Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-05-31
Water Peril
Marks Time
For Sports
Feeling of Power Is
Given When Child
Can Swim.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

THE season for water sports is open
l. ing. A word of reminder Is II
order in every school, home and camp
in the land. Every year we lose chill
dren by drowning accidents that coulo
have been avoided by right supervision
and instruction.
Homemade boats and RATS are
source of danger. Few children can
build safe raft or boat. Should they
make such a contraptlon, it should not
be taken near water until some older
and experienced person has tested 1t.
Children who have had no training
take boats without permission and
endanger their lives. Teach them not
to touch boat, not to go on the water,
until they have been proved TT, BY
tests. to man boat.
No child ought TO take out boat
unless he knows how to swim, how to
manage a leaky or overturned boat,
how to use it as a life saver. This
means he is a good swimmer, and has
had training in getting in and out of
a boat in water deep enough for
swimming.
A canoe is not used until the child
can swim very well, and can tip his
canoe over and climb back into it
with ease. He must never take a
canoe out without permission, so that
some one is watching. Nor Is he to
take a passenger with him.
All these precautions are taken In
relation to beginners, but the tested
water man must be warned, tested
again, and supervised until they have
been proved responsible.
So many of them think they can
take privileges with the water. No
body should feel that way about it.
Water has a mysterious and awful
power. Even the most skilled boat
man and swimmer should respect that
power. It is not brave to laugh at 1t
and defy it. Real Seamen never do.
| The more experienced they are, the
more reverence they have for the sea
and its power. Boys and girls might
take on little of the respect and rev.
/ erence in relation to the pools, the
rivers and lakes they play in during
/ the Summer.
We would not want to frlghten chill
dren about the water. We can train
! them to be intelligent about it, and so
| be cautious. which is a different atti-
/ tude from fear. We often create fear
/ in children by trying TO make them
/ brave. Force breeds fear and ought
never to be used IN association with
water sports.
| When child refuses to go into the
water have him put on his bathing
| suit and play on the beach, watching
/ the others. Invite him now and then
/ to come along. but if he shakes his
head and clings 70 his rock on shore,
60 your way cheerfully. Water has
great fascination for child and, by
and by. if he is ignored, instead of
forced, he will find his way to it. First
/ he will dabble a toe, then foot goes
in. Two feet; up 10 the knees. He
gallops along the shore, and the next
thing he knows he is learning to swim.
/ Swimming is one Of the best of all
exercises for boys and girls. Every
child should learn for the good it does
his growth and his health, for the feel
ing of power it gives him. for the fun
ne gets, and for his own life's sake.
| Whenever see girl in the pool now
I am thrice thankful for ! remember
the one who swan from the Moro
Castle. holding up two other fright
ened. half-drowned women. until she
got them to the shore. One never
knows where the waters will overtake
him and it is we'll to be ready for them
if and when they come
(Copyrieht, 1850