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Show COLUMBIA AND SHAMROCK. The Columbia has defeated the Sham rock in two of the races out of the series of five. In the second race the top mast of the Shamrock was carried away and she was unable to finish the race. There has been much speculation in the newspapers concerning the outcome of the race, and much anxiety has been expressed regarding the holding of the cup on this side of the water. Much unnecessary feeling, has been raised against Captain Barr of the Columbia, and some of the newspapers have gone so far as to say that he knows nothing about his business; but the races have demonstrated that he is as skillfula skipper as ever. sailed before a breeze, I and that the Columbia is the fastest cup defender, ever built in the United States. It seems that a yacht in order to win an international race must not only be fieet but strong, and there.must be no weak places. The Herreshoffs, who built the Columbia, evidently knew-this fact, and built a boat that, while swift in a light breeze, grew swifter and stronger as the breeze grew in intensity. Another An-other thing has been demonstrated: Of all the men who go down into the sea in ships there are none to equal the Yankee sailor. The crew of the Shamrock is the commingling com-mingling of many nations; the crew of the Columbia is composed of men from along the Yankee coast, who, from earliest childhood have braved the sea in little dorys or fishing smackr. They are a shrewd and rugged race, and what they do not know about sailing a yacht in fair or foul weather no man need attempt to know, for there are many tricks in yacht sailing and the Yankees know them all. The crew that sails on the staunch little cup defender feel that the boat is a part cf them, and have as much affection for jt as a mother moth-er for her babe. They are a race of men who believe in God and in the liberty lib-erty of mankind, and while they may not worship any living being except their God, this triumph of man's skill with its graceful outline and yards of sail is something adored and revered by them. What tales they can tell in the future to the children and grandchildren grand-children that gather around their knees in their little homes on the rock coast of Maine! How, towards the end of the century they sailed the good, staunch yacht Columbia against the swiftest boat that ever left the English shore and won in a canter! : 4 i |
