Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-21
COIN IN SWIM MIN


"A few days ago.. remarked the COM
misunderstanding qian Of forty-five or so
and the couple Of etans. Il overheard pair
OF tykes-shavers or ten or twelve-talking
with whole heap of delight of the APP
preaching beginning of the season at the.
bathing beach. They adverted to visiting
the bathing beach as 'goin in swimmin'.'
An, say. when they put it that way-men-
TONED visiting the bathing beach as 'goin'
In swimmin'- give you my word that y
throat for that pair of tads-for all other
youngsters, fact is. that have got the pa
thetic idea, knowing no better that visit
Ing the bathing beach really constitutes, or
ever could constitute the thing known as
Soln IN swimmin'' In Washington, or in
any other city, in fact .goin in swimmin'
Is JUST as meaningless a phrase as going
~. Coventry or going to take the Chiltern
hundreds It's only phrase. The thing
itself doesn't exist.
Now, when the kid here visits the bathing
peacn the performance is about as cut and
erleo as ms visiting the table for his break
last or his visiting his aunt up on Capitol
Fill for possible cookies ond nickel
thrown In for good measure. He goes down
yonder to the plant where the youngsters
patHe, ana nnds policed plant, with life
guards, and floats, and all that kind o.
gear and tackle, and he goes into boarded
place and takes off his buds and puts on a
pair OF the things they call trunks-believe
mats the name for 'em, isn't it-and then
he paddles around in the water for a while,
under the eye of lot of <rown-up folks.
ana when he gets all through that kind of
soiemn splashing he comes out Of the water
ana enters the boarGed-up place again, and.
Dy links, actually uses towel on himself
before he puts on his little toggerinos
again. And then he comes away and tells
the refers that he meets that he's been in
swimmin' and had bully time Of 1t. The
poor little chap! And he's never been in
swimmin' at ALL but only imagines, in the
Innocence of his heart, that that's what he's
been doing.
Why, say. there never was any such
deliberation about the gofn' In. swimmin
business since the act of fOoling around in
the water by boy was invented. 1t was
always spontaneous performance, and
generally at the instigation Of some other
Kid. He'd come around in the lot next to
the little old shack in which grew up, for
example. and give the understood whistle,
ana when I'd show UP at the door or win
dow he'd show me two fingers, held up
ward, and an inquiring look on his face,
and. of course. knew just what that
meant-did want to go in swimmin'., Or
I'd go around to his home and give the
whistle and show him the two upward-held
fingers, and he'd understand the same
thing And then the two of us I'D hike
off together giving the whistle and the
two-finger signal to the rest Of the gang.
and that's the way the party would be
formed. We always knew whether the kids
to whose homes we went were allowed to
go In swimmfn' or not, and we acted ac-
cordingly. We had other ways and means,
too deep and detailed and adroit to be
dwelt upon, for notifying the kids whose
folks wouldn't let EN- go in swimmin' that
swfmmin' bunch was forming and that
they were counted in il they could make
the sneak and get out without being cor
rallied in the act.
THE outfit formed. we'd proceed with fine
boyfsh abandon to the most dangerous
swimmin place that could possibly be
picked out by the most expert eye. There
was always plenty Of first-rate swimmin
to be had, but I'VE scorned that kind of
stuff We had no use for the places that
didn'5t have eddies and cross-currents and
quicksands and quick slime and water
snakes and all that kind o. thing-no use
whatever. There, were plenty of places of
the greatest possible safety where even
grown men-otr fathers among the num-
ber-would go of occasional evenings to
take their swfms, but We looked upon these
grown men as inothefr adotage for choosing
places to swim where they didn't have
about three chances out OF five never to
come out alive. II we went hole swimmin
that is, in the crick-we had the most
intense and abnormal dislike for those nice
spots in the criek, where the current was
easy and mild and where the pebbly shall
lows gradually led out to about eight foot
Of water. Nix o. that for us. Our thing
in hole swimmins'l in the crfcl was to pick
out some weird. dark spot with trees over
and whore, when You jumped In from the
roots of a big tree, burned If you wouldn't
go almost to China before you'd even think
of comm to the surface again: and where
the water was SO blamed cold, from being
always in shadow, that there was Just a
glorious chance of a boy having cramp
as soon as he hit the water and going
down and then being brought home on a.
VIZ a nd md oot
of EN- to look at sorrowfully.
THAT was our game in crick swimmin'.
Same with river swimmin'. No gradual
sloping out for us. We wanted to hop in at
the points where the river was narrow and
the torrent just ragged and swirled and
sucked big logs down and tossed 'em up
again-that for us. And, while I'm at that
end of 1t. want to say that when one of
us went down and forgot to come up any
more. and after while was brought home
to his folks, all dripping and snaky- haired,
and buried with us fellers for pallbearers-'
why. that didn't stop US. from goin In
little bit. We'd all be solemnly warned to
keep away from the water on such occa-
sions. on peril of being f1ayed alive, but
that didn't make any difference. In day
or SO after Jimmie or Eddie or Mickie or
Johnnie was put away in the little old hill
cemetery-why, the bunch of us nd be doing
the whistle and the two-flnger signal again,
and going off to the same old dangerous
much as ever. Death had no terrors for
us feliers that used to do the real thing in
goin in swimmin'.
"And what do the fellers that go in swim
min nowadays at the bathing beach-that
Just visit the bathing beach, mean-what
do they know about such stunts as tying
knots in the clothes of the weakest MEM
bers of the party and soaking the knots in
water and making the weakest members
spend miserable and fear-haunted hours in
untying 'em-fear haunted. because We the
knot-tyers would make our departure along
toward shutdown and leave the knot-chew-
ers sitting on the beach chewing away at
the hard knots, and they'd have the cark-
ing dread of getting home so late that
they'd be given away for a cinch for hav-
ing been in swimming, and they knew the
woodshed possibilities of that kind of thing.
WHY. it was part of the real old thing Of
goin' in swimmin' to pick on the fellers
that were either too good-natured to resent
the picking on or too weak in physical con,
formation to frame up a comeback. We'd
hold that kind down In the water until we
felt them relax and grow pulpy in our
hands and then we'd let 'em up and stretch
'em out on the brink and let the air into the
lungs for a little while, and then we'd
hold 'em under again for while. And In
nlaytns leapfrog on the brink to give the
performance variety we'd always make
those weakest members ethe down men