GE

ENIAL UNCLE SAMUEL, who loves a race perhaps better than anything else on earth, and who is by no means deficient in a fondness for coming out ahead, may be pardoned for feeling just a little complacent at present. There was one unpleasant moment, to be sure, when he was rather anxious as to the attitude outsiders would take, for public disapprobation is not to be despised even with the clearest sort of conscience, and the "finish, foul and fizzle" of the great America's Cup contest was decidedly mixed-up, but the prompt challenge of Mr. Rose was very satisfying on this point. Lord Dunraven's action, too, in leaving the Valkyrie on this side of the water, and the rumors of actual overtures for another contest, have all tended in the same direction, and it is hoped that the recent experience may be of service in obtaining a more conclusive result when the Defender and the Distant Shore shall come together. For that the Defender will continue to defend next year seems a foregone conclusion. All the details have been left to the New York Yacht Club and the contradicted assertions that the Prince of Wales is behind the challenger have not a little whetted the public interest, for while it is good to beat our cousins across the water, it is a prospect entrancing to have a Royal Personage backing the rival.

While it is generally believed over here that the late meeting proved the superiority of the Defender, nobody will deny that the conditions were unfortunate, and it will be interesting to see how the committee for 1896 will grapple with the problems resulting from the intense desire of the spectators to be in at the finish. The perfervid state into which the public is thrown by such a race is really astonishing-the more so since yachting is a sport of necessity indulged in only by the few, and the vast majority of on-lookers do not know a belaying pin from a marlinespike. An amusing evidence of the voracity for every detail is found in the columns devoted by the newspapers to the infallible “mascot" on board the Defender. This humble yellow cur had greatness suddenly thrust upon him, and his appearance, characteristics and even the tangled wool of his ancestry and ownership were discussed at much length.

If the enthusiasm would expend itself in such harmless ways the matter would be very simple, but each race day was the occasion of such an outpouring of sightseers as even New York has seldom witnessed. Hundreds and hundreds of craft, from enormous steamers down to tiny cat-boats, jostled and elbowed each other in their eagerness to miss nothing, and there would seem to be no possible way of restraining the impetuosity of these enthu

CHARLES D. ROSE, ESQ.

Gov. Morton's London partner, whose challenge for the America's Cup was accepted, but subsequently withdrawn.

siasts when an exciting moment arrives. It is not enough, however, to say that such crowding is as hard on one boat as on another, for while the ideal conditions can certainly not be obtained near a great city, it is imperative that some plan should be devised whereby the evil may be lessened, at least. Everybody desires a "fair field and no favors," and undoubtedly some systematic co-operation, guided by the former fiasco, will produce a track which we can offer to the visitor without an apology. One point is often lost sight of: the New York Yacht Club has very little discretion in the matter of rules and decisions, for the deed of gift accompanying the cup is very rigid in its provisions, and every challenger understands beforehand that these must be complied with. The continuance of the challenges is the best evidence that the newspaper advices from across the water to bury the cup and put up a trophy to be raced for under "reasonable" regulations is merely a local opinion and does not voice the general sentiment.

It seems unquestionable that such international contests really bring about more cordial relations between the rivals. Of course, there is always some hard feeling at first, and the excitable supporters of both sides say rather nasty things, but most of the

"weathered the storm without a man reported missing," as one of the journals naïvely puts it, the mere fact of their having won can hardly be used in making wider comparisons, but the surprising records established go to show that we can hold our own, for in everything except the quartermile run, the best English figures

were surpassed. This meeting was altogether one of the best managed in the history of athletics, and despite the inauspicious beginning the most amicable feeling prevailed throughout. The performances were hair-raising, and when Sweeney cleared the bar in the high jump at 6 feet 55% inches, there was a general rush to the spot by the incredulous Englishmen to check the measurement. Again in the half-mile run, which was perhaps the star performance of the day, Kilpatrick beat the great Horan out by 12 yards and lowered by a whole second a record which for seven years had resisted the efforts of all comers. It is a stirring sight to see two men in the very pink of condition come hurtling down the track, each straining every muscle and nerve, every bit of resolution in him, to forge ahead, and when in the quarter-mile and a few yards from the line, Burke closed up the foot of ,space between him and Jordan, the Englishman

ZIMMERMAN, THE WORLD'S CHAMPION BICYCLIST.

the two bodies crossing the tape so close together that it needed the judges' decision to tell who had won, the on-lookers went wild with excitement.

