Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-11-08
IDEAL SEA BATHING.
Making the Sport What it Ought to
 Be-Modern Improvements.

Making the Sport What it Ought to
 Be-Modern Improvements.
 When young England of genera
 tion ago gloried ill reading Ouida it marveled greatly at those first chap ters in Moths" which told how Lady Dolly Vanderdecken and her friends bObbed up and down like male and female tops in the waters at Trouville. It seemed so wicked then, and, of course, her terrible wickedness was the great charm of the writer, partic- ularly for the girls who read her on the sly. 1t was indeed contrast from our own dull fashion of strictly separate bathing at the seaside, where the women were carefully rolled out into the waves in antiquated bathing machines and descended decorously sWathed in bundled-up costumes of dark serge, costumes which made sea swimming practically impossible. But this last objection was not strong one, as few women know how to swim And with the traditional dis trust of any continental custom as surely wicked, it is doubtful if ever we would have followed the example of our near neighbors in practicing
 bathing at seaside resorts under ra- tlonal arrangements. 1t is more, per haps, to our enterprising Yankee cous- ins that we rowe the change which in the last few years has come over our enjoyment of this fine sport; for both accounts and attractive pictures con- tinued to reach us of great stretches. of beach along the American coast where thousands of summer-worn men and women found refreshment and
 pleasure from the sea. Many foreign innovations have reached us by way
 of America, but few are more to be welcomed than this.
 Not that so far there has been any pronounced rival of sea bathing as it was practiced fifty years ago, for un- der lately prevailing conditions it is
 undeniable that this healthy form of
 recreation has declined to q marked degree. Yet there are signs on every
 hand that holiday makers are no long CT to be hampered by out-of-date reg
 ulations and equipments at most of the popular seaside resorts. Many of them now allow mixed bathing and
 the subject is under discussion in
 other local governing bodies. This alone does much to transform sea- bathing from an unattractive neces- U. l rational athletic woman of to-day who
 wears a short skirt in golfng and bi- cycling which her grandmother would
 have blushed at, sees no harm in
 swimming in a similar costume with
 her brothers and men friends. And
 returning visitors to America have told so many attractive stories of mornings on the sands at American resorts which have. been until now quite unknown inathis country. Per haps the most potent factor in the change has been the general rise of
 swimming to popularity as sport instead of a mere emergency acquire
 ment. The London Schools Swim ming association, the Amateur Swim ming association, the public day
 schools are we'll provided for by the | first-named association, which, out of l the most slender funds, annually l teaches 10000 boys and girls to swim l and to restore the apparently drown ! ed.
 l A number of the best-known re- | sorts are taking the matter up ill com pliance with increasing demands, and
 the great holiday hotels along. the 1 coast are lending no small aid in
 making sea-bathing attractive Sever | al or CQcn nave DuliL prOpeT Ddlu-
 houses along the beach, wherein their I guests may prepare for the morning | plunge and dress again in comfort on
 coming out, dispensing with the ser
 vices of the antiquated bathing ma I chine which has survived from those
 very decorous times known as early 1 Victorian. Against these uncomfor- l table devices and hideous disfigure- | ments of the seaside the London l Daily Telegraph has lately been wag- l ing a crusade Certainly they have
 done much to dwarf the popularity
 of the sport. On the part of munich palities several, like Jersey and St.. I Andrews, where the tides interfere
 with proper bathing, have constructed
 walls to retain the sea, thus forming
 vast pools where one can always en- I joy swim without trayersing long
 stretches of shingle or mud. And at
 Scarborough pools are to be construc- ted similar to those in Jersey. Of
 course on the edges of these pools it
 will be possible to construct proper ] bath-houses, with hot and cold fresh
 water supply to take away all the ac- compartments of salt and grit which
 are the unwelcome results of the sport as practiced under old arrange ments.-English Worlds Work.