The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-30
RECIPROCITY WITH BERMUDA.
The FOur.Mfle Boat Races

Poughkeepsue, N. Y, June 81
Twenty thousand people today saw one
of the most exciting four mile boat
races ever witnessed in the history of
college rowing. Five thousand people
on the observation train yelled them
selves hoarse in frantic appeals to their
various college crews to do their best,
and with the other fifteen thousand
they saw the red and blue carried over
the line a winner by a short half length
from the Wisconsin's who lost in the
last two hundred yards by bad steering.
Cornell, the victor of former years,
pulled after, full four lengths in the
rear, and Columbia, never in the fight
in a good three lengths from the stern
of the Cornell boat.
, It was the kind of a race that makes
the blood Jingle and was made so by
the crew that came over a thousand
miles to meet former victors, for with
out the gallant Wisconsins in the race,
it would have been a doleful procession
after the second mile was entered. To
say that there was surprise on the OBJ
servation train and amid the great
crowds upon the banks when the Wis
consin shell swept mile after mile Of
the course until the last half was
reached, with a clear lead over all the
crews, is putting it mildly. When the
people on the bank, unable to place the
strange crew okol, etdwdOar aPksi.kc
strange crew, looked oward the obser-
walton train inquiringly and were told
that it was Wisconsin, they were al
most dumb with amazement, and when
those on the train saw the gallant
struggle mile after mile they dropped
their appeals for their own crews n
| yelled in a friendly manner for the boy
from the west.
The alleged ragged stroke, the badly
keeled boat, the too long reach, al were
forgotten as the fast moving craft kept
moving it's sharp S to the fore and
then the people saw the leaders turn
out towards the shore at the finish and
lose the race to tn men from Pennsyi-
vania by a short half length. Well
did the Pennsylvanians obey the in
junction of Ellis Ward to not lose their
heads. FRI le first eighth of a mile
they roweu stern, hard chase, at one
time being astern of both Cornell and
Wisconsin, but their pluck and en-
durance sent them over the line first
in good time and by such a small mar
gin that the glory is greater.
For Cornell the winner of many bat
ties. the conest proved to be a race
only in two miles. For those first two
miles she did gallant work, but she
was struggling against evidently better
crews. and it was only by exertions OF
a phenomenal nature thai she managed
to keep the nose of the boat ahead Of
the Pennsylvania for a brief time in
the second mile.
OF Columbia, it may be said that she
was outclassed from the start, and bar
ring an accident, there was never a time
whecn she stood a chance of winning
the race. She went to the rear in the
first quarter of a mile, although she
made a STRAIT and stayed there all
through the race.
Two false starts were made and the
referee called thee rews back. None
of the crews were in what could be call
ed bad condition WIN they finished.
The following the official summary:
Pennsylvania time 20:04, Wiscon-
sins 20:05 1-2, Cornell's 20:13, Column
bias 1920. Record for course 1929.
Two miles as made by h leading
crew, which, at every mile point except
the finish, was Wisconsin's, were:
First mile Ash LIS, second 10: Sc, third
14:55.
The position of the boats at the
finish were as follows: Pennsylvania
scant half length ahead of Wisconsin,
the Badgers three lengths in advance
of Cornell, the Ithacans four lengths
] in front of Columbia.