President White of Cornell on Boating.

The students of Cornell University recently held a mass meeting for the purpose of considering the advisability of consolidating the interests of the various athletic organizations. Resolutions were adopted to this effect, and plans were discussed for improvement in athletics. The president of the college then addressed the meeting on the subject of boating, -would that our President might take such active interest in our sports, as to speak directly to us and not at us! He referred to his own connection with athletics during his collegiate days at Yale, and of the deep interest he took in them, especially in boating. He spoke of the clumsy, awkward boats in use at that time, as broad as they were long, modelled somewhat after the old Dutch Burgomaster's wife, in sharp contrast to our arrow like shells. Many of our most distinguished men were during their college course identified with boating interests; such men as President Eliot of Harvard, President McCosh of Princeton, and President Gilman of Johns Hopkins University, all of whom are said to have rowed on their respective 'Varsity crews, In England it is well known that a large proportion of the most influential men in public affairs during the past century took part during their college days in some kind of athletic sport, either in cricket, foot ball, rowing or some other branch.

President white showed that the average standing and mental qualifications of crew men were higher than the average in a college as a whole, citing his own case as an example. As regards the health of the men, he spoke of statistics carefully prepared from English universities of the men who had taken part in rowing contests, as showing that the health of each one was not only not injured but decidedly benefited by the course of training. President White went on further to say that boating was an excellent way to work off the surplus energy of the students. The superstition that those who have to do with athletic sports never make good scholars is fast passing away. It is not what a man knows but his ability to put into practice his knowledge that counts in this world. He then referred to the gentlemanly conduct of Cornell students in previous years at Saratoga and Lake George where their races are held, and hoped that they would keep up the good reputation of the college in this respect.