The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 16, 1899, Page 26

26 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 16, 1899. s s THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACE HOW WE OUTSAILED THE BRITISH IN 1851, HAVE BEATEN THEM EVER SINCC AND PROPOSE OT all who are interested In inter- national vacht races perhaps real- ize that the first race between American British yachts took place as back as 1851. At a meeting of the Royal , held May 9, 1851, it was greed to give a cup of the : of £100, open to yachts belonging clubs all nations, sub, t to the s of the Royal Yacht e course to be round the Isle (about eighty-one m and e to be sailled on Friday, Au- n the halcyon days of Am »ere when this offer of the first THE AMERICA, Winner of the First International Yacht Race, Under Full Sail—The Launching of Our $acht cly was made, and It was follo nstruc tior < Y Club, o s craft Amer- fca, t the cup t Amer! in charge of New York Y in whose care it has rem: In accordance with t re- never and notabie first winner cans for tha d vanqu career of the expr! ing the y vachts. sh est ease Britair since he TUDENTS of heredt used much effort {: varfous forms of show how of late have counting for e or con- how other centricity or deed, genius as to be ac- far if not im- we come to the question of subject has true greatne: aspect. The res have been ade Iw owed large part to their mc in the ¢ go Tim cases we know compar thess mothers. A stray in autoblography thelr her -Heral atively paragrapt or memoir may that 1s left to tell us how much this man or that owed to a mother who was n and morally strong, many cases we have to and sa the very c! eason backwar. acter of the on shows that the mother must liberally endowed by nature. here a y a few dissenters from the view that the mothe fluence on the mental ard moral quali- ties of her child is far greater than that er of Napoleon, for example, Marie Letitia Ramoline, though mar- ried at the early age of 16, developed in- to a woman of very strong character. Her regular features and brilliant eve were inherited by Napoleon, and his figm will and lofty ambition came from her rather than from his easy-going father. “She has the head of a man on the shoulders of a woman, the emperor bimself said of her, and throughout bhis MEN OF GENIUS 7O DO Englieh waters, Afterward the yacht was purchased by an Englishman, and for a time flew the Union Jack instead of the Stars and Stripes. During the period of the Civil War the America’s sailing quali- ties tempted a syndicate to purchase he for use as a blockade runner. During this erfod the yacht lurked about the Florida eys and made flylng trips to Bermuda end Nassau. Finally she was caught In the Bt. Johns River and was scuttied in order {o save her from capture. She was raised and became a training ship at Ann- apolis. In the year 1§70 there came from Hng- land Commander Asbury's challenge for the America’s cup, then, as now, in the ossession of the New York Yacht Club. t was the unanimous desire of the coun- try that the America should be allowed to of the cup which 4 fa. : America beat the Camb ceded t fca retu into the orge by G s, the Herreshoff ched fn March, 1851 s Commodore J le for the open- ing of the first world’s e 1ibit ever he This W the Crystal Palace in L don. As a sort of culmination to the cere- IT AGAIN IN 1399. montes that attended its opening there s to be a great international assem. ge of yachis at Cowes. Many races were arranged for. The Americd was gent over to represent the nation which had buflt her and whose name and colors she bore. From the moment of her arrival at Cowes she became an object of ouriosity and apprehension, and on one pretext or another the British yacht owners hest tated to accept the challenge which Com- modore Stevens issued to the worid. Fi- naily the challenge was accepted and the race was sailed on Friday, August 23, 1361, Shortly after 8 o'clock on Tuesday morn- ing the Knrms were at their stations off the clubhouse, the America lying consfd- erably etrange-looking oraft, astern—e New Cup Defender, THE COLUMBIA. & OWE MUCH TO THEIR MOTHERS life he pald great attention to her ad- vice. The modern theory of the degenerative origin of genius would not hold true in the case of Mendelssohn, who admittedly owed very much of his ability to mother. Before her 3 raham Mendelssohn she wai mon of a good Jewish family. ed, s oke and read ench and Italian, as well . and she could read Greek. and hey sang well, and directed ths early musical education of her children. This did not mean that she taught them the mere course of studies in Bach, Mo- zart and Beethoven. She had a temperament, in which was mi siderable sweetness and b , and in short from such & mother one would have expected a poetic or musical rather than a son with military and po- ltical talents like Napoleon or Wash- ington. Among literary men the parentage of Richard Br Sheridan is_especially interesting. His ary family, and a woman of gre: when but 15 ather belonged to a s mother in herself literary talent. In 1739, he had published ol , “Eugenla and Ade- and in the course of rs other romances and mar s came from her pen, several of whi had considerable noto the o Some one has WC id that she is n who ever