The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-19
THE AMERICAN HENLEY.
New London is the Natural Water mans Paradise.

Ills the place or the English Henley Throughout the length and breadth of the land, among the cores of colleges east and west, there are hardly more than five rowing colleges, and the races between them are over a long four mile course and almost invariably degene- rate into a mere procession, in which the only element of uncertainty or in terest is as to how many lengths the victor shall win by. Let any one who has watched the Harvard boat races for the last decade try to recall how many really close finishes there have been. There is none of the glori- ous ding dong fighting every foot of the course, first one boat leading and then the other, such as one sees over a Hen ley course q 5-16 miles) with driving finish where only two feet separate the bows of the two.
 It is often difficult for small college to find sixteen men from whom to choose an eight, and the expense in the way of shells and other paraphernalia Is no inconsiderable item. Yet many of the smaller institutions could and would support a four or make entries in the pair oars or single scull events if only an opportunity were provided. A four-mile race is objectionable, not only to the spectators, the greater part of whom can only see a small portionot the course but the long twenty min utes of tremendous labor is too much of a strain on the competitors,
 The tendency of modern oarsmen is to relegate the long, tedious, four-mile race to the oblivion which the seven, mile walk, the tug-of-war, and other tiresome and tiring athletic events that obtained. The present system keeps out the small colleges and furthermore affords no opportunity for the scores of subordinate crews to show their mettle, the rank and file of the rowing men, the class crews. the crews of the pro fessional schools of the different col lege clubs and fraternities which used to abound. The consequence is that rowing, the king of athletic sports, is dying among the colleges, as the aqua tic history of the last decade will show.
 Time was when thirteen colleges com peted ''all in a row"
 Princeton, Amherst, Brown and host of smaller colleges all supported strong crews. But in the old days
 there was none of the management or that system which has made the Eng lish Henley such a success. The crews all started in helter- -skelter line, and the regattas were marred and finally killed by the constant fouls and result ing bad feelings that were a necessary consequence of this clumsy system.
 But assume that an American Henley
 be founded, an event held pre- eminent ly in the interests of college oarsmen,
 with a distance that does not require
 tedious months of training (the win
 ners of the grand challenge cup this
 year at Henley trained together less than a month; and how quickly the colleges would swing into line!
 None of the present annual regattas,
 such as the Harlem, the Peoples, or
 the National, appeals to the distinc-
 lively college element and many of them are marred by professional
 events. But week that would offer
 every small college an equal chance
 with the larger ones, that would en-
 courage class crews and offer cup for
 fraternity and public-school crews,
 that would persuade the clubs whose membership is composed of college men
 to go in for rowing-such 8. regatta
 would fill long-felt want, and once more put rowing well up in the front as
 a branch of collegiate athletics.
 There Is no reason why St, Pauls
 should be almost the only public school
 that goes in for boating, nor why the
 university clubs--the University Ath-
 letic club, the Harvard club, the Cres-
 cent Athletic club, and score of oth-
 ers-should not support crews of ex- college men, as the Leander Boating club does on the other side.
 Nor would such a week benefit the cause of rowing alone. It would do
 more to break up the little crystalliza- tions of bad feeling that are continual ly forming in our college athletics than the well meant and usually disastrous attempts of all the faculty advisory committees'' and "graudate boards of arbitration in the country. Let the athletes of a dozen different colleges spend weeks of good fellowship train l ing together rowing together, with nc secret trials, false times, or any of the other jockeying methods that should be the special prerogative only of book makers and the betting ring, a week when the fever heat of college feeling" would be tempered by the fact that there are several entries from most of the larger universities, any two of which well might meet in the finals and the bickerings and jealousieS that belong especially to the salad days" would well nigh disappear. And a week of social intercourse among the alumni and undergraduates would have similarly broadening effect. | No one ever hears of athletic disputes 1 between Cambridge and Oxford. If the college world will but once realize the | desirability and necessity of an Ameri- can Henley the hardest part of the bat l tie is already won. The Royal High | ness regatta has stood all tests for over half century, and it's management and methods have been studied and perfected until they can well serve as a model for a similar organization on | this side of the Atlantic. If the Eng | fish scheme of organization be followed there would seem to be but two debata- I ble points-the time and place A week 1 in July, say the first week, including l the 4th of July, would seem most desir- able, just after the college commence 1 ments, and when college crews would
 be at their best after the summer term. As to the place, the choice would probably lie between the Thames and the Hudson. The former would seem to have many more advantages. New London is the waterman's natural par