The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-30

Bennington and hunted up the coXu
OF the Bennington longboat crew.
He had heard. said the moon-face
from the Eleanor, that there was going
to be some kind of a longboat race in
the harbor on the Fourth of July. Well,
the Eleanor had a sort of a scrub crew
that would like to get into the race, if
that would be agreeable The Eleanor
fellows weren't regular longboat rae
ing men and they didn't expect to get
anything, but they'd like the exercise
and the fun of competing, and would
the Bennington crew be willing to al
low the Eleanor longboat to get into
the race if the other two crews were
willing?
Sure the Bennington crew would, The
more the merrer said the coxun,
drawing the members of the crew to-
gether under the fo'c'sle for a consulta-
ton. They wanted to be hospitable,
too and q four cornered race would
be sweller thing for the folk from the
shore to look at, anyhow than a three
cornered affair.
The moon-face from the Eleanor
looked duly grateful. Then he went
ashore and hunted up the cox'un of
the two Kanaka crews and put the
matter to them in the same way. The
Eleanor longboat crew wanted to get
into the race merely for the sport Of
the thing. and the Bennington folk
We're willing. and would the Kanakas
stand for another contesting crew? The
Kanaka race are the most agreeable
people in the world. and. they hadn't
the least objection.
So that night the handbook men had
another crew tackled onto the list.
Some of the bettors put up a sort of
roar over the fact that another crew
had been added after they had made
their bets on the three-cOrnered race,
but these kickers were laughed down
by their companions as well as by
the handbook men. They were told
that the Eleanor crew was only in the
race for fun: that they didn't have a
chance in the world to get anything,
and the handbook men showed they
believed in what they said in this re-
gard by promptly slapping up Is to 1
against the Eleanor crew to win and
8 to l against their mailing second
money.
The Eleanor crew put out in q tub
by-looking longboat on the following
day for a practice spin over the four
mile course-two miles down the harbor
and then around the stake and back
to the boathouse whence the start was
made-and they got the laugh over the
way they worked. They pulled like the
veriest amateurs. and the handbook
men who heard of their dismal practice
performance promptly hunched the
price against them to 20 to l.
On the night before the race most of
the members of the Eleanor ships
company went ashore, and, digging up
the handbook men, began to get their
coin down at the 20 to / price on their
crews chance. The Eleanor's bettOrs
all pretended to be picked in drink
when they made their bets. and the
handbook men looked as if they were
ashamed to take the money from
drunken men. 1t seemed purely a mat
ter of drunken sentiment on the part
of the yachts company to bet on their
foolish-looking longbOat crew. But the
money in the pockets of the Eleanor's
men seemed to have no end. and they
kept thrusting it in, under the mask of
their simulated SOuses, till the hand
book men. beginning to have the vagu-
est imaginable suspicion that the thing
didn't look exactly right refused to
take any more Eleanor money. But
when they called a halt after cutting
the price against the Eleanor crew
down to 10 then TO- then 8. and finally
to to l the handbook men stood to
lose many thousands of dollars to the
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