The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-16
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

I ter name is looked upon by some au- thorities as misnomer. Now, here Is where I dig up an ancient bone of con 1 tention, but I do it without apology, for
 when 1 sit down to write history try 1 and tell the truth even though it might be best to gloss over the facts in the l interest of peace. But at best. even when a historian wants to tell straight tale, certain amount of error
 is bound to creep in. I do not claim in fallibility. Being human. I admit that
 at times I err.
 Would be dry-as-dust historians whose sole aim is to muddy the stream of history instead of helping to clear 1t | up. tell us that those who use the term, | the Queens Cup" speak without knowledge, and are to be cast into outer darkness. But lets see who Is blind. I'll admit having gone through | the record that the Royal Yacht Squadron Cup, competed for in the fa- nous race at Cowes, about which have written at length, was established | by the Royal Yacht Club, and not oy good Queen Victoria. of blessed mem- ory.
 But the above mentioned tribe of historical critics left out of the tran script strange bit of boorishness on the part of the English yachting au- thorities which same spirit was mani fested later by Lord Dunraven, but VIII never creep out as long as such real sport as Sir Thomas Lipton is a con- tender. What was it, you say, that causes me to be riled nearly fourscore years later? Simply this, and nothing more After the race our English cous- ins refused to give to the America the trophy she had won, presenting it in- stead to one of her badly beaten op- ponents. Queen Victoria, hearing Of the unsportsmanlike proceeding, imme- diately presented another cup, and it is 1 the one she gave that is now held by | the New York Yacht Club. l do not blame the English historians for try 1 ing to kill out the name of the Queens Cup for it is an indictment against the so-called spirit of fair play" which 1 is the boast of the inhabitants of the
 Tight Little Isle.''
 The newspaper game is funny one. | I thought it my duty to write some- thing about the international yacht races, not because I was specially in terested or prepared to do it. but just because it was occupying the front | page of the. papers in England and l America.
 | Being a landsman, and never having
 sailed even a cat boat (the limit of my aquatic ability being to paddle ba-
 teau), I was never strong for the sea
 and sea sports, and so never got wildly l enthusiastic over regattas or even the racing of ocean steamers when there was some rivalry between the nations
 as to which had been the speediest crafts.
 l But whenever I take up anything
 want to know its literature, or it's | history, and therefore take trouble to post myself. Take the question of yachting. I was surprised to find so much about it in encyclopedias, books and magazines and before 1 knew it was deeply interested in cramming up
 on the story of the international yacht
 races.
 There is one trouble in my method of study, for when l get engrossed in
 a topic I am prone to presume upon the interest of others, and just thresh 1t out without any mercy upon my read CTS I would tone down bit but if
 you who are good enough to follow l this column, al anytime find that I'm
 boring you, the remedy is easy just :, skip it until I get tired riding my Ihobby; but for goodness sake, don't
 stop altogether. but glance at it from
 time to time in the hope I may be writ ing about something which will catch your fancy.
 l This is long excuse for taking up
 at this late day rather detailed ac- count of the America Cup" You may
 say. why didn't you tell us all about | it before the races. We'll, to be per- 1 fectly frank about it, at that time I !! didn't know anything about it, and
 what is more, I cared less; but now that it is to remain with. us until Sir 1 Thomas or some other sportsman in
 the British empire gets a better boat than our desi gners can build, and if t 1 is worth writing about since l take the {; trouble to get at the facts, it seems to I them.
 1 I used to wonder where the Prince of Wales. who became Edward VII, got
 his sporting blood. for in all the stories 1 told to me about Queen Victoria during my childhood, she was pictured as just
 the ideal mother bereft of ali romance,
 more interested in the chrstenings of her own or her children's children than l in outside affairs. It never dawned on
 me that she was real sport, and l may be called in question for applyin s such term to so virtuous and re- ] spected a ruler; but I mean it by way of compliment. The Prince of Wales got his "sporting instincts" from his l mother, and not his father. Of this ram sure. She showed that sheNwas the l real thing when she bestowed the 1 Queens Cup on the America.
 I am now looking at picture of the America Cup. and to be perfectly frank, , it is to me an ungainly piece of work