Year: 1878

! sert n nearer claim than others to feel espe-


cial pride in the prowess of her sons, yet


the city, the State, the whole country will


rejoice sincerely and enthusiastically in


victory SO honestly, so modestly and so gal
| lantly gained. AS conquerors in games
| that move the interest and admiration OF
the world they are the heroes OF tho
public, and they will feel it when they
come home. If the son Of any Greclan


city proved conqueror in the great sports


of the Old World the fact was held to be OF


such moment that he was not brought home


through the gates Of the town, but entered


by breach in the wall made for the occa-


sion Although we have no such obstruc-


ton to be removed the city will honor itself
by giving these boys on their return


demonstration equal to the preaching of
twenty walls.


Athletic sports take rank nowadays in the


practical concerns of the age and in SO far
as they are tests of the qualities OF men, and
therefore evidences of the pre-eminence of
certain races and of the effects Of one or an
other social system in producing the
physical moral and intellectual qualities
that constitute superiority in all
the attributes of manhood, they are
worthy the interest they excite. Guilt
waiting individual hardihood and that


unity in action which makes of several
chosen units one machine, developing
great muscular power and the capacity for
the incest adaptation to particular details
in it's use, making all very often to turn in
the last resort on a grand effort OF the will,
the boat race of four or eight oars
is one of the grandest sports that
ever became national with people.
1t requires sound men for endurance
and men of great vigor for its demands
on mere muscle, men Of superior nervous
constitution to adapt themselves to the
highest stage CT training, and men Of that
kind of will to do all at the utmost mo-
ment which, in the noble slang of sport,
is called gameness. Because it calls for
qualities which in their combination are
not found at favorable stage of growth in
every people it has not been one OF the COM
mon sports Of humanity, but it has always
been favorite with men of the British
races and with their descendants on this
side the sea. In England it has always been
held in the highest favor, and boat races
OF an international character have been
prime incidents of interest in all seas where
British and American men-ot-war have been
on duty together. Indeed, this rivalry was
not confined to men-of-war crews but
caught the spirit of the whalers also, and the
uniform history of such contests has been
in all seas and all climates victory for the
equally good muscle and better nerve of the
American crews.


But in the particular class Of race con-
tested at Henley we have not shown to
great advantage hitherto in our competition
with English crews. 1t has, however, been
reserved for Columbia, with a strictly repre-
sentative crew of the best type Of our peo-
pie, to prove that our former defeats
were not due to want Of the quail
tiles that make victor, but to the
accidents that beset the approaches to the
trial, to the erroneous choice of champions,
to the journey across the sea, to the strange
climate and causes in short apart from the
essential points the trial is intended to
test. Columbia has shown how we may win
as distinctly as the Shoe-wae-ca cites
have shown how any men in the world may
lose, and in this the crew has ap-
propriately pointed the lesson of life
that may fairly come from college
men-that discipline, patience, skill and
strength rightly applied at the happy
moment are here as elsewhere the elements


T,
we carry away a treasured palm, sna,ched
from people who are never modest in the
declaration that they have monopoly of
conquest in these mimic wars. Our
yachts come to the goal when theirs
are nowhere ! in shooting with
the rifle at the fabulous ranges
of these days. or with the fowling piece at
pigeons our men easily first In horse
races, with horses-not cots--we can beat
them, and. if they doubt it, let them send
over horse to Try four mile heats with Ten
Brock. II has been lately shown that our
pedestrians are superior to any they
can produce-and if we get down
to international prize-fghting, which
does not often happen, our champions whip
theirs, even if they do not get the money.
Since now we have beaten them in boats we
may be permitted to say to England, with
deep interest in her welfare, that if she
wishes to remain victor in any sport she
had better confne herself to cricket, which
is not much played in other countries, if we
except Australia.


Some of the London papers have said
great deal in the few days past about "gen-
tlemen," dwelling apparently on that topic
With sustained sneer at the men who were
in their country as guests. Apparently the
peculiarties OF the Michigan crew excited
especially that vein of omment for they
are men racy of soil that if IL does not de-
spise, certainly does not highly honor the