The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1881-07-27
nOW no PREVENT DROWNING.
A Timely Article that Ought TO bo Rend by
Everybody.


Everybody.
I wish to show how drowning might,
underordinary circumstances ,beavoided,
even in the case of persons otherwise
wholly ignorant of what is called the art
of swimming. The numerous frightful
casualties render every working sugges-
here offer 1 venture to think is entirely
available.
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 insubmer-
gible. In order, then, to escape drown
ing it is only necessary to do as the brute
does, and that is to tread or walk the
water. The brute has no advantage in
regard to his relative weight, in respect
of the water, over man, and yet the man
perishes while the brute lives. Never
theless, any man, any woman, any child
who can walk on the land may also walk
in the water just as readily as the ami
NAL does, if only he will, and that with
out any prior instruction or drilling
whatever. Throw a dog into the water
and he treads or walks instantly, and
there is no imaginable reason why a
human being under like circumstances
should aot do as the dog does.
The brute indeed walks in the water
instinctively, whereas the man has to be
told. The ignorance of so simple
possibility--namely, the possibility of
treading water, strikes me as one of the
most Isingular things in the history of
man, andspeaks very little indeed of his
intelligence. He is, in fact, as ignorant
on the subject as is the newborn babe.
Perhaps something is to be ascribed to
the vague meaning which is attached to
the word swim. When q man swims
it means one thing, when dog swims
it means another and quite a different
act. The dog is wholly incapable of
swimming as man swims, but nothing
is more certain than that a man is capa-
BILE of swimming, and on the instant,
too, as dog swims, without any pre-
vious training or instruction, 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 alter
nately, one-two, one-two, but without
hurry or precipitation, with hand and
foot, exactly as the brute does. Whether
he be provided with paw or hoof, the
brute swims with the greatest ease and
buoyaDcy. 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
himselfswhen tired, by floating, thing
of which the animal has no conception.
Bridget Money, poor Irish emigrant,
saved her own life and her three child
ren's lives, when the steamer convey
ing them took fire on Lake Erie. by
floating herself and making them float,
which simply consists in lying quite
still, with the mouth shut and the head
thrown we'll back in the water. The dog,
the horse, the COW, the swine, the deer
and even the cat all take to the water
on occasion and sustain themselves
perfectly without any prior experience
whatever. Nothing is less difficult,
whether for man or brute, than to tread
water, even for the first time. [ have
done so often, using the feet alone or
the hands alone, or the whole four
many times, with perhaps one of my.
children on my back. Once I recollect
being carried good way out to sea by
the receding tide at Boulogne, but re-
gained the shore without difficulty. A
drop of water once passed through the
rima of the glottis, and on another oc-
casion / experience such sudden indis-
position that if I. had been unable to
float it must, think, have gone hard
with me.
Men and animals are able to sustain
themselves for long distances in the
water and would do so much oitener
were they not incapacitated, in regard
Of the former, at least, by sheer terror,
as well as complete ignorance of their
real powels. Webb's wonderful endur-
aace will never be forgotten. But there
are other instances only less remarkable.
Some years since, the second mate of O
ship fell overheard while in the act of
listing sail. 1t was blowing fresh
the time was night, and the place some
miles out in the stormy German ocean.
The hardy fellow nevertheless managed
to gain the English coast. Brock, with
a dozen other pilots, was plying for
fares by Yarmouth and as the main
sheet was Delayed sudden puff of wind
upset the boat, when presently all per-
ished except Brock himself,' who, from
four in the afternoon of an October
evening to one the next morning, swan
thirteen miles before he was able to
hail vessel at anchor in the ofing.
Animals themselves are capable OF
swimming immense distances, although
unable to rest by the way. A dog re.
Gently swan thirty miles in America in
order to reioin his master. A mule and
a dog washed overheard in the Bay OF
Biscay have been known to make Their
way to shore. A dog swan ashore with
a letter in his mouth at the Cape OF