The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-09-02
A GIRL LIFE SAVER.

u OITlI lltI OAuIuI.
Vassar Graduate Joins Corps at
Long Beach, N. Y.
LEARNED TO SWIM WHEN A CHILD
Miss Norma Hamilton Of New York
Is a Splendid Swimmer and HAN
In Wealthy, Handsome and strong
Modest In Her New Venture.
The summer colony at Long Beach,
N. Y, has received a thrill that should
keep it titillating for the remainder.
of the season, says the New York Even
ing World.
A young woman has joined the life
saving corps at the beach, and it is
said she is the first of her sex to I'M
dertake the heroic task of rescue work
from the line of dangerous breakers
that pound the sands of Long Islands
southern shore.
The young woman life saver Is Miss
Norma Hamilton. She is nineteen
years old and a graduate Of Vassar.
She is spending the summer at. Lyn-
brook. In the winter she lives with
her mother in a fashionable part of
New York. 1t is said by her friends
H. ~ l1rrE ~@010 N%I{SM lrv1n y<r VEN In
the line of feminine effort simply to
prove what a woman can do In difficult
emergencies. As she is wealthy, the
remuneration means nothing to her.
Her qualifications for the job Of life
saving are beyond question. Captain
Billy Leggett Of the corps declares she
is a wonderful swimmer and can han
die a lifeboat with a master hand. She
can go through a line of breakers like
a scared shark, and she has outdistanc-
ed the strongest men swimmers on the
beach in a half mile sprint.
Its really true that I am a member
of the life saving corps" said Miss
Hamilton, who is as brown as a berry
and 1.-the and graceful Of figure. II
nave UCCA dOAC W CNCA SAANO \
can remember, and l don't see any
thing wonderful about it. When l was
a little bit of a girl, we spent u sum-
mers in Maine, and I learned to swim
in the lakes. OF course fresh water
swimming is much harder than salt
water, so it seems strange to me that
more women do not swim at Long
Beach.
II swim at Long Beach all the time
and sometimes stay in the water all
day"
Strange to say, there is nothing Of
the Amazon type in Miss Ramilton's
makeup. She has broad shoulders that
spread out on the shapely Gibson lines,
but withal her figure is willowy and
~delicately nodded. Her features are
clear cut and her eyes of that gray
color that denotes unflinching deter
mination and fearless courage.
In a daintily cut bathing suit open at
the throat to show a deep, nut brown
tan, her hair done up in a tight coil
and her arms swinging free at her side
Long Beach's new life saver patrols
! her section of the long stretch of sand
: with a nonchalant ease that shows hel
independence Of thought and her disre
, gard of what the Trailer of her sez
! may regard as a p%rodigious disregard
of the feminine conventions.
Before she was accepted in the role
) of life saver Captain Billy Legget1
tried her out with a series of tests
which would have stumped the major
: ity of men who belong to the summer
, colony. When the surf was running
high she was asked to test her speet
in getting to a buoy well beyond tn
line Of breakers.
: my eyes went popping said Cap
tain Billy, when l saw the way tina
girl went through those waves. Sh'
: went over them like a catamaran driv
8 en- by a forty horsepower engine, ant
, she's got a stroke that beats anything
in the feminine swimming line / hav
ever seen. She can handle a boat Xix
q trained life saver, and l feel conf
dent that If she is ever called upon t
. get real busy her work will be a sor
' Of revelation"
i Miss Hamilton is exceedingly modes
: about her new endeavor; also she won
' ders that any n should think ]
t strange that she should wish to join i
SO noble an effort as that Of savin1
: lives.
"Some may think it a bit out of th
ordinary she remarked, "but as lon
as l am fitted for the work I thin,
that clinches my argument as to why
: enlisted my services. Though l don
call myself one Of the modern att
: letic girls of the century, I nevertht
: less consider myself an athlete. l ca
swim rings around a great many q
? the men who do the same work
am doing now, and I see no reaso
why I should not employ my ability
a good cause"