398
YALE ALUMNI
7 Foes Tae
Whether the youth who have had these
great advantages in the last 25 years, my
Lord Jersey, are going to excel their
predecessors, who were deprived of these
advantages, time only will tell. There
are very good men in public life, both in
England and America, who never were
in a boat. There are very good men
who never made a long jump of 23 feet
or even of 22 feet 3 inches. There are
very good men who have sever even
tried to run a three-mile race; and there
are very good men who never even had
a hammer to throw. Well, time will
show which system of training and edu-
cation is the best. Everything promises
in favor of the rising generation.
“But I must close my remarks, because
this toast is to be divded into four equal
parts. My brother Wendell, the adviser,
shall I say, the committee, the dry-nurse
of the Harvard athletic team, arrived
on this scene very late, and the only
explanation that he had to give of it was
that he had been spending what time
was necessary in preparing ‘our speech.’
And so I propose to take my seat,
expressing the thanks that I think we all
owe to the Queen’s Ciub for their lavish
hospitality to-day and to-night, and
wishing that this toast may be renewed
from year to year as the result of alter-
nate victory upon the one side and the
other, and that the young men of Eng-
land and of America may learn to love
each other as brothers.” :
The Ambassador’s speech was fre-
quently interrupted with applause and
roundly cheered at its close.
Mr. Wendell’s Speech.
Mr. Wendell responded as follows: |
“Tord Jersey and Members of the
Queen’s Club—It is a very pleasant duty
which you
charge to-night, and I deeply appreciate
the honor which is conferred upon me,—
an honor not conferred upon myself
alone but upon my country. The dis-
tinguished gentleman who has preceded
me has said that this toast is divided
into four quarters. Ifa toast is divided
in which Mr. Choate has a part, I
think that at least seven-eighths of it
has been exhausted when Mr. Choate
has finished. He also made one state-
ment td which I must venture to take
exception in describing America _ to-
night as a ‘beaten nation.’ So long as
it is possible for contests to be, and for
America to take part in them, America
will never be a beaten nation. It
is possible for the moment to place us
upon our back, but it is awfully hard
to hold us down. We earnestlv trust,
gentlemen, that the representatives of
Oxford and Cambridge are going to give
us the great privilege and great pleasure
of entertaining them in our country in
the coming year; and we shall be only
too delightful if we may have the oppor-
tunity, alternately, of trying once more
to retrieve our laurels on this side of the
water.
“International relations in sport be-
tween the colleges of England and
America I suppose began in 1869, when
the Harvard crew crossed the water to
row against the crew of Oxford. These
agreeable relations have been continued
in the contests between Yale and Ox-
ford, here, and Cambridge and Yale in
America; but, gentlemen, international
sport never has received a greater im-
petus than in the visit to America of
that prince of sportsmen and good fel-
lows, Rudolph C. Lehmann, whose
influence upon the spirit of the colleges
in our country will never die, so long
-as there is a man who can remember
looking into his kindly eyes and feeling
the encouraging grasp of his friendly
‘hand; and although Mr. Lehmann, this
year, was not present upon our side of
the Atlantic, I think there are very few
Harvard men who do not feel, from
their hearts, that the victories on the
water which Harvard achieved at New
London were largely due to the spirit
which he himself put into our men in the
two years when he so unselfishly came
to our rescue, and did what he could
to bring us out of the depths of despond.
“T don’t know whether you remember
the story of the gentleman who attended
a revival meeting and who sat down on
a seat at the back of the large room in
which it was held, and went to sleep,
entirely losing consciousness of the pro-
ceedings. Toward the end of the meet-
ing the clergyman got up and said:
‘Now, my friends, everybody in the
room who wants to go to heaven stand
up, and everybody in the room did stand
up except this man, who, being asleep,
and not hearing the announcement,
have asked me to dis-—
' upon the list.
kept his seat. When the clergyman had
spoken awhile, he told the people they
might sit down again, and then said: ae;
there is anybody in the room who does
not want to go to leaven, he will please
stand up.’ As the people were seating
themselves, the gentleman next the
sleeper accidentally knocked against him
and woke him up, so hearing the last
words of the clergyman to _ please
stand up, he stood up. The clergy-
man was about to launch an invec-
tive upon his head, when the gentleman
anticipated him with the remark: ‘Look
here, my friend, I don’t know what it is
we are voting about, but you and I.
seem to be in a hopeless minority.’
