The Washington times., 1901-07-28

selves. They're not smart AIecs. but
they're RASH They're lads for the most
part, who never started in to learn how
10 swim until Just while before they
get into trouble. and when they get so
that they can hit up a. few strokes and
make litie progress they get to think
Ing that they'd like to do it just like the
other fellows that've been swimming all
their lives-that learned how to swim in
crick when they were kids When they
make these stabs they often go wrong.
and have to be picked out There's a lit
tie vanity in this business of the lads
trying the deep water. They think that
1t makes EN- look cheap to be padding
around with the women, hanging on to
the ropes. But. as I tell you, vanity
browns heap of men In the course of
bathing season.
"A lot of people stay In the water too
long, too, and get in trouble that way.
Their muscles become all drawn up and
cramped, and when. as often happens,
they get this way in deep water. they are
helpless and have to be yanked out. About
three-quarters of an hour Is long sea
bath for folks that are not used to it
Another thing. people that go sea bath
ing ought to spend most of their time in
the water. Sitting on the sand in the hot
sun makes EN- liable to be cramped, after
they've been in once when they go in
again. Talking about that. dye know
that there are lot of pretty boys in
pretty bathing suits who do as much pret-
~ posing on the beach as some girls do?
Fact. have seen lots OF yaps who have
not done much more than wet their pink
toes, and then spend about three hours
showing their bathing suits on the sand.
The funny papers get after the girls who
never go into the water, but they ought
to get out their hammers for the lovely
pieces of work with short hair that now
adays perform the same stunt.
We call about three-fourths of our
cases during the bathing seasons false
alarms We mean by that women who
think they are going down to a watery
grave in eight inches of salt water.
don't know just why 1t is that a womans
head is so much heavier than her feet,
but everybody knows that's a fact. A
woman slips and gets her head in a foot
of water when she's only five feet from
the beach, and she thinks it's all of with
her in this life. I've seen women pirhed
out of the water under these conditions
that've been at the point of death from
fright. And they tell all OF their friends
atterward, and their grandchildren when
the grandchildren come along, about the
time they came near being drowned by
accidentally getting out of their depth.
Its an old story. and not worth talk
ing about, that most women fail to learn
how to swim because they haven't got
the confidence Some women are just
naturally born never to learn how to
SWIM know a coast guardsman like
myself who has spent six years trying
to teach his wife how to swim and she
can't hit lick yet, and never will. She's
afraid of it. like the great majority of
women. Young girls have more conf
dence than grown women, and they
should be taught to swim when they're
young. Most of the fine swimmers among
women that you see doing the mermaid
stunts around the beaches were taught
how to do the trick when they were chill
dren and had their nerve with them
Baltimore Sun.