Swimming For Ladies

Some Jogs and Reminders tor the Venturous Mermaid Who Essays the Finny Sport

COREY FORD

UP with you, girls! Into the water, one and all. The surf is calling you, the splashing wavelets desire to be your playmates, the other fish are all waiting to sport with you in the briny deep. So hurry, then! Strip off that superfluous adipose tissue, and scamper hand-in-hand down the white sand. Come on in, girls, the water's fine!

Everywhere the call of the deep is sounding to our vigorous American womanhood. At Palm Beach this winter many fashionable dowagers have ventured to dabble their toes now and then in the surf; whilst the bright red bathing-bonnets and puffed sleeves of our younger débutantes are often descried dancing coquettishly with the heads of their gentlemen escorts far out upon the curling breakers of Brighton Beach, Asbury Park and the Jersey resorts. "Ladies' Day" is already becoming a weekly social feature of many of the better Yacht Clubs along the Harlem. Truly, as Brander Matthews has it in Puck, woman's place to-day is in the foam (home)!

So down to the beach with you, ladies one and all. Let us scamper up the diving-board, on tiptoes for our exhilarating bath. Let us spring into the air and feel the sudden recoil of the hard plank directly behind us, as we bounce slightly, describe a graceful arc and land on our backs in the water. Splash! Now we arc swimming side by side, breasting the merry billows! Fling out your arms, ladies, toss your heads, kick out your legs! Watch out, you have just thrust your toe into the mouth of that bald-headed fellow behind you. Never mind what he is saying; let us simply swim away and ignore him.

What sport! Say, shall we make for that red rubber ball floating there on the water: Hurray, a race! Now you are ahead; now I am gaining on you; now you have the ball in your hands. Let go, I think it is somebody's head. Oh, it is that same bald fellow's head; and now he is chasing us! How we are laughing!

I here! he has ducked us, and we are under the water; let us open our eyes and look about. hat do we see? That black shape which flashed past us just now was doubtless a curious fish which came to gape at these strange intruders. I hose bright spots below us are probably pebbles; but what are those ten pink ones all in a row? Shall we pinch them and see? Careful milady, they arc that rude fellow's toes, who is holding us upside down by the ankles.

Oh, sec! what an interesting object over there, which looks like a part of a peanut-butter sandwich. Why, it is part of a peanut-butter sandwich; and the under part at that. What luck! And that abalone shell which you have picked up in your hand must be half a grape-fruit rind. Keep it. Perhaps it will come in handy.

But come, our breath is almost spent, and we must be off and away to the surface again, before we have seen half the interesting things at the bottom of the sea. What a jolly swim we have had! Now we are strolling slowly up the beach again. Here, lend me that old rind a minute. Good. Now let us run.

The sport of swimming for ladies is justly increasing in popularity year after year; for women of today are beginning to realize that, in moderation, it is a highly beneficial form of exercise, and may some day be the means of saving life. Every physically sound girl should be taught to swim as a matter of personal safety; for experts are agreed that a knowledge of swimming is the best method of keeping afloat in water, unless one is in, for example, a boat.

But how, the novice asks, am I to keep my head above water? How may I put it under and bring it forth at will, propel myself forward by my own hands and nether limbs, or mayhap venture safely beyond my depth? How shall I behave myself when I am in a bathing-suit? I want to swim, and that, please, in the very shortest possible time.

Patience, my eager beginner. AH these things will come in due course. Rome was not built in a day; and swimming, like all really worth-while things, may be mastered only by steady application and diligent effort. Your enthusiasm, Mistress Bright-Fves, is most encouraging, for the will to learn is half the battle; but the circumspect pupil will direct her eagerness into judicious channels and with slow and studied progress

Build foundations secure-,

The course of Wisdom is ever truer."

—Godey's Lady's Book

The timid beginner may take heart in the knowledge that swimming comes more naturally to the average girl than to the average boy. This, probably, is due to the fact that the female form is more buoyant for several reasons, all of which become apparent when she is floating in the water; or perhaps it is because the girl is naturally a year ahead of the boy. On the other hand, it may be merely that she uses water-wings. The fact that the girl pupil cannot walk into the water and at once swim is simply due to nervousness and untried muscles. The instant that the proper motions arc performed, the pupil will swim. It cannot be otherwise. Her head might and probably would go under; but as long as she maintained the proper leg and arm motions, she would be swimming away, a short distance below the surface. This thought should give added confidence to the beginner when she faces her first lesson.

