YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY
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set of men better in every respect than
our opponents. ‘I have been abused in
England—imagine my having to use the
word—for entertaining the idea of inter-
national athletics, simply because the
great ocean divides us. J have been
abused because I have beeif*told that
Oxford had to limit itself to Cambridge,
and Cambridge ought to limit itself to
Oxford. I have learned this—that you
could not have a better experience than
the experience of your opponents and
your foes, who are your friends and your
allies.” Loud cheers greeted Mr. Jack-
son’s speech. |
Mr. Camp’s Response.
Mr. Walter Camp, closing the four-
sided response to International Sport,
said:
“If, as has been remarked, Mr. Choate
has absorbed seven-eighths of these four
quarters of International Sport, I think
after Mr. Wendell and Mr. Jackson the
amount left to me must be very limited,
but I am nevertheless glad of even a mo-
ment in which to thank Mr. Jackson
for his very courteous remarks regarding
the team. I wish to thank him on behalf
of both. Yale nd Harvard teams, and
I wish to express to him our feelings
of reciprocity in this matter. We be-
lieve that international sport is a good
thing; we are thoroughly convinced that
it is a pleasant thing, and we hope there
may be more of it.
“Mr. Jackson said that he had been
abused; I wish to join him. I never
was more abused in my life than I was
to-day. I received a letter asking me to
be a timer for Yale, and it said ‘no
expert knowledge is required.’ Gentle-
men, I have timed a great many races,
and I have even gone so far as to write
treatises on the subject how the personal
equation affects timers; and to be asked
to act as timekeeper with the proviso
that no expert knowledge is required is
rather hard. But the letter also said that
I would be called upon for a speech,
and I suppose there the same corollary
applied.
“I may be forgiven for advanc-
ing some explanation for the defeat of
the Americans to-day. When some of
our team visited Westminster Abbey,
the verger showed them the tombs of the
knight templars and explained that the
templars were always buried with their
legs crossed; and I am afraid some of
our men to-day in the commendable
spirit of emulating the Englishmen,
managed to get their legs crossed before
they were buried. At any rate, that is
the only explanation I have in my mind
at the present moment.
A TRIBUTE TO PALMER.
“But I do want to say one thing about
the contest to-day, and I know that Mr.
Workman will forgive me when I speak
of it. I must say that every American
here was pleased when he saw the mag-
nificent pluck with which Mr. Palmer
finished in the three-mile race. <A
gentleman was once attacked by three
thieves, and after a vigorous struggle
the three thieves mastered him and be-
gan to go through his pockets. After
searching diligently in every pocket, they
found only a sixpence, and one of the
thieves remarked to the other, “Good
God! If this man had had a shilling
he would have killed us all.” Now I
thought when we saw the men drop, that
no one could say but what, if Mr.
Palmer had only had a shilling, he might
have killed them all.
“You have seen to-night perhaps at
this dinner, although it has been al-
ready said how modest and retiring
Americans are, and how averse to mak-
‘ing any noise, that we are sometimes
driven by our feelings to go beyond
the bounds of decorum, which reminds
me of one more anecdote which you will
forgive me for relating. There is a
town in the United States called Charles-
town, which was once attacked by an
earthquake. A father in Charlestown
had two boys, and he sent them further
South while the town should recover
from the earthquake. He sent them to
an uncle, and after they had been there
three weeks the uncle telegraphed to the
father “Take back your two boys and
send down the earthquake.’
“Gentlemen, you will forgive us if we
have been a little like the earthquake,
and don’t telegraph for any one to take
us home yet. Seriously speaking, gentle-
men, I want to say a word regarding
international sport in both countries. It
seems to me that there is nothing that is
conferred upon us that can in any way
equal athletics in certain | respects.
-or_later.-in life.
other side of the water, and I presume
There we find the education of strength.
