Towanda daily review. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1879-1921, 1881-06-10
Treading Water.


wholly ignorant of what is called the art
of swimming. The numerous frightful
casualties render every working sugges-
tion Of Importance, and that which I here
offer, 1 venture to think is entirely avail
able. When one of the inferior animals
takes the water, falls, or is thrown in, it
instantly begins to walk as it does when
out OF the water. But when man who
cannot ''swim" falls into the water he
makes few spaSmodic struggles throws
up his arms and browns. The brute on
the other hand treads water, remains on
the surface and is virtually insubmergi-
BILE. In order, then to escape drowning
1T is only necessary to do as the brute
does and that is to tread or walk the wa
ter the brute has no advantage in regard
OF his relative weight, in respect of the
water, over man, and yet the man perish
es while the brute lives. Nevertheless,
any man, any woman, any child who can
walk on the land may also walk in the
water just as readily as the animal does,
if only he will, and that without any pri-
or instruction or drilling whatever.
Throw dog into the water and he treads
or walks instantly and there is no i'm
aginable reason why human being un-
der like circumstances should not do as
the dog does.
LESSONS FROM BRUTES.
The brute indeed walks in the water
instinctively, whereas the man has to be
told. The ignorance of so simple a pos
sibility-namely the possibility of tread
ing water, strikes me as one of the most
singular things in the history Of man, and
speaks very little indeed for his intelli-
gence. He is, in fact, as ignorant on the
subject as is the new born babe. Per-
haps something is to be ascribed to the
vague meaning which is attached to the
word swim. When a man sWims it means
one thing, when dog swims it means
another and quite different act. The
dog is wholly incapable Of swimming as a
man swims, but nothing is more certain
than that man is capable of swimming,
and on the instant, too. as dog swims,
without any previous training or instruc-
ton, and that by SO doing without fear
or hesitancy,he will be just as safe in the
water as the dog is. The brute in the
water continues to go on all fours, and
the man who wishes to save his life and
cannot otherwise swim, must do so too
striking alternately, one, two, one, two,
but without hurrying or precipitation,
with hand or foot, exactly as the brute
does. Whether he be provided with paw
or hoof, the brute sWims with the great
est ease and buoyancy.
MANS ADVANTAGE.
The human being, if he will can do so
too, with the further immense advantage
of having paddle-formed hand, and of
being able to rest himself when tired
by floating, thing of which the animal
has no conception. Bridget Money
poor Irish emigrant, saved her own life
and her three children's lives, when the
steamer conveying them took fire on
Lake Erie, by floating herself, and max
ing them float, which simply consists in
lying quite still, with the mouth shut and
the head thrown well back iu the water. !
The dog, the horse, the COW, the swine,
the deer and even the cat all take to the
water on occasion and sustained them
selves perfectly without any prior exper |
ence whatever. Nothing is less difficult
whether for man or brute, than to tread
water, even for the first time l have
done so often, using the feet alone or the