The record-union., 1892-08-23
THREADING WATER
Persons Can Easily Keep Afioat If


lhGy Try.
The easiest position that man, a
woman, or child can assume i'll water is
TO float perpendicularly. Any person,
without any previous practice. can tread
water, and so keep afloat for a long time.
He should keep his hands below the sur
face of the water, his lungs Inflated and
his feet moving up and down as in walk
ing. Let the IMAM overheard" throw his
hands and arms out of the water, let him
raise an outcry whereby the air is ex-
PEELED from the lungs. and he will sink to
the bottom. The trouble is that nine
people out of ten lose their presence of
mind when they are in water out of their
depth for the first time. Ii. instead Of
struggling and floundering about, they
would do little walking, there would
not be the slightest danger of drowning
right away.
Any one can tread water in the first at
tempt. No preliminary teaching is ne
cessary. Treading water is simply walk
ing into the water out of ones depth,
with or without the aid of ones hands.
The operation is not unlike running up
stairs, and, if anything, easier. Truly
any man, any woman, any child who can
walk up stairs can walk in the water, and
remember, on the first attempt, without
any previous instruction or practice.
Hence | say that persons really igno-
rant OF the art Of swimming are perfectly
safe i'll water out OF their depth. Very
often you hear people eXclaim: Ugh! if
this boat were to upset I'd drown, of
course. | capt swim, you know"
les, but you can tread water. Most of
US attach wrong significance 10 the
word swim" Why should we mean
one thing when a man swims and
another or different thing when dog
swims? The dog cannot swim" as a
man Swims. but any man can swim
dog fashion" instantly and for the first
time. The animal has no advantage in
any way III the water over a man, and
yet the man browns while the animal
''swims." The dog, the horse, the cow
/ and even the cat all take 70 the water and
are able to walk as they do when out of
water. Throw dog in the stream and
at once he begins to walk, just as he does
on dry land. Why should inau, woman
or child act differently under like cir
cumstances?
1t seems strange that people have TO be
told 10 do what the animals do instinct
lively and instantly. Mans ignorance of
SO simple thing as treading water is re-
markable; ii is without reason or excuse
There IS popular notion ailoaG that il
some way the dog aud the animals have
an advantage over man in water. Moth
ing could be further from the truth. The
advantage lies with man, who is provided
with Il paddle-fOrmed hand. and knows
enough TO float when Understanding the
animal rarely or neve" does.
Next 10 treadinG water, floating on the
back is the easiest thing to Go in water.
This consists in lying fiat on the back,
head thrown well Gack, the lungs in
Hated, the limbs extended but flexible
the arms held close to the ears the hands
over the head. The majority of people
able to sustain themselves in the wafer
prefer to float in a horizontal position
rather than in a perpendicular manner.
Both positions are much better, in fact,
much safer, than the attitude that we as
sumo in swimming. l have found it So
One day, in rough surf was nearly
strangled with sudden swallow of water,
and had | not been able to float, the re-
suit might have been disastrous.-Har-
per's Young People.