Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1912 — SWIMS ACROSS BAY [ARTICLE]

SWIMS ACROSS BAY

Young Girl' Makes Half a Mile in Record Time. Sfx-Year-Old Covers Long Distance at . Dover In Nineteen Minutes —Cuts Her Way Though Waves Uke an Expert. ' ii, ■''* ■-■ .\ Dover. —Visitor's to Dover and promenaders on the harbor piers were" astonished recently to see a little mite of a girl, barely more than a baby, take the water with all the ease and aplomb of a channel swimmer, and proceed to swim half a mile across the bay in the record time of 19 minutes. And the sight in truth a remarkable one. diminutive swimmer, looking the merest speck on the sunlit waters, cut her through the waves with a businesslike, sturdy breast stroke that would have done credit to a Wolff or a Holbein. Swimming by her side with watchful eyes was Mrs. Jack Weldman, the channel swimmer. But the little record-maker ceded no guardianship. Instead, the little girl finished her half mile as fresh as a cricket with'byt aid of any kind, and this although the sea .was anything but smooth. By some people it v/ould have been considered choppy. The plucky littie girl who achieved this novel perfomance is Freda Pickett, a slip-year-old pupil of Miss Jarvis, sister of the English champion swimmer. The part of Dover bay covered by the child Is that which lies between the Prince of Wales pier to the Promenade pier, a distance of half a mile, which she covered in the extraordinary time of 19 minutes. The child’s parents belong to Market Harborough (Leicestershire). Jack Weldman is enthusiastic about her prowess. , Little Freda Is a merry-looking

child, just over three feet high, and slightly builtin a chat which I had. with the little swimmer she said: “I love the water and always look forward to my swimming lessons. I swim at Market Harborough and go over to Leicester once a week for my lesson from Miss Jarvis. “I wanted to do thiß swim from pier |o pier, but when I was out a little way I felt lonely. Then Mr. Weldman came along. “He has swum with me in the bay for several days past, and I feel ail right so long aB he is near. “He is so big, you see,” added the mite, “and he takes me on hiß back when I feel tired." Asked if she meant to try and swim the channel when she grows up, the little fairy responded with enthusiasm. • “I should like to." She said, "but 1 should want Mr. Weidman to come with me.” Little Freda mainly relies on the breast stroke in her swimming, and

her head is well out of the water. She changes to the side stroke at times, and when she is tired she turns on her back and Boats. She was as merry as could be throughout the swim. When she had got about half way and was asked how she felt, she laughingly replied: “I feel fine.” :