Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-15
WOMEN IN THE WATER.
They Love to Founder, hut Few Be
come Good Swimmers.

ihey Love TO Ff0under, hut Few Be-
come Good Swimmers.
From the Chicago Record.
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 day by as many
women in ten minutes.
Yet all this water fioundering among the
sex produces few swimmers. 1t is the ex-
ception when a woman can swim at all; it
is a marvel when she can take herself
through the water for twenty yards, a
distance that every boy in the country &C
complishes before he is dozen years old,
or he is an abnormal boy. A boy never
seems to have any instructive awe of the
water.
When fear is eliminated good swimming
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
moro like cotton than steel. 1t is this
inherent 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 OF
frog" fashion, the former being the easier
and the latter the correct way.
A woman rarely, If ever, uses the over
hand stroke to any advantage. There are
women known to have done so, but they
find 1t 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 being
entirely out of the water at each stroke. 1t
is exactly as IL one were pulling himself
through the water by means of a taut rope
lately asked physician why it was
that women never made use of this stroke
He answered that these powerful strokes
were made by means Of the muscles across
the cnest. In man these muscles are
whole strength. For woman the bosom
takes tine place of these sinews cutting off
the means Of her ever making this stroke
of any use to her.
Again, q 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 a sort of
fashion, standing on slight eminence and
gracefully inclining herself head downward
into tie water. Even this is INDUCED in
by only few. A woman breads giving
herself up to space in this inverted atti-
tude, simply because her back may play
her false or the blood rush to the brain.
The same writer has sensible word to
say about bathing suits. Women enter the
race handicapped by the garments they
wear. Flannel is the heaviest kind of cloth,
and yet women cling to it as a bathing
suit. A stockir ct garment that comes from
heel to shoulder, so that the weight is TAX
en- off the waist, is the best. Over that
long Russian blouse of black wash silk or
alpaca, 10, sely belted. and short sleeves.
Then every muscle can work easily and
naturally. The blouse throws eff the wa
ter remains light, and the swimmer has
no extra weight.
Sitifa ho nYllt 70
Judgment, snd there is nc reason why any
woman shouldn't swim.