The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-08-30

Each season the number of devices
employed to prevent accidents in the
surf at the seaside resorts is increased,
while MANY old ones are discarded. The
professional swimmer who is willing
for a consideration to pose in a. bath
ing suit of an abbreviated pattern on
the hot sands of the beach to save the
life of any unfortunatesvho may get in
the tolls of the sea has become such
generally recognized institution
that our summer resorts would be in
complete without him. There is an
army of several thousands of these
life savers scattered along the coast
from Maine to Florida, and their SER
vices are required from the middle of
June to the middle of September-the
official bathing season on the coast.
For the most part the professional
life saver on the coast is either a
fisherman in winter or a member of
the ,life-saving service. In the summer
he can often earn as much in watch
ing for foolish or careless bathers as
he receives from the Government in
performing duties of the most hazard
Gus nature Very often the victims
these life savers haul out of the surf
at the seaside are so grateful that
substantial money rewards are given
to the men for their efforts. The beach
Improvement companies usually pay
the life savers moderately good wages.
ranging from $40 to 500 per month.
The work they do is not measured by
the amount of physical force expend-
ed, but by the seasons results. Some
life savers have a record of 20 or 80
lives saved, and each season they
strive to increase this record. A GER
tain ambition to excel all others in
this respect stimulates them to vig-
lance that makes surf bathing at a
properly patrolied beach perfectly
safe.
Most of the time must be spent in
resting and lolling on the beach, es-
pecially at low tide when bathers are
few. When the bathing hour ap-
proaches the life savers on duty are
constantly watching the inexperienced
swimmers. It does not take them long
to size up the bathers One ventures
foolishly beyond his depth. conscious
OF a little skill in swimming, but unac-
cCstomed to measuring the force of
the tides and waves. The venturesome
one is scarcely caught by some cur
rent and swept too far out by a re-
treating wave before one of the life
savers is on his feet ready to plunge
into the water. Often the person is
brought back to the beach before the
crowd is aware Of any Impending
tragedy.
At crowded beaches like Atlantic
City, Cape May, Asbury Park and
Long Branch thousands of bathers are
in the water at once, and probably
not more than a dozen life savers will
be stationed there to look out for their
safety. Yet so carefully patrolled are
the beaches that fatal accidents rarely
happen A score or more of rescues are
made each season, and as many as a
dozen have been made in a single day
at each of these popular resorts. Only
those in charge of the life saving de-
partment of the beaches know the ex-
act number that are brought ashore
half drowned.
The question of adopting mechanical
devices TO prevent accidents in the surf
is annually agitated by those in charge
of this work. and many new inventions
are annually put on the market The
simplest method is to provide the life
saver with a life boat. which he keeps
just beyond the line of breakers during
the bathing hour. Any one swept out
beyond his depth would thus come un-
der the sharp eye of the man stationed
at that point.
When the hour for bathing draws to
"a close the life boat is oeachad and
the life saver can rest on the sands
or under the tents or pav;lions. But
even then he must watch the few
who persist in bathing long after they
should be out of the water. Usually
the life savers work in pairs. and the
best swimmer has a stout leathern
belt around his waist in which is
fastened a hook. Should he find it
necessary TO plunge into the water
after victim a small rope is at
tached to this hook in the belt, and
his companion in the service unreels
the rope as he swims ont. IF for any
reason the two should become over
powered by the tides and waves the
rope is reeled in rapidly and the two
-s@asssS With q. life preserver around