There men learn unselfishness, the
ability to forego pleasure, the ability to
withstand fatigue, the ability to stand
in critical positions—and there are posi-
tions which every man must face sooner
7 Some people on the
here,—Laodiceans—are good enough to
say, ‘Have your sports. It doesn’t make
any difference which man wins; simply
enjoy them.’ It does make a difference
and is part of the education. It is by
wanting to win that a man learns to
work and to know that he must go
through fatigue. When in the last
lap of the’ three: milés° he “feels that
he cannot go on, it is the thought
of his comrades that makes him go on;
it is the education which makes the man
pull harder on account of the other men,
if not on his own account. This is the
valuable thing.
belief of every man who has gone
through these sports, that if once we
prohibit them, then goodbye to the
Anglo-Saxon race, goodbye to the Nor-
man blood.”
| THE CHEERS CALLED FOR.
Mr. Grenfell, in rising to call for col-
lege cheers for the toast, said:
“[ am not going to rise to take up
another half-quarter of the time which
has been alluded to, but I think that this
most excellent toast would ill come to
a close if we didn’t hear from Harvard
and Yale their well-known war cries.
We Englishmen think that we can cheer
lustily, but from the experience of the
Oxford and Cambridge sports I feel
we are like laggers in the race, and
when I ask Mr. Wendell for a cheer
from Harvard, and Mr. Sherrill for
Yale, I am sure they will teach us some-
thing.”
The cheers were given with the names
of Oxford, Cambridge and the Queen’s
Club at the end, and their volume did
not disappoint the Englishmen. The
English collegians returned the compli-
ment, cheering for Harvard and Yale.
The Competing Teams,
The Earl of Jersey, rising to propose
the toast of the “Competing Teams,”
said: :
“We have had the advantage of learn-
ing, I wont say one thing, but three
things. We have learned three war
cries, which certainly seem very in-
spiriting and yet are given in the most
harmonious tone—three war cries which
we shall always be glad to hear in this
country, and which you may be quite
certain will be received by the British
public with applause. Some of the
speakers have alluded to a limit of time.
I shall endeavor if possible to make a
record. I certainly could not do it upon
the path, though I may do it standing
still. It is my pleasure to propose to-
night the “Competing Teams.” I shall
not do what Mr. Jackson suggested—
pick out the names of everyone who
ought to be distinguished—hbecause in
that case I ought to pick out the name
of every single competitor this afternoon.
Though it may be true that only a few
receive the prizes, yet remember that all
the competitors have given up a great
deal in order to battle for their respec-
tive universities, and surely one of the
advantages of our sports is that it trains
people to work, not merely for them-
selves, but for their universities: and
perhaps in after life they will remember
that they trained and worked, not merely
for themselves but for their country.
Still, I feel sure that in this city all
those who had the advantage of seeing
Mr. Fox and Mr. Quinlan and Mr.
Clarke, also will recognize that these
great qualities of speed, of endurance,
and of tenacity, even when the victory
was not within their grasp, are the
qualities which have made our race, and
which I, for one, believe these sports
do tend to hand down to future genera-
tions, and which I feel sure as long as
they exist amongst us will keep our two
races foremost in the world.
ATHLETICS.
“T am not going at this hour of the
night to allude:to everything connected
with the advantages of athletics. You
know that in this country any man
speaking at this moment on this subject
has to speak with some degree of fear,
because there was some right reverend
prelate the other day who accused the
university of which I am a humble
It is my belief, and the .
member of being given over to athletics, :
and who said Oxford was very idle be-
cause it had so many athletes. Now
imagine athletes being idle. Some years
ago I used to take part in them. I
never thought myself idle, and I can read *.
you a letter which has been sent to me
by a gentleman who was my successful
competitor, and who is now the Attor-
ney-General for this country. You will
allow that Sir Richard Webster is a very
highly intellectual man. He writes :—
‘IT indeed regret that I cannot be with
you to-morrow evening, and still more
that I shall miss seeing the sports. If
the Harvard and Yale boys have won by
the time you receive this, they have my
hearty congratulations. In any event, I
admire them for their pluck and deter-
mination in traveling three thousand
miles to represent their universities.
