Show ON rUE COMINf f CUT RACE Sir Thomas Lipton Talks to the American People Through 0 a Representative of Colliers Weekly 0 the Same Being Reprinted in The P Tribune by Special Permission of the Publisher of That Journal 0 Publsher f 0 S 0 S fJ That cup is still In the lap of the gods I am often asked whether I think I ahall win it My only reply Is that 11 hope to win it or I should not enter the contest I have that hope end It is Ilmrt Part of my sanguine nature perhaps that during the recent trials of the new challenger In the Clyde the hope grew at momenta into an expectation I there t was certainty that I should win or that I ohould lose there would be no sport Only one thing Is quite sure that the best boat will win and I I am sportsman enough to wish that It j I should I my boat is the best well and good 1 shall rejoice to bring the cup back with me but the next best thing to bringing it away Is to leave it where it Is I Wore this contest not a thoroughly friendly one I should not enter upon it America knows my entelUfon matter and I know Americas Noth ioth ing couUl exceed tho kindness shown me when last I i challenged from the I 0 time of my arrival In American waters till the time of my departure Thousands I Thou-sands of people came out to say good by I shall never forget the sight or 1 the sound Crowded steamors came l 0 down the river and as the St Louis I passed Sandy Ilopks battery fired two guns In farewell salutation The Amer I lean nre swas particularly good tome to-me ad the Interviewer who Is rather a boLe noire In tho Imagination of some of my traveling countrymen I I round 0 capital and considerate enough fellow And It Is my confident opinion J an opinion I expressed on my return home tInt A great number of the people peo-ple of America were rather disappointed I disappoint-ed Shamrock I did not win A greater proof than this of the hospitality hos-pitality oC any country I do not know and cannot Imagine i AMERICAN SPORTSMANSHIP Ido not think it necessary tore itorate my faith In the > absolute fair I play of American sportsmen or to retell I re-tell here how Congress quite Independently 1 Indepen-dently of this particular race has by a special amendment of Its navigation laws undertaken the taskno light one of keeping the clear for leceplng course ccarfor combatants com-batants It used to be necessary to say these things here at home That Is I riot an agreeable remark not a more agreeable remark than the lady made to Disraeli the younger I spend my life defending you Without sayIng say-Ing that I have to admit that when I first entered my challenge many of my friends asked me whether I was 1 sure of a fair field and no favor Well I was sure and I told them so with I an emphasis that rather startled some of them Now nobody even asks me I the foolish question That Is something some-thing gained by the race of two years ago and by the race which Is about to be run l I do not bring back the cup I do something much betteradd I to the right understanding and the consequent goodwill between the I sportloving public on one side of the Atlantic and their colleagues on the other 0 SHAMROCK I IS A GOOD BOAT Turning to the future I have no reason to think that J1C circumstances othe second race will bejany less congenial than those of the first On the contrary I believe that the AmerIcan Ameri-can people and myself were never on kinder terms than we are riowl speak at any rate for myself September 21st will see the first of the five races that are to decide which Is the better 0 boat Why as n citizen and a cosmopolitan cosmo-politan I await that decision with equanimity has been already told Why usa sportsman I equally await 0 It with confidence Is of course a far more problematic affair Shamrock I Is however in my opinion a better boat than Shamrock I Mr Watson has spent more time over her Day and night go to say for the last eIghteen eight-een months he has put his best work Into her aided by Mr Fife They have benefited by their bygone experience The result Is that I have now a better i boat than ever and I could not have n better crew When I said gob to them before they set sail across the 1 Atlantic the other day I told them to 0 their faces what I thought of them that they are the finest set of men our country can produce I told them too that if any favoi was shown it would not be to their disadvantage They are full of hopes for success and they have besides in that event certain substantial substan-tial expectations Mr Watson too promised them a reward and thefr confidence con-fidence In the winning powers of the boat Is shown by the request they made that the money should be put upon the races 0 0 The two years elapsed since the last attempt and failure have brought other things besides experience One regret lts with me Into this renewed contest the absence of Lord Russell of Klllowen who was engaged at the date of the last race or he would have been ofthe meln settling peacefully the vexed question of Venezuela He by lila work and I by my play as I flattered to the myself were both conducing same great enda better and closer comradeship between the two nations I That double Interest of the keen patriot and the keen sportsman which the race excited in him Is here to inspirit l UH no more His son the Hon Charles ut I Russell will however be with me now as then Lady Russell of Killowen christened Shamrock I1 and the Countess Count-ess of Dufieriix gracefully performed the same ceremony for Shamrock II Lord Dufferln Is still president of the Ulster Yacht club that Ulster from which my own family springs and I which has given a McKlnley to thft tf white House I is the flag of tho Royal Ulster Yacht club which Shamrock I Sham-rock fifes and on that flag is the Red Hand of Ulsteran inspiriting npiritng sign According to the old legend there I was a race at sea for supremacy and lie who first touched shore was to be king J ONeill was behind but ho touched shore first by a grewsome de vice Seeing his vlval ahead ho chopped off his own hand flung it ashore and so won the crown The moral Is that In this as In everything worth tho doing he who would win must be thorough In his struggle foe victory All things must he sub servient to that desired end Nobody has ever accused me of half hcartedness In any enterprise of mine and of all my enterprises this per haps Is i the one which stands first I have done my utmost to get 3 good I boat and a good crew and when I reach New Yorka month ahead of the race I shall give all my time and thought to getting the boat Jnto the best condition I shall force my tongue to say No where It would porfcr to frame a Yes to all allurements on land until I have settled this great event on the water Yet I can sincerely say again what I said before I shall hnl I emerge from this contest unmalmed I I shall have at least that advantage advantJC over King ONeill Indeed I often feel that I am In the almost Invidiously 0 favorable position expressed by the formula Heads I win Tails you lose For this Is a contest and these are foe where victory Is glorious and de feat not a disgrace A MESSAGE FROM THE KING With my last Interview with King Edward still uppermost In my mind 1 may be allowed to say that nobody takes a greater Interest in this race of ours than Edward VII and that tho American nation has no greater admirer ad-mirer than he His Interest In all that 1 concerns the cupha been shown by i his visits to my boats at various stages to the first while she was still on the stocks to the second In that trial spin which well was n trial and a spin of a kind wo did not want That he wishes good luck to Shamrock IL on patriotic grounds Is only natural But if I may mak a guess at ansthen motive for his majestys desire that she may win it would be this Her victory would mean the return visit of American boats to our shore and a men r yal welcome to American yachts 0 |