The front cover illustration of this weeks edition has no accompanying story.
FEMALE ICE BOATERS.
Forty Miles an Hour on the Frozen Hudson.
“ON the frozen surface of the Hudson there is a fleet of ice-boats in almost continual practice when the weather invites the exhilarating sport.
Quite a sensation was created the other week by the appearance of one of those graceful and swift-gliding craft under the guidance of a party of skilful young ladies, appropriately costumed for the occasion. It is this peculiar feature of ice-boating that our engraving represents.”
“There was on the river north of Poughkeepsie a race between the two ice-boats, Zephyr and Icicle, and the Chicago express train from New York. The boats named are among the fastest in the Poughkeepsie Ice-Boat Association. The wind was from the south-west. Both vessels were north of the Whale Dock, and at a stal-still (sic) within one hundred feet of the shore, when the whistle of the locomotive of the train sounded. This to the tiller-men of the Zephyr and the Icicle was a starting signal. In an instant they were in their boats lying at full length, when they “down stick” and put their crafts on the wind.
Then came the race. The passengers on the cars raised the windows and waved their hats and handkerchiefs. The engineer blew tantalizing whistles as the train thundered through the rockouts and over bridges, gradually leaving the ice-boats astern, until suddenly the breeze freshened. The canvas on the boats swelled out, the rigging tightened, the steel runners began humming over the ice, and then the tiller-men of the boats knew they had their iron-bound adversary, and that the laugh would soon be on the other side. The passengers. who had forgotten the boats because they had been passed and were out of sight, again dropped their books and papers and arose to see the Zephyr overhauling the lightning train, with bow “dead to the north,” and then the excitement all over the train from the engineer to the breaksman (sic) was intense.
Close to the Zephyr followed the Icicle, both boats flying ahead of the lightning train. Again there was the waving of handkerchiefs and hats and the blowing of the locomotive whistle, but this time in honour of the victory gained by the ice-boats, for even as the rejoicing was going on they had passed the train and were far ahead, dashing over the ice at the rate of a mile a minute.
Never was there a prettier race; and never was a railroad train, and a lightning train at that, so badly beaten. Running into the poor ice district, the victors whirled about like a flash, and headed down the river again, giving the engineer of the train, as it came along, a parting wave, he sending whistling shrieks in response, and the passengers also giving farewell waves of hats and kerchiefs.
The first fatal accident in the history of ice-boating was that at Hudson the same day. It was a collision. All reports say it was unavoidable, but ice-boatmen on the spot cannot account for it. One of the boats belonged to Athens, and was sailed by Ira Whiting. The other belonged to Hudson, and was sailed by Walter Worth. Each boat had five or six occupants. They were bound north, and rattling along at a very high rate of speed. Jacob Best, the young man who was killed, was on board the Hudson boat, lying at full length on the waistboard on the windward side, the Hudson boat being ahead about 100 feet. Suddenly one of her runners struck into a crack in the ice, and before the tiller-man of the Athens boat could see the danger, his vessel, which was humming along at the rate of forty miles an hour, dashed into the Hudson boat.
Her Bowsprit struck young Best on the left breast, just above the heart, staving in his ribs. He cried “Oh dear!” once, gasped twice, and was a corpse. The escape of the other occupants was miraculous. As it was, they were not hurt. When it is known that the least move of the tiller of the hind boat would have averted the accident, the case as it stands is singular.”
Whale dock was situated on the east side of the Hudson, a few hundred metres north of what is now The Walkway over The Hudson, the worlds longest elevated pedestrian bridge, spanning 1.28 miles was a railway bridge opened in 1888. The Whale Dock was what it’s name suggests, a dock for whaling ships, part of an industry that faded out in the 1840’s when petroleum oil became more profitable than whale oil. In 1880, the Poughkeepsie Glass Works took over the buildings and yard, the location of the glass works can be seen on this section of the 1891 map of the area, marked as no. 51 just above the bridge.
