Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-06-26


circus. When she had swung backward
ard forward a sufficient number of times
to gather a whole lot of momentum she let
so the rigs and plunged head first into
the deep water. cleaving it with her palms
like a knife. ard making a splash hardly
louder than that of a pebble. She was at
the surface of the water in half a second.
Then she struck out with long. steady
stroke of the right arm for the middle of
the river. Every overland stroke carried
i,er five feet or so. She shook her hair with
the grace of water nymph and looked
back with smile at the young man, who
stood gaping on the raft. Then she turned
over on her back and kicked the water
away frcm her in Paul Boynton fashion
After she had made about seventy-five
yards this way she stood treading water
for a while, taking in the Potomac flat
scenery. Then she put her arms under her
head gracefully and kicked her way back
toward the raft. When she got within
fifty teet of the raft she dived suddenly,
and in ten seconds came up on the hither
side of the raft, after swimming beneath
it,. She wasn't even pulling.
We'll. did you everI" exclaimed the
school teacher. The young man who knew
1t all made some good-natured remark
about beng ''goId-brcked.''
'Pentwater. where / came from. you
know said the wolverine girl, with mis-
cnievous twinkle in the eyes that had been
demure, lis on Lake Michigan, you know.
Eve only got seven prize medals for swim
ming. but then, you see. had to stop TAX
ing part in the swimming contests to give
more time to my music
Say said the young man, will you
come after me and lug me in if l get be-
yond my depth?'
Fun for the Boys.
But if the girls and young women have
fun down at the bathing beach, the small,
mddle-sized and big boys, young and old,
make a marine carnival of it. There are
few things besides eating and yelling that
small boy loves more than swimming:
and when he goes swimming he likes to
take all OF the diaphonous, thousa1ito-o
chances that he can possibly think up for
slowing himself permanently at the bot
tom OF the river bed. All the small boy
ambitions i'll this respect have been neu-
tiaizcd this year, however. He would
have TO devise some very ingenious scheme
indeed to get hic-self comfortably Drowned
at the bathing beach under the present
conditions. In the first place, there is sit
ting on the raft all the time DronZed
young man with the Argus mod i of a
head, provided with circet of exceeding
ly wary eyes. This young man is a law
student, the son of District official, and
he is Il lifeguard at the bathing beach this
summer for the fun of the thing. The fun
OF the thing consists largely in spotting
small but energetic boys, knowing not how
to make the first lick OF the swimmer, who
manifest an uncomfortable disposition to
strike out for the channel leading down to
Chesapeake bay, and thence to the wine
dark sea. Two or three miniature Lean
GERS occasionally essay this job at one and
the same time. While the young lifegllard
Jumps after one of them and gets him by
the scrun of the neck, one or both of the
two policemen Oh duty at the bathing
beach experienced Watermen, the pair of
them) dash into the water clothes and all,
and haul out the others. Aside from the
Innate and last-ditch recklessness of the
small boy. there is no particular reason
why he should desire to convert the bath
ing beach waters into a Hellespont at the
first go-off of his swimming experience;
Tor there IS plenty of water down there, at
any stage of the tides. of a proper depth
for him 10 learn to SWIM But the small
boy sees the big boy or the man spring into
the deep water, and he grows big with
envy. Hence the need for the alert eye of
the lfeguard. small boys older and
more ievei-headed companions (albeit boys
themselves, will quite often impress upon
him the beauties of common caution by
hauling him out of the water. spreading
him out the raft, and sitting on him.
two CT three of them at once, until they
figure out that the boy has acquired the
first lesson of prudence, when they let him
up, somewhat hattened. but wiser.
Hcpresscd by the Guard
The small boy who knows how to swim
ard who, therefore, quite naturally, re-
cards it as his peculiar privilege to duck
another small boy (often his little brother)
who doesn't know how to swim, Is sup
pressed with a good deal of unanimity and
enthusiasm. The guard marches him out
of the water and into his dressing room on
the double, and the ducking boy is not
permitted TO enjoy The privileges of the
bathing beach fer whatever period of suS-
pension Is mcted out to him By Superin-
tSadCHt Stevens, who has established a
regular scale of punishmentS for this sort
of thing. No punitive visitation is bestow-
ed upon the who ducks girl. the
theory probably being that it is good for
girls health to be duckcd.
small boys mothers often go down to the
b thing beach to see the boy take his
''nrst'' swim.
the boys mother says to him when he
room in his bathing suit Tine innocent
Ai!le boy looks at his mother out of the
tail Of his eye. says "ao'me," and fifteen
seconds lsIer ne has made a skillfUl dive
from IL" RATS sprinSDoaid and is padding
in swift le-; fashion out in the direction of
TIE stach, red coal barge. When his swim
i o'er. Iaa he turns up by his mothers
sd" IN MS clothes. she generally says:
Johnny. believe you've been down here
lsflr-,''
''No'm,." says Johnny; and his mother
thinks h. is natural born swimmer
maybe
prH after oon last week an Old gentleman
WIN " MI" nalr. a smooth. ruddy face and
q clear eye. brought a lad eight or ten