Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-30

fills the dirty streets of the poor districts
with sodden vapor and stenches and the
lamentation of whiting babies, the boys
practically live in the river.
1t is nothing uncommon for boys to dive
into the stream at eight in the morning
and not to climb out again till noon.
Thin, shivering, with teeth chatterng,
they still manage to escape cramps and all
the other terrors of water. And In the
hours that they spend in the river they get
no rest other than that to be obtained by
clinging now and then, Snail-like, to the
slippery Shiny spiles
More Fish Than Boy.
They do everything that a fish does.
They can swim under water as well as on
top They catch each other by the feet
and pull each other under. They struggle,
with arms locked around necks, deep below
the surface, till there isn't breath left in
their fought little bodies They play tag,
prisoners base and even ball in the river.
They will, on proper occasion, engage in a
regular tight with all the rules, pummeling
one another with as much attention to de-
tail as II they were on dry land.
The plutocratS among them wear those
apologies for fig leaves that are known
tights. The more rugged citizens wear
their skin alone.
The perfection to which they have
brought the art Of dressing and undressing
is worth chapter in the history of clothes.
Arrived at the end of the pier, the tene-
ment house boy gives himself shake and
a wriggle. The shake sheds the trousers
The wriggle sends the shirt into the air
The next instant he is overheard.
The lot of the policemen assigned to duty
at the piers is one of heartrending humor
If one is sighted heading down the pier
and there is time, the spies are alive at
the warning signal with boys who fit up
the smooth, wet wood like lizar ds, fall
wildly on the tangled mess of clothes, hurl
themselves headfirst into any old garment,
and snatching what is left, race way
If there isn't time to do this, the boys on
the pier grab the clothes and rush away to
hiding places or around to the next pier,
while the swimmers, resting contentedly in
the water, make shrill remarks to the po-
Hceman that are calculated with deep cum
ming to affect his hottest private feelings
Queer Launching Day."
August is the fete day of the New York
water boys. On that day WI oever ventures
near the edge of pier is more than likely
to be hurled into the water. 1t is sacred
rite whose origin is lost in the past.
Launching day." they call it, and many a
silk-hatted, frock-coated stranger visiting
a pier in the tenement districts on business
has learned about it suddenly by finding
himself struggling in the river, while a
crowd of deliberately innocent loungers
watch the kindly but strar gels clumsy eff
forts of the swimmers around trying to
save him.
Most tenement house boys whose timidity
has kept them from learning to swim until
that day, are impelled to the piers then by
the same irresistible impulse that used to
lead persons to throw themselves under the
car of old Juggernaut. Down they wander,
with palpitating hearts, and over they go,
to scramble ashore presently as full-fedged
swimmers else to be grappled for and
brought up as corpses, which is something
that happens on occasion.
Launching day isn't the ferocious feast
of riot that it used to be on the river fronts
when absolutely everybody who
ventured on pier went overheard as soon
as some one could get behind him to admin
lister the shove. Nowadays strangers gem
orally are left alone. But 1t is just as well
to remain away from piers if one does not
wish to launched.
Among the boys it remains the same wild
ceremony that it has been; and he is
singulariy fortunate boy who escapes a
ducking.
Saving Drowning Lad.
The way in which a sputtering, water
blinded, terrified victim is handled by the
boys who wait for him in the river is a
liberal education in the art of saving life.
The boy swimmers of New York can handle
a drowning lad as easily the athletes in
a swimming tank handle the ball in water
polo. They dive for the sinking one, drag
him upward by the hair, hold him up till
he has his breath, pull him under again,
pass him from hand to hand, join hands
and dance in a ring around him IN the
water, and altogether do everything that
mischief and recklessness can lead imps to
do.
A favorite feat Of these wonderful little
swimmers is to dive from high places; and
, there are high places enough and to spare
for the purpose. No boy is considered rs
worth real consideration and applause I'M
less he can dive straight and true from the
lower spars of a vessel And during a
days observation at almost any pier the
student of swimming will be sure to see
boys who can dive clean from the upper
spars of full-rigged ship.
They Jump Right In.
These daring ones, strange to say, are
the ones who meet with the least amount
of disaster, although every season few
kill themselves either by striking headfirst