THE SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP OF AMERICA.

Kumara Times, Issue 2893, 13 January 1886, Page 2

THE SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP OF AMERICA.

. The race between Teenier and Hanlan for the sculling championship of America and £2OO was rowed on the Hudson river on October 24th. The Spirit of the Times reports : In this race a united effort was made by the gambling crowd to corrupt the M'Keosport sculler and secure the race for Hanlan. Teemer's questionable practices in the past justified them in believing he would be a willing tool if the price was placed high enough. To his credit, be it said, he rejected all such advances, and, confident of his abi'ity to on trow the shampion, insisted on winning the race. On Saturday Hanlan was in splendid condition, and never sculled better than for the first three quaitera of a mile, (he race for that distance bein«4 a struggle, aad the jmce wonderfully fast. But

though Hanlan ran ap his stroke to 38, Teemev, pulling a steady 32, stayed by him, and, at the half-mile, the strong current, and the repeated spurts told on the Canadian, and Teenier drew away at every stroke. At the mile the luce was virtually ended. Hanlan's conduct in upsetting at the stake, and he did it clumsily, is condemned by everyone. Those familiar with his career will recall the fact that he has done this same thing before, as he seems determined never to finish a race he cannot win. Hanlan, when he upset, showed signs of great fatigue, and would have been beaten by abool twen-ty-four lengths had he rowed home. Teemer's time to the stake against the strong current caused by a four-foot freshet in the river, was very fast, and, in my judgment, he would, if pressed, have covered the three niilesin 19mins. 50secs. He is the ablest sculler I have ever seen row, and if he could only learn the lesson that in professional boating as in other matters " honesty is the best policy," he has a great career before him. At least 40,000 dollars changed hands on the race. The same paper in an editorial note says:—The Pittsburgh Leader sent a Special Commissioner to (he HanlanTeemer race, and in his report he re counts an. interview with Teenier, in which the champion distinctly charges that Hanlan personally asked and coaxed and entreated him to throw this race, and offered in return to make a match next spring, and allow Teenier to win. This is not a fatherless fahle, floatiug around the newspaper world, but a deliberate statement made by well-known parties. John Teenier and the proprietor of the Pittsburgh Leader are men whom the law can find and punish, If their story is true, the less said the better ; if false, Hanlan will, of conrse, speedily sue them for libel. * * * The closest and most intelligent students of rowing have always maintained that Edward Hanlan, although possessing a wonderful turn of speed, w;is not a thoroughly game oarsman; that he won his races by pushing his opponents beyond their speed on the first mile. and thus breaking them down, so that he could find needed breathing time for himself, and that any man who could hold him and head him in the first half of a race could beat him easily. It is an open secret that in one of his races on the Thames he would have " cracked " if his Australian opponent had lasted twenty strokes longer, and in his two races with Beach on the Parramatta he seemed to lose heart as soon as he found that he had met n sculler who would not be left behind. His latest race still more clearly proves his lack of heart. He made his usual rush, was met with the same tactics, put on more steam, but could not head his opponent, and nt three-quarters of a mile—just one quarter of the race dropped in behind Teenier, thoroughly cowed and hopelessly beaten.