Ere we begin, however, a word as to clothing. The greatest difficulty which the female pupil must encounter to-day is found in the costume which that all-powerful Dame Custom has decreed she must wear. Judged from the healthy and rational point of view, anything more absurd and impractical than the prescribed women's bathing-suit would be difficult to find; and the lady novice will do well to discard these silly conventions of fashion for the untrammeled freedom of unclad limbs. While the old adage "Hang your clothing upon a hickory limb!" naturally need not be followed to the letter, the beginner on the other hand must not be misled by false modesty to encumber herself with superfluous fabric. Surely the healthy girl need never be ashamed of exposing the glorious body which God has given her!

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In selecting her costume, therefore, milady should remember that "enough is as good as a feast"; and a sensible and withal conservative swimming outfit will discard the old-fashioned mittens and cumbersome whale-bone corsetings of yesteryear, and consist merely of the usual "heavies" or drawers, two pairs of long, woolen tights, black stockings (for sharks), sandals, large ruffled skirt, and a short woolen over-suit terminating abruptly at the elbows and just above each ankle. The slight irregularity of such an abbreviated costume will be far outweighed by the natural movement and graceful play of limbs which this up-to-date athletic gear affords. If the modest girl is sensitive, however, to the attention which her roguish appearance might create on the beach, she may make her way from the bathhouse to the surf clad in an unobtrusive chinchilla ulster.

Now, then! Let us imagine that the novice is properly clad and ready for her first lesson, preferably under the direction of some patient and experienced relative of her own sex. The scene of this instruction should be a quiet cove with a sandy beach, free from wave, tide or current; and it will also be well if the pupil select a secluded spot where she will be sheltered from prying eyes, since the hasty advice and comments of unsympathetic onlookers will often tend unduly to discourage the novice. Avoid sudden shocks, such as jelly-fish.

The next stage is largely a question of nerve. If the pupil be fearless, let her hold her breath and advance down the beach hand in hand with her instructor, until she is at the very edge of the water. Halt here, and allow plenty of time until all signs of nervousness have disappeared. A few moments should suffice.

Now, holding carefully to her instructor's hand, let her face the water and lower her body by bending forward at the waist, until the hands and wrists are completely submerged. Perhaps she will gasp with fright and attempt to rise. Give her plenty of time to get used to this novel position. So soon as she feels at home, she will commence to paddle her hands about and laughingly splash water up onto her instructor. I believe in allowing plenty of this sort of fun, for it will make the pupil keener for the next lesson. Take her out of the water a bit sooner than she would prefer.

Not much progress? Don't be so sure of that. More has been accomplished than you fancy. The pupil has become accustomed to the feel of the water, the dPead has lessened, and above all she has not been bullied or scared. Indeed she will be not a little proud of herself and eager for another lesson, and that is precisely what is desired.

For the second lesson the teacher should have a long leather strap, which will buckle loosely about the pupil's inflated chest and afford room for a secure handhold. Once she realizes that she is safe on this strap, the great difficulty is over. Now have her assume the position of yesterday; and with her hands flat on the sand lead her carefully on all fours along the edge of the water. Be extremely careful lest an injudicious word or movement cause alarm. Nearly every pupil is afraid at this stage, though many attempt to conceal the fact. While supported by the strap there is absolute safety. When the pupil has become accustomed to the forward movement, the teacher can slyly slacken the strap, using the loose end now and then to advantage, until the pupil is propelling herself rapidly along the beach by her own momentum. After a few yards the real difficulty has been mastered. The pupil has moved herself forward by her own hands; and she knows it! A few more lessons on the strap to inspire confidence, a few proving trials with the teacher near enough for an emergency, then hey! for fancy strokes and the higher branches of natation!

A bright fearless pupil should learn the overhand, the crawl and the breaststroke in less than half a dozen lessons, which may be taken at night in the privacy of her own bedroom. Diagrams of these positions should be tucked in her dressing-mirror and carefully imitated upon retiring; for the pupil's progress henceforward depends only on her own patience and effort. The art of floating, for example, may be mastered by reclining each night at full length on a mattress, with the arms locked behind the head and the legs straight, and maintaining this position for eight or nine hours. Practise shutting the eyes.

Diving should be attempted as soon as the pupil is sufficiently advanced, for without it the art of swimming is only half mastered. The actual form of diving may be acquired if the earnest pupil will attempt in gradual succession to leap from the top of her bureau into the bed-pillows, from the medicine-chest to the bath-tub, or from the rear of a moving horse-car to the flagstones in front of Delmonico's. Remember that a graceful landing is the first requisite of a perfect diver.

Well done, then, milady! Congratulations upon your success! Steady application and diligent effort have had their reward! Behold, our erstwhile pupil is versed in a thorough knowledge of aquatics; and the awkward beginner of yesterday has now become an expert swimmer, who can well challenge her instructor to an exhibition of natation in the sparkling, waves. The surf is calling; and milady is ready at last to venture into the water.