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Show j NEW NEWS of YESTERDAY 1 j By E. J. EDWARDS I 3 j t Fear Kept Novelist Away Charles Reade Wished to See This Country but Felt Sure He Would Die of Seasickness on the Atlantic. The first great captain of a Harvard University crew was Frederick Lor-ing. Lor-ing. He was, in fact, the first of all American college oarsmen to master the science of rowing and to show the manner in which the mere brute strength of a rower can often be out-rowed out-rowed through the use of skill and science. Captain Loring drilled a Harvard crew in 1867 which gave as fine an exhibition of college rowing as had been seen up to that time. The crew rowed away from the Yale University boat with perfect ease over the course at Lake Quinsigamond, at Worcester, Mass. And when Captain Loririg, who stroked the crew, stopped rowing, row-ing, thus giving the signal to his crew to cease, every man in the boat was as fresh, apparently, as he was at the moment when he entered it. Again the next year, and once more in 18G9, Loring stroked his crew to victory; and so famous did the Loring Lor-ing six-oared crew become that Harvard Har-vard decided to send a four-oared crew under Loring to London to enter into a race with the Oxford crew which had won the annual race with Cambridge fn March of that year. Curiously enough, it was this Incident which made it possible to learn the reason why Charles Reade never visited vis-ited the United States. It seems that Mr. Reade, who was an athlete, who had rowerj with his college crew, and who was fond of cricket, had read reports in the English Eng-lish papers of the maner In which Captain Cap-tain Loring had developed rowing at Harvard. He was greatly pleased when he heard that Captain Loring was to bring his crew to London to race against Oxford, Reade's alma mater; and as soon as Loring and his uen had arrived in London and got settled in their quarters who should appear to welcome them but the author au-thor of "The Cloister and the Hearth," then at the height of his fame as a novelist. The Harvard men felt greatly great-ly complimented; and when, after a brief call, Reade invited the entire crew to visit him at his country place near London, the Invitation was accepted ac-cepted with the greatest delight. After the dinner, which was the crowning event of the visit of the crew to Reade's country place, the talk turned on the United States. "I should greatly like to visit the United States," said Mr. Reade, "1 think If I went there I might stay a long time. I am as proud of the United Unit-ed States as It is possible for any one to be. I feel especially tender towards to-wards it because the people of the United States accepted my play 'Masks and Faces,' with great cordiality. cor-diality. I am told that your comedian, William Warren of Boston, plays the part of 'Triplet' in 'Masks and Faces' with exquisite art. Then, too, the United States received my novel, 'It is Never Too Late to Mend,' as enthusiastically enthusi-astically as It was received in England." Eng-land." One member of the crew said to Mr. Reade: "Why don't you come to the United States? We can promise you a reception as enthusiastic as that which Dickens or Thackeray received." receiv-ed." "I once asked Dickens, If, when he crossed the Atlantic, he suffered much from the weather," said Reade. "I was referring to his first visit to the States He told me that he was shut in his stateroom for the better part of four days and suffered excruciatingly. excruciat-ingly. He did not know why I asked him that question. I did it because I was at that time thinking seriously of visiting the United States and staying stay-ing there perhaps two or three years But I shall never go. I know I would be received most cordially. And 1 should like to visit your far western country; I think I could get material there for a story. But I shall never go." "Why not. Mr. Reade?" he was asked. "I'll tell you the reason; I don't believe be-lieve I would live to cross the Atlantic," Atlan-tic," was the reply. "I am not a timid man about most things, but I am an abject coward about the sea not that I. fear storms, but I suffer horribly from seasickness even in the hour It takes to cross the English channel. Yes, the only reason why I do not vis-It vis-It the United States is because I am morally certain that I should never live to cross the sea that I should die of seasickness." (Copyright, 1911. by E. J. Edwards. All Rights Reserved.) |