St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-06-23
LESSON IN SWIMMING.
The Queer Feeling That Thrills a
Girl at the Initial Dip.


Meg" in the Philadelphia Times:
With chattering teeth, a blue nose,
covered with goose flesh, and not much
of anything else, stood in position"
which, when translated, means with
arms extended forward in a straight
line, hands with palms together, fnergs
close, thumbs down. Then comes the
monotonOus count-o-n-e, two, three.
Just as if you were receiving a lesson
III music. "One," separate the hands
by opening from the under size; make
circle or a half circle by bringing the
arms out to straight line at the side
from the shoulder. Two" draw the
elbows to the side and hands to the
chest. "Three," shoot them from the
chest to position again.
Next l was told TO be seated and to
extend my legs forward, heels together.
toes out. While the arms are sweeping
the circle at lone" the legs remain in
position. At "two'' while the elbows
and hands 90 to the sides and chest,
the heels, sticking close together, are
drawn up to the body. At three" the
arms shoot forward to position. The
legs must be Strengthened out sideways
with vigorous kick and cut a circle
back to position. The knees are kept
straight and the force of the movement
all comes from the hips. By the time
L had finished this movement lesson
there was not muscle i'll my body that
had not been used, and the strain
equally distributed; so you see at once
why swimming develops muscle forces,
gives agility and suppleness to the
limbs, opens the chest, increases lung
capacity, equaliZes the circulation and
creates and preserves beauty of form
and grace of outline and rhythmic
movementS-buti if you think it is "easy"
just try it.
| was assured the movements would
come more naturally in the water, so to
the water we went, and the harness or
belt attached to the pulley rope was adj
justed around my body, just under the
arms, and confess to you privately
that if it had been hangman's moose
and the kindly instructor duty-bound
sheriff, l could not have been more ter
rified. thought | never had seen SO
much dependence placed OH so slender
rope OF such an intrustworthy life
saving continuance. / realized fully
that this uncertain thing, which would
not be still long enough to catch my
breath, was all that stood between me
and that historical country from which
no one but a theosOphiSt ever returns.
How can | describe my horrible SEN
sations when first swung off into that
dark water? 1t could have held no
greater terror for me if it had been bot
tomless. For further encouragement l
was permitted to hold one end of pole,
the other end being held by my instruc-
tor. Gasping and spluttering | held on
for dear life. until the wise one, seeing
there was nothing to be accomplished
m
forced me to give up the pole, and was
left face downward upon the water.
At this juncture | tried between gasps
to inquire if any one had ever been
drowned here, but could not make nv
self understood, and it didn't matter,
for / felt sure some one would soon
be drowned now.
The next instruction was to take posi-
ton; instead, L took a header" and
my feet took to the skies. OF course it
was only momentary, for the pulley
brought me back to level, and, after
much and desperate struggling to COM
bine the arm-and-leg movement as
taught on the carpet, was more or less
successful (rather less than more), and
began to have dim idea of the fascina-
ton there must be in swimming when
there was no fear of an untlmeiy intro
duction to the hereafter.
1 was not thinking of my curtailed
costume now; nor of the fit of it; nor of
bangs that were no more; nor of powder
washed off. individuality was gone.
Water has such wonderfully equaIiz-
ing effect. Ii there is any one who still
believes In that pretty axiom. Beau
ty unadorned is adorned the most,n |
wish he or she would make visit to a
natatorium. No cause for jealousy here.
We are all ugly alike. But enviously
and more obviously watched the rest
jumping fearlessly off springing boards.
sliding down shoots, swinging out over
the dark depths from gymnasium rings,
or diving to come up on the opposite
side of the tank. Right we'll now I'M
derstood the moral courage and intel
lectual confidence developed by the
practice that led to such proficiency and
that new and keen pleasure in exist
ence had come with the attainment,and
my teeth closed upon the resolve TO
learn to swim or drown in the attempt.