The record-union., 1891-08-01
THE OPPORTUNITY AT LAST.

THE OPPORTUNITY AT LAST.
If walking were an acquired art all
men would strive to learn to walk, and
those who neglected that accomplishment
and rolled about would be looked upon
as foolish, provided that the means of
acquiring the use of the legs and feet
were at hand.
Walking being natural, and all men in
normal condition being able to walk,
those who refuse to exercise the capacity
and develop it, and who are content to sit
when they should walk much to main
tain healthful conditions, are deemed un-
worthy of sympathy if by reason of
their neglect they suffer. Always pro-
vided, however, that the means Of taking
such exercise are available.
Now these are parallels that may be ap-
piled to that other art or accomplishment,
swimming. 1t is an acquired art, and all
men ought to strive to possess it as
primal method of movement in one of
the elements, when the means Of acquir-
ing it are at hand without involvment of
danger. Swimming being once acquired
must, to be possessed in perfection, be
practiced, precisely as is walking. Sit
long and one will lose the use of his
limbs. Knowing how to swim, but
rarely bringing the knowledge into
active service, incapacitates one for it's
use when most needed.
Heretofore Sacramento has had only
the'treacherous river as a means to the
requirement of the swimming art But
within the next sixty hours safe, pleas
ant, cheap means will be at hand to learn
to swim. 1t viii then be with Sacra-
mentans as the Christians say it is with
the heathen TO whom the gospel has been
preached-they can be saved if they will,
and if they are not they will be damned.
We have had tragedies enough in the
vicinity of this city because the swim
ming art could be acquired here only at
the peril of life, to emphasize the neces-
sity of swimming bath. The unas-
suaged grief that wrings many a parents
heart pleads with those who know not
the art to no longer defer the duty of in
struction in it, now that the opportunity
offers to learn to swim, through the tire
less, great-hearted enterprise and philan-
thropy of few determined citizens who
have established the Sacramento Swim
ming Bath Association.
Fortunately these baths are very easily
accessible. They are within three-quar-
ters Of a mile of the most distant house
holds in the Capital City. If there are
any at these hearthstones who cannot
swim and who have use of their limbs,
and have fair health, and perversely will
not traverse that distance and expend a
beggarly pittance to acquire the second
means Of animal locomotion, in heavens
name let them drown when the hour of
trial comes.
If there are any so favored with free
use of arms and legs, who have their
squeamish doubts aboutEthe propriety of
stripping their frames decenly to learn
to swim, let no tear be shed for them
when they drown. If there are any who
will refuse to acquire the art for few
pennies cost and few moments ride.
for fear that some less gentle and tender
body may disport itself in the constantly
flowing stream, let them take their
chances, and when they sink let friends
ask for them no sympathetic sob.
If there are any who are so selfish and
narrow minded that they win not embrace
the opportunity other peoples capital
puts into their hand without dollars
call upon them for aid, because the baths
are not planted at their very doors, in the
name of justice let them live on without
he advantages and delights the exercise
OF the swimming art insures, and when
they perish, as they may, let not men
mourn their loss.
So, then, generous capital, some of it
hard wrung from the small earnings of
poor men by their conviction OF duty,
has combined to give Sacramento a
swimming bath. She has $1,000 peo-
pie who cannot swim, probably
more, for certainly .not over 80 in the $50
in this city possess the requirement. If
these 5000 men, women and children do
not, where age and physical ability per-
NIT, now learn, they will have the pity OF
the remaining 10000 and will deserve it,
for the latter are their superiors. If the
10000 who have acquired the art of swim
ming do not now practice it until they
are perfect in skill and endurance in the
water, they will deserve rebuke.
In short, those who do not swim should
now learn; those who do swim should
keep up the practice, and between these