Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-08-27
REMARKABLE SWIMMING.
Great Records SHAT Have Been Made
i'm the Water by Men and
Women.

Great Records :i,at Have Been Made !
in the Water by Men and
women.
The recent performances OF profession |
al swimmers and the arrangements for |
the annual swimming championship next !
week have caused a revival in natatorial !
contests, and much general interest is
manifested in them. Swimming is the
most healthful of all athletic pursuits. !
Strong limbs and luIfgs are necessary to
successful efforts in sustaining and pro-
pelling oneself through the water, and
without those requirements aspirations
for championship honors are vain indeed.
The list of swimming champions is a
long one, and the records show that the
English have always eXcelled in this
branch of sport. In England more at
tention has been paid TO swimming than
elsewhere, and by the natators of Albion
most all the improvements in style and
time have been made.
The side stroke now so popular in this
country originated on the other side of
the "herring pond" The speed that can
be attained by the side stroke is wonder
full. 1t is used by all professionals and
many amateurs in races OF short and
middle distances, although the old breast
stroke is still relied on in long Journeys
because OF it being less tiresome. 1t is
strange fact that fondness for the water
and an ability to accomplish great nata-
torial feats is hereditary. In some fami-
lies the championship at various dis
tances has descended from father to son
for generations, and in no case is this
more noticeable than in that of the Beck
with family. Father and sons, mother
and daughters, have performed great
feats of speed and endurance, and to-day
Willie Beckwith and his sister Agnes are
considered second to none in the world.
The Finny family, too, or, as they might
be punningly termed, the Finny tribe,
have best records to their credit. The
Joneses and E. I. and w. Blew are also
record performers.
OF the lady swimmers, however, Miss
Agnes Beckwith is the most remarkable.
Many will remember her great swim from
Sandy Hook to Rockaway inlet in q heavy
sea about two years ago, and on which
occasion she swan sixteen miles in
hours 81 minutes 10 seconds. Her long
swim of 100 hours in the Westminster
aquarium in 1880 was also remarkable
feat When but IA years old, or in 1875,
Miss Beckwith accomplished the unpre
cedented feat by woman OF swimming
FIVE miles in the Thames river in ! hour
and minutes, and year later she swan
twenty miles in hours and % minutes.
One OF the most remarkable swimming
feats on record, however, was also accom-
plished by female natator, Miss Edith
Johnson, who swan and floated for thirty
one consecutive hours in the Black Pool,
England, baths Other women have also
distinguished themselves in the water.
Miss Theresa Johnson, Miss Laura Saige-
man, and Miss Emily Parker have all got
through the water for given distances in
faster time than any other females.
"Lurline, " the water queen, was wont to
remain under water long enough to par
take OF light refreshments, and at the
Oxford Music Hall, in London, in 1881,
she remained submerged for two minutes
and fifty-one seconds. Wonderful as that
appears, it is nothing when compared to
the feat of Peter Johnson, who, on April
6, 1888, remained under water in tank
at the Royal Music Hall in London for
four minutes and two seconds.
While it is of course desirable that q
woman should know how to sustain her
self in the water, yet it seems that as Il
sport it should be q purely masculine
pursuit. Men always have and probably
always vii excel as natators, and record
performances by males are far superior
to those by the gentler sex.
The great performances by the lament |
ed hero, Webb, often caused wonder, |,
and yet he was not so successful as q
prize winner as Willie Beckwith or J. |
Finny. Indeed, they generally proved !
superior to the rash athlete who found I
his death in the whirlpools of Niagara.
But Webb was q remarkable swimmer.
While others proved speedier for short (
distances, he was unapproachable at I
long distances. His records for SWIM /
ming seventy-four hours with only four /
minutes rest, and for keeping afloat sixty
hours without having touched ANYTHING
by which rest could be obtained are still
the best
Among short-distance swimmers the
names of Harry Gurr and Harry Moore
will always remain first They were
really the modifiers of the English side
stroke, and more than twenty years ago
startled the aquatic world by their speed.
At that time the facilities for timing races
were not so good as of recent years, and
records are now on the books which
Moore and Gurr could beat with little
trouble. Gur's record of swimming
half a mile on his back in 10 minutes
and % seconds is still the best. There
are few of the contemporaries of those
two great swimmers who now trouble
themselves with matters aquatic, and the
only two in this country SO far as known.
are Theodore z. Donaldson, the cele-
brated swimmer and athlete, and Ed
Plummer. The former is still in the
ring, and daily disports himself in the
waves at Fort Hamilton, and eniovs
himself while he instructs others in
the useful art. PlungiRg and swimming
under water are two useful branches of
swimming that are not cultivated to any
great extent here. The best recorded
plunge was by j. Strickland, at Mel
bourne, Australia, in March, 1880. when
that athlete dived from stand five feet
above the waters surface with sufficient
force 10 traverse seyenty-three feet and
one inch before he appeared on top OF the
water. The nearest approach to that
performance was by Horace Davenport.
England's ex-amateur champion. who
plunged seventy feet and seven inches. !
At swimming under water j. Finny holds
The record. AT Black Pool, England, in
lSS2, Emmy SWAN ll3ls yards before APP
pearing above the water.
In this country the records OF profes-
sional swimmers are generally more (
'fishy' than the swimmers. Those
made by the amateurs, however. have
been made under proper $