Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1877 — Learning to Swim. [ARTICLE]

Learning to Swim.

Every boy and girl should learn to swim. A writer in the American Agriculturist offers the following suggestions, by obedience to which the art of swimming may be readily acquired: When I was a boy, I learned toswim by means of a swimming-board. This is the safest method possible. If corks are used, they may slip from around the breast down beneath the body, throwing the head below the .surface, and putting the. wearer in danger of drowning. Some country boys get two bladders and then tie them together with a short cord, and use these as supports. They are the most dangerous things possible for a boy to have. The board is perfectly safe, and one may learn to swim in a very short time by using one. It should be over four feet long, over a foot wide, and two inches thick, made of soft white pine or cedar. To use it, a boy wades into the water up to his shoulders, then, taking hold of the end of the board, he pushes it before him—toward the bank, and not into deeper water —springs forward with his feet, and throws himself flat upon the water. This movement carries him along a few feet. He then draws up both his legs at the same time, keeping the knees as far apart as possible, and then strikes out with both feet, not straight backward, but sideways, just as a frog does. The stroke is made slowly, and is repeated again, drawing up the legs slowly and steadily. The board keeps the bend above water. When the leg-stroke has been learned, one hand is taken from the board and the stroke learned, or the chin may be rested on the board, while the stroke is taken with both hands. This is a very good plan, as it compels the swimmer to keep his hands under the water, which he should always do By-and-by, the board may be-pushed ahead, and the young swimmer may swim after it, always keeping it within reach. When a number of boys go toswim, they should always havq two or three of these boards with them for use in case ot any accident.

An engineer on the J eff. Road got a new dress for his wife, last week, by the use of a little strategy over the strike. He was approached by a merchant of Louisville, who had been caught away from home and was anxious to return. The engineer was on his engine, and waiting permission from the strikers to pull out, when the merchant asked permission to get on with him, so as to make the attempt to run the blockade, and proposed to the engineer that if he would help him and succeed in getting him ont of the city, he might bring his wife to his store and get a handsome suit of clothes for her. The engineer told him all right, exchanged his cap for the “ plug” of the merchant, and took him away safe and sound. That engineer's wife will wear one of the nicest suite to be seen on the streete.—lndiampolii Journal. » Or daily newspapers, Hew York State publishes 79; Massachusetts, 28.