What was the competition? Something involving a train or a guy with a handlebar mustache, I'd wager. Ah, the old magic lantern shows, how the plebians were distracted from rising up by their merry glow...
Took me the longest time to figure out those were two legs sticking out of the water; I didn't really see the shoes on top, so it looked like ... the sails of a clipper? This movie was not making any sense to me.