ON the day of the race there appeared in several newspapers a reported conversation that Captain Cook had with several members of the press. Besides laying claim to the honor of being the man who has done more for rowing in America than any one else, and besides declaring his ability to coach Morris, he informs the public, with singular modesty, that he is the man who gave Waters of Troy the model of an English eight-oared shell, and it is due to his magnanimity that Harvard is rowing at present in a shell made after that model.

"Why, if I wanted to, I might have kept secret a good many things I learned in England. They tried down at Cambridge to build an eight at Blakie's shop, but Blakie was not equal to the job, and his boat cracked from stem to stern while the crew was in practice. I might have kept the secret in New Haven if I wished, as Keart could have built us, and can build, a good cedar eight. But what is the use of being selfish? What I have done has improved boating, and I am glad of it."

Now, it is absurd to think that no one could have ordered a shell of Waters, to be built after an English model, except Robert J. Cook. As for Blakie's shell, it did not split from stem to stern, but two years after it was built it was loaned to the Freshmen, who kicked a hole in the bottom of it. As for Keart, "the Yale factotum," about whom we heard so much before the race, he built a shell for the Yale crew, and it was so worthless that they never could use it, and it is now falling to pieces in a New Haven boat-house.