The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-06-07
WANTED, FREE BATHS.
Their Lack a Cause of Great
Discomfort to Jersey
City.
ONE SHOCKING CONSEQUENCE
Immodest Displays By Bathers on
the Lafayette Meadows Which
the Police Cannot Prevent.


Almost everyone who rides in the La
fayette and Greenville street cars has
noticed the many bathers of all sizes and
ages in the canal a short distance east OF
the Pacific avenue bridge Many whole
souled individual has smiled broadly as
he has caught glimpse of the antics of
some urchin along the tow path or in the
water, while as many more perhaps have
had their sensibilities shocked by dis
plays of undraped humanity which would
have put st. Gauden's life class to the
blush. The spot where this takes place Is
where the canal crosses Mill creek. With
in the memory of the oldest inhabitants
this has always been favorite bathing
place with the younger portion of Jersey
Cfty's population. The water is not
very inviting to people VINO are particular
about such things; but it is water, and is
cooler than the air which quivers over the
enough for the boys. Away back fifteen
the waters Of the Canal were
more pleasant both to the eye and
the nose, many boy who Is now citizen
OF influence and reputation has shed his
raiment on the tow path and cooled his
heated body beneath the shining surface
Then the spot was out in the country
and the pleasure derived from the plunge
was only obtainable after long weary
walk. Fewer people passed In that
neighborhood then, and the tall flags
which grow In the meadows all through
which the canal passed almost screened
the bathers from view.
GROWN TO BE A NUISANCE
But as time went on the neighborh00d
became more settled and travel increased
the practice came to be nuisance and
the blue-coated minions OF the law began
to make miserable the lives of the
bathers. Gradually the boys Of respect
ability abandoned the place, and now it
is resOrted to only by the little waits and
strays and the older hoodlums OF that
neignborhood who have not the slightest
sense of modesty.
If you ask one of the youngsters why
this one narrow place, scarcely wide
enough for canal boat to pass through,
and not much over twenty-five feet long,
is SO desirable for baEhing he will prob
ably tell you that tits because the creek
flows through the canal with each tide
and keeps the water Of the ditch compara-
lively cool This, of course, IS freak Of
the urchin's imagination In reality the
creek flows under the canal, something
on the principle of g syphon, while the
canal is carried over the creek In q sort of
wooden aqueduct. The wooden sides and
bottom of this contrivance give the pIaca
almost the character of 4 bathing house,
and it is for that reason more than any
other that it is SO much resorted TO by the
superheated youth of the tenement dis
trictS.
A GREAT PUBLIC NEED.
However great the nuisance may be to
sensitive people. 1t is hard to blame the
bathers with any great severity They
have hardly any other place to go, and
the temptation to take O plunge is well
nigh irresistible.
There is one other resort of bathers to
which many go. 1t is much less exposed
hrr@ r
1t is what is known as the .sstone dock. "
1t Is the breakwater crib work flied with
stone which the Central Railroad has
built around It's property along the New
York Bay shore at Communipaw- ANY
warm summer night this spot is crowded
with men and boys, who swim and splash
about in the waters of the bay with evil
dent pleasure. But this place, though re-
mote and apparently secure from public
observation, has it's draw backs, and those
who go there to bathe are Obliged to
undergo much Inconvenience and annoy
ance before reaching the water.
1t is almost impossible to reach the
Hudson River from this city for bathing
purposes. Almost every inch of the
water front Is owned by corporations, and
the entrances to the piers and other APP
proaches to the water are guarded most
jealously and all access to them prohib-
iIed.
1t is disgrace to Jersey City that she
has no public bath, and for sanitary. IL
not for oLher reasons, one should be pro-
vided 1t is said whenever the project
has been broached that the city
has no available spot along the
water front at which to locate
bath, but this objection no doubt would
be overcome if an effort was made. Ex-
cept the first cost Of the float, the expense
would not be great, and the good would
be incalculable. Probably twenty thous-
ana persons would share in the benefits
of such bath, and among them would
be hundreds Of girls and women who
have not even the resource of the fetld
canal to fall back upon as relief from
the heat.
The Street and Wafer Board and the
Finance Board ought to take the matter
up and find some means to supply this
great public need.