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Newspaper Page Text
LURE OF THE SUMMER WATERS IF SWIMMING were not as useful as it Is enjoyable, or if it were noisy and brought on lockjaw, or if It had not already been fabled among: the rhymes of Mother Goose so that none dare to make light of it. the cummer record of 1906 would probably raise as comprehensive an outcry as that which rages against fireworks and toy pistols, for there has not been a day since several cays before the Fourth of July that has not written many epitaphs over its victims and carried the sorrow of tragedy-ending pastimes into homes and families. From the Willamette in Oregon to the quiet surf at Coronado the story has been the same. A hot day, a swim In the cool water, cramps and a sudden good-by to daylight and friends and labors and hopes. Now and then an attempt at rescue. sometimes a bit of heroism, but usually a grave in the place where most people n«ver count upon being buried. If the body is rescued the relatives are for tunate, for in most cases of recent note there has been no such good luck. Not only has there been a death, but there has not been even the satisfaction of a partially dismembered body to follow to its resting place. All sorts of streams, pools, surfs and other waters have done the drowning-, with the preponderance of casualties in the deep rivers of the Pacific Northwest. The Willamette, for example, has car ried away the life of the well known California athlete and football player, Walter I\ Smock; almost claimed that of another California athlete, Sam Ftowe; drowned a Mrs. Maria Parks in the presence of her husband and a Miss Anna Hartman in the presence of her fiance, and sucked under a river barge a daring ircn worker who attempted a foolhardy div<? because he was chal lenged. Ijjike Washington, the beauti ful body of water which lies in the outskirts of Seattle and which some <!xy is to be a fresh water harbor for the American navy, has covered into it* depths a picnic party of three men, who sank so near the shore of a pleas ure park that the people at the latter could throw a stone to the boat yet could not reach the spot in time for rescue. Strangely enough, a country the very opposite of Oregon and Washington has afforded the second largest number of casualties — namely, the interminably hot, dry and barren lands of the Colo rado — lands where, indeed, no. one is to be blamed if he seeks the cool of the river in spite of all Its known treachery and its long blacklist of dead. A muddy, swirling stream is the Colo rado as it passes along the boundary between California and Nevada, and quicksands cover its bed to such an extent that only the strongest swim mers venture into it. Round about the Fourth of July, perhaps in the exhilara tion of the^eason. many made the ven ture, and in three days there were three downings at the on? point. Nee dies. A fourth casualty was partic ularly pathetic, as it carried away a 9 year-old boy who »-as sitting on the bank fishing. Utterly without warn ing the waters swept in under him and washed out the clay on which he was eitting. The poor little lad was never found, and his parents were left to grieve without even the satisfaction of having his body to bury. Quite as pathetic as the last incident, although farther away from San Fran cieco. was that of the seven little girls of Cedar Rapids, lowa, who lost their lives while engaged in a harmless sum mer afternoon wading. The waters were supposed to be shallow, and the play was at Its height when suddenly one of the girls .sank below her depth. She had stepped into a sinkhole. Quick ly the girl nearest to her rushed to «aye her, but only to slip Into the same hole and be drowned. One after an other the entire seven girls of the party fc*l into the same place while thus trying to rescue each other, and none of them were saved. lowa has known no sadder children's story, and Cedar Rapids has never hushed Its voice and dal^y noise so thoroughly as It did in sympathy with these children's parents. £ If there is a way to foresee these catastrophes and prevent them it has not yet been .discovered, for all the cjye In the world seems futile when nature lays the snare. A" party of boys old enough to take care of themselves, for example, were swimming in the comparatively' safe waters of Stanford Lake at Palo Alto. They had be*ei\ "in" for a long time and were just coming ashore to dress, when it was noticed that' Johnnie Nichols was no where to be seen. He had been with the rest of the boys only a moment be fore. But either a cramp had over takn him or he had struck a sudden hole and had -uk. All that was left was his pile of clothing on shore to tell the sad story of his death. The lake was the last place in the world where such a death could have been antici pated. Again, it does not seem to require even deep water to cause the casualty any more than it requires a "cannoti cracker" to do the fireworks fatality. For instance, Frank Sweet, a 16-year old boy, tumbled into a pit left by the dredgers in Marysville and ended what was otherwise a