The memorable tennis tournament at West Newton only confirmed the judgment of the experts that the American game is like the little girl's curl, either very, very good or horrid, beating the English at its best, but inferior on the average. Dr. Joshua Pim was the first champion from the other side we have had, and the way in which our cracks went. down before his steady certitude and accuracy was. disheartening. Finally, however, Hobart had an "on" day and his dazzling play made him abso lutely invincible, his unerring volleys and terrible"smashes" landing two straight sets to his credit. In the doubles, too, Hobart and Hovey proved to be too strong for Pim and Mahoney, who hold the Irish championship in the doubles,

The case in lawn-tennis is rather peculiar, for the sharp difference between the styles of the two countries is due largely to the fact that the great English players are mature men, while with us a man's tennis-days are generally over when he has been away from college a year or two. The competition in business and the professions is far too keen to admit of regular practice, and consequently we never attain to the sure, reliable play which is so characteristic of the experts in Great Britain.

Cricket has never appealed very strongly to the American taste. We do not care to wait two or three days to reach a climax in any game when we can have just as exciting a moment in as many hours, so we do not perhaps appreciate the extent to which the tour of the victorious English eleven through Australia filled the minds of the colonists and the inhabitants of the mother country. As an able writer says, colonial politics may be unintelligible to the mass, but cricket is a common meeting ground, and the press of Australia has devoted more space to these matches than to all the Aus tralian Parliaments. Moreover the increase in the receipts of the cable companies from the lengthy cablegrams concerning the teams was quite marked.

The ovations accorded that veteran cricketer, Dr. W. W. Grace, evidence the depth of the public affection for the national game and for such a superb exponent of it. We ourselves are so accustomed to being walloped when it comes to cricket that the performance of the gentlemen of Philadelphia, who recently ran up a score of 404 against the visitors in the Haverford match, thus landing two of the three games, created quite a flutter. It was largely due to the superb batting of Patterson, who is sui generis on this side of the Atlantic, and indeed is classed by the Englishmen as among the twelve best batsmen now playing.

It may not be amiss to men. tion in this connection, not so much in a spirit of glorification as to show the rap

idly increasing variety of international contests, that our pet cyclist, Zimmerman, has conclusively proved himself able to run away from any competitors and made for himself such a reputation during his French tour that the final races were unanimously conceded to him before they were run. It cannot be many years before we shall receive some champion golfers from the old country, eager for the scalps of our devotees to this absorbing sport. Golf has descended upon us with a rush, and from a state of utter ignorance as to its tenets we have so progressed in five years that "niblicks," "stymies" and "bunkers" are current expressions, while golf links and clubs spring up mushroomwise. It may be that our comparatively inexperienced players will show up in unexpected strength, for it is a well-known fact that the novice will sometimes on his first trial prove too much for the expert golfer.

In looking forward to the athletic prospect for 1896, by far the most important event is the wonderful international meeting to be held at Athens, which has been everywhere hailed as a revival of the Olympic games, abolished fifteen hundred years ago by Theodosius the Great. In June, 1894, there was held at Paris a remarkable Athletic Congress, which was the outcome of the efforts of Baron de Coubertin, a talented young Frenchman, who has for some years been prominent in university and literary work, and who proposed to establish a quadrennial meeting at which amateur champions from all over the world should compete. Athens

was chosen as the most fitting spot for the initiatory meeting and, notwithstanding the financial depression in Greece, a subscription fund of 300,000 drachmæ was raised. Mr. George Averoff, a merchant of Alexandria, has given twice that amount, out of hand, to be employed in the rebuilding of the Pan-Athenaic Stadion, the scene of the old Pana thenæan games. This work is now in progress, and surrounding the tracks will be seats for 70,000 spectators. The roadstead of Phaleron offers an ideal course for swimming and rowing contests, while the regattas will be held in the island-surrounded Saronic Gulf.

The committee in charge contains representatives from Greece, France, Russia, Bohemia, Sweden. New Zealand, England, the United States, Uru guay, Hungary, Italy and Belgium, which would seem to insure the most comprehensive gathering of athletes the world has ever known. The American contingent will probably be large. Crum, the famous Western sprinter, is said to intend to compete, and many athletic clubs contemplate sending their champion performers. An honorary committee, with President Cleveland as chairman, and comprising among others, Jos. H. Choate, William M. Sloane, President Dwight, President Eliot, President Gilman and President Low, has just been formed, and the executive committee expects to issue announcements very shortly, which will give to the public some more detailed information concerning this audacious and felicitously conceived undertaking.