Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-30
FINEST OF SWIMMERS
They Are the Wharf Rats of
New York City.
LEARN AS CHILDREN
TENEMENT BOYS WHO FAIRLY
LIVE IN THE WATER.
Where the Tide Runs Strongest and
Danger is on Every
Side.
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
"Hey, Jimmy. Betcher can't swim out to
de spar BUOY
The spar buoy, red and flashing, is strain
ing in the glare of the sun on the East
river half a mile off shore in the wickedest
tide that ever raced from a fifty named He'll
Gate to the sea. -
With that ebb tide, eager to profit by its
rush. the daily wonder of fleet comes driv-
ing down-broad railroad floats loaded with
whole trains, with a bow wave cascading
ahead of them whose roar can be heard
clear in shore; tugs, single and tandem,
tearing down with wallowing lighters and
schooners, sometimes fastened five and six
abreast, sometimes strung out in single file
for quarter of a mile; steamships, barges,
sail and steam and gasoline and oar-all
pouring through the water gate of New
York to the sea.
And out into this plunging, clustered
argosy, into the heavy waves that always
toss in the strait and made ten times
more violent by the rending and beating of
paddle wheels and screws darts a tiny,
brown thing, four feet long, lean shanked,
ribs showing under brown skin-Jimmy,
heading through worlds hurrying COM
merce to swim to the spar buoy on dare.
And Jimmy does it. A few Jimmies get
drowned every year, but the droWnerS are
only a tiny percentage of the ten thousand
swimmers whose round heads bob all
around New York from dawn to night, and
even at night from the first warm sun of
May to the last days of September
"Best Swimmers in the World"
81 have seen the negro boys diving for
coins in the clear, blue waters off Key
| West and in the lapus hzuli sea off st.
Thomas. I've seen the famous Port Said
swimming boys around the ships and I've
seen the Hawaiian surf swimmers and
think that the New York dock rat is the
best swimmer of them all said ships
captain to me one day in the West Indies,
while we watched the handsome black For
tune Island men swimming around d raft
that they were building. THE Hawaiian
| Is the only one who equals him. and even
he swims in seas that are high, but regular
and slow, whereas the New York boy swims
in a regular boil of waters, cut criss cross
by tides and eddies and Whirls-
| Jimmy of the river front deserves the
| compliment
His swimming hole is from thirty to
| fifty feet deep and from three-quarters TO
a mile wide without a shoal spot in it.
| That mad strait known as East river Is
pot that is aboil all the time
It's waves do not roll. They tumble. lis
| currents carry steam craft along Ike Toys.
unless they head straight lnto uhe pun OIL
the tidal flow.
Swimming Lessons in Five Fathoms.
There isn't shelving beach or foot
the sides of this East river. 1t runs be-
! tween banks fifteen and more feet high
| made of wooden spiles iron and concrete,
and standing straight in water thirty feet
| deep ,
| SWIM in two ways. He can go into the
| floating baths moored at various piers,
| which is a refuge OF paltry souls, or he
| can walk boldly out to the end OF pier
| where, within few moments, somebody
| will come to the rescue OF his possible hesl-
| tation by heaving him far out into the
| racing river.
Around hin will be three or four lean
| boys. But they will not heed his despair
| ing google eyes or his blubbery gaspS for
heIp. They are firmly convinced that no.
| hody can drown unless he comes up Twice
and goes down for the third time. So they
| wait for that third time rel1giousiy
| If he hasn't learned to keep hlmsell anoat
| then they will snatch at him and haul
| him to the surface, and there, in the deep,
| open river, in the grip OF current tnat
| carries them all along like chips, the novice
| gets his swimming lesson.
| II heine mostly case Of swim or DROWN,
| the novice usually learns to swim before ne
gets ashore. And the next day he Will
| burn with noble Impotence to lure some
other friend who cannot swim to undergo
| the same glorious experience.
owing to the heights of the piers above
| the surface Of the rivers, the tenement
| house boys become fine divers. The BOY
| who cannot take clean-cut header is
| viewed with open scorn, and kind hands
| are ever ready to seize him, hold him out
over the brink by his feet and drop him in
| head first, thus teaching him in boisterous,
but explicit, fashion how to dive.
Magnificent Divers Are They.
They can dive for coins like the boys OF
the sub-tropics, for the water of the North
and East rivers is black-green, and no coin
could be seen foot below the surface
Also. the bottom being Of the inkiest OF
black mud, the poor coin would be swal-
lowed in forty feet of ooze the moment il
reached there. But throw a white oyster
shell or any similar bright object that Is
not heavy enough to sink in the mud. and
| the average New York river-front boy will
bring it up every time from water thirty
| feet deep.
He can catch most objects before they
| reach bottom. But II he has to get clear
down into the marine night and grope
! around in the swirling mud, he will do IT
| And If you hold stop-watch on him, the
| second hand will make good journey be-
! fore the water gives him up.
| When the heat blasts the rookeries and