The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-05
WATCHED THE RACERS.
Last Heat Showed No Diminution in
Interest i'm Yachts.

Il
The third, and as it proved, last race
for the Americas cup created quite as
much interest among Savannahians as
did the first two. The superiority of the
Columbia had not been shown so con-
clusively as to leave no chance for her
defeat by the swift Shamrock II, and
there was enough of uncertainty about
the result of yesterdays race to keep
the interest at a good, strong heat.
| Nobody doubted that, with two
straight heats to her credit, Columbia
would win the best three out of five,
but there was no guarantee that she
would defeat the Shamrock in the third
heat. That was what kept the interest
so keen and made everybody inquire as
to the progress of the race.
| AS was the case throughout the rae
ing, quite a crowd gathered about the
bulletin board of the Morning News.
All were eager for the news, and it was
with the closest attention that the tel
egrams and telephone announcements
were followed. The majority of the
crowd, as was but natural were CO.
lumbia supporters, so that there was
some little anxiety over the result of
the race created among them by the re-
ports.
Shamrock was shown to be leading,
and that was not at all pleasing to
many of the Columbia's adherents.
There were many who did not want the
British boat to win a single race of the
series, but there were others who,
though hoping that the Columbia
would win the series, were yet anxious
to have the Shamrock win even two
races, leaving the final race to settle
the great question of superiority. OF
course, they wanted Columbia to win
in the last, but they thought that, in
the interest of excitement, there would
be some such spectacular finish of the
series.
Yet another crowd wanted to see the
Shamrock win the series. Those COM
prising this class were not all English
men, either. for there was a strong
percentage of good Americans among
them. They concluded that Sir Thorn
as Upton had made such a noble strug-
gle for the yachting supremacy for mis-
country that he should secure it, They
were proud of his pluck and even wish
ed that American might lose her pres
tige for one brief year, never doubling
that a boat could be sent across the
water at any time to retrieve the lau-
rels of American yachtsmen.
AS was the case with other races
| N'AN ~ w. oDOOi lllc DullGllH DOdTQ QlU
not begin to represent the interest
| there was in the heat Men and BOYS
| came and went, observing the bulletin
! board and making mental note of the
| position of the racers. Then they were
met on the streets by friends who in
! quired about the yachts. Telephones
! too, were kept busy, and the almost
| invariable question, while the race was
! on and after 1t had been sailed, was
as to it's progress or result.
Many bets were paid during the aft
| ernoon. When ii was found that the
! Columbia, though by a very narrow
margin, was the winner, those who had
backed the Shamrock saw that it was
for them to pay their bets A good
deal of currency changed hands, but
many of the bets were of hats or other
articles of wearing apparel.
The latest in the way of a Joke about
the yacht races developed during the
day. The unwary "bit' readily when
1t was sprung. The joker, in tone
and manner designed to convey the i'm
preston that there was a great piece
of news about to be conveyed, said:
Look here, the Englishmen are claim
ing that the Yankees put something In
the water to beat the Shamrock" OF
course that sounded startling, and the
natural query was, "What?" THE Co.
lumbia,' was the answer