Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-08-24
srEE NEED FOR sw1mm1Ne BATHS.

The loss of the City of Chester and the
sacrifice of human life consequent upon II,
emphasizes great public need in this city.
But when we speak of 'this city" it occurs
to Us that the localization Of the need for
spacious baths where people may be taught
to swim is unjust, for every considerable
town in the country ought to be provided
with large and distinct swimming baths
for that reason. That they are not, that
here We not only have no such baths,
but arrest and punish those who exercise
natural instinct when they seek the
river for natatorial delights, is lamentable.
Yet because of the dangerous river cur
rents it is necessary to forbid indiscrim-
inate bathing in the stream.
Stockton has a pualic swimming bath,
San Jose is well provided with one also, as
too is Monterey, and San Francisco has
several. That Sacramento, with an ocean
Of water flowing by her gates has none, is
a reproach that should be removed very
speedily.
We undertake to say that nineteen out
Of twenty of the men, women and chill
dren drowned in our river would not have
50 lost their lives had they been taught to
swim And yet TO all who do swim,
how very odd it sounds to speak Of
teaching one to swim The truth Is we
could not help swimming if we would bat
submit ourselves to the stream without re-
sistance. Let puppy, q colt, cat or pig
be cast into the water for the.tirst time
and they will float, and swim naturally.
But the boy would scarcely turn out as
well. He, therefore, must be taught, to a
certain degree. If men only knew that
non-resistance and proper breathing in
their cases would probably result in their
floating, as easily as lower animals, there
would be fewer deaths by drowning.
1t is to be accepted as an undeniable
truth that all human beings ought to know
how to swim. But it Is also true that We
of the interior at least-aford ourselves
fewer opportunities to learn how TO save
our lives when in the water than any other
people upon the face of the globe The
English are nation of swimmers. The
English woman who does not swim is esti-
mated as devoid Of an essential need in
education and accomplishment. The
French as rule are good swimmers, men,
women and children, and in both these
countries the Government is at great pains
to encourage the natatorial art. There is
no reason why valley Californians should
not at least know the prophecies of the
watery element so far as life-saving goes, rs
well as the English and French.
One hundred and five human beings
Went down with an ocean steamer on the
Atlantic two weeks ago-they were mostly
Americans, and ii is safe to say that eighty
of them could not swim, and that if they
had possessed the simple art they might
have sustained themselves until from
wreckage raft could have been con-
structed. In San Francisco bay, last week.
a ferry-boat loaded with passengers became
disabled in mid-stream in fog, and for
many hours lay helpless Had another
steamer plunged into the crippled boat and
wrecked her, probably two-thirds of the
people would have been drowned. though
safety by swimming ten rods would have
been assured.
NYe tell our children that it IS an essen
tial to be able TO swim, but we provide no
means whatever to enable them to acquire
that confidence in which about the whole
art OF swimming resides. A census taken
al Pacific seaside resort last week, showed
that OF $50 people upon the beach 40
could not swim and had not made the at.
tempt. Many thought they could not
q stand" the shock Of the chill surf bath
But if these people we're upon a eoasting
steamer-a dozen or more of which ply up
and down California shores weekly, loaded
with men, women and children-in case of
the laundering of the ship they would be
compelled to submit 10 the "shock," and
probably to death But the latter they
might avoid if they knew how to conduct
themselves Physically when cast into the
water, and which knowledge and the exer-
else accompanying It's application, rob the
shock" of siK-tenths Of its fear.
Every boy and girl in Sacramento ever
6 years of age can be taught to swim in
an hour after a FIRST trial, and will acquire
skill in the art without aid. Every one OF
them in like time can be taught how to
avoid sinking how to foat-and hence in
most cases how to save their lives But
there is not in this city of $4,000 souls or
more, any lawful means by which any
parent can give his child an opportunity
to develop the same life-saying instinct
that is manifest BY the puppy when it is
cast into sheet Of water. On the con-
trary, in nineteen out Of every twaaty
cases for thirty years past of our people,
old and young, who have fallen into the
river that flows by our doors, drowning has
resulted.
Aside from all sanitary, muscIe-develop-
ing, health-promoting considerations, aside
from the exquisite pleasures the swimmer
experiences and the delights of sport in
the one element IN which we are so i'll pre-
pared to properly behave ourselves, Sacra-
mento ought to have. and every other Cal
ifornia city ought to have public swim
ming baths. Wealth, energy and public
spirit ought to give us large, well-ap-
pointed swimming baths an capital
would, we believe ind the investment re-
iniinerative
TIE "iree whisky cry has no terrors for
those who rightly and calmly look at the
scheme Of the Internal Revenue system,
and the proposition 70 abandon ii, in the
main, il uot entirelg There is no propo-