The cup was originally offered by the Royal Yacht Club and was won on August 22, 1851, by the American schooner-yacht America, which had as competitors no less than fourteen British yachts. The Yankee boat won by eighteen minutes, and her victory inspired a general feeling of chagrin among the owners and crews of the British boats who had regarded their nation as invincible in the yachting world. The following verses, published shortly after the America's victory, are said to have been written by a sailor on a British ship of war from which a view of the race had been obtained: Oh, weep, ye British sailors true, Above or under hatches, Here's Yankee Doodle's been and come, And beat our crackest yatches! They started all to run a race, And wor well timed with watches; But oh! they never had no chance, Had any of our yatches. The Yankee she delayed at first, Says they, "She'll never catch us," And flung up their tarpaulin hats-- The owners of the yatches! But presently she walked along; "Oh, dear," says they, "she'll match us!" And stuck on their tarpaulin hats, The builder of our yatches. Then deep we plows along the sea, The Yankee scarcely scratches; And cracks on every stitch of sail Upon our staggering yatches. But one by one she passes us, While bitterly we watches, And utters imprecations on The builder of our yatches. And now she's quite hull down a-head, Her sails like little patches, For sand-barges and colliers we May sell our boasted yatches. We faintly hear the club-house gun-- The silver cup she snatches-- And all the English clubs are done, The English clubs of yatches! They say she didn't go by wind, But wheels, and springs, and satches; And that's the way she weathered on Our quickest-going yatches. But them's all lies, I'm bound to say-- Although they're told by batches-- 'Twas bulk of hull, and cut of sail, That did for all our yatches. But novelty, I hear them say, Fresh novelty still hatches! The Yankee yatch the keels will lay Of many new club yatches. And then we'll challenge Yankee land, From Boston Bay to Natchez, To run their crackest craft agin Our spick-and-span new yatches. Wit and Cruelty as Allies. The Temptation to be Clever at Another's Expense is so Irresistible That Whenever We Find a Modern Bon Mot We See a Victim Picking Up Pieces of His Shattered Egotism. It is almost a proverb that a witty person is also a cruel one. True wit does not need to be caustic; but it is so much easier to be clever at some one's expense than in any other way, that the person with a reputation to sustain for saying witty things will fall into the habit of sarcasm very readily if his heart is not particularly kind. The Parson's Suggestion.