Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-07-10
DON'T GO NEAR
WATER SLOGAN
OF SEA BEAUTY
One-Piece Suits for Real
Swimmer+Where Do We
Go From Here?
ANKLE-LENGTH IN COS
BY FREDERICK J. HAsKINs.

and connoisseur, added to considerable
personal observation and intensive re-
search. we are in a position TO give our
readers the latest official dope on the
seaside situation.
The big buyer sat back in his sane
tum and nursed an insignificant mus
-tache and foreign accent
The mems bathing suits this year?
oh. they will be about the same as
susual-plain and convict stripe effects
And he waved his hand to dismiss the
utterly boring subject of what man
wears when swimming.
We'll, how about the womenf"
"Ahi" The authority beamed. His
mustache assumed an angle indicating
joy and pep.
He informed us that he had just
bought a velvet bathing suit which was
triumph and which. in addition 70
frs other charms, might be worn i'll
the water.
The cost of this tribe, named Carry
Ne Home-Carry for short-wss $500,
and there was 4 muf to go with it to
protect the bathers hands from the heat.
Carry was produced for the ediication
Of the reporter, and the buyer, who was
now fully warmed up to his discourse.
confided the momentous secret that scarfs
of rubber to match bathing caps will be
worn this year.
He further prophesied that bathing
suits will be worn in the mountains IS
a novelty next season.
30 KICK" IN
SUITS MERELY.
But there is not much kick in talk
ing about bathing suits in a store, or
even in looking at them on blonde wax
models. A nearby beach yielded more
authentic information as to what is ac-
tually being done in the various beach
circles
copper-colored life guard treated TO
grape Juice, Ioosened up more than o1e
would think possible
He almost wept over the new order
that forbids guards at that particular
beach to firt with the girls.
He said that it made it harder to pro-
tect human life, because the girls all
said he was an old crawfsh, and that IL
he couldn't be polite, they wouldn't let
him rescue them any more.
The guard admitted that conditions
are worse at several New York beaches
where policemen have been given pistols
and authority to use them If necessary,
to keep girls in one-piece suits and
stockingless knees out OF sight.
One-piece affairs were barred at his
beach, the guard said, but there was
no law against fancy costumes, and be
pointed ont a young woman clad In a
purple suit that was almost an evening
gown.
In fact, it was more than an evening
gown, for it had all the low neck char
acteristics Of a woman's full uni
form, and the shortness Of skirt made It
a bathing suit besides.
The wearer tripped lightly down to the
sand, settled red rubber handkerchief
around as much of her shoulders as pos
sibIe 1.-THE buyer said they would be
wearing 'em) and proceeded TO look I'M
conscious for the benefit of more fully
attired bathers.
NOT CREATED
FOR SEA DUTY.
Obviously her beruffled and huted cos
tune was not created for sea duty.
The life guard said it reminded him
Of a girl who took strictly beach bath
ing suit into the water By mistake.
The suit had depended mainly on glue
and dry weather to keep il intact. and
be had to rescue the young swimmer
with a raincoat.
The dry hand bathing suit is the most
striking type this year, but it is not
the most usual.
Girls as a rule put on a bathing suit
in order to go into the water, and suits
are getting more practical to meet the
needs Of the athletic young women.
The one-piece suit. unhampered by
skirts and superfuOus material. is rap
idly gaining approval, though 1t still
shocks some people and is barred at a
good many beaches.
When police headquarters and beach
superintendents get reconciled to 1t the
bathing suit viii presumably change
again-thst is, If its past can be taken
for the future-for the bathing suit has
always been a steadily changing insti-
tuition based on the principle Of novelty
and shocks.
No one has, apparently, written
complete history Of this important gar
ment, or even a treatise showing its in
fuence on history.
Out of the bathing suits hazy past
a few scenes stand not in relief.
One Of these is description Of the
German baths at Baden nearly a cen
fury before Columbus started out 20
make America famous.
The report IS by a Roman gentleman
who Travelled to the baths for govt and
who was, as the neighbors had said he
would be, altogether surprised.
He wrote a letter TO a friend about II,
and years later it was published as an
example of what awful things the Euro
peans used to do.
What the Roman visitor saw was very
like an aquatic cabaret.
The ladies hoated about in the water
wearing Greek draperies and wreaths ca
roses.
They hirted and exchanged shafts OF
wit with the large audience which was
always gathered on the shore to applaud.
Gentlemen on the sidelines flung roses
and coins into the water to the prettiest
girls, and the mermsids, the debutantes
of the middle ages, dived for them anu
quarreled pleasantly among themselves
for the favors.
Men who came in where the ladies
were taking the water wore garments
something like linen busters.
DINNER SERVED
WHILE BATHING.
At dinner time tables bearing meals
were foated out so that the bathers
could get the benefit of the medicirai
waters while enjoying a dinner party.
Afterwards those present played games
a. the floating tables, or sang and played
musical instruments in the water.
The bathing suits of the time were. as
we have mentioned, Of linen or muslin.
though at some resorts where men and
women bathed separately, a necklace and
wreath of flowers were considered ade-
quate costume.
After this, there was a gap in the bath
L.