The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-02-09
A BOY
WHO SAVED
FIVE LIVES
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!
record of five lives saved durin g
| his first seasons swimming shows
| how useful the art of swimming may
| be to a boy. Frank Duffy lives near
! the foot of South 9th street. Brooklyn
There is an Old wharf at the end of
the street-a rotting old wharf nc
longer used. On this sunny, deserted
old pier the boys of the neighDorhood
cOnSregate and skylaTk in the water.
At certain hours they go in swim
ming. The term high tide and low
tide" are not in use on this pier. In
stead. the boys say clean water
and dirty water A big sewer pours
its muddy stream into the river at
this point. At low tide the boys will
not go in. They wait for high tide,
and they keep track of its rise and
fall with all the precision of old fish
ermen. Sometimes at 8 or 10 O'Clock
at night the cry "Clean water" in
long drawn cadence, will run along
the foot Of South 9Th street. and from
all round about the boys come flock
ing. like the children after the pied
Piper Of Hamelin Town" Mothers
protest in vain. Boys have even been
Known to slip out Of bed on hot
summer night, jerk trousers over
nishtsiirt and skin away to that mag
ic cry Of Clean water!" Some boys
stay in the whole six hours of "clean
water"
Nevertheless, Frank Duffy had lived
at No. 81 South 9Th street for fouf
years without learning to swim. He
can't tell why. He just didn't. There
are many other boys in the neignbor-
hood who have never learned A year
ago, in September, he went to Sleeps
head Bay for several successive Sun
days with number Of other boys.
They hired a boat and amused them
selves by diving from it in water
wings. This apparatus is something
like lifesaving belt, with big pads
on either side. The whole is blown
up like bicycle tire, and will support
a mans body in the water. Frank
padded about in the water twice With
the wings. The third day he dove as
usual but the wings had been improp.
erly fastened, and he found himself
in the water without them. 1t was
up to" him to swim, and he swan
as naturally as if he had been SWIM
ming all his life. He swan a little
more before cold weather came, and
last spring started swimming regu-
larly at the foot OF South 9Th street.
On September II. while standing on
the pier, he noticed a boys head go
down. The head did not come up,
and there was strong presumption
that it was under a log that bumped |
lazily on the tide. Flinging off his
coat, but fully accoutred otherwise,
Frank sprang in and swan to the log.
He saw the boy under the log, grab
bed his foot and dragged him to the
surface. The boy, Herman Hurdis, |
had swallowed SO much water that |
ne was nearly unconscious and almost |
drowned. Frank took him to shore |
with one hand; then be proceeded to |
stand him on his head to let the salt |
water run out. At this the Hurdis
boy came 20 life and objected Justify. !
Then Frank tried to roll him to get |
he water out. But the Hurdis boy
would not permit that, and ungrateful-
y tried to kick his rescuer in the
stomach. So Frank abandoned the eff
ort in disgust.
1t was his busy day, however. He
lad no sooner ceased his course Of
irst aid to the injured than he saw
mother boy trying to drown himself.
This was Charles Schmidt, who lived
ust across the street from Frank.
The Schmidt boy felt himself being
.arried out by the tide and began to
cream. Young Duffy plunged in
gain ard brought his second trophy
o tho shore. AS he set him down
N the pier, he said in disgust:
"Say: l can't keep dis ting up all
lay Can't you kids keep in your
lepth? You'd better tie string