Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1892-10-14

comparatively few public men in the
list Nearly every man who gsts -
congress is a man who has In some cor
spicuous way shown his superiority -
the average citizen Of his district bat
when 1t comes to the great "doers" we
do not look for many of them withiA
the walls Of the capitol.
One Of the mon whose right 70 b In
the list Of one hundred people might
differ about Is Henry Willard. But NE.
Willard retains the presidency of the
great consolidated electric company in
spite Of the statements Of the New
York financial writers that he would
not remain there. His position seems
to be strong one. He told friend
the other day that he now had all the
money that he wanted. He has got %
least ten million dollars, and this TINA
he proposes to hold on to it.
come in q series of three Sometimes
the three are small and sometimes are
very heavy. but as rule the sequences
run about the same sisa Imagine q
bather inside the surf line with the
surf breaking over bar about hfty OF
one hundred feet from shore. Those
big green waves that rise higher and
higher as they come toward him do not
seem very formidable. The first one
rears its head before 1t reaches him
with an angry swish; curl of foam
like feather edge crops out along the
top and fills the air with spray. Then
the wave takes o most decided shore,
ward curl, the line Of foam becomes
deeper, there Is . crash ~ II drops TO
level and the bather fnds himself
thrown down in q caldron Of ssethine
surf. Say he is In three feet of water
on the level. After the wave has passed,
he struggles to his feet choking. gasp
ing and half blind with the salt water.
He doesn't really know what has hap
pened, but he has dim idea that
something has hit him. Before he hal
time to collect his senses the ssconl
Of the series il upon him, and he goes
down again. He is dazed and confused,
and he founders around hopeless Ths
third wave is always the finishing
stroke, and gives the lifs-savsr. II there
is one, a chance to do some work.
Guided by an outstretched arm thrust
above the water involuntarily, or BY
bobbing head with which the surf a
playing foot ball. he drags the unso
phisticated one out on the sand. That
is the most common danger Of the surf
To q surf-swimmer IL represents no
danger at all Notice the difference
between the two. The experienced
surfman knews to dot the strength of
each wave, when it will break and
whether or not an undsrtow will be the
result In describing how to battle In
the surf am going to give the Lam
guage Of perhaps one Of the best swim
mers and surfmen on the New Jersey
coast He is Mr.. T. N. Lillagors and
he has not yet lost the air and bearing
Of a graduated collegian. He II big,
brown and strong, with q decided per
sonality, and gives one the imprsssioa
that he could kick goal without much
trouble and would Be . hard man 70
meet If he lined up on the opposing
team. He has been spending his sum
mers on the coast ever since he can re-
member and can talk more learnsdly
about the surf than all of the nfe-savers
from Barnegat to Sandy Hook.
"a good surfman," he said, ~ he n
on . strange shore where there are liz
BILE to be any currents, will study them
before he enters the water, but, az .
rule, dangerous currents are few. II
he knows the coast he will wait until .
wave 10 about to break, then make .
dive through it; not too deep . dive,
though, for sand will scrlpe like nls.
If the surf il heavy and rapid, - soon
as his head is out of the water he will
look for and expect the next one. II il
break before it reaches him he will dive
under the whirling stretch Of foam and
save lot of his strength. II not he
will either ride over it or dive through
it. But he never becomes careless he
looks upon the surf as an enemy II he Ia
not careful, and as o means of givinR
him pleasure il he handles himself e
he ought The most dangerous bath
ing is where there 10 sea-push, or, -
the sailors call it, sea-puss. II Il .
current VIII ich runs from the shore
along a channel between two sand bars.
The waves breaking over tho bars meet
on shore and run out together in the
deep channel There is no chance for
the ignorant swimmer who 10 caught In
a sea- push. The experienced one will
never win against it; he will 90 with
II, keeping his feet we'll up, until he
gets chance to cross it.
"The danger Of the undertow "a net
great except in rare places But In the
cases of women and children the under
tow might be considered as rather Q
bad thing in this way: II strong see
breaking we'll on shore by its force
knocks a woman or child down. In rs-
ceding it will invariably drag them out
q short distance with it. But the force
and power of the undertow have been
very much overestimated. and there u
really not much danger in IL. Whom
fatal accidents occur find they are
generally caused by exhaustion or care
lessness. The surf-bather should not
take long swims outside. He can have
all the excitement he wants by sticking
closely to the surf Let him fnd Q
sand-bar at low tide, where the surf
breaks two hundred or three hundred
feet from shore, and with little prac-
tice he can learn to ride on . breaker
for any distance up to three hundred
feet in water that II he were standing
up would scarcely reach to his waist
-Harper's Weekly.