Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-05
0ARSMEN In COLLEGE.
Walter C. Dohm Tells How the Crews
Of Yale and Harvard Train.
THEY BEGIN WITH THE NEW YEAR.
General Gymnasium Work First and the
Cockle-Shells Later.
MEN WHO WILL ROW THE GREAT RACE.
WRITTEN FOR THE DrsPArcH.l

with the LIST day Of January you had to &c
to school seven times q week? If absence
for even a single day for any other reason
than sickness positively would not be tol.
Grated? And if the beginning of spring and
summer vacation meant the beginning SIM
| ply of longer hours and harder work?
Would you not think life not worth living?
| And yet this is exactly the sort OF thing
to which each year q score of young giants
-she very men who by reason of their physi'
cal strength feel the restraint more than
others-submit and submit willingly and
gladly. The school they attend is the gym
nasium; their recitstions are held in an
eight-oared she'll, and their final examina.
tion over four-mile course on the River
Thames at New London, Conn, before q
score of thousand yelling half frenzied spec
tators, who line the river banks, follow on
the water in steamboats, and on the shore by
trains and open cars.
Not Much Fun in the Training.
The work of the athletes in whose hands
lies the boating reputation of Yale and Har-
ward begins in earnest Immediately after the
Christmas vacation, though for weeks before
the men have been taking preliminary e1-
ercise. There are but eight seats for oars-
men in each boat, but perhaps so or go can
didates apply for the positions at each
university.
The athletes are first taken to the gymna-
SUM, where their muscles are hardened by
constant exercise. The "wind" is improved
by running, care being taken of course that
each man Is warmly clothed before he starts,
and that he Is we'll rubbed and dried before
he resumes his ordinary costume. On Sum-
days the discipline Is relaxed somewhat and
the men are required to take only long
walks
Then comes the exercise in the impro-
vised "rivers" in the gvmnasiums. Each
university has a large rowing tank, in
which is fixed the "boat." The water passes
through troughs when the oars begin to
work, and a current is established flowing
around the boat. That the resistance offered
by the water to the oars may not be too
great, large holes are cut in the oar blades.
Here the men are taught the primary prin-
ciples Of rowing. At first the sliding seats
are fastened, and day after day for weeks
the men are "coached'' in the correct
method of using the arms and swinging the
body.
They First Cruiss in a Heavy Barge.
About the middle of February or the 1st
of March, outofioor rowing is begun-not
in shell. but in heavy barge. By this
time the three-score candidates have been
reduced to dozen or 10. First, the men
who show lack of interest are told they
need train no longer. Then 60 those who,
though willing, have not the weight and
strength to make them available.
Once on the water the men begin with
q very slow stroke Individually and BY
pairs and by eights the men are taught by
masters of the stroke who come from Bos
ton, New York, Philadelphia and even
Chicago. The stroke is dissected and each
part is explained until the oarsman knows
the stroke from A to T. Brute force alone
enough to win a race-and this is dinned
and hammered into the heads of the men
who want to do all the work with their
muscles, until they forget that they have
such quality as strength.
From the barge the crew steps into the
light, cranky, paper or cedar she'll. Then
the trouble begins anew. In their efforts to
keep the shell from rolling, the men seem
to forget everything they have ever.
learned. Gradually, however, they be-,
come accustomed to their new seats, and
then the "coachers" go to work to the more
delicate points of the stroke and to teach
the men uniformity in their work, that the
whole eight may row as single man.
The Time for the Final Choices.
The regular varsity crew is selected as
soon as possible. Harvard, particularly,
makes this point, to decide early upon the
oarsmen who will represent her on the
Thames. It is an open secret that the easy
victory Of the crimson over the blue last
summer was due in a great measure to the
fact that the eight oarsmen who won the
race had been working and rowing together
since the February preceding. Yale's
crew, on the contrary, had not been
definitely chosen to within a month of the
race.
There are many names that will become
familiar to the boy who reads rowing news
this year. There is Crptain "Bob" Cook,
the father of Yale's stroke, who runs up to
New Haven from Philadelphia as often as
possible to give the crew the benefit of his
advice; and when Captain Cook can't be
present, John Rogers and Alfred Cowles,
also ex-captains of the Yale navy, will be
there to carry out Cooks instructions. At
Cambridge the most familiar names will be
those of "CharIey" Adams "Harry" Keyes
and Captain Perkins, of last years victor
ious crew.
The Captains Arc veritabIs Giants
Then there are the captains Of this years
crews Few, even of Yale men, would
under the name of John Augustus
the athlete who for five years has
been famous on the football field and on the
water as old Josh" Hartwell. Captain
entered college in 1886, when he !
was but 16 years old He has road in three |
victorious crews, those of 'SS, 'S9 and 80, i,
and he played last fall on the football |
eleven that defeated the teams of both
Princeton and Harvard. Captain Hartwell |
is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 176 |
pounds.
Cap ain Keiton, of Harvard, though not |
10 we'll known to the outside world as Cap |
sain Hartwell, is every ounce an athlete,
ind that means great deal, when one con-
,iders his weight OF more than 200 pounds. |
''Pa" Kelton, as he is known to Harvard |
men, is a scholar as we'll as an athlete, and |
when he is graduated this summer he will |
be very near the head of his class, though |
he has taken his four years college course |
"a three. WALTER C. DoHM.
The Oldest Living English Authors.