South Bend News-Times, Volume 38, Number 128, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 8 May 1921 — Page 6

THE SOUTH BEND NEWS-TIMES

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How Etlielcla Bleittrey 'Found a Water

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ÄIIss Dorothy Becker, of Alameda, Cal., Holder of Several Swimming and Diving Pacific Coast Championships. - ' ByU. de B. Handley

SWIMMING as a means of securing eat beauty to the form of women is evidenced on every lako shore and ea beach throughcut the United States. The girl with the beat form is the pirl with the wet suit. Not the poser on the land whoso beauty is tho thickness of her cosmetic, but the; girl who plunges in and stemi the tide and comes forth with shining1 eyes and red cheeks and feeling full of pep. And swimrnicg jroes even further than' beautifying. This is what one of America's leading sports writer recently aid in an article- on swimming: "If swimming could do for all girls and women Just one-quarter of what it has done for Mis3 Ethelda Bleibtrey, of the New York Women's S. A., this healthful, wholesome sport would be a real fountain of youth. Less than two years ago Miss Bleibtrey, pale, wan and undeveloped, took up swimming upon advice of her physician to correct, if possible, a elight curvature of the fpine. Today she is robust, strong, the picture of ruddy health and as straight a3 an arrow. Furthermore, she is just about the best woman swimmer in tho history of the sport." Doubtless Miss Bleibtreya is an unusual case, plven wide notice because of her prominence in rational and Olympic competition, yet there is no question that swimming has done wonders for others also and will bo found a pleasant means of Improving in health and looks by all who are willing to devote the necessary time to it. Particularly during the warm months, when outdoor activities are rot at all curtailed, there is no better sport than swhriming to afford a combination of beneficial exercise and recreation. The hours spent in the surf, tho lake and the pool are worth to girls and women all the cosmetics and beautifiers ever invented; all the processes and treatments yet evolved by tho fertile brains of the professional beauty doctors. Attributes of Swimming Not everyone is endowed by nature with classic features, but neither Is comeliness a matter of lineament only. Good health and buoyant ipirits are the chief ingredients in creating womanly charm. Given a pleasing figure, a clear complexion, bright eye3 and the animation im parted by perfect physical fitness, almost any girl and woman is attractive. These attributes swimming may be counted upon to bestow on its faithful devotees. 1 .peak cn this subject with some claim to knowledge, for it has been my interesting experience to act as amateur coach to the members cf the New Ycrk Women's S. A., during the past five or six years. With several hundred girls and women of all acres passing through the organisation' classes annually, my opportunities for study and observation have been rather exceptional. And throughout the period I have noted quite general and steady improvement in the health and appearance of those who frequented the pool regularly. Indeed, it has been a tource of surprise to me to see how rapid and marked was the improvement in many instances, particularly among the children and younger women. Little lassies who started as frail, whitefaced, lackadaisical weaklings, soon developed into robust, red-cheeked youngsters, full of life and the joy of living. Older girls who were unduly lean, ever stout, or ill-favored generally, presently became well formed specimens, nicely proportioned, vigorous, good to look upon. As a normalerer, in fact, I know no more profitable exercise than swimming. The physical etlort entailed is very slight after a good itroke ha3 leer, mastered, yet it suilices to build r-.uscle and tissuo in the lean and to work off fr&duaUy the excess cf avoirdupois in the itout.

