Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-16
A Ghost Of Poughkeepsie.
@HE PoughkeepSie regatta tomor-
row promises to be the most
colorful sport spectacle Of the


colorful sport spectacle Of the
year-if you care for rowing,
and even If you do not care for rowing.
The race on the American Thames
which is to follow will muster more
private yachts and Households, but the
New London regatta is as private an
affair as the race on the English
Thames.
There will be nine crews on the
Straightaway course on the Hudson this
year. Probably there would be room for
nine more, but / understand that the
racing committee Is not in favor Of any
more than nine or ten. Neither are the
experts. 1t is hard enough to expert
nine crews without adding to the list
Of starters.
The nine this year are gathered from
all sections of the country. There are
two from the Pacific Coast. There Is
one from the Middle West. One, the
Navy crew, coming up from Maryland,
might be said to represent the South.
The rest are from the East. Obviously
this complexities matters for the eX-
pertS, especially as the coaches are as
chary as horse trainers about permit
ting the crews to give any indication as
to what they might or could do in ad-
vance of the race.
1 note that the experts are not COM
hitting themselves this year to any
great extent. Particularly they are not
saying that any crew is not showing
any indications Of being strictly rank
outsiders. They are not saying in adj
vance that any particular system or
theory Of rowing is the best.
In this regard they have been fright
ened by the Stanford crew, which years
ago made a legend Of the river which
still serves as a bugaboo to the rowing
experts, even as the defeat Of Jeffries
by johnson at Reno and the defeat Of
Dempsey by Tunney at Philadelphia
serve to make fight experts very eau
tious still.
Not Given a Chance.
THE year that the Stanford crew
i came to the Hudson there were
only five or six crews entered In the
regatta 1t was the first Far Western
crew to make the journey and the West
ern crews of that time had no tradi-
tons and no systems. Before the race
the Stanford shell made one paddle
over the full course.
It had all the privacy any crew could
desire, for all of the experts were watch
ing Cornell, Syracuse and Columbia
and comparing the systems Of Courtney,
Ten Eyck and Rice. Exporting was q
serious matter in those days. The
grandfather of all the experts, who had
rowed the course when 1t first was laid
out, insisted that there was no use in
exporting the Stanford crew.
They have no system at all" he said,
land no form. They just get into the
shell and pull, each man for himself.
Oh, they might have a little power, but
they do not know the rudimentS Of
rowing"
In the press car of the observation
train they were watching and clocking
the strokes of Cornell, Syracuse and Co.
lumbia. But in the first mile dingy-
looking she'll with little cardinal pen
nant in the bow began to destroy the
count coming up in the middle lane. 1t
was like q dirty old fishing schooner
nosing its way into yachting regatta.
1t was like q spawned old cart horse
galumphing his way into the start of
the Suburban and interfering with the
thoroughbreds.
Naturally, there was much indigna-
ton in the press car. The feeling was
that the revenue service, which had
control Of the course, should do some
thing about this outrage against the
decorum of the course and against ex-
porting.