LATE SEASON CHANGES ARE WORRYING YALE CREW FANS

Lawience Perry, sporting editor of the "New York Evening Post," diagnoses the recent changes in the Yale crews as follows:

"Whether or not Guy Nickalls has done the right thing in ripping his varsity crew to pieces, time alone will tell. He knows his business concerning this Blue crew--or is supposed to--and in the end those adherents of the Blue who are beginning to doubt may find all their misgivings resolved into emotions inspired by a victory over Harvard. The writer's personal idea of the Yale crew was that it needed a certain balance, a certain shifting about--not necessarily a casting out of the men who rowed as regulars at Ithaca. But Mr. Nickalls gained his own conclusions from what he saw at Ithaca, and has acted upon them. He, to fall into the vernacular, is the doctor. Yale's failures at Philadelphia and at Ithaca have been explained in a number of ways. Theories relating to varying density of the water and consequent deviations in the buoyancy of the Yale shell have been advanced by Yale men, and there has been talk of shells but poorly adapted to the oarsmen. There may be something in all this, probably is, but the whole story is by no means accounted for in this way. A great part of the lack of success has been inability properly to drive the boat. One hears a lot of talk about sprinting crews and four-mile crews, but the fact remains that in the two-mile race the crew is coached to give its all, just as is the case in a four-mile race. A crew can give only so much; it gives it quicker in the two-mile route, that's all; in the four-mile distance the strain is longer, but not concentrated, as it is in the race over the shorter course. And the crew that loses consistently over the two-mile or mile-and-seven-eights course is not likely to be more successful over the longer route. At least, that is the way it usually works out. Take Yale last year; she cleaned up at the short distances, and then won the four-mile championship. The year before Columbia was invincible over the short courses, and won the four-mile race at Poughkeepsie without turning a hair. So it goes, not invariable, to be sure, but with sufficient frequency to establish a fair presumption in its favor.

First Crew is Still Undecided.

"Although the Yale squad is at present divided into Crews A and B, it is not understood that the 'A' crew is the crew that will meet Harvard in the 'varsity race. It all depends. Primarily, of course, the two crews--the members thereof varying--are to be regarded as melting-post out of which will come a university product.

"That the men enter upon their residence on the Thames in unsettled state is not altogether to the liking of Yale aquatic enthusiasts, who feel that just about now is the time for the beginning of refining and tapering-off processes. Problems such as now confront the Yale coaches are, of course, expected, or at least accepted in earlier stages of the season, but when they endure, or are succeeded by other difficulties as the weeks roll on, genuine worry ensues.