The Portland daily press., 1893-08-22
LIFE-sAvERs' METHODS.
Dan s1attery, a Far Rockaway Swimmer
Talks About His Profession.

The men at the seaside bathing places
who bring drowning people out OF the
tVater never speak of themselves as NE
$avers. They call themselves swimmers
One would naturally think that they
would be proud Of the title which is
Hustly theirs and would want to use Ii
hut these lffe-sauers are modest men
always. You see they are brave men,
men who have an abiding respect for
ffanger, and yet who never know what
personal. fear Is.
When the work performed by life
Eavar, the danger and insult to which
a1eeis exposed are placed in one balance
,fnd the amount of wages he receives is
TiIaced in the other, his compensation
seems ridiculously small The highest
wages are paid along the Jersey coast,
(which is the most dangerous about New
Work. About Long Branch and Asbury
Ozark they receive from $50 to $50 a
ano1rfh. At Coney Island from $40 to 80
a month is paid the fife-sayer- Along
,t11e Long Island shore beyond Coney
Naiand, The average rs $50 month for a
iirst class man. The life savers are ex-
nected to go ON duty about z o'clock in
leave the beach until o'clock at night.
They must pay all their own expenses;
sometimes they are required even TO fur-
hish their own bathing suit
Dan SlHt1ery is ahfe-saver at one OF the
;hathing beaches of Far RDckaway- He
has been in the business Tor ten or twelve
wears. Like all the really good men,
Elattery is extremely modest He has
worked on all the beaches from Fire
island to Atlantic City He is So years
I old. and is therefore an old-timer. All
Ehe hfe-sayers are young men :,
aWhat becomes of the Hfe-sayerssD
E1attery was saknd-
They get drowned he replied simply,
In theory life-sayer is not expected
TO take too much risk himself Ii ne
finds he cannot save a man whom ne
goes after and is himself in. danger, me
Is expected to save himself In practlce
the life-sayer rrmust bring in the person
he goes after or drown with him. LII ne
puts the theory to practical operation ne
might as well make up his mind to get
out of the business. He will find it al
most impossible to get d job And that
is the reason why so many OF the life
Eavers are drowned.
There are thousands of men looking
Scr job as swimmers said Slattery,
as he was lying on the sand keeping a
sharp lookout upon the bathers, "but
Shere are mighty few who are aay good.
10 make a good swimmer, said Slattery
Va man must, in the first place, take ito
the water naturally. A man must never
know what it is to be scared, because ii
he begins to get afraid he will lose his
bead, and then he's worse than useless.
When a person is drowning YOU got to
get there as quick as you can, and then
you've got to know how to handle him
bitter you get there.
Slattery stood up and motioned to an
IL yI,r,h ad H.
ing the beach and who was then showing
how we'll he could swim.
"rThose are the fellows who give us
ali the trouble he explained. g If there
were no good swimmers we fellows
wouldn't have anything to do. It's only
The others keep inside the life lines and
are safe. The good swimmers go out SO
far that it is hard to get them wheu they
have cranp or get tired.
1T is not always best to go out with
lifeline, y Slattery went on. ;, 1You can
q swimmer first goes to a beach he starts
In by studying the currents and under
bow. When he sees a man go down the
ywimmer doesn't start for the place
where he saw the man go down. He
probably makes for a point 25 feet away
When he comes up the swimmer is right
there Then comes the hard part. When
sense The first thing they do is to grab
YOU around the neck We tell them what
to do, but they won't listen to you. We
generally try to swim around the m and
get hold of them next of their bathing
suit at the back. II we can get them
there or by the shoulder or by the waist
1t is good hold.
\ aft the person behaves himself then
he's all right. We can get in without any
Htruuble. But If he keeps on fighting us
S gets to be pretty bad work. ia mans
got beard or mustache We'll usually
kgive it a tug. That abstracts ms aIten-
Zion and the swimmer gets free. Then
HE he tries to grab you again there is
nothing left but to hit him. don't
Helieve that there is swimmer living
who doesn't hate to hit man in the
water, and yet we have to do 1t pretty
Often. 1t is god of a trick, too. The
fswinmer has to raise himself in the
water and plant blow where it will do
The best good 1t is astonishing how easy
ift is to save man after you have
knocked him senseless.
!. "Now women are better than men.
They make lot of fuss at first, but they
Heem to come to their senses quicker. II
wou tell woman you will smash her il
She doesn't do as you want her to, and
make a motion to carry out your threat,
That is usually sufficient"
"What do swim mers usually get for
saving a life?"
Usually they get blackguarded. Half
fhe people you save from drowning will
stand on the sand and roast you until
they can't speak any more Occasion
ally they will thank you. Upon rare
occasions they may give you something. "
It is astonishing, as any one will learn
who talks much with the ife-savers
and others who work on the beach, how
lew people reward them. The red-letter
season in Dan Slattery's career was at
Atlantic City, where he received S675 in
rratuities in three months. 1t was that
Season that he saved Miss Annie Drexel
Of Philadelphia from drowning She
gave him a diamond pin worth 500 and
two brand new $50 notes. The $675 is
four times as much as Slattery ever made
in one season before or since.-N. Y.
World.