The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-08-26
MYSTERIES OF THE SURF.
An Atlanta Editors Experience and Re
Elections and Sensations.

LEI. w. q. in the Atlanta Constitution
Surf bathing is a revelation Iwen
In yesterday with a lovely and modes
woman from the North, with whom
had but a short acquaintance, although
I had seen good deal Of her. AS W.
stood awaiting the coming of hug
wave, she clutched my arm, and pois
ing herself on one foot Bonded the
other leg and pulled her stockings
over her knee-trying vainly to make
It cover a strip of white. She thought
nothing of this-neither did I. 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 mortifica-
ton.
Now, why this difference ? 1t was
exactly the same limh that had been
exposed to the knee all the morning
without any thought of confusion. AS
I came into the hotel corridor yester-
day young lady screamed
somebody coming !"
trial trip In her mothers room, and
was Mortified that man should see
her In that fix. A half hour later she
and I were lying on the beach, the
waves purling over. us at every throb
of the sea, and she, with her. shapely
figure Bonded, was writing her name
in the sand with her toes, while her
merry 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 remarkable,
the conduct of a crowd in bathing is
still more so. That is the miracle of
social life, I think. The girls clad in
this prankingly pretty dress-the pass
ing pressure of the waves outlining the
curves of the body-with the warm
flesh glowing and throbbing beneath
the single garment-the girls thus at
tired, run hand in hand in the water
with their sweethearts, 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 a big wave comes-aud yet
there is not the slightest prurient sug-
gestion, and no hint of gallantry. 1
don't believe q scandal was ever born
in the surf. Icannot conceive of SEN
timental attitude amid the rolling
breakers.
lam compelled to confess that
month at the seaside does not confirm
the general idea of feminine symmetry
that all gallant men are supposed to en-
terrain. 1t Is the rarest thing to find a
girl with straight limbs, graceful car
riage, firm flesh, full chest and unre-
strained attitudes and poses.
In a majority Of cases they are wab-
bly, and nncertaiD, with stop in the
shoulders, mincing step, toes turned
in (the number of pigeon-toed girls de-
veloped here is positively alarming)
and general debility of gait and flabbi-
ness of attitude.
noted at one Of the resorts several
days ago the handsomest woman I
ever saw on the beach.
She was tall and slender, but divine
ly formed. Her pretty head was poised
like a queens upon a swan-li&e neck
that sWelled into snowy bust and
shoulders. A bathing shirt, loosely
tied about the neck and without
sleeves, gave perfect play to her superb
body. Black silk stockings and feet
that left perfectly outlined footprints
set regularly in the sand ut about thir-
ty degrees divergence. There was
something royal in the unconscious
grace and beauty of this woman as she
walked into the water, the cynosure of
hundred eyes. Utterly dwarfing her
escort, she seemed disregardful of his
presence, and when the foam was clus-
tering about her knees, raised her
cleaning arms above her head, and
went like a flash into the body of an
incoming breaker.
Just think of this schedule for an
August day. A tumble in the waves
inthe morning, shower bath in the
spray, ride on the pillows, Il swim
out to the buoy, tossing pretty girls
about in tho salt water, a header or two
under the surface for a finisher. A
walk to the batn-house with an indie
scribable glow pervading the whole
body and tingling every nerve. a
leisurely toilet with the salt spray dry
Ing on the flesh and making it acrid
and cool. Across to the bar for little
apollinaris and claret. Upstairs to 6
bed slanted across a window, through
the half.closed shutters of which come.
a crisp salt breeze, drying the hair ant
tanning the glow out of the body
There, with half-shut eyes, to muse OF
the mercy and goodness of the Lord
until all the senses have yielded to The