Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-01-17
Remarkable Progress Made by Women in
All Lines of Outdoor Sports Since Grand
! ma Just Sat Around and Knitted

TVHE recent remarkable exhibitions
Of swimming and diving BY young
= women contestants at the New
York sportsmen's Show, held in Madison
Square Garden. directs renewed attention
TO the increasing efficiency Of women ath-
letes in all branches of outdoor sports.
Here was indeed a significant spectacle
IA score OF fine, modest, weIl-bred girls
carrying OF swimming and diving honors
before mixed audiences OF tens Of thou
sands during q whole week from Jan. 2
to Jan. ., and doing It with as much con-
ndence and unembarrassment as though
they were 80 many professionals Of the
sterner sex.
This is the second year Of that spectacle
in connection with the sportsmen's Show
It Is the most emphatic possible illustration
that young women Of to-day insist upon
placing themselves on basis Of equality
with young men in sports demanding the
highest resources OF physical health and
strength. skill and courage.
Although amateur athletes, these girls
are 80 proficient In swimming and diving.
and in all water sports, that they actually
vie in records with the best professionals,
like Annette Kellermann, who offered the
diving trophy. 1t does not shock them at
all that their photographs and names are
frequently printed in the newspapers in
connection with their athletic triumphs
Such names as Elsie Hanneman, winner
Of the worlds woman's fancy diving cham.
pionship; Nellie GTeenhell, whos though
barely over sixteen years old, swims 100
yards In 1 minute 5h seconds; Miss NJ.
simpson. Miss Edna Cole, Miss Mile
Bartildes. and, among scores of others.
the Misses Josephine Bartlett, Lucy Free
man. Rita Greenfield. Mary Nerich, Martha
Hogstedt and Elsie Sutton.
At their age grandmamma, tenderly
shielded from any contact with the outside
world, was doing her ''tatting." Her eth-
letio pretentions were limited to lady
like game of croquet on the homo lawn.
we'll screened from the public view.
II grandmamma ie amazed at the change
that has como over girls in the last forty
years. what amases her most probably, Is
that the higher the social scale the more
addicted are It's girls to strenuous outdoor
sports. Grandmamma might expect that
the working classes" whose Woodworking
sort OF thing in the case Of ''hoydens of
parents have no time in which to properly
bring them up" but not In the case OF the
daughters Of parents possessing wealth and
inherited refinement.
Yet she hears of Miss Eleanor Sears. OF
Boston, outwalking, outriding and out
swimming the men Of her own social set
0randmamma'a athletic granddaughter does
not hesitate TO remind her that both Mrs
John Jacob Astor and her sister, Miss Cath
crime Force, treasure their triumps on the
golf links and on the tennis court Upon 90
CASTOR ehe may produce the Social Register
and show grandmamma that the first
families Of the land are sprinkled with
athletic daughters.
II iS only since 1910 that great public
pay exhibitions OF women athletics
amateurs-have come into vogue IN this
country, with their fayorite feats OF
swimming and diving forming the pro
Krammes practically exclusively, as was
the case at the New York sportsmen's