Show THE ME LONDON april jtb 1897 the beatrace boa trace to an englishman whether whether he be an inhabitant ot of australia the cape or the tight little isle is es senti ally the event that is pulled off at the advent of springtime between the flower of the athletic young undergraduates of the two great english universities viz those of oxford and cambridge who once a year pull four miles up the river thames between its banks that are lined with not tens but hundreds of thousands oi of spectators these young men spend the major por tion of the winter in training and are ruled with a rod of iron by the respective adamant trainer who is a veritable tyrant and promptly curtails curtail s all luxurious living on the part of t the h e selected eight pastry cigars liquors together with other alleged palatable epicurean clain dainties ties are strictly barred and the up holders of their respective University ls glory for a couple of months undergo a most uncomfortable daily routine of early rising cold baths exercise walks and rowing with the end in view that they may row upon the bosom of old father thames for a brief twenty minutes and add another match to their alma maters score the beatrace boa trace is distinctly an amateur S sporting porting event and as it is run or rather rowed for the glory and not lor for any material prize the general public is always confident of placing their money upon their favorite with we the ultimate result that the best eight will win after participating in an interesting conference con terence here in london the major portion of the elders for a brief few days prior to returning to their res respective active fields of labor elected to cast agite aside their ministerial duties temporarily and mingle with the merry throng ol of sightseers and searchers after temporal things in general of course the oxford and carn cambridge gener ridge boat race had t receive the attention due to such a well known event to tell the truth the race was a very P popular 0 pu lar institution for obvious reasons in the first place it was free comments are superfluous then again some geographical ananias in the crowd rashly stated with an enthusiasm worthy of a better cause that hammersmith was within easy walking distance of rf aesthetic 36 acting upon the suggestion some halt hall dozen of the flower 0 of f the flock and top undertook to walk and appear oblivious to the seductive allurements allure ments of the loquacious buss conductors who in stentorian tones informed the world at large that their own particular hearse was waff bound for hammersmith Ammer smith the lady novelist of the bertha M clay calibre usually sends her heroes to the boat race upon the box seat of a large yellow drag from which he skillfully fully steers four pran prancing cing bobtailed bob tailed bay steeds to the se accompaniment compani com ment of a martial fare tare upon the post horn down to putney the drag is usually resplendent with curly headed Adoni ses together with youth and beauty galore attired in the latest fashion with the addition of cambridge blue parasols cold collation and champagne under the seat also a couple of liveried lacque lacquers ys in in attendance we saw severa several I 1 of the above vehicles but at the same time as heretofore remarked we walked down bury avenue with its theatres theartres the atres into piccadilly Pica dilly circus with its affrighted traffic dodging damsels and frantic shoppers who eye one in a suspicious manner indicative that they are dubious as to whether ones associates socia tes are pickpockets pick pockets or bunco men on reaching piccadilly Pica dilly the traffic even at that comparative early hour seemed to flow blow in an uninterrupted stream towards putney cabs and busses coach and fours each and everyone decked out with ith light and dark blue ribbons light blue being the colors of cambridge girls in hats trim trimmed m ed with the same colors upon the horses harness a and nd from the forest of whip sticks as far as the eye could reach floated little ribbons or rosettes of the respective colors by bv the time our noble little band had passed a section of hyde park with isome of londona Lon dons aristocratic clubs on its border and had reached kensington it at bad become somewhat segregated four miles walking upon londona Lon dons pavement nent is equal to seven in the Paver country at anytime those of the band who were not in active pedestrian train we in began an to develop symptoms of g and jat and incidentally pass derogatory ngu remarks regarding the instigator of the crusade london pavements in gt general ne ral and boat races in in particular on draw ine near putney things assumed a con a tr derence ence aspect only more so the side walks refused to accommodate the throngs of pleasure seekers who overflowed into st beet and exchanged courtesies with the cabbies tabbies and bus drivers who seemed bent on juggernaut ing the luck use trespassers of domains ham mer smith bridge seemed to be the goal of a good many of the crowd who upon arriving there were 1 grievously disappointed Voin at the fact that the numerous police mounted and on foot kept the crowd moving and compelled them to take up posts of vantage upon the sur rey ley side low path from the suspension bridge the view up p and down the river was a sight that to say the least of it was quite a novelty to the average Utah nian along the low path as far as the eye could reach was fa a seething restless mass ot of humanity whilst mist upon the middlesex bank the numerous aum JAMme erous rous public houses that faced the after lied had huge grand stands erected upon PM tile the roofs of the same to accommodate N aft the sightseers sight seers for a consideration dawber ber yards trees and all posts of vantage were occupied whilst a goodly humber of rakish looking stream launches es and other river craft added to the liberal panorama after many trials and tribulations the honnon brigade reached the surrey ide where the fun was fast and furious ta in an open space adjoining the low path seemed to be let loose Bodem arry y go rounds shooting galleries wing 9 boats and three shies a penny were doing a land office business there is no place to study human nature so 80 easily and instructively as in a good old odd english crowd the coarse wit of the cotter ter the anxious mothers mother Is injunction fo keep sold old of is and billy the geri gentleman in the fearful check suit and pony y he hat who repeatedly and in sup placating cating aing tones offers three to one on Hoi Eford the gentleman who in most legant and polished diction endeavors to sell sea a purse wherein you sew him with your own eyes place half