The description of the race against the express train does not specify which side of the Hudson the Express train was travelling on. The railway on the map above showing the eastern banks of the Hudson is labelled as the New York and Massachusetts Railroad. The one on the opposite bank was the West Shore Rail Road. The ice-boat named Icicle was one owned by a John A. Roosevelt of the Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club (PIYC), the first known ice yacht club of North America, formed in 1861. The boat and owner moved over to the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (HRIYC) after an acrimonious dispute about foul play during a race for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America in March of 1885. A claim of a foul involving the crowding of several yachts at the turning stake was made but not upheld by the regatta committee. The club books of HRIYC list Icicle as a sloop with extreme length (i.e. including bowsprit) of 68 feet, 10 inches with a frame length of 29 feet, 2 inches, the width between the runners at 25 feet, 7 inches and a sail area of a huge 1,070 square feet! It required its own flat bed railway car to be transported. Icicle was winner of the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America in 1888, 1889, 1892 & 1899. Those races were five circuits around a triangular course with each leg being a mile.
For some video of similar ice boats to those in the story go to YouTube
A collation of this weeks smallpox related stories in The Days’ Doings
From column 2 on page 66 is short, unillustrated story concerning the small-pox epidemic.
“SMALL-POX is a serious matter, and it is not difficult to understand that the report of its rapid progress is alarming; but that the fear of infection should be made a means of intimidation is not to be borne. We hear that street beggars are adopting the plan of shuffling up to some lady or gentleman – apparently choosing those of obviously nervous temperament – and asking for help, whining that they have just come out of the small-pox hospital. Coppers are hastily thrown to prevent farther importunity and the danger of closer contact with the presumably affected mendicant, who goes away grinning in his ragged sleeve at the panic he has excited and its profitable result. We should like to try the curative effect on him of a vigorous application of something flexible and heavy to quicken the circulation of his blood.”
The editor has this same 143 word story rehashed in 104 words on page 75, column 2 thus
“THE ingenuity of vagrants is worthy of being exercised for higher ends. Beggars are thoroughly on the alert in profiting by current events, and perhaps nothing could be more successful than the latest mode which is assuming the form of a sort of professional epidemic in London. The plan is to run alongside gentlemen, claiming pity and succour on the ground of having just come out of a small-pox hospital. The trick succeeds: it is dangerous to have one’s clothes contaminated by a person rubbing close, and refusing to be sent away penniless, and a hastily-thrown copper is the quickest talisman for despatching an unpleasant supplicant.”
On the same page is yet another small-pox related story;
“AN unusual application has been made in the Liverpool police-court. It was stated that a women had died of small-pox in a house in Netherfield-road North, and that all her friends, including her husband, had left the house and locked it up, without making any effort to inter the body. It had lain there several days. The authorities had no powere, it appeared, to enter the house except upon a magisterial order. The order was at once given, and the body was removed and buried without delay.”
On page 68 at the foot of column 1 is a single sentence
Colonel Henderson was, in 1871 getting into his stride as Commissioner of Police, having made himself popular with the rank and file by allowing officers to grow facial hair and vote in elections.
SEVERE FLOODS IN SPAIN
Saving the Inhabitants of Saragossa
“THE extraordinary overflow of the Ebro, such as has not been seen in modern times, has spread desolation and ruin in this fertile country. A great number of persons have died victims of this direful catastrophe; others are now a prey to a state of terrible anguish, counting the minutes of their life by the increasing force of the torrent, without hope of any other help than that of God. Thousands of families are reduced to indigence, and others will sustain immense losses, only to be recouped by years of hard work.
The rise of the waters has been so great, that the river has attained more that (sic) six yards above its ordinary height. Thanks, however, to some brave men, who speedily constructed rafts, many people have been saved. One night sufficed to submerge Saragossa and a large number of villages in the neighbourhood, and especially on the banks of the river, the inhabitants remaining in a dreadful state.
People submerged, entire families in dreadful distress, fathers without consolation, children without bread, or clothes to save them from the cold and wet, present a frightful picture. The spectator is saddened on thinking of the happiness of this district a few days since, and contrasting it with the present change of aspect.”
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