Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-08-08
Safety in the Water
BY Frederic J. Haskin

Washington, D. c., Aug. 4.-Water
sports are growing in popularity in the
United States at really amazing
more common accomplishment than 1t
used to be-; but motor boats and
canoes are every year carrying more
and more people out on the lakes and
rivers and bays. The best OF the sum-
mering places on land are either own
ed by the few or crowded by the
many; but the navigable waters are
wide and free to all. and more and
more people are learning to find rec
reation there.
All of which is good thing; but the
other side of the picture is heavy
toll of human life that is taken by the
waters every year. The number Of
leaths by drowning in the vicinity Of
every great city that has a water front
are becoming impressive. Both safety
and educational measures are needed,
and especially the latter There Is
limit to the amount of water that can
be adequately patrolled by life
guards and harbor police. Every per-
son who goes into or upon the water
should know how to protect and save
himself and others. Yet a surprising
proportion of them do not know how
to swim, most Of those who do are tg-
norant of how to go about rescuing a
drowning person, and in general, fear
and ignorance are the equipment that
is present at an accident on the water.
Even among persons who do not
know how to swim there would be far
F1 81 20 do
water and did not completely lose
their heads when they fall into It,
If you fill your lungs with air and
keep your mouth shut, you can not
sink: if there is any help within
reach, you can easily keep up until it
comes. Also, an yobjcet lighter than
water, even though very small, will
serve as life preserver. An ordinary
dish pan, 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 pres
ence Of mind to use it; while tall
silk hat will float you finely until it
becomes waterlooged, which will re-
quire fifteen or twenty minutes. A
big rubber ball will save mans life,
and so will an opened parasol or UNI
brella, 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 people
drown every year who might be saved
by some article within their reach or
that Of bystanders. Foot balls and
bicycle tires make first rate life pre-
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
your body and sink. If you shut your
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. II 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 mat
ter of fact cramps in the water are
very rare. A cramp in the leg or arm
should not put swimmer out of COM
mission as he can easily work it out
while floating A cramp in the stom-
ach may be fatal. In the opinion Of
physicians, however, many of the
drownings attributed to cramps are