Caspar Whitney on Rowing in England.

In the last number of Harper's Weekly Casper Whitney says in speaking of the interest in rowing in the English Universities:

"I deny that the English undergraduate is as much more athletic in his tendencies than the American undergraduate as the greater number of rowing men at Oxford and Cambridge and the keener rowing spirit would indicate. While it is unquestionably true, as I have already written, that the English nation, and of course the English university men, are more generally inclined towards sport than are we, yet the paucity in numbers of our rowing men may not be traced to the want of athletic inclination in our universities.

"In the matter of water and general rowing facilities, there is no comparison. The Oxford and Cambridge courses are to those of Harvard and Yale, or any other of the American university courses of which I know anything, as the (about) fifty-foot creek at Princeton is to the Charles River on which Harvard rows. The Isis at Oxford will average about as wide as a length and a half of a shell. The Cam at Cambridge is much narrower, so much so that two eight-oars can pass in safety only by each paddling very slowly. There are some parts of it where they cannot do even that. If, therefore, these English universities have developed such a prolific and far-reaching rowing spirit, and turned out so many crews, it is not because they have been favored by exceptional racing water. The very necessity of the bumping races, in vogue at both, bespeaks the difficulties with which they have had to contend. Neither can it be attributed to the greater quantity of material. I know it is the popular American idea that both Oxford and Cambridge have between 4000 and 5000 students each, but the facts are that the former has something like 2400, and the latter about 2800.

"The reason for this great rowing spirit at Oxford and Cambridge may be found in the encouragement given the undergraduates. Every man is taken into the confidence of his university boating doings. He is made to feel that he is part and parcel-as in very fact he is-of the general machinery that builds up the 'varsity, and he is given a daily opportunity of watching the crew which is to uphold the aquatic honor of his alma mater.

"If he have any latent boating spirit in him, the natural result is that he will be found a candidate for his college torpid (which correspond to our freshmen crews), or, if not physically fitted for rowing, on the banks running with them, or at least in the college barge lending their efforts the encouragement of his presence. Nor is the undergraduate, nor indeed the sport-loving public of England at large, deprived of an opportunity of watching the 'varsity crews when they have discontinued training on the college courses, and gone to Putney for the three weeks of final preparation for their great race.

"Bearing in mind the secretive methods of his own 'varsity crews at New London, it takes an American college man completely off his bearing to witness the absolute indifference of Oxford and Cambridge to either private or public supervision of their practice on the Thames.

"Nor is it attempted in the slightest degree to evade this publicity. On the contrary, the crews seem to appreciate the general interest taken in their work, and tacitly invite the public to come and enjoy it. The London daily newspapers regularly print the hour at which the men will go out on the river, morning and afternoon, and in consequence the banks are covered with all kinds of interested spectators.

"Still further, this same feeling is carried into the very life of the oarsmen. The crews mingle at Putney in a thoroughly delightful manner, exchanging social amenities at quarters, and on occasion following one another about the river in the coaching launch. There are no spying substitutes sent out to return with tales that neither deteriorate the form of the watched nor improve that of the watcher.

"This year-and it is not the first time on record, I am told-an old Cambridge "blue," Mr. R. C. Lehmann, together with Mr. D. H. McLean, who rowed his four years on the Oxford 'varsity, coached the Oxford crew.

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"The Oxford and Cambridge boat-houses on the Thames stand side by side, and for all one sees to the con-

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