UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA THE STAND-BY I CRIMSON AND BLUE HERE had been excuses without end. There always are when defeats seem disgraceful. They said that their new shell had been too light; that the water had been rough; that they had had the course across the eel-grass. The Yale crew had lost its race by many lengths, and had become an object of ridicule in the public press. Harvard was laden with boating honors. The crew that had won a large share of them, and had left Yale almost out of sight, was to row with her again. But Yale was hopeful, if not confident. Her undergraduates and thousands of her alumni knew that if she was beaten it would be honorable defeat. The sporting fraternity and the general public believed that Harvard would win, but they expected that Yale would fight hard enough to make it a great race, and even Harvard men admitted that it might be close. |