a crown a aoa which he now offers you for the ridiculous us p price rice of sixpence just to start the ba ball il rolling and in aid of the indian famine fund this same gentleman from lack cf custom and the guying of the crowd perchance once in awhile forgets his college education and emphatically enquires of the bo horizon what in the bloody blackl has come into the poverty stricken ditto british public any A i how 1 right adjoining this vociferous and sulphurous pharous individual stands a meek looking citizen bearing aloft a sign that is the target for the omnipresent small boys surplus orange peel and chunks of real estate fellow feeling makes us wonderous kind this sign bears the legend that by grace are ye saved but we do not stop we flow on with the tide of humanity in search of some spot whence to obtain the best view of the race A stout oak fence flanks the towpath on the other side of this barrier is a most inviting and seductive green bank despite the fact at stated intervals sign boards informed the frequent passer by that trespassers would be prosecuted the majority of young men would endeavor to storm the enclosure but upon closer contact and investigation they abandoned the attempt from the fact that some f soulless ouless M individual had unkindly festooned festoon ed the top of the same with an artistic and elegant frescoe of pitch and tar it made tue me feel qui quie e bad at the way not to sav unkind dav those some of them middle aged respectable gentlemen talked about the owner of that property behind his back it has been my privilege to listen to a few remarks from a bibulous bus driver two minutes after his horse bad fallen down in cheapside I 1 have also heard a few observations on the martof part of a hale and healthy Afric ander 19 who ho had been industriously endeavoring for two hours to drive an erratic ostrich through a gate I 1 have further been in the vicinity when an unregenerate gentile neighbor of mine has been endeavoring to put up the stove pipe once when I 1 was very young I 1 heard a mild debate between a and a loch keeper but none of the aforesaid polished phrases would hold a candle to a few utterances te rances that dropped from the lips of a gentleman who gazed thoughtfully and sadly at a huge seam of tar across his heretofore immaculate and spotless tess ironed white vest he had endeavored to sneak over the fencel fence we concluded not to climb that fence but found a beautiful spot from which we could command at least yards of river oh ob vain hopel hope whilst we were congratulating ourselves upon our good luck one ot of those beastly sneaking little thames conservancy tugs left the opposite shore having in tow a huge barge loaded with people the little puffing snorting boat whistled gleefully as she deposited the barge right in front of us left her anchored there and steamed across to get gent another to fill up the gap that remained then was it that we sighed for the man with the tarnished vest to come and soothe our tired eerlings with his bis poetic blank verse I 1 all this time the crowds had been pouring across hammersmith bridge in thousands once in awhile the crowd would raise a howl as a steamer would go 90 down the river bearing the legend apples soap lethone in particular be ing furnished with ith a lady mounted on a horse in the bows both the quadruped and biped being adorned with a superfluity of hair whilst the public were informed in two foot letters that they used Bal baldine dinell or some such stuff at the sound of a gun was heard about a mile down the river and the cry went up from a thousand throats I 1 off then the breathless silence of expectancy pec tancy seized the multitude broken once in in a while by an exclamation as some luckless individual in the excite ment came near being pushed over the rivers river Is bank then a mighty cheer and bubble of sound arose from the spectators the cheering becoming more distinct as the progress of the race was developed A mighty cheer arose and went rippling along the opposite bank as the boats were viewed from there it seemed almost two minutes before there was a yell here they come and the two boats shot into view propelled by the sturdy eight oarsmen oarsman apiece oxford was leading by about half a length and the crowd were delirious yells went skyward both teams rowed like automatic machines and the graceful slim outriggers shot through the water like huge centipedes with the little light weight coxswain sitting bolt upright with set teeth even a novice could see that oxford had the better crew their stroke k e being longer cleaner and more powerful but cambridge stuck to them like leeches rowing tour four more strokes a minute la in a few seconds they were out of sight closely followed by the umpires launch the oxford press and cambridge boats together with a heterogeneous collection ot of steamers then the crowd began to wend its way back to the bridge As the crowd had been steadily pouring across the bridge for four or five hours and now all wanted to get back at once it is a foregone conclusion that there was a block then it was that one realized the efficiency of the london police always good humored and at the same time thoroughly up to their business they handled bandied that crowd in a scientific manner we had bad hardly reached the bridge before the oxford steamer with the trainer in the bows bowing his acknowledgements acknowledge ments came down the river closely followed by other steamers blowing their whistles whistled and firing off bombs and rockets I 1 would not care to state how bow long it took us to cross that bridge the pros ejects seemed when we ultimately did get across that possibly the crowd is wedged there still the only thing that I 1 regret is that I 1 coul dust get to speak to a policeman and find out how to do the ti kiick ick I 1 was standing hopelessly stalled between a policeman a tat fat man and a stone buttress the cop very kindly 1 gave me a dig below the fifth rib with his elbow and lo 10 I 1 shot clean through the tat man and met a man on the other side who kindly trod on my corns whilst someone else hit me in the small of the back ultimately I 1 landed behind a cab and just stayed with that cao cad for three fourths of a mile when I 1 made a dive for a side street nobody goes out to barnes putney hammersmith or mortlake morblake Mort lake with the ex pec tation of seeing the race just a fleeing glimpse of two pulling crews is all that they see then they indulge in ia a good time with the crowd oxfords Ox fordS victory this year by two thiis thirds lengths was a foregone conclusion this making the eighth year in succession that she has pulled over the line first E |