Life — July 22, 1897 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

While there is Life.there’s Hope.” VOL. XXX. JULY 22, 1897. No, 760, 19 West THirty-First St., New York. Ty Thursday. $5.00 year Inadvance. Postage to forelen countries in the Postal Union, $1.04 8 year extra. Single copies, 10 cents Rejected contributions will be destroyed un- Jess accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. The illustrations in Lit are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers. A HELPFUL SENSATION. N the absence of other distractions, New York's murder mystery has been useful in helping her sweltering citizens through a spell of intense weather. When the mercury goes to par, only strong, penetrating read- ing is of much use. There has been a timeliness about the grad eluci- dation of the Guldensuppe perplex- ity which even the most sober- minded citizens must recognize. On the whole, the story of the assemble- ment of the bathman’s members and the detection of his butchers has been the most wholesome newspaper sensation of the twelve-month, Un- like the Seeley dinner, it has not cor- rupted the public morals; unlike the Bradley-Martin ball, it has not stirred up bad blood or over-excited the clergy. It has combined a high degree of interest with a very small proportion of distress. Mr. Gulden- suppe, the victim, seemsto have been a citizen of defective morals and un- hallowed intentions, whose loss will not be irreparable in this community, The persons who are accused of his taking-off are not of a quality to strain public sympathy, and, alto- gether, this detective story of real life has been more interesting than fiction, without being materially painfuler. THE AMERICA’S CUP ONCE MORE. HE esteemed Pall Mall Gazette is inspired by recent exchanges of {pleasantries between the Amer- - LIFE: icans and the British, to suggest that another go at the America’s cup would be a timely experiment. The suggestion savors a little, perhaps, of kicking a sleeping dog, but still it is one that is always in order. In due time, and provided that mean- while Spain or Japan does not wipe us off the seas, Lirk would be glad to see a sportsman-like race for the America’s cup, if only to take the taste of the last one away. But, oh! brethren, if you race, do race on the salt sea, and not on paper. ap Re Ty RR YALE, HARVARD AND CORNELL. I" is quite true, as some of the arbiters of sport have had the discernment to notice, that if Yale and Harvard want to go back to their dual boat-race it can be done with more propriety after a year in which Cornell has been a winner than after she has been beaten. Cornell would have nothing to complain of if neither Yale nor Harvard saw fit to challenge her for a race next year, but if they wait until one of them has won a race from her and then decline her challenge she will seem to most observers to be ill-used. If Yale and Harvard want to provide for an annual race which no other competitor may enter, now is their chance to do it, It need not hinder either of them from rowing any other race that seems convenient, either annually or occasionally, The college boating problem is more difficult than most of the com- mentators seem to realize. Any col- lege nine can play a game of base- ball with any other college nine with- out much trouble. Any football eleven can play football with a good many other elevens provided they are not too strong. But the number of four-mile races which an average eight-oar crew can row to advantage is very strictly limited, and the number of crews it can mect annually in any one race on any available American course is also limited. Regattas, in which a lot of crews are entered and scramble for the best courses, are a delusion. Yale and Harvard have sounder reasons for wishing to stick to their old plan of an annual dual race than the average critic recog- nizes, but they have also good reasons for wishing to row Cornell, and Har- vard at least will not abandon the big fresh-water university without deep and serious cogitation. A SUGGESTION WORTH CON- SIDERING. HE rumor of the rejection of an offer of $24,000 made by Mr. Walter Damrosch to the heirs or assigns of Herr Wagner, the late German composer, for permission to give Parsval in this country, sug- gests that there ought to be good money in the composing industry in the United States, and that if the right sort of gifted American took hold of it it would pay him. Mean- while, if Mr. Damrosch can arrange for a temporary exchange of attrac- tions by the terms of which the Par- séval combination may come here while both of our Houses of Con- gress play a season’s engagement in Germany, he may count on the strongest backing, pecuniary and moral, for any reasonable engage- ments he may make. o$ $ TRIUMPHANT BULLFINCH. SFNUIMENT triumphed in the matter of the Boston State House, and the Bullfinch front is preserved just as it was. Now there is a rumor that some of the savers have begun to realize that a little more architectural and structural sense mixed in with their sentiment would have made a better job, and saved them some belated regrets. $ Go