Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-10-05

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
NEW YORK, October 4, 1901.
Some of the auxiliary features of the
yacht races are almost as interesting as
the races themselves. For example, the
proverbial recklessness of the American
spirit has never been more manifest as in
the races to port of the vessels of the vast
fleet in attendance upon the contests of the
yachts. It seems simply a miracle that
many of these vessels have not gone to
that submerged locker of Mr.. David Jones
with all of their passengers. The vessels
barely wait for the conclusion of the yacht
races before they set their prows New
Yorkward, with their tunnels belching
smoke, and the engineers standing by be-
low for the four bells. signals indicating
that the race to port with rivals Is on $ =.
The apparently inextricable confusion of
the fleet when the gun denoting the finish
Of the yacht race Is fired Is something be-
yond description. The steam yachts and
ocean steamers and steamboats, and tugs
comprising the attending fleet seem to be
headed toward all of the points Of the COM
pass under full head of steam and the
pilots appear to make an actual effort to
see how closely they can shave by each
other without collisions. A pair of ocean
steamers, detached from their regular SER
vice to carry passengers to the yacht races
hook up with each other, going neck and
neck for mile or SO like blooded teams
on driveway, and running SO closely to-
gether that one could almost shake hands
with friend from the rail Of one of the
steamers to the other.
They Do Close Work.
Two big steam yachts one going a
straight and the other an oblique course,
get so close together that 1t looks as if one
Of them must be rammed, both pilots stub
bornly holding to their course, until the
pilot who caves first whirls his wheel
about, with many objurgations, and averts
tragedy by the breadth of an eyelash. A
couple of snappy, spitefuI-looking little
pusybody tugs, having had it In for each
other for a long while on the question Of
speed, begin to thread their way out of
the great maze at full racing speed even
before the result Of the yacht race is posi-
tlVeiy known, and they ram themselves in
ana out or the most amaZin difficult
pockets, formed by larger vessels. with all
OF the recklessness Of jockeys of the stable
boy class. Vast, cumbersome side-wheel
steamboats,, loaded to the gun'ls with hi
larfous, cheering passengers wriggle SER
pentinely through blockades that look as
II they can only be broken by the applica-
ton OF dynamite, as the explosive is ap-
clear seems to be only due to the watchful
care of providence. The laws of navigation
ana the rules OF the harbor seem to be
neatly folded away for the time in the
lazaretto. And there assuredly never were
| more dangerous speed contests than these
on the Mississippi river. Packed steam
boats, designed for fourteen knots at the
greatest, poke their way through the wa
! ter with red-hot bearings at from 10 to 20
Knots, and every screw of the machinery
whimpering. Yachts that never did better
than II knots at their builders speed trials
are fed pitch and tar and chased up the
harbor at torpedo boat speed. The engi-
neers OF these racing boats, public and
private, are in a state of pallid, tremulous
collapse when they at length drive the
boats into their berths, but that doesn't
make any difference to the deck loungers:
the engineers are under instructions to
squeeze every old Troy weight ounce of
steam out of their packets that they can
and to try to forget all about their safety
valves.
Passengers Enjoy the Sport.
And the passengers, particularly those on
the public boats, enter into the game with
| characteristic American don't-care-a- hang-
atiyeness. They howl over every inch of
ground gained on rival boats and thew do
not vince when their boat only escapes be-
! ing cut IN two by a miracle. Knowing, as
] most OF them-men and women alike-da
| that the machinery and boilers Of their
| vessels are being strained to their utter
| most, and that they have about an even
| chance OF going straight into the air on
| straight below at any moment. thew ha vi
ana Shrek with joy when they perceive the
| rival boat dropping astern. All of this
| may be dead game enough, but 1t is pre-
| carious work Sir Thomas Upton. from
| binary scramble through glasses for about
ten minutes after one of the races the
other day, and when he put his glasses
down he turned to an English friend, pay
ing MS first visit to this country. and re-
| marked. with q smile:
L what did tell Won ahoy,t %y,o S,n.xsr,-.