Life — July 25, 1895 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

> LIFE - While there is Life there's Hops.” JULY 25, 1895. iRsT STREET, No. 656. New York, VOL. XXVI. 1g West Tirty. Published every Thursday. $5.00 year inadvance. Postage to foreign countries in the Postal Union, $1.04 a year, extra.” Single coples, 10 cents, Rejected contributions willbe destreyed unless accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope, HE Cornell men will not bring back a great amount of glory from the Henley regatta, but they will bring back a considerable share of experience, and that will be more truly useful to them than the glory would have been. They were very unlucky. It was hard luck that they should have overtrained ; hard luck that their gi aquatic fetish should collapsed at the critical moment; hard they should have rowed over the course alone; hard luck that their managers should not have been gifted with reasonable discretion. That they should have been beaten in a fair race was not hard luck, As to the merits of their stroke their experience was not conclusive. What they learned about their coach was perhaps not quite conclusive either. All that is known about rowing at Ithaca has been learned from Courtney. It is fairly evident that when he got out of his native wilds he was not equal to his job, but he is not a person to be judged by a very high standard, or blamed un- duly for his mistakes. Undoubtedly he did his best. ITH the Cornell mana- gers the case is different. Their duties were simple, and it was only reason- able to expect them to conduct themselves like gentlemen and sportsmen, When Mr. Francis accused the regatta committee of cheating he dis- appointed those mod- erate expectations. Neither he nor Mr, White were discreet in their utterances, nor did they reflect credit on the university they represented. They have much to learn about conduct, and before they take another Cornell crew to England there should be satisfactory assurances that they have learned it. The experience of the Cornell crew with the Leanders was unfortunate, but that is all. The circumstances were perplexing and their action, unpopular as it was, reflected no discredit on them. All the discredit in that affair belonged to the other side. The Leanders behaved like spoiled children, and itis probable that after they came to their senses they realized it. It is said that another Cornell crew will be sent to Henley next year. Very well. If they like Henley regattas, there is no reason why they should not go to them. Henley regattas are instructive. There seems to be only one American university where the art of propelling eight-oared shells is understood, and what is known about rowing there was learned twenty years ago in England. . . ARK TWAIN has been reading Cooper's novels, and has discovered that the in- ventor of Leather Stocking was amiraculously bad writer. The art of romance writing has made progress since Cooper's time, and it is not surprising that a modern like Mark should know more about story-writing than ancients like Cooper. But where Cooper got ahead of skilful gentlemen like Mark was in having new stories to tell of a new country. His modes of communication may have been faulty, but there was no dearth in him of matter to communicate. If his faults were worse than they are he would still have readers because of what he had to say. . Good luck, by the way, to Mark, on his lecture tour around the world. May fortune send gold galore into his clothes, and then may some thrifty and reliable friend take it out and keep it for him. We are all his friends, and want to see him roll again in comfortable accumulation. HE respected daily newspapers are as enthusiastic about Bishop Potter's summer labors in Stanton Street as though he had only recently been brought to repentance, and pious works were a novelty to him. LIFE begs to express its sympathy with the Bishop. That one’s evil deeds should be flaunted before the public is embarrassing, but when ~ one’s good behavior is heralded in the press as a marvel and an unheard of episode, that is a trial of still more disconcerting quality. However, the Bishop knows the newspapers, and can make allowances for them just as we all do.