ROWING AS AN ART.

Capt. Robert J. Cook, familiarly known as "Bob" Cook, has been talking again about the "English" stroke and the debt owed by the American colleges to himself, who first introduced the stroke in this country. In an interview with a reporter of the Philadelphia Bulletin, Capt. Cook speaks somewhat as follows:

In 1873 I was sent to England with the view to investigate the system of rowing observed by the college men there. I remained there long enough to gain a thorough knowledge of the art. I can assure you that I had not been at Oxford or Cambridge long before I appreciated the superiority of the English method. I saw at once that my previous knowledge of rowing amounted to nothing. It was all-wrong, and I at once set to work to master the proper system.

"When I returned to Yale the boating prospects were exceedingly gloomy. There was no crew and no promising material with which to form one. Moreover, there were no practice boats, the boat-house was almost abandoned, and there was an utter absence of enthusiasm. In the face of this blank outlook I got a number of men together and gradually injected the new principles into their minds. Their progress was so slow that it was not until three or four days before the race that the men struck the keynote as a crew. Compared with the other ten crews which rowed in the 1873 college regatta, Yale was probably physically weaker than any other. Notwithstanding that fact, however, we easily won the race with an average of 32 to the minute, while the others averaged from 36 to 40.

"The secret of success was entirely due to the concentration of the combined power of the men on each stroke, the men throughout the race rowing back and forth mechanically and deliberately as one body. There was no undue haste, as had been the case in previous races. The six men were as though molded into one, operating like the works of a well-regulated clock, in perfect unison and harmony. The result was a conservation of force, previously unknown in a boat. The test was a fair one in every respect. With a crew physically inferior to that of the preceding year, we easily defeated ten crews equal to those that rowed the year before.

Up to 1877 Yale adhered to the English stroke with undoubted success. Harvard, too, had in the meantime adopted it. In 1876 I left college, and from 1877 to 1880 Yale abandoned the new system, through the mismanagement of those at the head of its boating department, and resorted, as of old, to a professional coach. The result was that Harvard, with the English system, and no professional coach, won the college boating championship successively in 1877, 1878 and 1879. In 1880 and 1881 Yale, through the efforts of William Wood, who was one of my crew, go back to the system I introduced and won easily both years. In the face of the fact, however, that nothing in the world but an excellent system had given them the prestige during those two years, Yale in 1882 and '83 employed M. F. Davis, a professional oarsman, to coach the men. Although the crew each year was physically superior to any that ever before sat in a boat, they were easily beaten by crews using the English stroke.

Professional coaches are injurious to college boating: Harvard College never had a professional coach, and yet it has a better average than any college that employed professional coaches. Yale's record against Harvard has been manifestly better when she rowed without the assistance, or rather the disadvantage of professional advice. Had not Yale employed such men the Harvard-Yale record would now be even. The two last races lost by Yale were lost by the every best crews that ever sat in boats, and yet Davis, the man who coached them, is considered the best professional trainer in the country. This proves conclusively two important facts: First, that professional coaches will not do for college oarsmen. Secondly, that the English stroke is by far the best known. Davis' idea was to put his men into a boat in haphazard style and tell them to pull just as hard as they could. No attention whatever was paid to the position of the body. Physical power was the sole object looked for. His principle was that the human system does not tire. If the men had been engines instead of human beings, Davis's principle would have been a great success.

Yale has permanently returned to the stroke and system I introduced there ten years ago. This year the boating authorities asked me to re-establish it and I have consented to do so. In point of fact, I already have the men in training. I labor under great disadvantage this year. In the first place, Harvard has already been availing herself of the English system, so that we find her today thoroughly familiar with it. They have already an excellent crew in training for this year's race. All of the men, with but one exception, were in 1883, and therefore they need but little instruction. Look at Yale. It starts in, thoroughly disorganized, to learn an entirely new system. Four of the men rowed last year, but this only renders matters more difficult, for they are so firmly set in their old ways that it will be double work to instill the new method into their minds. The system I advocate is essentially English, except as we rig the boat, the foot boards are nearer the seats than those in England. Then, again, we use a shorter oar by two or three inches than the English oarsmen do.

Under the present condition of things it is my belief that an average Harvard or Yale crew can defeat the average Oxford or Cambridge crew. If we were as faithful in our discipline and training we would have more than an equal chance.