These contests do more good to the
young men of both countries than all
the lectures of professors, however emi-
nent. Our own representatives know
well what keen interest I take in their
i, Kindly convey my good wishes
tO Si
“Well, I am sure this afternoon the
British public has had the opportunity
of seeing what éan only be seen in the
United States of America or in this
country. They have seen sports con-
ducted in a gentlemanly and in a vigor-
ous and-.energetic manner, and surely
when you have sports conducted like
that, there is not much more to be
said. It is true, as Mr. Jackson has
allowed, that there have been some
splendid performances, and I hope that
whenever there is a renewal of these
contests, we shall see the records, if
possible, cut. But, gentlemen, let me
ask you to remember that athleticism,
good as it is, is only one object in life,
and that our meetings like this do very
often create friendships which only in-
crease as years go by.
RIVALRY OF UNIVERSITIES.
“There are two sorts of rivalry: one
spells animosity, and the other friend-
ship, and it is in the latter contention
that two great races have learned not
severance, but union. Our four great
universities represented to-day have a
threefold rivalry., Each endeavors to
have the largest number of names on its
roll who shall serve their country in
politics, commerce, science, and litera-
ture. Each one also wishes to send on
to the ground the very best athletes to
carry off the palm of victory; and each
one, if fortune is not so kind as it ought
to be, knows how to accept it always
with the hope that on another occasion
they will retrieve. But the universities
of both empires—because after all,
where the inhabitants of a country are
emperors amongst men we may call
them empires—have a nobler end in
view. The closing years of this century
have brought home to each branch of
our race that, whether we will or not,
the fortunes of the larger portion of
mankind have been committed to them to
make or to mar. What nobler rivalry
could there be than to see who will best
lay down the foundation for honest
labor and equal law; who best will lay
down the’ rules under which each infant
state which is committed to our foster-
ing care can flourish, and who best can
crown that with the fairest dome of
justice, happiness and prosperity. You,
gentlemen, will hereafter have confided
to you tasks like these, and the task also
of teaching your fellow-countrymen, per-
haps by your own personal, fine example
by standing up for what is right and by
opposing what is wrong. And if you
only take your nart in after life and
play it as well as you have done your
duty on the ground to-day, you will win
from the respect and gratitude of your
fellow men far more enduring and still
nobler success and honor, and you may
feel sure that those whose days have
passed away in active participation in
athletics will be only too glad to know -
that the foremost men in the United
States and the foremost men in Great
Britain are those who in their youth
have done something for their universi-
ties. I ask you to drink the health of
the four captains of the respective teams
—Mr. Vassall, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Roche,
and Mr. Fisher.”
The president rose to present the
medals to the competitors, and said :—
“I am not going to make any speech.
I am going to do something pleasanter.
I am going to give the medals.”
The first and second men in each event
then came forward separately and were
presented with their prizes amidst
tumultuous acclamations. The Earl of
Jersey paid each man in turn a graceful
compliment on his achievement. The
prizes are of silver and bronze, two
inches in diameter, bearing on one side
the crests of the American universities
and on the reverse the insignia of Ox- —
ford and Cambridge.
Captain Vassall’s Response.
Mr. Vassall was the first of the four
team captains to respond to the toast.
He said:
“My Lords and Gentlemen: I see that
the reply to this toast is again supposed
to be divided into four equal parts. I
am stire you will all excuse me if I take
one to myself. Any powers of speaking
that ever belonged to me were taken
away during the last race this afternoon,
when I watched Mr. Palmer following
and passing Mr. Workman. It was a
great deal too close to be pleasant, for
we had been counting on the three-mile
and hoped by winning the quarter to
have won the sports. But we saw our
first string practically chased home the
whole way by that most excellent run-
ner, Mr. Palmer, when we had hoped
he was going to be beaten off very
quickly. One cannot help being sorry
for those gentlemen who have come so
many miles only to be beaten on the post
or by a few inches after a most excellent
struggle. They may think that our
sympathy is misplaced, but I only hope
Fox, Harvard, clearing last Hurdle in lead.
Hallowell (H.)
Fox (H.) Paget-Tomlinson (C.) Parkes (O.)
By the courtesy of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Co, the English connection of the American
: "Mutoscope and Biograph Co. These pictures form part of their permanent record of the games.]
