Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-10-15

snt
time AS we went by tho
quarters of the other crews "a.
sSe s,o'ps OF students and thci,
'r"hus' rush down to their landing.
and level their glasses upon MS anI
re Ehew That we were for the frs, tim.
bein" sized up by all our coi,a..
rivals. The next day the most i,,na.
tant headline in the Springfield naner,
was. Bowdoin goes over the corrs,. o.,
the first time" Then followed cn,,,n,,,
OF comments upon our crew. orr stro,,a
our speed. and speculations about M,
probable position at the finish Al =,
'hiS was or course intensely jnterest;n,
u us. but the paragraph that pleasof
ohr trainer the most was the one TIA,
contained the comments of John PIC
lin. He was famous oarsm,n =,
those days and was there loox;ne
after one of the college crews. As we
went by he was standing on the shore
WIN reporter Of one of the Springfield
papers and group Of college mer
ap'ut MN. There goes crew .or
'ih1e. sad the reporter. Who ar,
they: BiSlin looked at the crew ,
moment. and then recognizing the
familiar swing of the old Paris Crov
stroke. he said. that must be the crew
tfat George Price is training. Then i,
Is the Bow dom Crew said the re-
porter What a queer stroke said =
Yale man. who was in the proIn
ism that what they call. rowing in y
clrcle?' Biglin. whose eyes had moi
been taken from the crew since il came
IN sight. turned to the group of stu
dents about him and said, Well. bovs
you may call that stroke rowing in a
circle. or what you like. but if they
can make their boat go like that over
the whole course on the day of the race.
that's the winning crew. We were
naturally much elated at such praise
IRON professional oarsman. And the
pettlng fraternity evidently took the
UP from this remark and from that
time to the day of the race the Bow
dom crew was the favorite against
the field
For several days before the
race | had noticed that when we
came to the last half mile in
our practicing. especially if we had an
unusually hard spin: the boat would
have such list of port that | could
not feather my own oar clear of the
water. | spoke of this several times
TO our trainer who did not appear to
take any notice of it; but the night be-
fore the race he went with ME out TO
the boathouse and taking out his
pocketknife he cut the 'gunner of the
boat, where the handle of my oar came
over it. clear down to the short ribs.
''rhar., no y; L.
YOU Then he told me in confidence.
mat one of the men had gone little
stale and when hard pressed at the
end of the course would ease up on
his stroke which would throw the boat
over the other side. But | think
you will be far enough in the lead
when this happens he said. that no
one will get by you before he catches
on again.
The morning of the long expected day
at length dawned upon us. We had
retired somewhat earlier than usual
the evening before. but could not go to
sleep quite as readily, for visions of
the morrow's events would keep
crOwding in upon our minds no matter
how hard we would try to keep them
Out. AS TIE Tdtp Vas not uutlk
afternoon. we lounged around during
the forenoon. trying to appear as in
different and calm as possible. We
put the finishing polish upon the boat,
roughened the handles of our oars.
frightened our foOt-straps, and did
many little things of this kind. in order
to have every thing in perfect readi-
ness for the race but more especially
to keep from thinking too hard about
it. After a light lunch we launched
our boat and padded down to the
starting point. All along the way We
could see the roads on either side OF
the river filled with crowds of people,
hurrying to get places where they
could see the race. There was an OBJ
servation train on one side of the river
near the starting point loaded with an
excited throng of students from the
various colleges and their lady frlen Is.
Along the other bank stretched a fine
carriage road which was lined with
all kinds of vehicles. from hay-rack
TO a tally no." each carrying its load
of eager sightseers. And every jutting
point of land along the course was
covered with groups OF college men
ready to cheer their respective crews
to victory.
I'VE didn't see many white ilaSs uls-
played. for Bowdoin was too far down
East for many of her students to at
tand the races there. but Old Mike Har-
r;yan. the captain of the river steamer,
saluted us as he swept down the
course his boat loaded down with pas
sengers and he was proudly carrying
tho Howdoin flag at his masthead. we
drew lots for places at the start ana
found that we came between Harvard
ana Vale. beginning from the western
sbora the boats lined up as follows:
Amherst .Aggies. Harvard. Bowdoin
vale Amherst. and Brown. so we had
rood position near the middle of the
river. The tide was pretty strong that
da- and it took "a long time to get the
heats in line for the start. for 1t rs no
easy matter to handle one of those long
racing shells in swift current.
After a good dead of floating down
INST the buoys and backing up again.
tho line was formed. the starter
dropped the dag and shouted Go.
"A great shout went up from the
crowds on either shore. we dug our
oars into the water with the short
starting stroke we had practised. the
next a little longer. the third fuii