The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-24
GOING SWIMMING.
Mr.. John Charles Mcneil Submit
SEINE Observations of Interest to
All Boys and Those Who
Have Been Boys.
(Progressive Farmer.l

| NN''NN
Have Been Boys.
Progressive Farmer)
AS touching the excellent exercise
and sport of swimming, l wish to say
that the way best to enjoy it is to set
head against current and swim just
enough to keep even. Racing which
leaves you tremulous with exhaustion,
is not half SO fine.
The choicest stream for the purpose
is one that has wound It's way through
the filter of the sandhills, having its
mead at shady spring with white
sand dancing at it's bottom, and COM
ing clear and swift and cool into the
dat loan lands. 1t should not be
more than thirty yards wide, SO that
the afternoon shadows may extend
across it; it should have a gravel bed
It should be crooked and capricious,
so as to challenge the swimmer for
something of Il tussle on it's farther
side flags and rushes should wade out
kneedeep and stand there in a green
line; above these flags and rushes
should hang thick black-gum boughs
whereon should ripple and simmer
Che water-lights. The spring. boar6
ought to be at the head OF bluff
Just below a dark eddy with bugs and
spiders on its surface and a wasp
water.
say, at a bluff For complete en-
joyment swimmers ought not to haVt
TO sqush through mud to reach sh4
place and then hang their shirts ana
trousers on ironwood bushes. They
must go to the bluff where they can
throw their clothes on good greer
grass and make n clean run for the
Jump. Now give seventy-five yards OF
| 81 1ioht ha1oNV the ,CnriI1rv.
| board, before you get to tire bonnets
land trailing WatergraSseS. at the next
:. bend, and I'm with you at that place
every day in the summer, except dog
lays. .'
So much for the place. The bes1
; time is iayingby time. Peaches anG
apples are ripe; watermelons and
but let the cider pass. If | were to men
ton it. though, ! might say that :;
. good gourd of it smacks right fine.
After you get your siesta and walk
up to mediate upon the delicious truth
; that there is not thing to do, vol,
so out on the front porch, blow youl
fist for the neIghbors and their dogs,
and set out through the tasseling corr,
for the creek.
When YOU get there. the highlanG
is spotted with checked homespun anG
jeans, with here and there a pair OF
sockless brogans. The water is seeth-
r ing and bubbling, being splashed anC
thrashed with legs and arms of Vari-
Gus colors and sizes. A dog is sWinl-
ming across and several others liz,
painting in shallow water. A slim,
legged, brown bodied fellow craWls
up the bank backs off from the
spring. board, shouts as warning ia
unwary swimmers, runs across tho
sWard uD the plank. and with sui
len plunge buries himself beneath the
cool food. Presently he pops up.
snoring and dragging the hair from
his eyes. Then a great fat animal
groans his way to the end of the
spring board. Carefully he takes po-
sition at the end and bends his knees
TO make it go up and down. When
he thinks he has got the swing, he
precipitates his unwieldly bulk fiat on
the surface of the water with an eX,
plosive noise ooh Lord" groans he.
I'm burnt up" Then comes, say.
your muscular fellow, with springy
step From his broad shoulders t.
his heels he is wedge-shaped The
muscles bulge out on his arms anG
the calves of his legs strain back
ward He takes his run at an easy
dog-trot, springs the plank lightly t.
get the right send-off. shoots himself
high into the air, turns gracefully
and descendS into the water as slick
as an eel pulling his heels down be
hind him so neatly that there is hard
ly a splash.
Then there are they who duck each
other and sometimes almost drown
each other; there are the long divers.
and they will find any brick you may
throw in; there are they who be fam
| CIV swimmers and astonish the small
boy and the Sissy on the bank. But
the man who is really enjoying this
: froiic is acting according to the state
rnent made in the first sentence here
Of ignoring the activities about hiTo,
he has stayed in midstream, has
breasted the current, has fooled with
it. rolled his body about in its envei-
: oDing cOolness, eXulted in it, and held
his own against it, He it is who real
; ly loves the water.
We boys used to think it fine fun
! to go a mile or so UP stream and set
some old log adrift and ride her down
to the landing. This is the greatest
breeder of trickery in the world
When your prospective circus-rider
: stands up on the log and begins to
walk it, be sure that some one Will
snatch il from under him; and, once
) dislodged. he must overcome the com,
bined resistance Of his companions to
crawl back upon it. / have laughed
land shouted enough on these eXcur-
sions to balance q sea of tears. YET
it is rather dangerous because OF
lurking snags Many time, since
growing old and sober, have / been
thankful that my lungs and liver ara
lstill safe within my hide.
JOHN CHARLES McNElLL.
? Scotland Co, N. c.