The Washington herald., 1916-07-20
SEEN AND HEARD
BY GEORGE MINER

thdh 10000 children have been taken out OF
New York within the past week on account OF
the infantile paralysis plague walk down
Riverside Drive will convince any one that the
statement is not exaggerated.
This famous airing place for babies is now
almost deserted by them. On pleasant days,
there used to be two continuous streams of baby
carriages being pushed in opposite directions
along. this, New Yorks most beautiful thorough
fare Twenty-Five would be low estimate OF
the babies and children to be seen there on the
space between each street. As the drive runs
from Seventy-second to I22nd street it is fifty
blocks long. That would make 1880 little ones
TO be met there any morning afternoon. As
the children don't average stay there of more
than an hour, l imagine there used to be about
10000 different children there every day
Today | don't suppose there are 200 there
The place looks lonesome. That's not the only
difference either. A most remarkable change
has come over the demeanor of the nursemads.
1t used to be like one big nursery. The maids
were wont to chat and visit with each other and
tlirt with the policemen while the children all
played together indseriminately. An hour or so
on the drive was looked on the pleasantest
feature Of the days routine.
Nowadays it is silent and sad and gloomy
gathering. No nursenlaid is allowed to speak
to another or to anybody else except her charges
The children not allowed to play together
and all the baby carriages are wrapped in mos
quito netting to keep off the deadly plague
bearing fly.
Joy has gone out of the nursemaids life
To be sure, there are very few mosquitoes
around New York this summer to bite you, but
for all that 1916 will be remembered as the
summer bites. If you don't get the plague from
fly bite you are likely to get your legs bitten
OH by shark if you go in swimming
Until the two young killed by
sharks of the Jersey coast last week there was
only one known instance of a man being bitten
by shark in the North Atlantic That was
many years ago when Jersey fisherman lost his
arm Some sort Of fish bit it of and it was
always supposed to be shark In fact, it would
be hard to think of any other kind of fish that
could bite mans arm off
For all that. the late Herman Oelrchs offered
a reward of $500 in the Sun for proof that
shark ever bit man north of Cape Hatteras
The offer printed in the Sun for months and
was never accepted. The sensation created BY
the deaths of these two young men is remark
able AS every one knows, the whole Jersey
coast, from Sandy Hook to Cape May, is one
continuous and beautiful bathing beach Hun
dreds. of thousands of people 60 in the water
every day The business done in renting bathing
these two tragedies, that business is absolutely
killed Nobody dreams of going in bathing, for
1t was within thirty feet OF the shore that one OF
the young killed.
One lone man-eating shark has struck terror
into the hearts OF an army Of otherwise brave
men, In countries where sharks are plentiful
no one seems to have much fear of them AT
Port Limon Costa Rica, have seen the fms
OF at least twenty-five sharks within pistol shot
OF the beach and natives bathing in the surf with
out apparently paying any attention to them
have always found down South that sharks were
looked on more nuisance than as danger
have even had one bite the blade off an oar
when | was being rowed in small boat When
we left the ship this shark joined company with
US and kept right alongside our quarter within
four or FIVE feet of the boat. With North
erner's natural fear OF them that fish made me
very nervous.
told one of the colored boatmen to hit
him with his in hope it would drive the
brute away. He tried to and the shark bit the
oar Oft with neatness and dispatch. 1t was
done IN flash, too; so quickly that you could
hardly see him turn. In second he was back
IN his old place again and moving steadily along
with us without seeming to make the least mo-
ton.
That old saying that sharks never bite colored
people IS all nonsense. A shark will bite any
thing. l know of number Of negroes down in
Central America who have been attacked by them
and have heard of several that have been killed
They are a particular nuisance when fishing for
shark will eat any kind OF bait 1t is very
aggravating when you think you have a splendid
JackhSh or tarpon to find that marauding
shark is running away with your line.
In the coral reefs around Bermuda where
there is as fine fishing as you can find in the
world anywhere, there are legions of small
sharks. So numerous are they that they prac-
tieally spoil the fishing in summer time when
the water gets so hot that the fish go down in
the caVerns to keep cool, but the sharks stay
up on top and get your bait
1t is singular thing that sharks rarely como
into Hamilton Harbor in the daytime, but at
night the harbor is full of them. That's why
they won't let you go in bathing there after
dark. During the day people swim all around
the harbor and across it if they good enough
swimmers, for it is two-milc pull across and