Well, gentlemen, let me say that, when
Oxford and Cambridge come to visit
America, those who don’t unite in giving
them the heartiest of hearty welcomes
‘will be in a hopeless minority.’ We ap-
preciate the invitation you gave us to
come here to you, and as the clergyman
said to the old lady who sent him some
brandied peaches, ‘We especially appre-
ciate the spirit in which it’ was sent.’
We have come, we have seen, and you
have conquered. But, gentlemen, we
are most anxious to try again, and we
hope we shall have the opportunity soon.
“At the end of the last century, I
suppose very few men could have been
found who would have believed it pos-
sible that a warm and hearty friendship
could ever exist between our two coun-
tries. We are now at the end of
another century, a hundred years after
that time; and I defy you to find a man
who doesn’t feel that the chances never
were better and never could be better
than they are to-day of a firm and last-
ing friendship existing between us! We
have been received by your athletes in
the spirit of true sportsmanship.
Twenty years ago I made up the first
table that had ever been compiled
of the best records of college perform-
ances, and when I came to the record of
a hurdle race that had taken place some
time before, I thought to myself: ‘It is
impossible! That record of 16 seconds
never could be!” That record of 16
seconds was made 30 vears before its
time, by the horiorable gentleman who
has been the chairman of the Oxford
and Cambridge teams, Mr. C. N. Jack-
son. I had the pleasure of placing it
I have had the nleasure
this year of meeting that gentleman, and
I assure you I shall carry back most
agreeable remembrances of our meet-
ing.
“Gentlemen, this last war through
which we have passed in America has
had several results, which we all most
heartily welcome. It has united our
country in a way which I think nothing
else could ever have done. It has made
the representatives of the North‘and the
South march together under one flag,
with their hearts beating to the same
stirring airs of patriotic music—only
thirty years after we were fighting
against each other. It has absolutely
united us. But, gentlemen, one of the
things we prize most is the evidence of
the hearty friendship which has come
from this side of the water. The chord
of harmony has been sounded which has
bound four of the greatest universities
in the world together, and which has
bound the two greatest countries in the
world together. Let us see to it to-day
that the notes of that chord shall never
die away, but that the friendship shall be
so firmly planted that these melodious
strains shall go rolling and echoing on
throughout the ages; and let us all take
to ourselves as our motto, the beautiful
words which the greatest of poets, he of
Stratford, three hundred years ago put
into the mouth of Polonius in his fare-
well address to the departing Laertes—
“When friends thou hast, and their
adoption tried, :
Grapple them to-thy soul with hooks of
steel.”
Mr. Jackson’s Response.
~ Mr. Jackson was next announced also
to the toast, “International Sport,” and
“ spoke as follows: 3
“Lord Jersey, Mr. Choate, and Gentle-
men: The dry-nurse has had his say, the
wet-nurse follows. Wet with the labors
of a month in preparation of these
sports, wet with the substantial knowl-
edge which has compensated for the
month; wet with the tears of joy, wet
with the tears of sympathy, I appear
before you to try and rival the elo-
quence of my _ distinguished friend.
That he is my distinguished friend, you
may most heartily believe, for I cannot
imagine a more excellent, courteous
friend, and one whom I hope may be
Fox, Harvard, at 8th hurdle—Competitors rising together.
Fox (H.)
Hallowell (H.)
Paget-Tomlinson (C.)
[Photo. by Byron, New York.]}
Parkes (O.)
a lifelong friend. He has spoken to
you of a great many things, but he has
not spoken to you of one subject. The
American Ambassador has said he is
the International Sport—that is to say,
he is the sport of international athletics,
but we have to see what international
sports mean, and they mean a great deal.
It is a very large order to be called upon
to answer stich a toast. It covers a very
wide area. It ranges from international
yacht. racing to bagatelle, in which my
friend Mr. Paget-Tomlinson takes a vast
interest, or perhaps to international
dominoes, in which my friend Mr. Hol-
lins takes supreme interest; but no mat-
ter what its area, no matter what its
sphere, it is of vast importance to the
young and to the old men of both
countries.
MR. SHERRILL’S PART.
“To Mr. Sherrill you owe a great
deal. If there had been no Mr. Sherrill,
I think I am right in saying there would
have been no sports to-day. I relied
entirely upon what he told me to pro-
duce these sports, and they have been
produced to the intense satisfaction of
the general public.
