The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-03-03
WOMEN LIFE SAVERS

n FlER ALL LneIe SIlOu4u Oe AlAiA4Io' 0FeA W
n this career businessl To know that
women are turning life savers is little too
much Still, we boast Of our freedom Of the
seas so it wouldn't be fair to make it mans
ocean, suppose. Anyway, If girl knows her
strokes there isn't anything. any more, to keep
her out of deep water.
Somehow the brawny life savers who pa
troled the beaches in the days when women
feigned heIplessness caused more than one
tinid lass to get into the swim. There was
something romantic, mysterious, altogether
fascinating in the manner that long, strong
arm could save you from another mouthful
Of salt water. Then, too, chivalry sat along
the beaches in dark blue life guards suits
1t yearned to show whom it could save.
But now
Women are doing the rescue act. They
know their strokes as well as any man ever
knew his They are quite as able to perform
gallant service.
But the romance is gone. What woman
wants to be saved by another woman? Still
if it is a question of life or death maybe one
doesn't care who does the saving. Women,
however, shrink intuitively from venturing into
deep water when it is another woman who
must aid them if their own breast strokes or
backhand strokes give out. For SO long we
have been taught that men surpass at featS
Of physical prowess that we can't help being
disappointed to know that the sea belongs
to women as well as to men,
This is the feminine angle, of course.
Men are rejoicing because some one as fair
as Juno, with features resembling those Of
the queen who launched the Trojan navy,
likely is to swim to their defense. Risking
their lives is a pleasant matter for the gentle
men.
On, well. women may have their innings
as nurses in hospitals. There is that glorious
minute when the scion of wealthy family
gazes into the eyes of a ministering angel and
confuses love with gratitude. Only-the nurses
will tell you that it doesn't happen that way
That their work is long and hard and romance
waits until after they leave their corridors
The stenographic field has been fictionized
too. Most employers are married, and the
eager-eyed girl who takes dictation is much
more likely to marry the filing clerk than the
junior partner
NO, the only place where woman could
rely on a brief, ecstatic glimpse of unalloyed
chivalry was the damp moment when she sub
merged and arose to be rescued. Instead of
searching for her boss's letters or her hus-
bands collar buttons she could rest on
masculine shoulder or be towed in by mas
culine hand.
Still, if a few gallant women are passing
the examinations for official life saving jobs
m-ybe it will spur the rest of us on to learn
how to swim. We might as well. There isn't
any point in getting into deep water any more.
All we do is get wet.
After all, those who are using feminine sub
stitutes for this task may know what they
are doing. Guards will save their time. The
summer girls who pretended to learn aquatic
victories every season may remember how to
stay on the level from one years end to the
next.
Only, won't it look queer, when summer
comes again, to see long, strong brown men
learning to float while slim mermaids hold
their hands on their stomachs so they won't
go under?
Life was rather nice last summer. And
the summer before that. But reversals usu-
ally come some time or other.