Life — October 6, 1887 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AN IDYLL OF VICTORY. A LLE hail to thee, fleete Volunteer! Hail, likewise, General Paine! And Britons, if ye want y¢ Cuppe, Why yt must come agayne. And, by ye way, y¢ Scotchmen bolde, Ye men aboard y¢ Thistle, Next time y¢ try to winne y¢ Cuppe, Whyle in ye woodes, don't whistle. . * . T will be remembered that with our usual enterprise we predicted a victory for the Volunteer last week. There were many wise- acres who gravely shook their heads and pretended to know that because the 7istle's keel had been sand-papered, her rudder had been oiled and her bowsprit had been sharpened, the Scotch cutter would THE “VOLUNTEER” CROSSING THE STARTING LINE, bear the * cup acrass the sae," as a Scottish poet has touchingly al- luded to the Atlantic. We, as usual, knew better. The readers of Lire need not be told that it is our invariable custom to know better, and that we never hide the light of our knowledge under the bushel of oblivion. When there is room for two opinions we express both, and we have yet to run foul of an unfulfilled prophecy. In this instance events have shown that there was room for but one opinion, and * we point with pride” to the fact that we expressed it. ‘The first day's race was viewed by our correspondent through the THE ‘ THISTLE” WAITING FOR THE WORD. hazy medium of the daily papers, and, as was to be expected, there was a very considerable wind from all quarters. The Thistle was the first to cross the starting line, and for a moment the World was very much afraid that the race was lost to the Volunteer, but the Sun and Herald were more sanguine, The 7ribune fortunately worked up a little wind for General Paine’s sloop at this point, and the Star had the extreme gratification of seeing the Boston boat forge slowly but surely to the front. Then it was that the Com- mercial Advertiser enjoyed the unexpected bliss of noting that the Thistle, in spite of a dummy engine on her keel, a paddle-wheel on her rudder, and a tow-line secreted elsewhere on her person, was un- able to cope with her American rival, while the editor of the Evening Fost was sorrowfully impelled to cable an editorial to his paper on - LIFE: the boorishness of Captain Haff in thus turning his back upon and giving his wash to a visitor who had every right to expect hospitable treatment. Thus the race progressed, and the relative positions of the two boats varied little. At three o'clock, according to several bulletins, the Volunteer was two-and-a-half miles ahead of the Thistle, while the Thistle was one-and-three-quarter miles behind the Volunteer, THE “THISTLE” CROSSING THE LINE, and at four the Volunteer, in spite of the fact that the 7histle was gradually creeping up upon her, was widening the distance between her and her rival every minute. At the conclusion of the race, when the Volunteer had crossed the line anywhere from one to three miles ahead of the Thistle, a round THE JUDGE'S BOAT. of steam whistles were fired in honor of the splendid victory, and when the defeated Scotch boat drifted toward the finish a second salvo of steam was let off, as a sort of consolatory greeting. ‘The special artists for the press at once returned home and sketched out some instantaneous photographs of the event, and the yachtsmen retired to neighboring restaurants and played havoc with such pro- vender as was available, BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE FINISH, The illustrations which accompany this article were prepared, according to the usual enterprise of this paper, three weeks in advance, and may be regarded as accurate to the last degree, especially the one depicting the bird's-eye view of the finish, upon which our especial canary lavished the best energies of his omniscient eye. As for Thursday's race, we hardly deem it advisable to delay going to press in order to summarize its chief events, It is sufficient, we think, for us to append a highly finished picture of the and leave our readers to the tender mercies of the brilliant sporting correspondents of our Esteemed Contemporaries of the Daily Press for further details. Carlyle Smith, comicbooks.com