won a husband by the use of her ary gifts, Nor is this from the truth, since a pamphlet which she wrote on s side of the controversy growing out of some the- atrical matters in Dublin led to her ac- quaintance and subsequent marriage with Thomas Sheridan. Her daughter, Mrs. woman of talent, Le Frann, was a and her son, Charles Francis, as well as Richard Brinsley, showed great ability, while numerous descendants of hers, like Mrs. Norton and Lord Dufferin, have been distinguished - enough, with her long, low, black hull, which were well together, and went along glory thereof; there is no need of proph- well to windward, and showed a tendency measurement {s 73 feet. The distance her breadth of beam and her thick, stifi- smartly with the light breeze. In another ecy « v a lee helm. The new defender’s from the water to the tip of the club top- looking raki Pitted against her quarter of an hour she was clear of them he Columbia, America’s new cup de- kel we about % and is sail i feet. Therefore it would be im- re fourte of which six were all. Off Sandown Bay, the wind freshen- fender, satisfied her owner, Commodore more the shape of a plate than a pulb. possible to 1 th vacht u the Among these she carried away her jibboom, but Moy N dhesigner Ferreshoft by The advantage gained by giving the Co- Brooklyn bridge, because a mast 140 feet lish_sporting he was well handled, the mishap pre ting ' the Defender inutes and p3 lumbia a plate-shaped keel instead of the high just clears the bridge. : icest products of trans- ed no ill effect, her competitors gain- e e il eourse on July bulb type is principally in the sail-carry- The oSl e e ntic shipbuilding skill. At 10 o'clock iDg a trifle, but ‘not approaching he I INDuEh thotrace. was ing power. Tt also allows her to cut the on June 10 was the oc )n of a holiday the signal gun was fired from the club- From the moment she rounded St. Cath- t4ry one, owir water more easily. : s O Brigtol. The s an e holloay house. Before the 4 well cleared €rines Polnt the race was practically OVer. paiing swir The sail area of the Columbia is 1380 shops where she ; it away the fleet w e el r Sswhenin she reached the starting 4 This is the largest spread of canvas people,as were also the the shops. steadily to the with the tide and 3 Vvesel, at 25 minutes to 8 p. m., there was . several races, f placed on a racing cutter. The Val- Crafts of all des s decked In‘ray atle breeze. The only laggard was the RO competitor in sight. The news reached ypder varying conditions the official trials Kyrie TIL._carried 13,000 feet, and the De- colors, dotted the ate wat ot America, which did not move for a second Her Majesty the Queen on board her wiil come s 1 Bentembers fender 12,600 feet. : et ity o Men e Oirver or so after the others. Steamers, shore Yacht. The nau ps who witnessed the _ Her approximate dimensions are: Iselin christened and = started the new boats and yachts of all sizes buzzed along cond?” asked the Queen. race are of opinion that the F Length over all, feet; water line, 891 yacht from her cradle down the SUght on each side of the couyrse and spread there is no second,” challenger wiil be unable to take the cup feet; beam, 24 feet 2 inches; draught, 20 Incline to the water. Cheer after cheer away for miles over the rippling sen. sald the messenger. from this side of the water. fect. " arose as her keel struck the water, and If the British heart leaped with a mo- This was true at the moment, but 20 ~The Columbi carrying a more true The length of the mast is 107 feet 6 she seemed to bow gracefully in acknowl- mentar: ultation over the slowness of minutes later the Aurora arrived at the fin-keel than fender, which gives inches; feet in the masthead and 8 edgment of the reception. It is estimated the Ameri ng under way it was Stakeboat, and was awarded second her a great deal more stability feet below deck and 7 feet from deck to that at least five thousand people wit- only momentary. 0on began to creep honors. windward qualifications. hounds, where the Defender measures but nessed the launching. This IS twice the up ‘on her opponents, ing some of the So ended the first great international that owing to the character 72 feet, The topmast measures 63 feet. number that saw the Defender take har cutters to windward. In a quarter of an yacht race in victory for America, and c 4'by the Defender, which was of the The howsprit extends outboard 27 feet. Initial dip, which clearly demonstrates hour she hem all Denind. save orn This story has been repeated up to the bulbed and rocker type, in her race with Therefore the distance from the fore side that there is a keener interest taken the Constance, Beatrice and Queen, present day. Sufficlent for the day is the the Valkyrie IIL. in 1895, she did not work of the mast to the farthermost point of in the cup races this year. Every one remembers how much John Wesley owed to the encouragement of his mother. Susan Wesley was a woman of almost masculine mind, well-trained for their literary ability. in Greek, Latin, French, mathematics and HINK of a tree being lost for thirty The mother of Goethe, If not a woman losle. She was so Independent that whom I years. of genlus, at least had great influel on & girl she left the dissente or the ¥ = 3 Ber Eon's