Evening star., 1925-07-30

Ederle is skeptical She says she ne
reason for trying it now. But her
channel swimmer has had it. Tirat
made the fastest time on record in
the accompanying boat, and declare
distance swimming is to keep the II
Burgess, the Anglo-French swimmer,
who finished the channel swim after
13 failures, in 1911, was pulled
through the last crucial mile of the
swim by a fiddler whose heroism was
displayed in playing a jingling French
ballad for 45 consecutive minutes. At
the end of the swim, when Burgess was
assisted up the beach at Cape Girls
Nez in a semi-delirious condition, he
was brought back TO an orderly frame
of mind by further 15-minute in
Stallment of the same ballad.
Henry Sullivan of Lowell Mass,
American claimant TO channel honors,
had vocal music to help him on his
course, and part of the way he insist
ed on himself joining in their efforts.
Singing keeps my mind off the Or
deal" he explained.
Radio Music InadvisabIe.
Friends of Miss Ederle suggested to
her that the spirit of the times would
seem to indicate the use of radio mu-
sic for her swim, and arrangements
have been made to have a receiving
apparatus on board the tug. SO that
music from the British and French
stations can be sent eChoing across
the water. But the coaches protest
that radio music will not do unless it
can be timed to the beat of the stroke
which they desire the swimmer to
maintain.
Jabez Wolff. Miss Ederle's trainer,
favors the bag pipes. IF 1 have any
thing to say about the musical pro-
gram, we shall have several bag
pipers," he declared today, so that
they can work in relays-a fresh
man taking up the tune as fast as
one piper is exhausted" Wolff used
bag-pipers on all of his own 20 un-
successful attempts, several of which
came within a half-mile of victory.
II always kept the pipers busy all
the way" says Wolff. ''They can do
a lot to nven up the tedium OF the
swim. I always used to lay out a
regular program of tunes, mostly
Scotch and Irish, and as l swan
would try to study out which tunes
had the best effect. Finally I worked
out a routine, so that they played
Leave But a Kiss Within the Cup at
mealtime, which comes every half
hour during the channel swim. Then
when a squirt was necessary, to get
past some opposing tide or current,
they would speed up the movement a
little and switch into I Love Lassie.'
On one occasion a husky bag piper
played this latter tune for So minutes
continuously, while / was battling
with an obstreperous tide on the last
lap of my course. AT the end OF the
SO minutes had to give up, as L was
losing ground steadily, but / felt com
forted in the knowledge that l Love
a Lassie' would have won victory II
IL had been humanity possible.
Betting Odds Favor Her.
The French newspapers are devot-
ing much space to the approaching at
tempt of the American girl champion
to cross the channel. They say that
public opinion, as judged by betting,
gives Miss Ederle a better chance OF
victory than any swimmer who has
ever attempted the test. In Paris and
London, the odds against Miss Ederle
are quoted as 8 or 10 to /. Two years
ago, when the American Sullivan and
the Argentinian Tiraboshi both swan
the channel within a weeks time, the
odds quoted against either of them
varied between 80 and 90 to l.
The French newspapers have di-
rected attention to the similarity be-
tween the present situation and that
of two years ago. This year two wom-
an swimmers, Miss Lillian Harrison
of Buenos Aires and Miss Ederle Of
New York, are making the attempt.
Two years ago, on the same date, two
man champions, Tiraboschi of the
Argentine and Sullivan of the United
States, were making the same prepa-
rations. Both succeeded, Sullivan
crossing on August and Tiraboschi
a week later.
Miss Harrison made her first trial a
year ago and her second a week ago.
She was unsuccessful both times, but
is continuing her training vigorously
at her camp, just down the beach
from Miss Ederle'S and hopes to
make another start within a fortnight.
Jinx Followed Burgess.
If Miss Ederle has the services as
trainer of the great JabeZ Wolff, Miss
Harrison can boast the equal repute of
her chief coach, Thomas w. Burgess.
Burgess swan the channel in 1911
after 13 unsuccessful efforts over a
period of 20 years. He was for many
years regarded as a prodigy of en-
durance. On one of his unsuccessful
attempts, in 1908, he got within hum
dred yards of the French coast after
being carried up and down the chan
mel for a distance of more than 60
miles. No channel swimmer ever was
pursued by such persistent bad luck
as Burgess. For years it was a proverb
along the channel coast, when Bur-
CESS starts to swim across, look out
for bad weather"
More than 80 attempts at the chan
mel swim were made in 1923, the year
when Tiraboschi and Sullivan made
successful crossings. In September
three swimmers started the same day.
Charles Toth,' the American, was
forced to quit within sight of his goal
by an adverse tide. Georges Michel
the Frenchman, gave up after he had
made only miles in II hours. Homer
Perrault, a Canadian, swan from the
French side in phenomenal time,
reaching a point only three miles
from Dover in 10 hours: then he was
forced to give up from exhaustion If
he could have kept the pace for an
hour and a half longer he would have
broken Tiraboschi's record of Is hours
SO minutes by at least five hours.
Miss Harrison's Great Feat.
The French newspapers have en-
lightened their readers regarding the
previous accomplishments of both
Miss Harrison and Miss Ederle Miss
Harrison's greatest feat was the
swimming of the River Platte at a
point where the width of the stream
is nearly 81 miles, with complicated