Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1895-11-07
WOMEN IN THE WATER.
They Love to Founder, but Few Become
Good Swimmers.

They Love to Founder, but Few Become
Good Swimmers.
The most popular counter at the
moment in the shops is that where
bathing suits are sold. A loiterer at
one of them which served out the sort
worn by women saw six purchases
made the other dav by as many women
in ten minutes
Yet all this water foundering among
the sex produces few swimmers. 1t is
the exception when a woman can swim
at all; it is marvel when she can
take herself through the water for
twenty yards, a distance that every
boy in the country accomplishes be-
fore he is a dozen years old, or he is an
abnormal boy A writer in the Chica-
90 Record comments on some of the
reasons why a woman does not swim
naturally and instinctively, as boy
does. To begin with, the boy never
seems to have any instructive awe of
the water.
When fear is eliminated good swim
ming is invariably the result After
all, it may be materially question of
strength, this marked difference in the
ability of the sexes to swim. A boy
Jumps into unknown depths, trusting
to his strength of muscle and sinew to
pull him through. A woman has no
such quality on which to depend. She
knows her back is weak, her arms more
like cotton than steel 1t is this in
herent consciousness of weakness that
makes her shrink, although she
couldn't probably define the reason of
the feeling.
There is this popularity about a
woman's swimming-she will either
swim dog" or frog" fashion, the for
mer being the easier, the latter the
correct way.
A woman rarely, if ever, uses the
overland stroke to any advantage.
There are women known to have done
so. but they find it impossible TO keep
it up or make any progress. All men
use it, to the exclusion of other
methods. The arm In this stroke Is
brought backward, then over the head
and plunged forward, the shoulder be-
ing entirely out of the water at each
stroke. 1t is exactly as if one were
means of taut rope.
lately asked a physician why it
was that women never,made use of this
stroke He answered that these power
full strokes were made by means of the
muscles across the chest. In a man
these muscles are strongly developed,
giving to the arms their whole
strength. For a woman the bosom
takes the place of these sinews, cut
ting off the means of her ever making
this stroke of any use to her.
Again. a woman is rarely a good
diver, even though she is an expert
swimmer. Physicians explain that this
is owing to her weak back. She does
dive in sort of fashion, standing on
a slight eminence and gracefully
inclining herself head downward
into the water. Even this is indllged
in by only a few. A woman breads
giving herself up to space in this in
verted attitude, simply because her
back may play her false or the blood
rush to the brain.
The same writer has a sensible word
to say about bathing suits. Women
enter the race handicapped by the gar
ments they wear. Flannel is the
heaviest kind of cloth, and yet women
cling to it as a bathing suit. A stock
met garment that comes from heel to
shoulder, SO that the weight is taken
off the waist, is the best Over that a
long Russian blouse of black wash silk
or alpaca, loosely belted, and short
sleeves. Then every muscle can work
easily and naturally. The blouse
throws off the water, remains light,
and the swimmer has no extra weight.
Wear a suitable bathing suit, culti-
vate judgment. and there is no reason
why any woman shouldn't swim--N.
Y. Times.