Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-26

maze Of river traffic, and are struck by bow
or propeller of one of half a dozen craft
that come hurrying with the tide at the
same moment. and never heed the tiny, wet
bobbing head in the great running waves OF
the churned river.
Desperate Tuition.
But swimming In itself hardly ever claims
any victims among the graduates. The river
boys OF the great American cities learn to
swim in desperate way as the young
Greeks learned to fight. Most of them are
heayed overheard and sent out far as the
willing muscles of the rest can throw them.
Then they must either learn to swim quick
or go down.
Most of them elect on the spur Of the suf-
locating moment to swim. Those who go
down are brought up by the swimmers
around the spot, and there. in perhaps fifty
feet of black water, with a current racing
five and more miles and steam vessels
pounding the big waves into still bigger
breakers, the boy is taught to swim by being
passed from hand to hand. allowed to sink
at times to get him used to it. and pulled
around till he learns to keep afioat in sheer
self-defense.
Everybody has read travellers stories Of
the splendid swimmers of the uncivili2ed
races-the swimmers of Hawaii and the
South seas. and the divers OF the Barrier
reef and the West Indies. They are truly
OF many men who know. the swimmers of
the water fronts of the great American
cities especially OF cities surrounded by
such boiling waters as is New York. are
entitled to rank high among the best SWIM
mers of the world
No swimmer In Pacific seas has such a
handicap OF turbulent tide, turbulent sea
and turbulent artificial agitation to face as
York who slyly divests himself of his cloth
ing when the police are not looking and
Jumps into the Hudson river-sixty feet
deep with nothing except slippery spiles
descending sheer into 1t and offering not
even enough crevice TO insert finger.
L have seen the boys of the West Indies
dive thirty and more feet for coins and get
them every time but the water In glorious
ly clear. like lapus laZuli, and the coins
can be seen distinctly on the bottom among
the shells and growths. The boys of the
Hudson river couldn't, OF course, recover
a coin from the bottom. The depths are
inky and the mud would swallow a coin as
soon as 1t fell But they can and do re-
cover white shells that are thrown into
twenty-five and more feet OF that black,
Opaque water. and they have to grope
around In clouds Of still blacker mud to do
IL. That Is something like diving
They swim. not like boys but like fish
They can stay in the water for hours with
out suffering any Ill effects; indeed hum
phibious life literally during the entire hot
spell, basking In the sun like seals till they
are dry and warm and then sporting in the
water Till they are cool. They do not emerge
from the river for good till late at night.
and then fair proportion OF them sleep
under the planking of the piers on the
beams and rafters Immediately above the
river.
They play their games of tag" follow
the leader" and even a slightly modified
base ball In the water. Their frequent
nights nights are engaged in as frequently in the
river as on the banks. They perch on
string pieces like frogs and like frogs go