The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-09-19
BATHING ON THE BEACH.
REV. DR.. TALMAeE TALKS ABOUT 1T.
Erect of scanty Clothing on the Imagina-
tion-Disastrous Work of the Big
Waves-Some People Found
i'm the Water.

'The Jolly Sea Beach," Shaks-
peare has been fercely mauled by the
critics for confusion of metaphor in
speaking OF taking up farms against
sea ofstrouble." The smart fellows say,
how could man take EARNS against
sea" In other words, it is not
possible TO shoot the Pacific ocean.
But what Shakespeare suggests is,
this jocund morning, being done
all around the coast from Florida to New
foundland, especial regiments going out
from Cape May, Long Branch, East Hamp-
ton, Newport and Nahant; 10000 bathers,
with hands thrown into the air, taking
up arms against the sea-" But the old
giant has only to roll over once on his bed
of seaweed, and all this attacking host are
flung postrate on the beach.
The sensation of sea-bathing is about
the same everywhere. First you have
the work of putting on the appropriate
dress, sometimes wet and chill from the
previous bathing. You get into the gar
ments cautiously, touching them at as few
points as possible, your face askew, and
with a swift draft of breath through your
front teeth, punctuating the final lodg-
ment of each sleeve and fold with a spas
modic ooh" Then having placed your
watch where no villainous straggler may
be induced to examine it to see whether
he can getto the depotin time for the next
train, you issue forth ingloriously, your
head down in consciousness that you
are cutting sorry figure be-
fore the world. Barefoot as a
mendicant, your hair disheveled
in the wind, the stripes on your clothes
strongly suggestive OF Sing Sing, your ap-
pearance a caricature of humankind, you
wander up and down the beach creature
that the land is evidently trying 10 shake
off and the sea is unwilling TO take. But
you are consoled by the fact that all the
rest are so mean and forlorn-looking as
yourself; and you wade in, over foot-top,
unto the knee. and waist deep. The water
is ICY cold, so that your teeth chatter and
your frame quakes, until you make bold
dive; and in moment you and the sea
are good friends, and you are not certain
whether you have surrendered to the
ocean or the ocean has surrendered to
you.
At this point begin the raptures of bath
ing. You have left the world on the
beach, and are caught up in the arms of
experiences that you never feel on land.
If you are far enough out, the breaking
wave curves over you like roof inlaid
and prismatic, bending down on the other
side of you in layers of chalk and drifts
of snow, and the lightning flash OF the
foam ends in the thunder of the falling
wave. You fling aside from your arms, as
worthless, amethyst and emerald and
chrysoprase. Your ears are filled with
he hol ~ al re
ewes with all tints and tinges and double
DIVES and liquid emblazonment You leap
and shout and clap your hands, and tell
the pillows to come on, and in excess OF
glee greet persons that you never saw be-
fore and never will again, and never want
to, and act so wildly that others would
think you demented, but that they also
are as fully let loose, so that If there be
one imbecile there is a whole asylum OF
lunatics.
1t is astonishing how many sounds
mingle in the water; the faint squat Of
the affrighted child, the shrill shrek of
the lady Just introduced TO the uproarious
hilarities, the casouse of the diver, the
snort of the half-strangled, the clear gigge
OF maidens, the hoarse below of swaped
obesity. the whine of the convalescent in
valid, the yell of unmixed delight, the
te-hee and squeak of the city exquisite
learning how to laugh out loud, the splash
OF the brine, the cachinnation of band
OF harmless savages, the stun OF the surge
on your right ear, the hiss OF the surf, the
saturnalia of the elements; while over
towering all other sounds are the orches-
trail harmonies of the sea, which roll on
through the ages, all shells, all winds, all
caverns, all pillows heard in ''the oratorio
of the creation
But while bathing, the ludicrous will
often break through the grand. Swept
hither and thither, you find moving in reel
and cotilion, saraband and dragon and
hornpipe, quakers and presbyterians who
are down on the dance. Your sparse cloth
inc feels the stress of the waves, and you
think what an awful thing it would be if
a button break, and you should have, out
of respect to the feelings OF others, to go
up the beech sidewise or backward or on
your hands and knees.
Close beside you in the surf is judge
of the court OF appeals, with garment on
that looks like his grandmother night
gown Just lifted from the wash-tub and
not vet wrung out. On the other side is a
maiden with twenty-fve-cent straw hat
on head that ordinarily supports 500
worth of millinery. Yonder is a doctor
of divinity with his head in the sand and
his feet beating the air, travelling heaven
ward, while his right hand clutches his
wife's foot, as much as to say, "My feet
are useless in this emergency; give me
the benefit of yours"
Now a stronger wave, for which none
are ready, dashes in, and with it tumble
ashore, in one great wreck of humanity,
small craft and large, stout hulk and swift
clipper, helm first, top-sail down, forestry
sail in tatters, keel up, everything gone to
pieces in the swash of the surges.
Oh, the glee of sea-bathing! 1t rouses
the apathetic 1t upsets the supercihous
and pragmatical. 1t is balsamic for men
tai wounds. 1t is tonic for those who
need strength and an anodyRe for those
who require soothing, and febrifuge for
those who want their blood cooled; a
filling UP for minds pumped dry, brevi-
airy for the superstitious with endless
mathis and vespers, and to the christian
an apocalyptic vision where the morning
sun gilds the waters, and there is spread
before him "a sea of glass mingled with
fire."
Thy way, o God, is in the sea, and Thy path in the
great waters.
How Blaine Talks.