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Are Developing Wonderful Figures and Complexions ty Doing Exactly What She Did. . -:a: m-A haaa;&aaaa: Miss Ethelda Bleibtrey, National an Olympic Champion, Was an Undeveloped Clippie Before She Learned to Swim. The result Is that it tends always to establish the standard body proportions called for by the particular frame and make-up of each individual. Of course, swimming cannot be expected to work miracles. No one need hope that an occasional paddle in the natatorium will suddenly transform any girl or woman into a physical paragon. On the other hand, those who have the ambition and perseverance to practice often and with application may rest assured they will derive from swimming very material benefit in wellbing and appearance. One of the great advantages of swimming, In so far as the gentle sex is concerned, is that it constructs in time the most pleasing type of feminine figure. Every part of the body is brought into action and assumes its share of the effort, so that the development is all embracing and thoroughly symmetrical. At the same time the muscles produced are long, clean and supple, quite free from knottiness, thus making for a shapely and rounded contour. Then, too, the position prescribed for the modern strokes shoulders back, head erect insures correct, upright carriage, and teaches ease and grace of deportment. Moreover, the exercise involved activates all the functional organs. The digestive apparatus is placed and kept in good working order and blood circulation increased. This means better assimilation of food and mere complete elimination of poisonous substances from the system, resulting in the eventual acquisition of the clear tkin and the healthy complexion women go to euch pains to simulate artificially when nature fails them. t No Fatigue in Swimming In a recent interview Mis Ethelda Bleibtrey, the newly crowned Olympic swimming champion, made pertinent comments on one of the best features of swimming as a form of exercise or sport. "To me, at least," she said, "one of the greatest attractions of swimming is that it refreshens and invigorates. I am fond of and go in for a good many sports, but I find that a few sets of tennis, a game of basket ball, horseback riding, rowing and even skating leave me a bit worn out, with an uncomfortable feeling of being mussed up. After a brisk swim or romp in the water, instead, I am refreshed, exhilarated, buoyed up by a delightful sense of cleanliness and tingling blood about me. Often I go into the water rather tired from a long day's work, yet I come out quite rested, wide awake, keen for anything going. There is no other sport or exercise I know of that will do the same for you. And the best of

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V-.;r,: t. ' , . ; ' . .... s . , ' AUvV:.V; t:: "v 'r. 'rr v. Si - . v-.- .h !" v 9 irZj i Below Miss Helen Moses, of Honolulu. All-round Swimming Champion of Hawaii. 7 ,,.- ,- ' M ST. ' 1 it is that you can swim all year around and draw the identical pleasure and benefit from it" Perhaps the best illustration of what swimming will do for its regular devotees is furnished by the group of America's fair competitive champions. They are a remarkably attractive lot on the whole, unquestionably better formed and better looking, as a class, than the girls and women holding top rank in any other branch cf fport fostered in this country. And the illustration is the more convincing in that quite a few of these aquatic stars are remembered as rather unprepossessing lassies at the time they entered the field of water sports. It deserves mention while on the subject that competition may be advocated for all members of the sex, because it offers the best incentive to practice frequently and painstakingly. Nor does this mean, necessarily, competing in public. Fcr instance, the New York Women's S. A. holds monthly meets closed to outsiders, and there take part in them most of the members, young and old, proficient and otherwise. Events suited to each and all figure on the program. These water carnivals are looked forward to and everyone is anxious to show up well in them, so that they serve as a constant inducement to work and improve. Many of the girl3 and women who are regular contestants never entered an open event and never intend to, yet they find the little club affairs interesting and very helpful. They have an object in view and enjoy swimming the more for it. As almost anywhere, nowadays, there are Ktwiptpw Featur Brrriem, 193L.

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At Left Miss Marie Curtis, of Los Angeles, Holder of the National LongDistance Swimming Championships for Women.

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Above Miss Elizabeth Becker, Philadelphia, Vinner of Swimming and Diving Championships in Middle-Atlantic A. A. U. District, At Left Miss Gertrude Artelt, of Philadelphia, Former National Swimming Champion at 100 Yards. elubs, Y. W. C. As, colleges, schools and other organizations and institutions with swimming pools available for year-round use. Even those who have no ambition 10 reap laurels in the open field may take up intramural competition and profit thereby. To all who would follow swimming for physical culture may be recommended strongly the adoption of a modern stroke of the crawl or trudgeon-crawl variety. The strokes of this typo are not only easier to master than others, for they conform mors closely with natural inclination, but they have the triple advantage of affording a more comfortable position in the water, better ajl-round distribution of the effort and greater efficiency. You can swim faster or farther with them than with older styles, as the occasion may require, and this means greater satisfaction in swimming for exercise or recreation and better chances when swimming from necessity, to guard against danger. Speed swimming should be avoided, even by contestants, except in competition. The work which proves most beneficial, irrespective cf the object in view, is done over the middle distances Why Sugar-waters NATIONS thtt eat the most sugar are the most emotional in the opinion of Dr. J. S. Lankford, writing in the New York Medical Journal. Dr. Lankford sayB that the emotionalism of the Latins and other people of the temperate zone, and of the tropical peoples is due to the large intake of sugar, which has always teen available in abundance. Not only is sugar always at hand, but the natives consume large quantities cf raw ribbon cana in sugar-growing countries. This large consumption of sugar, a quickly acting fuel, stimulates and overdevelops the pituitary body and its functions. This little organ at the base of the brain is a partly glandular and partly rervous structure, and it is known to be the centre of all sensation and emotion, and at the same time it rules and directs all the activities of the whole system of ductless glands and the vegetative nervous system, governing all the functions of organic life. It also serves as a communicating centre between the brain and the other organs. The constant stimulation of sugary products over centuries of time has over wrought this important organ. As a proof of this contention, the difference between the Romans of 2000 years ago and their Italian successors might b cited. The Romans had no sugar, for it was not Introduced ißto thu Mediterranean basin by the

