Evening Star Newspaper, June 22, 1930, Page 85

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 22, 1930. —— BY “DANIEL.” OWING, if you believe the Carnegie Foundation athletic investigators, is the last stronghold of pure amateurism. There is really no “gate” in the And there can be little recruiting or subsidizing, because very few preparatory schools foster aquatics and fewer college coaches are $o take over prep school products brought up on rowing systems different from their own. Rowing, such as will be shown in the Pough- keepsie regatta June 26, has a national appeal. The East, cradle of the sport in this country, is represented by Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Massachusetts Institute of Tach- nology. The Near-South has its standard bearer in the Naval Academy. The Pacific Coast is represented by Washington and Cali- fornia. The Middle West has an entrant in Wisconsin. And in cases where a section is not represented by a complete crew you will find it claims one or more of the individuals in the shells. ACH Poughkeepsie regatta has its own ro- mantic feature or its own peculiar thrill. Last year it was the sight—the rather dim sight, for night was closing in before the big race got under way—of the nine starters fighting the lashing waves and whirling winds, with four of the shells sinking before or im- mediately after reaching the three-mile mark, while a Columbia shell, manned completely by boys from the celebrated sidewalks of New York drove majestically through the storm to win the title. The year before a little ex-coxswain, Cali- fornia’s rowing coach, made the Poughkeepsie regatta the stepping stone to a rowing season such as no Pacific Coast mentor ever enjoyed For after sending his Golden Bears to & narrow wictory over Columbia, he sent them through the American Olympic tryouts to further suc- oess, and then took them to Amsterdam, where they conquered the rowing world in the Olympic games. So it has been back through the years of this rowing classic. Never a regatta has passed without som: unique contribution to sport his- tory, like that appealing incident of 1915, in which a handful! of ambitious young men from Stanford University were the figures. UST how the Stanford boys came East is not known. There was no oollege fund to take care of their expenses. They had to dig into their own pockets to pay the freight on their shell and that left some of their number entirely without funds. Their shell and their oars and their rowing trunks constituted their complete equipment. They had no coach. They had no launch to accompany them on their workouts. Th2y had no boat house. They had no knowledge of the Poughkeepsie course and currents. They had no experience in four-mile racing, their home course not being adapted to it. Nevertheless, they took the mark with their highly trained Eastern and Middle Western rivals. ‘They really learned long-distance row- ing while the race was in progress, but they never learned their own strength and ability. They were going strong as they passed the two- mile flags. They were going stronger as they shot under the railroad bridge at the three-mile mark. They were going so strong over the Interest in the Poughkeepsie Regatta This Year Centers Around the Crew of Jim Ten Eyck, Grand Old Man of Syracuse, W hose Two- Year-Olds Are Favorites. In the Big Rowing Race. they had passed all foes except and so rapidly were they closing upon t the Ithacan crew barely man- aged to get over the finish line in time. i line, however, meant nothing to . They were going strong as ross it and they continued to half mile more, and might still if an official, realizing that familiar with the course and race was over, had not set t d brought them to a halt. doing other odd jobs until enough for their fare. They went home ultimately, but they left a story of happy-go-lucky fortitude that will not be forgotten. TBIB year the human interest element is provided by James Ten Eyck, familiarly known as “Old Jim,” the 80-year-old coach at Syracuse University. Time was when he ranked second to the late Charles (Pop) Couttney of Cornell in producing Poughkeepsie winners. He and Courtney had been sculling rivals in the hey- dey of that sport and, shortly after Courtney retired from competition to become Cornell’s rowing coach, Ten Eyck placed his single scull on the rack for the last time and took up similar duties at Syracuse. The two oaring ancients virtually dominated the -eight-oar courses from 1900 to 1920. Courtney died some years ago, leaving Ten Eyck as the lone representative of the old school of coaches. At about the same time the Naval Academy became an annual starter in the regatta, with the Glendon family teach- ing them a sterling brand of oarsmanship, and the coast crews, Washington and California, also with strong eights, began making the annual Poughkeepsie pilgrimage. “Old Jim” Ten Eyck, who was not over- blessed with material, found the going pretty tough. Navy and Washington split the vic- tories from 1921 through 1926, Then Co- lumbia, with one of the Glendons as its coach, forged to the front, winning in 1927 and 1929. “The best “Old Jim” could show in that 10- year ‘siretch was a third in 1926. Last year, however, the old man came fo Poughkeepsie with a° smashing freshman crew. It rowed proverbial rings around its rivals in the frosh event. And “Old Jim” is to send into the big race on Thursday a shell manned in