Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-19
GIRLS GREAT SWIM
Rose Pitonof Covers Seven
teen Miles in Record Time.
COMFY ISLAND THE GOAL
Defeats Two Women in Race
Through Rough Water.
WINS BY ONLY FIVE MINUTES
Adelaide Trap, Forced to Give Up,
Asks for Ice Cream When
She Reaches Shore.
WINS BY ONLY FIVE MINUTES

NEW YORK. September 19-From the
New York Athletic Clubs pier at East
I'D street down the East river, under
the big bridges. through waters rough
ened by the wash of many moving ships;
then out beyond the Battery and the
harbor and into the tossing sea: then
tons point and finally landing within half
a mile of the Steeplechase pier at Coney
Island-the whole a distance of seventeen
miles-that was the astounding perform
ance yesterday of small, sturdy, pretty
sixteen-year-old girl. Ross Pitonof by
name, q little lass from Boston.
She outdid her own former famous
swimming feat. performed in Massachu-
sets waters, when she swan from the
Charlestown bridge to the Boston harbor
light. twelve and one-half miles.
In yesterdays accomplishment she was
not alone. She had for a rival Mrs. Clara
Hurst Bouton of No. $40 Clark avenue,
Port Richmond. Staten Island, young
woman of superbly powerful and 1.-THE
frame and wonderful endurance. She has
achieved many long-distance swims, and
last year wore out all but one Of field
Of twenty-five men who started with her
to swim from Brooklyn bridge to Coney
Island
Tide Running High.
But little Miss Pitonof beat her rival
In point of time She landed five minutes
ahead of Mrs. Bouton Both swan the
same distance, but the Boston water
sprite did it in five hours and six min
utes; Mrs. Bouton in five hours and
eleven minutes.
There was a third contestant. Adelaide
Trapp, nineteen years old. Sturdy as the
others, she is a slower swimmer, and
in the exciting struggle. When she
reached Nortons point the tide had risen
and was coming in with such flow that
the strongest of swimmers could not have
fought 1t.
She was obliged to land therefore at
the Atlantic Yacht Clubs pier, near the
point. And this young woman at the
end of her sixteen-mil swim made
smiling refusal of the offer Of stimulants
Isn't there anything we can get your
demanded a half dozen men. Isn't there
any bracer you'd like"
"Oh, yes she answered promptly
well, WHAT"
ice cream" said she, and she ate all
OF the heaping plate they fetched her.
The three women broke all records for
Coney Island swims.
Went Two Miles Out of Way.
Two things initiated against the
young women making the swim to a far
ther point than Steeplechase pier which
they otherwise might have done. One
was the mistakes made by their guide
boats which directed the swimmers fully
two miles out of their direct course. The
other was that they started fully an hour
later than they should haLA done to take
full advantage of the ebb tide.
By the time they had rounded Nor
tons point, the tide had set in with
a force that made their strokes, trained
and skillful though they were, quite pow
erless to advance them an inch, and they
had to take to the shore
After her endurance swim to Boston
harbor light, little Miss Pitonof was ex-
amined by DIR. Charles Dudley Sar-
gent, physical director at Harvard Uni
versity, who pronounced her the most
powerfully built girl he had ever seen.
Her prettiness and grace caused her
to be engaged for the Keith and Proc
tor vaudeville houses, and Howard Her
rick, her manager, arranged yesterday s
performance for the purpose of showing
New Workers what the little woman could
do.
The information that little Miss Pitonof
was to essay to swim to COney Island
from away up the East river brought
Mrs. Bouton and Miss Trapp forward to
guard local honors.