The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-08-27

Until somebody, it must have been be
fore Lord Bryon's day but we are
rather vague about it, found that
swimming in the sea, as well as bath
ing, was really rather good for fun
after all.
But of course no real lady would
have dreamed of swimming. 1t simply
was not done, my dear. In those days
your real lady was a delicate creature
given to swoonings and smelling salts
and perfumery. But not so much to
bathing. Ladies could drink tea and
play cards and gamble. but exercise
my dear, how vulgar of you TO suggest
| it.
Even our own ancestors who came
over in the Mayflower and later emf.
grant boats looked down on the idea
of exercising for pleasure. Their
exercising was taken with loom and
churn and cradle or even with a
rifle. And even then, especially
among our Puritan fore-mothers, there
was a certain tendency to turn up the
nose at everything that was not exact
" as they did it, which tendency has
been the essence Of Puritanism ever
since.
After the country had gotten to be a
little settled and the forefathers had
had enough defendants to make a re-
spectacle sized country of it and life
got little tanned down from Indian
wars and with hangings and re-
ligions prosecutions and wars with
the French and Spanish and English
and several little home grown bands
of insurgents who evidently didn't
think the early republic was all it
was cracked up to be, people began
to get a little fun out of existence.
The Saturday night bath became
regular institution, although many re-
ligious sects decided that bathing was
both irreligious and immoral. If, for
instance, the day of Judgment were
to sound while one were bathing.
s&ss
Sea bathing was not really INDUCED
in much by the masculine sex until
after the civil war. And in the middle
7O's the first daring women ventured
up to the ankles in the briny, clothed
in long striped trousers under very
full skirt, long sleeved waists and
huge hats tied down securely under
the chin. Those were in the days when
It was not yet decided that women
had any minds at all and in some
parts of the country it was still debit
full that they had souls. Children were
a result of divine dispensation and
the human body was something which
everyone had but which everyone was
a little ashamed Of.
After that, the deluge. The scanda-
lous creatures no sooner got people ac-
customed to that costume, than they
shortened it and went in deeper. Your
scribe can remember the days of the
full serge boomers, the full braided
skirt and waist with the flapping
sailor collar, the heavy stockings, the
eyes, they did too, they wore them
in swimming and they were the wasp
waist kind at that. And no one call |
ed that immoral.
Then some bold women actually |
dared to try swimming, real swim |
ming. And they not only liked it, but |
it was immensely good for them? It
the waist muscles, made
flabby by years of pinching. 1t tough |
ened the leg muscles so that they |
could not only swim but walk. 1t
made them into real outstanding hu'
man women, fit to be thinking creatur-
es and good mothers of good strong
babies. Which, when you consider
it, is a dreadfully immoral thing to be.
So they shortened the bathing suit
and frightened it and cut the skirt off
until it was just as sensible as the
mems. And clad in one Of those
things you could really tell whether
a girl was the sort of girl whose chill
dren would be an asset to the com
munity or not.
SO of course, there is bound to be a
lot of opposition. Because the women
who couldn't wear a proper swimming