a
feeling in the air that the day when horses for
street cars will be obsolete is near at hand that
the electric motor, either that of Daft or that of
Edison Field, about to contest for the privileges
of tie elevated road, or some other will drive