The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-14

GrfeVance-hs comments On
Membership List.
From the New York Sun.
Boston, Aug. 10.-Thomas w. Law
sons book, THE Lawson History oil
the Americas Cup" which will be
distributed tomorrow, is dedicated in
the words:
ITO soprtmen-maniy men, men OF
gentle mind and simple heart, brave
men. fair men; to men who say to
the weak, May L. and to strong, i
will to men whom sham is dishonor
and truth a guiding star; to man who
look upon the sea, he plain, the
forest, the mountains, the rising and
the setting sun and the immutable
heavens, with a deep sense of their
own littleness in the great scheme of
things. l dedicate this book"
In his introduction Mr.. Lawson
writes that in 1901 the custodians Of
the Cup, trustees whose responsibility
had ever sat lightly upon them, ruled
than no ship belonging to any Amer
lean other than member of a GER
tain yacht club-their own-would be
permitted to defend the nation
trophy.
My refusal 1 as owner of the Ameri-
can-built and American manned yacht
independence to recognize the right
of the custodians of the Americas
Cup to compel me or any American to
join any club in order to compete for
the honor of defending an American
national trophy, led to this extraor-
binary ruling. which dazed the yacht
ing world and at once brought into
being the question: Has one of the
great sports of America-yachting-
been syndicated?"
The discussion that ensued lasted
for several months. The issued resolved
itself into the contention on the.
one hand supported by practically the
entire press and people of the coun-
try, that the America 5 Cup as the ma
tons trophy should be free for any
American to defend could be pro-
duce a vessel worthy of the honor;
and, on the other hand into the dog
ged iteration of the custodians of the
cup that no American other than a
member of their own club could de-
fend the cup.
That such a controversy was pos
sible in the history of so noble a tro-
ply as the Americas Cup showed
something was rotten in Denmark, and
before the season of 1901 was half over
the world saw that the cup had ceased
in effect to be national trophy and
was held as a club prize, to be raced
for only under such conditions as the
club holding it saw fit to lay down.
In "a Word to the Student of Yacht
ing" Mr.. Lawson analyses American,
social and economic conditions at
some length. The foundation of Amer
icas greatness, he says, was laid by
three classes, the poor laborer, the
intelligent middle class. and natures
aristocrats. who left the comforts of
Old World homes for the hardships and
romances of a new world"
From these classes there sprang two
others. says Mr.. Lawson, a demo-
cratic aristocracy of wealth and a
democratic aristocracy of sports
What Mr.. Lawson terms the Ameri-
can mushroom aristocracy" is COM
posed. he says, "of those who know
TO law but might. who admit no good
but self, whose standard is cunning
and whose code is get there Prob
ably never in the history of the world
has there been a class so powerful for
evil as this" With a desire to rule
socially, this class, says Mr.. Lawson,
has put in force a gigantic system for
gaining it's own ends through the cor
ruption of the peoples political leaders,
of the courts and of the press.
In only one phase of life says Mr..
Lawson, did this class find itself
baked and s-sports-natural
towards, queer in body and perverted
in mind because of a vicious or low
order of ancestry and habit, they
could not take active part in those
things which have for their founda-
ton courage, manliness and well-pro-
portioned bodies, and their wealth
could not buy. their cunning steal,
nor their power seize these things
which nature alone can give.
But as ii was necessary to destroy
that mark of distinction between them
end the gentlemen which true sport
kept always in the foreground, this all
conquering class determined they
would do the next best thing. If they
could not take active part in sport, if
they could not appreciate its true mer-
its. they would pretend to, and they
would, by taking possession of those
associations which controlled sports
make 1t well-nigh impossible to distiu-
guish between the pretense and real
ity.
THE most prominent sporting and
social club to which they laid siege
was the New York Yacht Club, an in
stitution in its early days composed
largely of the very flower of Americas
sturdy maaliness from every important
question affecting sport. Is it for the
best interest of the sport?' and next
is it good for the club?' Men who
never asked What is. there in it for
us, financially or socially?
SO well did the mushroom class
bring their peculiar ability to bear
upon the New York Yacht Club that
1t grew rapidly in numbers. rapidly in
public importance and rapidly in those
things for which the class was noted
steam vessels and those forms of
catching which required only a saloon
above and sleeping luxury below decks
an unlimited stock of liquor and a full
supply of gambling implements. multi
piled rapidly. while those which neces-
STATED an acquaintance with the sea
and a knowledge of sails, ropes and
spars shrunk to ar insignificance in all
but name, in proportion as steam
grew.
There had taken place at the same
time fully as great a contrast in the
people who were met in the club
houses and in the ships which flew the
blue flag with the red cross and white
star.
Where in the SOS and Cos it was
common remark that Thus and so
looks like a member of the New York
Yacht Club which was the equivalent
for He looks a gentleman and where
a member who felt il necessary to open
his correspondence with a statement
of who he was or how he acquired his
crest was unheard of under the re-
gime of this new class the queer men
and women one was obliged to stumble
over on the club house balconies or
yacht decks ceased to draw even COM
ment from the oldest members; while