New-York tribune., 1916-06-24


under the railroad bridge.
You could tell by the hanging head
and the beaten attitude of the lad that
he felt that il was all his fault, that
Yale might have had chance If his
hand had been surer at the moment he
was urging the crew for the squirt.
They had given n magnificent response
and he-the head bent lower still had
failed in his work. He had piloted
them into disaster just as they were
making the great fight for Eli. There
was the wide stretch of clear water, and
he had guided them straight to the
fatal spot
American Coaches Pleased.
American coaches and experts are
chortling Gleefully over the exposure
of the tholepns and the modified Eng
lish stroke They are demanding that
the world witness the failure of these
crude and barbarous factors. They are
not recalling, though, that last year
Yale swept the river with the thole-
pins and the modified English stroke.
This is a matter which the prophets
of unadulterated, uuhyphenated rowing
are very willing to forget.
Harvard boated in full view OF the
observation train, and was first above
the starting place The Yale crew fol-
lowed slowly. As the starting gun was
fred the Yale shell seemed to have the
advantage by a shade, but as they
swept ahead close 20 the ovcrhanging
west bank of the Thames the Harvard
she'll began to move steadily ahead
Both crews were rowing 80 strokes TO
the minute, but the American drilled
eight gained steadily. At the mile
mark Harvard appeared 20 be leading
by three quarters of length.
Then Yale started TO come up with a
magnificent squirt, the effort of which
the spectators could feel rather than
see, for the advance was by inches.
The Blue crew had increased its stroke
10 33. and although the men splashed
little they lessened the Harvard lead
by a quarter of a length.
The blue flags futtered in the obser-
vation trains. Yale had begun 70 fight
and was fighting with all the bulldog
spirit which is credited TO the sons of
Eli. At a mile and half Harvard was
pressed 70 hold the legd. Then came
the accident, and there was low moan
of disappointment from the Yale sec
tions.
Stroke Lund Of the Harvard crew
quickened the pace. The Crimson oars
men forged ahead as the Yale men
wavered. They, too, could feel the col
lapse of the Blue crew, and it was upon
that realization that they made their
fastest half-mile.
Theirs was the spirit OF the fighter
with the instinct TO strike hardest
when he feels his opponent weakening.
The next half-mile Harvard covered IN
2 minutes and % seconds. After that
ID was merely a question of how far
the Cambridge boys would distance the
Yale she'll.
The Blue banners trsiled. The Grim
son flags huttered wildly. Harvard
finished rowing 29 10 the minute, while
Yale went under the bridge dejectedly
rowing q.
The blue-tipped oars dropped weari-
ly. Hartman, at bow, and Whittlesey,
at No. 2, keeled forward. Meyer, at
No. z, dropped backward, and the Yale
shell drifted aimlessly as the Harvard
precise and triumphant sweep.
New London tonight is a bright
splash of crimson. It was a red and
glorious victory. But somewhere a
broken-hearted boy wept because he
felt that he had failed his alma mater
in the stern test and ruined the work
of his fellows. And one sorrowful
member of the Yale crew Of 1888 felt
little older as his classmates tried
to console him by reminding him that
when the old record was made Yale led
by twenty lengths. These college
dramas can bring tragedy to middle
age as we'll as to youth.
II was a radiantly crimson morning
on the Thames. The Harvard water
babies In the freshman eight and the
second eight took the morning events
In a style which increased the conf
dence Of the Cambridge delegation. The
course was decidedly ruffled by a brisk
breeze, and the filmy clad beauty of
Massachusetts, and Connecticut alter
mated some sneezing with the well
bred cries Of encouragement as the OBJ
servation train jolted along the tracks.
The engineer of the observation train
suddenly developed an interest in
aquatics. He held the train so that the
locomotive was level with the shells
and gave the passengers only rear
view.
The judges Of the course became
UttNtu VIII AIt ItNtilAb HtINlCts W Illt
the freshman race was still on, the
drawbridge was opened and numbers of
assorted craft crowded in close to the
tracks of the shells, sending choppy
wash against the already turbulent
waters. With the cluttering of the
course by yachts the river also became
cluttered with alibs for the Yale fresh
men.
The babies Of old Ell insist that they
got most of the wash and that it threw
them out of the going. They substan-
tiate this by pointing out that they led
by nearly a length at the mile and a
half mark. While they were in the
roughened water near the finish the
Harvard water babies swept by them
But beaten crew always did clutch at
alibis.
The Harvard men advanc, the theory