The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-30
Contests Are Gruelling and
Heart-Breaking on Hud-
son River.
SOME OF AMERICAS BEST
ATHLETES ARE KILLED
No Man Has Ever Left His Boat
With the Same Con-
s:itutiOn.
Tribune spccial Sporting Service.

Tribune Special Sporting Service.
NEW YORK, June 2o-Wil the
Poughkecpsie regatta Of 1907 be the end
of The gruclIing and heart-breaking
fonrmilc coursc1 That is the hope Of
such noted oarsmcn as Coach Courtney,
OF Cornell; Constance 5. Titus, national
amateur champion; Fred Plaisted, for
mer professional champion. and score
of other active and interested rowers-
Titus says il stunts the growth of the
undcveIoped youths who row in il.
For years the famous Hudson river
course has been the scene of the most
bitterly contested battles Of cIgbts III
the water. loung men. boastiug the
courage and endurance of the tabled
giants, have gone laughlngly, even de.
Family, into these annual races and
emerged wrecked in spirit and often in
iurcd physically. Experienced scullers,
veterans of the water, have gone on
record with statements that IL Is al
most impossible TO send eight young
men into one of these struggles with
ont leaving permanent injuries. They
advance solid reasons that the condI-
tious of the race are such as 10 force
the tender limbed athlete to accomplish
ing the banks are thousands OF his
friends, all expecting him TO do his best.
The old familiar ycllS. the shout OF ap-
pause a reputation for courage which
he must sustain, and then the race IL
self, He dare not show yellow
streak Ii would mean ostracism for
life The race is over. His crew has
won All the honor of the test belongs
to his boat. But he rcckons not with
the future. Veterans of the game de
clare with no little emphasis that the
contest has left its marks. For years
Coach Courtney has led the crusade to
have the Poughkeepsie course reduced
to three miles.
Good Men Killed.
-Four. miles have killed, athleii-
cally. some of America s noblest young
men, said Coach Courtney recently.
''The distance is too long. That last
mile is a heart breaker, No man mas
ever left his boat after such race
with the same constitution with which
he entered it, 1t is high time the
American college rowing authorities re-
duccd the distance 1T mars the sport,
II takes away much of the sportsman
shin of the race, and leaves it a grue-
some struggle between young fellows
who arc willing, but UNFIT for IT.
The distance Of the Poughkeepsie
course is the only objection ever offered
TO the sport which President Eliot of
Harvard said was clean and honor
able. - and far ahead of football. base
ball and other college pastimes. IL
is a fact that prcsentday scandals
of commcrcialism touch upon rowing
least OF all As to hcalthfulnossy vital
statistics show that the man who rows
as medium of exercise Is well 30 thc
top of the longevity list. NO better
sport is at tho disposal of America
Young athletes today. Constance -
Titus has made study of the race
conditions. He has Princeton s embryo
oarsmen under his wing now. and ~
hopeful of seeing Tiger rowing ma
chimes leading the way in the near iu-
tuTc.
Course Too Long,
P0ughkccpsic s course is too long.
-Four miles VIII do up any athlete. The
championship courses of the world are
far shorter than this course. The Ma
tional Association of Amateur Oarsmen
is contcntcd with one and half miles
for all their events; the local river re
Catta races arc fourth OF mile
less. The Royal Henley is only llO
wards moro than the American distance
-oue ard fourth miles Not even
professionals row that distance. The
recent Duruin-Towns match in Aus
traIa saw these great scullers going
only three miles. Three miles rs the
proper distance. The professionals nj
one time rowcd ten miles. Gradually
they reduced H. No reduction In dis
tance has been made NJ Poughkeepsis
or at New London, either, Under the
English system American athletes
might row four miles with impunity;
but the way young men are taken
from their classes and sent into ma
chimes often RUNS them for a lifetime.
Ten wears experience is eNacted from
the English scullcrs on the Thames.
They come from IIton md other pre-
pa ratory schools, where they have pulled
an oar There they jump in when school
opens get a little work out. 90 home.
come back and 20 AT the machines after
Christmas and along in April begin the
campaign for race An oarsman can.
not bv the hafdcst kind of training fl
himself for a Poughkecpsie race in ono
vosr. Lot the colleges give us three
milo course and watch the stimulus
which college rowing receives through
ont he country. Not seat Of learning
in this broad land but viii have ITS
cTcw Mon VIII 20 90 college iii for
IN advanced course IN aqustics, They
win Ice veterans at the game such "a
are members of tbc Cambridge and Ok.
ford shells And then when the Amer
ican and English colors clash in boat
race, watch the result
Cucketers Are Coming
rubur~ Special Sporting Service.