“Well, now, gentlemen, it is not all
champagne and chicken. There is a
serious side to all this. What do these
international athletics mean? With re-
gard to our country, I think they mean
a great deal. Athletics don’t stand very
high in this country called England. I
think after to-day they will stand much
higher. They do stand high in America,
and I think we have 1 ot only done some-
thing for England, but we have done a
great deal for America. Amateur ath-
leticism is in a very ambiguous state in
both countries. To-day’s meeting has
done the utmost that human beings could
6-407 4st ie ip. Avira has. this
meeting done to-day for America? I
hope you won’t say I am speaking any
words of indelicacy. but I really think
that it has done a great deal, when you
think of the large society of colleges,
the Intercollegiate Association of Ameri-
can Universities, for, in America, it is
not a case of Oxford and Cambridge, it
is a case of I5 or 20 universities, and
I think it has done a great deal for Har-
vard and Yale. It has shown -to
America that we, in the exercise of a
very just discrimination, have said that
we are quite prepared to meet Harvard
and Yale. And what has it done for
Oxford and Cambridge? I speak very
frankly. If they have thought too much
of themselves—I mean if they have’
thought of one another—perhaps they
could not think of anything better. But
now after to-day I think that they have
others to think of also.
THE DAY’S EVENTS.
“And now I come to the events of to-
day. Coming up in the train this morn-
ing I read in the papers that this is a
great internaticnal athletic meeting, but
one omniscient, omnipotent editor said
this doesn’t count in international ath-
letics; this doesn’t count in international
championships. Very well, gentlemen,
it doesn’t, if the papers are right. All
I say is this. It has revealed unto us
to-day some international champions.
Amongst these international champions
I don’t know whem to name first. Per-
haps it would not be fair to name any-
body, because that part of to-night’s
ovations has fallen to somebody else.
Now I am passing on to a subject which
is even more delicate than anything
have alluded to, and I wish you to take
it with the utmost consideration, the
utmost grace. It has even been said
that an Englishman should be very care-
ful as to what team he meets, and I say
the same as to what team the American
should meet. And you have seen in
the papers remarks about America, and
about some of our American colleagues
and our American opponents, which
should never have appeared. I only
wish you to feel this which we have felt
on this side. There is in life what is
hard, and there is in life what is pleas-
ant; there is also in life what is official
and what is wnofficial.
NEWSPAPER COMMENTS.
“If anything hard has appeared in any
paper on our side of the Atlantic, or on
your side of the Atlantic, always remem-
ber this—that it was bound to appear.
You are under the governing laws of
your Association; we are under the
governing laws of ours; and in the
present state of athletics in America and
England, the utmost care has to be taken
in order that a meeting of this character
may be brought forward under the best
possible conditions and with the best
possible results, and so far as any opposi-
tion, any objection was concerned, the
opposition, the objection never had the
slightest sympathy from any Oxford or
any Cambridge man. Nothingcouldhave
been more comprehensive, nothing could
have been more satisfactory than the
meeting of the joint committee at Brigh-
ton last Sunday, in which everything was
explained most frankly and everything
was most frankly accepted. If I may di-
vert my remraks, my Lord Jersey and
Mr. Choate, to the members of our oppo-
nent I would say this. Amongst the
hardships of their lives, those gentlemen
concerned will have many things to suf-
fer, and possibly nothing harder to suffer
than what they have suffered in recent
days. Amongst the pleasures of their
lives they will have many things pleas-
ant, and amongst the pleasant things of
their lives possibly nothing more pleasant
than this—that from first to last. as they
felt we felt, Oxford and Cambridge. [I
want them to go back to their own land
feeling this most thoroughly, that in all
this little difficulty—for it was a little
difficulty—what they thought, we thought,
what they felt, we felt. I wish you to
think of it in that way, all of you. I
ask you to reflect that nothing could
possibly contribute more to international
amenities and courtesies than the feel-
ing which we entertain and which I
hope you now entertain, and will take
home to your land.
“TI only have to thank you frankly for
listening to me so courteously. I only
wish to add this: I have been connected,
as Mr. Wendell says. with athletics for
thirty years. In that time I have had a
vast experience of difficulties, and aspira-
tions, jealousies and happiness, friendship,
and all that is delightful. And I have had
an experience of the Yale and Oxford
meeting, and I have had an experience
of the Harvard and Yale meeting against
Oxford and Cambridge; but I tell you
from my heart that I have never met 2
