Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1874 — Why Should Not Women Swim? [ARTICLE]

Why Should Not Women Swim?

Is there any reason why women should not swim? Miss Bennett, the instructress of the free swimming baths, seems this year to have had no end of promising pupils, and at Newport and Long Branch the number of ladies able to buffet with the waves was notably,Qnthe increase. Boston is prominent in producing ladies who are admirable swimmers. Many of these ladies, in case of an accident, could not only take the best care of themselves, but they have gone as far as to instruct themselves how to save those ignorant of swimming. This spring a notable case occurred where a young woman from an interior town in Massachusetts saved a lad of seventeen from drowning, plunging into a swiftrunning river, “ accoutred as she was,” and diving twice under water beiore accomplishing the rescue. It is worth recording that, the fact having been reported to the officials of the town where the accident happened, it was proposed to have a medal presented to her. Taking the whole thing in a matter-of-fact way, the young lady refused, not wishing to attract any notoriety to herself; but the ladies of the village—her weaker sisters in a physical sense—in lieu of a modest toilet somewhat damaged by the immersion, gave the brave girl a handsome dress and an entire new wardrobe. We are inclined to think that we could dispense with a trifle of botany, or physics, or chemistry, providing our daughters could better breast the waves. One pleasant day this summer, standing among a group of ladies on the boat-slip at Lake George, the wind was blowing freshly, when suddenly a lace shawl was whisked oft a pretty girl’s shoulders and carried by the breeze into the lake. Now, had it been a lily ‘ much desired by our lady-love, we might have, twenty-five years ago, waded into the water (first having assured ourselves of its depth), or, by means of a long pole, obtained the coveted flower. There was not a boat on the slip, and feeling provoked at the accident, and our want of gallantry, we watched that drowning scarf, now drifting fully fifty yards away from us. “ It’s really dreadful ;” said the fair owner of the lace, “ there goes the horrid thingy It is sadly out of taste to mention what it cost, but that stupid scarf cost—dear me! all my savings of six months, to purchase at Stewart’s. Provoking thing! I’m going to have a good cry over it. There, now," and she speaker did indulge in a few genuine tears. “It was $75,” she added, between her sobs.

“Is that all?” said another lady in a most unsympathetic way, “ I declare I thought it was cotton lace.” “That is a remark quite uncalled for,” replied the loser of the shawl, “ and is adding insult to injury. There.” “1 only did it, dear, to teach you to use a pin or something to hold the’ scarf with, and not to wear expensive lacejust after breakfast. But it’s all right.” “What is all right, madam?" rather sharply retorted the aggrieved one, considerably nettled. “It is all right, for I am going to get your shawl for you, since nobody else will," and here the speaker looked at us. “ Oh, you are excused; men of a certain age are not expected to be herpic,” and saying this, before we could stop her, she had gone down the slippery boatsteps, had w-aded up to her waist, and now was out of her depth, and was swimming as lustily as a Sandwich Island girl toward the shawl. Presently she was up to it, when she caught it, and with a woman’s coquetry, swimming with one hand, with the other had converted the lace into a turban, which she wound round her head. “Here is a practical nineteenth century nereid for you,” she cried out, laughing, as she came in hand over hand. In a moment she stood drip

ping on the slip. “Now, sir, will you be good enough to go to the hotel and send me ihy maid ? And here is your scarf, my dear yoting lady; it is not much hurt; you will spread it out evenly and put it between folds of blotting paper, with a weight on it; and of course ysu will kiss me—if you don't mind being wet- for having been your Newfoundland/you know. It was a real frolic! Catch cold? not a bit of it. Learned the noble art of natation when I was eight years old. It is a pretty shawl, and such a rich, flowing pattern, and real Jaee; of course I knew that all the time, for if it had been cotton or imitation I give you my word I shouldn’t have tried to rescue it. You see”—this was addressed to me—“a woman swims at first, with all her clothes on, lighter than a man, but after a while it’s rather heavy work. But I really think had I married a Turk and my jealous. lord had put me in a sack into the Bosphorus he. could not have drowned me. By the way, ladies—l should not like you to mention it—l am very unhappy. lam married to a man, fate has so ordained it, who can’t run or swim, or play cricket or shoot, except in a most languid way. I am, then, his natural protector, and he knows it. But I am chattering here. Pray now run to the house and send my servant.” On that We hurried up to the hotel, and that important functionary, the lady’s maid, soon sped on her errand “ My mission on this earth,” said the lady to us that evening, “is to induce women to improve themselves by means of physical culture. Why did not Canon Kingsley lecture on it when he was here, for no one has written so sensibly on the subject? Women’s rights movements fail signally in this particular: How are women who are always whining and ailing to take any higher position in the human family? I tell you, much as we may despise materialistic ideas, and hold aloft the immaterial—brain over body—fists are too often trumps. Now to the case in point: I should by no means have gone overboard after that young lady’s shawl if I had not been in my morning dress. That, you say, is a nonsequitur, but our actions are mostly relative. A precious scolding I received in lieu of a reward from my lord and master, and perhaps I deserved it. But don’t you think if more of the young women could swim, or even walk decently, or shoot bows and arrows, or skate more, they would be better off ? Don’t you read now a great many books written by intelligent women which have sick-headache and dyspepsia sticking out in every line? Of course now it is too late to cure them. But suppose in early life if only two energetic male friends, her brothers, had tucked that intellectual girl under their arms, and clapped on her feet a pair of thick-soled shoes, and taken her a spin of three or four miles a day over the fields—don’t you fancy that young person would have been wonderfully improved, physically and mentally?” “Of course we do,” we replied. “Are you not rather stronger in the theory than in the practice?” the lady rather maliciously inquired. “ You write about these matters occasionally, I suppose ; but do you carry them out in regard to your daughters?” “We can criticise a three-legged stool,” we replied, “ but if our life depended on it we could not make one.” “I will tell you what I will do. Tomorrow morning I will wager you just a pair of gloves that I can take my husband in a boat, and you may take any lady you please, not under 110 pounds, and I will row you half a mile into the lake.” How could we decline the wager? That evening, however, we telegraphed to New York for apair of Gigloves. We came in a glorious second. We might have won had our young lady coxswain trimmed boat, but she insisted on seeing the reflection of the clouds in the lake, assuring us it was a naunce she was anxious to fix in her mind, in case a dresspattern of similar hue was ever put before her. We were beaten a good many boat’s lengths. Our competitor had every advantage. The lady’s dead weight —her husband —sat motionless in the stern reading a book. He had certainly been well trained. — New York Times.