Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-05-16

SaShcIS Soic9e anu f1oT-
ace Mann School.
KTO student in Columbia Uni
IN versity, Barnard College,
Teachers College nor the
Horace Mann School can graduate
without knowing how to swim, and
no one thoroughly knows how to
swim unless he or she can dive, If
need be, in street attire. When the
unexpected moment suddenly comes
10 save a drowning person somebody
usually has to plunge overheard with
shoes, hat and all clothes on. And
that is exactly the way to practise
ana make sure you are at home in
the water with all your clothes on.
NO young woman will go out of the
teachers College with a diploma
and the right to teach unless she
can teach her pupils to swim. The
test OF her experiences is made be.
lore commencement Day, when in
the presence Of the Faculty and in
Vited guests she can swim twice the
length OF the sixty-foot pool in
Thompson Hall, dressed as she would
be for a walk or for shopping.
There is an excellent reason for
this, as has been said q reason OF
everyday expediency. Drowning
persons do not wait until their res.
cuers are arrayed in bathing cos.
TUNES The shrek, the uphung
hands, the frantically tossing head,
no not wait on costume nor occasion.
Wherever there is water there is a.
risk OF drowning, and the trained
young man or woman should be
ready to meet the emergency. Not
to say. II hope that drowning wo-
man will wait until can find my
bathing suit" or. please wait until
I've taken off these things" but TO
plunge into the water on the instant,
dressed as he or she happens TO be
There is a false idea about the
peril that turks in skirts for a swim
mer The trained swimmer can get
along in them about as rapidly as
without them. There is not per-
ceptibe difference in percentage of
speed or endurance between the
swimmer in or out of skirts. But
there should be practice in these
garments so that there will be no
fear and no delay because of them
insist that my pupils take these
tests before l report favorably on
their experiences in swimming. The
pupils are asked to come to the tank
in such attire as they might wear
during a Spring or Summer vacation
They may be in the same clothes
they would wear if making tour Of
| the Broadway shops, for in such
costume they might walk beside a
lake or on river bank or by the
beach Of seashore resort. Or they
may wear the MILDLY blouse and linen
skirt, or the flannel suit in which
they would row in a canoe or take
spin in a motor launch.
These are the chief perils of a
Summer vacation, the canoe and the
motor launch. The canoe is very
insecure boat. 1t is long and narrow
and usually has round bottom. 1t
TBS easily. Lively young persons,
moving about in one are more than
likely TO make some incautious
movement that will upset it. The
students OF Barnard College, Teach
ers' College, the Horace Mann School
and of Columbia University are
=. prepared for such emergency. A life
saving corps of three thousand go
out OF these schools next June. They
are minute men and women, equal to
| any vacation emergency.
They are minute men and women
OF the waves, because they have no
|, fear OF plunging into the water in
whatever they may be wearing. If
there is time to fling off coat and hat.
very we'll. They will be by so much
less impeded. But they have learned
that they need not stop for that.
The young women Of the Teachers
College know that when they spring
into the water they will lose their
hats unless the hats happen to be
| pinned on, but that doesn't distress
] them Generally after the tests the
/ tank is dotted with floating hats.
The violent exercises losses them
OF. We practice at Saving"
"drowning" person. Either / or one
of the students impersonates the
drowning person. weigh 1873
hounds, but a little girl of eight
weighing 65 pounds, a pupil in the
Horace Mann School, saved" me the
ether day and did it expertly, by
towing me to the edge of the tank
by my hair.
| A squad of students form in line
beside the tank at one of these
schools. and I instruct them briefly.
| Get rid Of your shoes, if you have
time" I say. Shoes weigh more
than any other article Of clothing.
The shoes may be loosened by deft
untying of the strings, and then
| kicked off in the water, or they may