Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-30

upon the water should know how to
protect and save himself and others
Yet surprising proportion of them do
not know how to swim, most Of those
who do are ignorant of how to go about
rescuing a drowning person, and in gen.
eral, fear and ignorance are the equip
ment that Is present at an accident on
the water.
Even among persons that do not know
how to swim there would be far fewer
| fatalities if they understood the water
| when they fall into 1t.
| II you fill your lungs with air and keep
your mouth shut you cannot sink; if
there is any
Some Simple Things help within
to Prevent Drowning. can ,ea suv
keep up until 1t comes. Also. any object
lighter than water, even though very
small, will serve as a life preserver. An
ordinary dishpan. a metal or wooden
bucket or any other vessel inverted in
the water and held upright with both
hands will keep you from sinking Your
own derby hat will save you in the same
way If you have the presence Of mind
to use it. while a tall silk hat will float
you finely until it becomes waterlogged.
which will require fifteen or twenty
minutes. A big rubber ball will save a
mans life and SO will an opened parasol
or umbrella If held upright in the water
so that an air chamber will remain
under it. A woman's skirts have often
saved her in the same way. There can
be no doubt but what hundreds of peo-
! pie drown every year who might be
saved by some article within their reach
or that of bystanders. Foot balls and
fire.. TO
servers and are easy to throw straight.
! So it is ignorance and fright that do
most of the damage. If you yell and
| founder you expel all of the air from
mouth and relax you will stay up.
There is nothing in the popular idea
that a drowning person will sink three
| times. If he goes down with his mouth
| open he will probably never come up
again alive. IF he keeps his mouth
| shut and holds his breath he may
come up several times, and help will
probably reach him if there is any
near.
| The chief cause of drowning among
| supposedly good swimmers is popular
| ly supposed to be cramps. AS a mat
ter of fact, cramps in the water are
very rare. A cramp in the leg Or
arm should not put swimmer out bf
commission, as he can easily work it
| out while floating. A cramp in the
stomach may be fatal In the opinitn
of physicians, however, many of the
drownings attributed to cramps are
| really caused by apoplexy or heart
failure. Persons having weak heart
action should be very careful not to
plunge suddenly into very cold water
and, in fact, should not venture very
far from shore. Those suffering from
a valvular affection especially are not
competent to take care of themselves
in the water, and the same applies to
apoplectic men.
Even among those who are able TO
save themselves there is surprisingly
small proportion who know how to
save any one else If every swimmer
made it his business to master the few
holds used in life-saving the whole
field of water sports would be made
immeasurably safer.
The popular idea that a drowning
person should be subdued BY a blow
on the head
Efforts for Saving to stop his
Any From Drowning. faIIacx s
| Owing to the fact that both persons
are in very light medium. the blow
cannot be delivered with enough force
to do any good or harm either
| If the frantic victim grips you so
| that you cannot swim there are sew
eral ways to break his hold. One of
these is to apply your thumbs to the
soft spot right under the ear, where
it meets the jaw. Pressure there
causes acute pain, and this will make
the victims grip relax. Try it on
yourself Another way is to put the
pnching the nostrils closed with the
fingers. The asphyxiation will cause
him to release you in order to remove
your hands
to get behind your man. The best way
to do this is to grasp his arm. near the
body. and force yourself under water.
| coming up behind him. Then grasp
him by the hair or clothing, and tow
him ashore, face uppermost. swimming
on your back. In approaching a
drowning person. do so warily, keep
ing behind him. if possible. If he
reaches out to grasp you. get hold
on his arm close to the body, and pro-
coed as described above.
The professional life-savers have
elaborate wrestling tricks for breaking
any hold that a frantic person may
take upon his rescuer. 1t requires an
expert to master them all. These di-
rections will at least give you mode
of procedure in case of water acci-
dent.
1t is very easy to bring an uncon-
scious person ashore. Simply turn him
on his back and tow him by the hair
or clothing. In the case of an ex-
hausted swimmer. have him place one
hand upon your shoulder and trail his
body.
In addition to praeticing these meth
DDS, good training for life-saving is the
carrying of a moderately heavy rock in
the hands while swimming with the
legs and also diving from treadwater
position.
Many swimmers lose their lives
through struggling against an unex-
pected tide or current. This is nearly
always losing battle. You will be
exhausted before making any consid-
cradle distance if you try to breast
the water, while if you go with it you
can travel far. and probably either
reach shore or get assistance. Swim
ming after a roWboat that is being
carried away by a breeze is another
way of losing your life. The rowboat
moves a great deal faster than it ap-
pears to.
If a person sinks and fails to come
up again, look closely for bubbles. If
there is current. dive well above the
point where these rise. and zigza z
down stream close to the bottom. If
the water is still. dive straight at the |
bubbles and explore in circles.
co.. IT.,