seven of the eight positions by those winning ex-freshmen and steered by the same coxswain. The regatta as a whole is a picture. Over- head, if the day is clear, the blue of the sky arches on the one side to meet the rugged, gray-green hills of the east bank of the river, and on the other, descends to meet a setting sun. ’l‘ALL - MASTED yachts, short - throated cruisers, round-bellied excursion boats, and all manner of smaller craft crowd the rim of the rowing course, each strung from stem to stern with multi-colcred signal flags. Vantage points scattered along the river banks—the wooded hills, the rocky projections, the grassy lawns—become animated rainbows as brightly dressed spectators find places upon them. The white-canopied observation train, perching the cinder shelf of the embankment, flaunts flamboyant trappings, the eager spec- tators lined up on benches facing the river. Even the spider-like iron framework of the railroad bridge spanning the stream shows its brave display of banner and bunting. And everywhere, with every flip of the breeze, every movement in the monster gallery, the bright tones of Summer dresses and of college pennants weave dazzling, ever-changing pat- terns in this polychromatic setting. “Ready all!” Movement ceases. All sounds are hushed. Every one is tense. Every one is grimly still. Life, for a seemingly endless instant, pauses. ‘Then a pistol shot! In the water it stirs a wild flurry of action On shore and on water it releases a booming bedlam of sound. Excited throats pelt the air with shrieks and roars. Engines puff and grind. Whistles scream. Horns howl. The observation train swings, creaking and groaning, into action. And above all comes the yipping and yap- ping of midget coxswains and the “Rat-tat, rat-tat, rat-tat” of their stroke-timing beai on the gunwhales as the powerful oars stab and churm the water. ‘Then comes the bristling battle of blades down the river—the sprint of this crew into the lead—the challenge of that crew—the shuttling of the nine cedar needles on the liquid carpet of the Hudson—and the mad spurt for the finish line, where coxswains hoarsely whisper, “Way, enough,” and stamina- :Ip‘ent sweepsmen crumple drunkenly in their des. T — | Sole Survivor of “Pure” College Sport ALTHOUGH rowing is not a commercialized sport and lays proud claim to its ama- teur quality, its conduct has not been at all times purely Corinthian. There are coaches who have thought it part of the game to annoy and weaken rival crews by forcing them to wait on the starting mark under burning suns or facing cutting, chilling winds. Other coaches and crews will delay their arrival at the starting mark in the hope that rowing conditions more favorable to their par- ticular style of their particular rigging will come before the race is sent away. This has been a not uncommon practice at Poughkeepsie and had much to do with the lateness of the race last year. Purther time can be taken up by those who wish it in claiming their shell is mnot pointed properly down the course. That prac- tice also has been availed of and the extra stake boat, moored opposite the bowman and with a line which the bowman is to hold until the signal is given, will do away with that business and the consequent delay. The early arrival of Spring weather this year in the East and Middle West enabled the coaches to take their charges out on the water several weeks before the usual date. Then, too, a much more extensive prelim- inary schedule has been carried out. The Navy-Columbia-M. I. T. regatta that opened the Eastern season was one new number; the Pennsylvania-Wisconsin and the Washington- Wiscosin regattas are new ones; so was the Princeton-Navy-California triangular contest of June 14. And they and the other more or less standard events have served mightily in developing at least six of the nine varsity starters into crews, each of whicl i.i.. be conceded a chance to win. (Copyright. 1930.) Destroying Bean Beetles, IT doesn't take long for two Mexican bean beetles to become a whole community of the insect pest, which is each year spreading over more and more territory. The adult beetles spend the Winter in the ground, and make their annual appearance about the time bean plants are 3 or 4 inches high. After feeding a few days, the female starts out on the business of adding to the population of the garden. She lays her eges in clusters of 40 to 60 on the under side of the leaves of the bean plant. In about 10 days the larvae appear and eat what the parent beetle has overlooked of the leaves. In about three or four weeks the larvae have reached the pupal stage and rest for about 10 days, after which they become full-fledged beetles and start about raising a second genera- tion, which in turn will provide a third i localities where the season is sufficiently long. '* If half the original cluster of eggs yield females and these 30 yield 60 beetles apiece, one laying wowld result in 1,800 beetles. If the original egg layer lays a dozen or 5o col= onies of eggs, the increase is stupendous. After nine years of researcl), the Departmen§ of Agriculture experts have finally worked out a spray which they believe will settle the bean beetle question, if it is camied out generally throughout the Eastern States, where the beetle is prevalent. The spray is made up of two pounds of magnesium arsenate in 100 gallons of water. This has been found to be very effective in destroying the bectles.