Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-08-31
THE MYSTERIES OF THE SURF.
A southern Visitors Experiences ana
Reflections
Atlanta Constitution.


Reflections
Atlanta Constitution.
Surf bathing is revelation! I went
in yesterday with a lovely and modest
woman from the north, with whom |
had but a short acquaintance, although
| had seen good deal of her. AS we
stood awaiting the coming of a huge
wave she clutched my arm, and pois-
ing herself on one foot, Bonded the
other leg, and pulled her stocking over
her knee-trying vainly to make it
cover a strip of white. She thought
nothing of this, neither did !. In an
instant the wave was on us, and we
were riding the swell as happy as a
pair of ducks.
That evening this lady went sailing
with the same party that had been
bathing with her in the morning. As
she stepped over the side of the boat
she exposed about four inches of her
pretty silk stockings, and her face was
crimsoned with shame and mortifca-
ton.
Now, why this difference? 1t was ex-
actly the same limb that had been OK
posed to the knee all the morning with
out any thought OF confusion. AS |
came into the hotel corridor yesterday
a young lady screamed:
Smut the door. Quick! There's
somebody coming"
She had put on her bathing suit for
a trial trip IN her mothers room, and
was Mortified that a man should see
her IN that fix. A half hour later she
and | were lying on the beach, the
waves purling over us at every throb of
the sea, and she, with her shapely fig
ure Bonded, was writing her name IN
the sand with her toes, while her mer-
ry laugh rang above the roar OF the
waves.
But If the dressing on the beach and
the Inconsistencies with which the
most modest OF girls stand the expos
ure consequent upon it is remark able,
the conduct of crowd in bathing is
still more so. That is the mirac Gle of
social life, | think. The girls clad
IN this prankingly pretty dress,
the passing pressure of the waves
outlining the curves of the
body with the warm flesh glowing
and throbbipg beneath the single gar
ment-the girls thus attlred run hand
in hand In the water with their sweet
hearts, and romp and frolic, and are
ducked and hauled out by the feet or
are clasped around the waist, or catch
the fellows about the neck as big wave
comes and yet there is not the slight
est purient suggestion, and no hint OF
gallantry. | don't believe a scandal
was ever born in the surf. I cannot
conceive of a sentim entail attitude amid
the rolling breakers.
| am compelled to confess that q
month at the seaside does not confirm
the general idea of feminine symmetry
that all gallant men are supposed to
entertain. 1t is tne rarest thing to find
a girl with straight limbs, graceful car
riage, firm flesh, full chest, and unre-
strained attitudes and poses. In ma
Jority OF cases they are wabbly and
uncertain; with a stoop in the should
ers, inlncirg step, toes turned in (the
number of pigeon-toed girls developed
here is positively aiarming), and gen
eraI debility of gait ard flabbiness of
attitude.
| noted at one of the resorts several
days ago the handsomest woman / ever
saw on the beach. She was tall and
slender, but divinely formed. Her
pretty head was poised like queens
upon swan-like neck that swelled in
to smoky bust and shoulders. A bath
ing shirt loosely tied about the neck
and without sleeves, gave perfect play
to her suberb body. Black silk stock
lngs and feet that left perfectly out
lined footprints, set regularly in the
sand at about thirty degrees divergence.
There was something royal in the I'M
conscious grace and beauty of this wo-
man as she walked into the water the
cynosure OF hundred eyes. Utterly
dwartng her escort, she seemed dis.
regardful Of his presence, and when the
foam was clustering about her knees,
raised her cleaning arms above her
head, and went like a flash into the
body of an incoming breaker.