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Mrs. Frances CowcIIs Schrotlr, of Oakland, Cal., Swimming Champion and Record Holder; Member of American Olympic Swimming Team. at moderate pace. The movements should made slowly and easily, the entire body held relaxed, without tension. Swift action will tire the swimmer seeking physical improvement S3 quickly that she will not be able to keep it up long enough to derive adequate benefit from it. At the same time it will make it impossible for the contestant to study and perfect form, which is the greatest factor in enabling tho individual to attain the maximum of speed, or endurance, from her natural resources. In tho early stage? cf development it is advisable to cover short stretches, resting in between. Then the distance may be increased by degrees until ono is able to go several hundred yards comfortably without stops. The amount of work to be done must depend largely on individual strength and proficiency, aa well as on the purpose before one. It will bo obvious that a frail girl cannot undertako so much as a powerful young woman and that an inexperienced swimmer should not go so far as an expert, because the effort increases proportionately to the lack of skill. It will be evident also that a woman aiming to build up need not do the amount of practice required by another bent upon reducing. After developing skill and endurance, however, any girl and woman will find it advantageous to swim from a quarter-mile to a full mile, even daily. A correct modern stroke is virtually effortless, so that this entails no strain whatsoever. In fact, littlo Aileen Itiggin, our 14-year-old Olympic diving champion, who is small for her age, paddles 440 yards slowly every day, as ono of her training stunts, and her tiny team-mate of 10, Katherine Brown, swims ono mile each morning while preparing for marathon races in summer. They are vigorous youngsters, too, and they thrive on the work. I can tell also from personal knowledge of a middle-aged woman whs suffered a nervous breakdown for which swimming was prescribed by her physician. She had to learn before she could start practice, but within a few months her daily routine included a one-mile swim in the pool and it cured her completely. She came out of the treatment with health fully restored and looking ten years younger. She ha3 kept up the swimming ever since. These are just a few instances which come to mind offhand, but they will show that neither immaturity nor middle age need stand in the way of drawing benefits from swimming. Every girl and woman wishes to be attractive and at the present time the great majority of fair Americans are actively and painstakingly seeking to better themselves physically through sports, the gymnasium, exercise at home, fad treatments, the beauty shop, and o on. Apparently, though, tho value of swimming seems V.ot to be realized. Yet nearly all members of the gentle sex enjoy disporting in the water, as we know from the crowds which frequent the beaches ond lake chores during the summer months. What easier, then, than for them to tako up swimming an i mingle most healthful and profitable exercise with recreation? Are Most Emotional Saracens til! about the eighth century, and w& not abundant till it came from the West Indie i later. The Romans of course had honey end raisins, but the quantity wa3 limited and not in such universal use as to affect the race. Sugar has been pouring in a stream down the throatj d the Mediterranean peoples for hundreds of years, not only from the table, but in candy a mi crinKs. History will show that tho French have undergone a similar change, and perhaps the Spanish. The emotional mentality of tropical peoples is well known. It Is not only a reasonable belief but a fact easily demonstrated by scientific observation and will be proved that the excessive use of sugar could produce such results. Only recently a Bengalesc scientist ha3 found that the blood cf tropical peoples contains a higher per cent, of sugar than others. Dr. Lankfcrd declares that the rapid increase in the consumption of sugar may portend evil f or Uncle Ssm. The American people are now consuming annually 65 pounds per capita, an increase cf 67 pounds in 40 years, and still there seems to be no limit. In fact, the use of su?ar is increasing more rapidly since national prohibition, for tnany are using it unconsciously as n 1 A. T 1 . eumuiant. its aimos, universal exces?:ve threatens serious detriment to the various U9 organs, with impairment of function and derer.e ative disease. And ultimately, savs Dr. Tir. ford, it will affect the emotional ride cf life c tend to maxe Americans unstable as a people.

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