St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-26

This may seem paradoxicaI, but it
is nevertheless true The collegians
should have only arrived at Henley
a few days before the contest, so
that they would still feel the invigor-
ating effects of the strong ocean
breezes, or else have put up at Hen
ley months. before, SO that they
would have been thoroughly aecli-
mated. They were at Henley just
long enough to become limp and
debilitated by its soft, enervating
atmosphere. They felt it all the
more by reason of the contrast with
the health-giYing sea air they had
enjoyed on their trip across the At
1antic a few weeks before. 1t was
the climate and not Courtney that
killed the boys. It knocked him as
well as his pupils, for, as 1 have been
reliably informed, the big Ithacan
was as sick some days before the
race as a lady on her first day at
sea. He was full of malaria as we'll
as anxiety.
Courtney is an adept at aquatic
overworked his pupils one jet. / am
satisfied that he did all mortal man
could do to get them in fit condition
for the great struggle they had to
undergo.
Another thing, Courtney has been
criticised upon the shortness and
quickness of his crews stroke The
10 ,e,
one mans meat is another mans
poison. Some crews use a long, slow
stroke to the best advantage, others
a. Snappy, speedy one. Personally [
favor a long stroke, especially for a
long race, but I have known in
stances where the short, quick
stroke won notable contests. Take,
for example, the famous Showaece-
mettes of 1876, who defeated the best
men of America and came within an
ace of conquering the famous Lon
don Rowing club crew in England
in the following year. They rowed
a short, jerky stroke, often running
up as high as fifty-four to the min
ute, yet they suffered only three de-
fea'ts in two years out of twenty odd
contests. Those defeats, too, were
only by a hairbreadth and due to
bad management rather than poor
rowing. Even style and symmetry
in rowing sometimes don't count, as
is evidenced in the famous victory
of the Beverwyeks of Albany over
the London Rowing club crew at the
Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. The
Londoners had defeated the great
Yale team, captained by the re-
noWned Bob Cook, in the trial heat
OF the day before, and the sturdy
orthwestern and Showaecemette
crews the day before that. Yet of
all the crews at Philadelphia at that
great epoch in rowing history the
Beverwycks of Albany rowed the
most awkward, scraggy stroke and
still won the worlds amateur cham
pionship.
Now for the benefit of ambitious
oarsmen, whether they be eollegians
or non-collegians, amateurs or pro-
fessionals, who contemplate an
aquatic invasion of England or any
other foreign country, I will give
a deaf out Of my diary. My expert
enee may do them some good. Either
row IN the country you visit almost
immediately after arrival, while you
still have the benefit of old Nep-
tunes tonic, or four to six months
afterward. the period in which one
will get thoroughly acclimated. If
you row soon after your arrival, take
a hogshead of your own country's
water with you. The water of an
other country is almost sure to
sicken and debilitate you until your
system has been accustomed to it.
If you can go abroad in time to be
acclimated-and lit Is the better way
-'train just exactly as you did at
home. You can't change the Gus
toms Of a lifetime any more than
leopard can change his spots. Work
and play, eat, drink and sleep as
you did ait h6me. You can't in a few