The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-23
THE Safest or BATHS,
FIohtlng I'm Great salt Lnke-stranRe
Freaks of the Fathers with or
without Experience.
From the New York Tribune.


From the New York Tribune.
Salt Lake City.-To the readers of the
Tribune who are just now engaged In a
mad struggle with the breakers on the At
lantic coast. a description of the methods
of taking a sea bath 1900 feet above sea
level. and a thousand Of two Of miles from
the coast. may be interesting. For this
great inland salt sea, twice as big as the
state of Rhode Island. four times as salt
as the Atlantic, clear as crystal and
smooth as a mirror. Is now the resort of
thousands, its visitors being counted by
trainloads each hour, and by hundreds of
thousands in the season.
A dip in the great dead Sea" of Ameri-
ca is luxury which those who can obtain
the opportunity seldom neglect. especial
ly after few experiences In It's waters.
A bath in the salt lake means some
thing more than dip, for In It's warm,
clear and peaceful waters, In which you
float like a cork, you may remain almost
indefinitely with impunity. No exertion
is needed to maintain warmth or TO keep
aflOat, and those who choose to float laz-
lily in the pellucid waters by the hour may
do so without physical detriment. Be-
sides there Is feeling Of luxurious ease
in the fact that you make your entrance
into. the water from the finest bathing pa
Wilton In the country, having over six
hundred lighthouses. and costing over 800,
600.
Like most Of the great enterprises here,
the big bathing institution Is backed by
the Mormon church. The Rio Grande and
Western railroad carries the people to it
across miles of sand and sage brush, but
the great Moorish pavilion, with its go
lighthouses, its dancing floor covering
nearly an acre, its 1890 electric lights
standing nearly mile out in the lake, is
Mormon, or at least the work OF sundry
wealthy saints, who probably work for the
church, in this stroke of business enter
prise.
The experiences of a bath in the Great
Salt Lake are unique and never to be for
gotten. You walk down TO the water from
your bathroom over steps from the lower
side of which hang tiny stalactites. They
look at first like icicles, but on examina-
ton you find them of pure white salt.
formed from the salt water which drips
upon the steps from the costumes of the
bathers as they retire from the waters.
Arriving at the bottom Of the steps. II
you have been properly Informed as to
methods, you quietly continue your way
into the crystal water through which you
see the cleaning sand at the bottom.
There is no plunging here, no taking of
headers into the approaching breakers.
The man who is accustomed to that sort
of thing must change his ways, for the
water, which contains over IA per cent
of salt and other minerals, burns the
eyes, nose or throat and ears II the head
is permitted to go beneath the surface.
That Is one thing that the "tenderfoot''
has to learn. and he learns II to his cost
If he is not enlightened By some thought
full friend before he enters the water
AS the writer was going to the BATTLEFRONT
a man with glass in his hand hurried
past, and stopped at the door of bath
room about which crowd Of people had
gathered Just inside the door, in charge
OF friends, was woman. evidently suffer-
ing the most intense agony, II her groans
and cries of pain We're an index of the
facts. Yet her friends did not seem par
ticularly alarmed. They spoke soothing
ly to her. as one would to child with a
burned finger. assuring her that though il
was pretty rocky" she would soon come
around all right.
But when the method of handling ones
self in this dense wafer is learned, the
experiences of the bath are novel and de-
lightful. Those who have had a few les
sons are able to throw themselves back
upon the water and float like corks. roll
about on the surface as they would on
bed of sand, or swim enormous distances
II they can manage to keep their feet be-
meath the surface. The antics which the
experienced bathers perform are amusing,
while those which the average tender
foot" involuntarily performs are equally
so. / saw a half dozen or more Of both
sexes form themselves into a tandem"
laying upon their backs in the water, the
feet of the first placed beneath the arms
of the second, whose feet IN turn support
ed the shoulders of the third and so on
to the end of the line.
Each one was using his arms as paddles,
and so this string of screaming. shouting