The Portland daily press., 1897-06-21
A GREAT RACE
When the College Boys Row at POUCH
keepsie.

Poughkeepsie, N Y, June l9.-All the
coaches agree tonight that the race on
Friday between Cornell, Harvard and
Yale, will be one of the hardest fought
battles ever seen in American waters un-
less the tide conditions initiate.
Mr.. Porter, President Mckinley S
secretary, has engaged seats on the obser-
walton train for the race for party to
include himself, Speaker Reed and two or
three members of the cabinet
Manager Wheelwright of Yale arrived
here this evening and is stopping at the
Stuyvesant house, where the Yale men
are to have their quarters and where
everything is in readiness for their ar
rival tomorrow evening.
You fall over wiseacres at every step you
| take. Some of them wear college colors;
some of them are practical sports; some
OF them are enthusiastic alumni, but one
and all have definite theories as to the
outcome of the races. One will gravely
assure you that Harvard S men have been
trained to their point of fineness too
quickly, and that they are growing stale.
whether or not you consider the infor-
mant prejudiced, you must give his
declaration much thought. Harvard has
been in training many weeks longer than
any other crew. 1t is a theory among
professional trainers that the acme of per-
lection in their branch of art, is to bring
the men to the finest point of their most
perfectscondition within the twenty four
ho1lrc th al J,oarlr tho no oiy,or dox, ttpob,,
Cook has made that the feature of all his
Yale training. Ellis Ward says that
when men begin to dislike the training
table and the boat house, the Gig is up. :"
| But, per contra, Mr.. Lehman believes
his men will be ready to demonstrate that
his process is superior, by their carrying
the crimson to the front. That is one
proposition to ponder over.
Your next croaker will tell you that
Cornell is hurting her chances Of win
ming by the very frequent changes in
the make up of her crew. Nothing gives
man such confidence as knowing the
other men in the boat. "You see,'' says
man with a bit Of Yale blue in his
makeup, ''it's the fellows back that you
are facing; that is the only thing you
have to look at for four long miles, and
if you are not entirely confident in, and
familiar with that back, it's great strain
on the nerves and a loss to your own
| form. And then Mr.. c. saws,
when you breach the matter to him,
Eyes, my boy, confidence and under
| standing are great things; but they don t
mend weak spots in crew. And there
will not be any weak spots in Cornell.''
| But by far the most general subject of
conversation here is the question of
stroke. English and American are the
| titles of the strokes used, and both titles
are absolutely misnomers. Harvard with
an English coach is supposed to exempli-
fy the first; and Yale the other Cornell
is concededly a half breed. Now the fact
of the matter is that if the term English
stroke means passion for straight backs
and showiness of style as rowed by First
Trinity at Henley, then no crew on the
Hudson will use any such method. To be
frank about the matter, while there will
be some new methods of rowing seen,
they will all in q certain sense be mon
grel. In fact, they will not be surprising
~ new; for both Yale and Cornell have
had semblance of English style in their
rowing for some years. When Harvard
last year rowed a spasmodic leg and arm
stroke with recovery so jerky as to AL
most stop the boat between strokes, and
Cornell with plenty of back work and
distributed power from catch to finish of
stroke, won the race easily, it was appar-
ent that at least that proportion of the
English stroke was successful Yale has
always ignored the jerky, so called Amer
lean stroke, and has worked to use every
inch of water against the blade for power.
1t is interesting to note that controversy,
equal in interest to our American one, is
on foot in England over the question of
stroke there. At Cambridge unfortunate
differences Of opinion with regard to cor
rect style still continue, and a wordy
warfare is waging on the subject in the
Cambridge Review. On the main lines
OF theory the opposing sides are. to judge
from these articles, very nearly agreed;
but, curiously enough, they put their
ideas into execution in different way.
The extremists o. the Hall party advo-
cate work with the legs, coupled with
perfect disregard of all body form.
The First Trinity school, on the other
hand, go rather to the other extreme in
their passion for straight backs and
showiness of style. The controversy will
doubtless end in the moderates getting
the controlling hand in affairs.
Harvard has an English shell, an Eng
lish trainer, and is running an English
training table; so despite the fact that
there is no decided English stroke, it will
certainly be called a victory for English
methods if Harvard wins. 1t is hardly
probable that the English shell will be
used, however, especially if the water is
at all rough; but in case it should be en-
ployed, the difference between, the Yale
American, and the Harvard English
boats, may be interesting. The width of