"A. H. V. S.," presumably A. H. Van Snideren, an officer of the Columbia Boat Club, writes to the N. Y. Times about the recent action of the Pennsylvania oarsmen: "Their ambition was laudable. At the Passaic regatta on May 30, 1883, their wish was gratified to a very limited extent. They then met the Columbia college eight under conditions the most favorable as far as they themselves were concerned. That is, the race was to be for a mile and a half, their most practiced distance; they had been rowing together for at least a year under professional coaching, and they were to meet a crew whose little training had been exclusively devoted to four-mile pulls, and which was, therefore, unqualified, other things being equal, to cope successfully with men whose strong point was a mile and a half spurt. Nevertheless, this crew, with their professional trainer and his methods, was beaten by Columbia. She, in her turn, was disastrously defeated in a race covering her pet distance on the Thames by Harvard. This places the university at about the bottom of the list in college boating."