Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-08-01
SWIMMING POOL WANTED
Would Save Several Lives Each YeaI
 f Safo PIaco Was Provided.

been drowned this summer, which is only about half over, Is causing bathers to have a dread of water and is causing city officials to devise some means which will lower the death rate from drowning each year.
 There are numerous persons who meet death away from home. at the seashore for instance. and at lakes
 wheer camping parties are accus- toned to visit. But the number that find death in a watery grave in this city yearly is not small by any means.
 The pond at Forest park, which at one time was q very popular place
 for bathers, is now summed by hun
 dreds who dabbled in its waters a
 year or two ago. There have been so many drownings in that pond that 1t seems to be hoodoo for swim
 mers. Even during the winter more persons lose their lives there than in any other place in the city.
 The New" pond, commonly
 known as the ice house pond, in the eastern section of the city. Is not ire quented by the bathers as in days gone by. The number of springs in this body of water has a deadly ef- feet upon a swimmer and several
 have gone to the bottom there after taking cramps caused by the change from the hot to the cold water. Another place which has always been popular and where there is lit tie or no danger of drowning is what Is known as "Spooney" ditch. The stream Is always running and any swimmer in danger has very little trouble reaching the banks. as the
 ditch is very narrow.
 Browns Falls always proved popu- lar with those that like the water,
 and is as good as any other place in the city.
 But none of the places mentioned
 above or any other pond ill the city where swimmers go is surrounded with the proper safeguards so as to prevent drowning fatalities. That's the reason why many inNthis city state that the city should build bathing place in some part of the town where bathers may have a chance to go and
 have dip without taking their lives in their hands. The pool for the children at Hamilton park has proved a rousing success and although 1t was
 rumored last fall that this summer
 would see one started out there for adults, it seems to have been lost sight of There are numerous places
 for a good public bathing place at
 Hamilton park and with the expendi- ture of few thousand dollars an ex- cellent place for swimmers could be erected there.
 The swimming pool at the park is,
 when everything is taken into consid- eration, one of the most practical things which the city has built in a long time. It was put there for the purpose of amusing the children and affording them pleasure, but it is lproving an excellent thing, as youths
 who never would have learned how to swim are getting on to how to do the trick there. The water is of only
 a certain depth and as this removes
 almost all danger, children are not Iaftaid to entex 9isS tliet. aw9uld in
 other ponds or pools. Since the bath
 ing place for children has proved such | success there IS no reason to douDt
 that such place for adults would be
 equally successful.
 Recent drownings also bring to light the fact that in this city the
 means for recovering dead bodies are
 very poor. There is no system of get | ting person, who has been drowned,
 from his watery grave, and in most
 cases the relatives, who are general ly striken with grief, have to drag
 the pond for their father, mother,
 sister or brother. or whoever the per
 son might be. The city should at
 least purchase a set of grappling iron for this purpose and appoint a couple of men to look after such af-
 fairs. There should be some system
 in a city of the size of Waterbury for
 the recovering of bodies that have
 been lost in the water.