Inteliectual deemoamuence on Ehurch of England, although her father, It hardly seems possible, but that wais only 18 vears oid when Roihi: SN as a nonconformist minister, had suffered is just what happened to a tree in born, and shé was always his affectionate Mmuch for his dissent. Wooden Valley, Napa County. companion. Though not a learned woman, (Serried at the age of 18, she had mine- “he free in question is the property of had a fin oetic imagination, en children. hirtees ese livec eoia 368 = o told Bim ali kinds of e :‘,‘,S through childhood and ten to maturity, Uncle Sam. In 133 he Lma n;lx! a un:. & klore stori She educated her children herself ar :;_xrlumn party to run a base line across She improvis: v brought them up in a strict and loving Napa County. continuing. them from meny tales. and giccipiine. ' Undoubtedly John Wesley In- But when the settlers began moving i would stimulate the little boy to tell her herited his own strength of character ghere a few years later they found that ¢ the probable coneiusion voeld o and religious fervor from his mother. She tnev could not aceurately locate the cor- She had a lovable and loving disposition with a capacity for bringing out each person’s best. Goethe owed much to the strict training of his father, who was a rigld disciplinarian, and there may have been a germ of genius latent in the mind of both parents. Yet certainly a great deal of his poetic genius was due to his inheritance from the mother, as well as to her cultivation of hig, imagination. A deeply plous man is¥eldom the son of an irreligious mother. Cases innu- le could be given to illustrate this, but none more striking than that of Lu- ther. It is not that we know so_very much about her, but all that we do know shows her to have been a woman of very decided character. She was a peasant woman accustomed to the hardest labor. Yet she and her husband encouraged in their little Martin a love of study, so that at 6 years of e he could read and write with ease. Every little fault was sternly dealt with, and once for stealing me little thing—not, we may be sure, a real theft—his mother beat him with a hazel rod until the blood flowed. “I shudder when 1 think what I went through,” he wrote once. “I had a terri- ble time of it, but she meant well.” The modern method of sparing the rod cannot be called a bad one, and yet who can say that Luther did not owe much of his nobility of character to the strictness of uis early bringing up. encouraged without at first sharing her son’s peculiar views. Indeed, it was not until she was past 70_that she professed herself a convert to Methodism. Sometimes a talented mother does not find her talented son altogether satisfac- fory. Agnes Burns, the mother of Rob- ert Burns, though a simple cotter's wife, had a mind well stored with ballads which she was In the habit of reciting to her little boy, and by means of which she probably developed his love of poetry. Mothers with a bad influence over their talented sons have been numerous, and hardly any instance is more famous than that of Lord Eryon and his ill-tempered mother. In this case, too, it is difficult to trace the genius of the poet to his moth- er, who, in every way, seems to have been an ordinary woman. There was insanity in her family, and her father was a sui- cide. Remembering this. we may see in it something to confirm the modern theory that genius is often degeneracy following vice or mental eccentricity, and of both qualities Bryon's ancestors had a fair share. To emphasize the influence of the moth- er—physiologically—on the child is rather unnecessary in these modern days, when every one one has his quota of scientific knowledge. But it would be quite worth while for readers of biography to note every case where the mother's influence on her child is more marked, ners of their sections of land because they could not find the “bearing tree” that was the key to the whole problem. But last week the field class from an engineering school were out studying in that section. One of the lessons consisted in running a level across a certain line and finding the corners of the different sections of land. This work was done for several miles and all the bearing trees found without any difficulty by the young engineers. But finally they came to a certain old oak tree and the calculations showed that it should mark the corner of a quarter section. But there was no mark on it. It looked like any other tree. “We must have made a mistake in run- ning our line,” said one of the boys. But a_wiser one made a careful examination of the bark of the tree and finally found a slight depression about six feet from the ground. “T think the mark is under ther: ald he, and taking an ax began to chop. “The bark must have grown over the mark soon after it was made.” He cut through nine inches of bark un- til the solid wood of the tree was reached and there, sure enough, were the longed- for markings of the Government engi- neers: “‘Quarter section bearing tree,” he shouted. “That's what we are looking for,”’ and there was g good deal of con= i Inscription on U. S. *“Bearing Tree.” Lost for thirty years. atulation among the boys at the fact spot marked over a quarter of a century § at they could so accurately locate & ago.