promising life. In Santa Cruz, the Infant son of Manuel Machado crawled a litle distance away from the house and was found drowned In a small barrel. BrockwelL. a carpen ter in one of the Sacramento Valley towns, slipped while working on one of the flumes, fell into the shallow wa ter of the flume and ended his days thus helplessly. George J. Reynolds, a farmer at Covina, was out in the sun, working a little too much for his ad vanced years, the latter being well pn into the sixties, when he fainted and was drowned in a ditch not more than 600 yards from his home. In the outskirts of Sacramento a young man who had been out of the high school only a week was bathing In the river when one of th% whirl pools which are numerous^in that vi cinity caught him and put an unhappy quietus upon all his aspirations and prospects. Over in Manila occur the same fateful incidents. A private of Uncle Sam is rid ing safely enough upon one of the Gov ernment launches. There is a momentary crowding, a lurch of tlie vessel, and young Lonsdale 13 no more. At Val lejo. whence the navy, vessels fit out for Manila, a former Supervisor of San Francisco slipped from the landing and was drowned. And out* at, the San Francisco beach, where the crowds come and go at all times of the day and night, and where, if anywhere in the world, a man should have a chance to b« called hack betore the waters rob him of his life, one x^mil Heinz was sit ting upon a rock fishing. He ventured a lltle far. His foot slipped upon the wet surface. And down he went into the surf. There was no one but a 12 year-old boy In sight to attempt his rescue, and the boy could do nothing. Even the expert seamen are the^wa ter's victims, too, one of them. Mjqhael Grady, falling from a boom on a%acht among the. many 3*achts stationed at Tlburon and sinking despite the dozen vessels round about which might have saved him.' \u25a0 And the rich! The summer of 1906 has been no better to them than to the poor. It took away early In the past month a nephew of the Vanderbilts and one of the choicest scions of the rich men's families of old New York, and before tne season was out spread its pall to 'five or six others besides Hamilton Twombly. Twombly had all the accouterments of safety, the swim ming suits which are a delight and envy to those who cannot afford them, the boats on shore with which to row out to deep water, the life ropes, or whatever else boys might wish to add to the fascination of water sports, but he. .ventured tar«o ° * ar « his strength pllyed out, and he was no* better off than the humble Manuel Carlllo -who sank in the muddy waters at the Needles. \u25a0\u25a0 c- \u25a0 \ ' Occasionally the summer has yielded Its heroes — not many of them this year, \u25a0 but auch as there have been have been worthy of their names. The football • player Sam Stowe, who almost lost his i Jife In the Willamette, was trying to rescue a fellow-workman; when the river just missed claiming him for Its victim. ~ In. one of the towns; of: the East an eleven-year-old girl at 'the \u25a0.'\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0 ;- ' ' \u25a0- \u25a0 : risk of her own life saved that of her older sister. And in the rough and unlettered water front of New York happened an Incident worthy of Third avenue melodrama and incredible as that melodrama usually is. A stranger to the front, one. Bailey, was watching at the pier for the arrival of some friends on an Incoming steamer, when his foot shppod and he fell into the water. As luck would have It he caught upon the string piece so that he was not entlreiy*submerged. But the steamer on which his friends were expected was by that time moving up to the pier, exactly In Une with where Bailey was hanging. His death by be ing crushed between the •• steamer and the string piece seemed. Inevitable. But, happily, there were two quick* witted Irishmen who witnessed the man's fall. Quick as liffhtning they conferred and set to work to try a rescue. It was close hazard, but they were daring. One of them, Martin, suspended himself by the legs from an iron hawser bit. Then the other. Mc- Carthy, hung head downward while Martin in turn held his legs. Thus the two reached to where Bailey was stuck and, freeing him, caused him to climb over them, as he would up a rope, to the pier and to safety. - The prow of the incoming boat rubbed against the string piece just as Bailey got on the wharf. For a moment before the rescue Martin's strength gave way and the entire party was saved only by the timely arrival of Policeman. Flynn. Another instance of hero goea out side, of the human sphere Into that of the ever faithful dog.. The daughters of a prominent Berkeley clubman, J. D. Waterman, were wading in the neigh borhood of Burkes sanitarium in So noma County, when they ran suddenly into deep water. The older women of the party, went lafter them.' wading In up their necks,?but falling to effect a rescue, it looked like, lnevitable death when little "Pat,** the pot spaniel of the family, came swimming out lustily and valiantly, and grabbed \u25a0 the girls by the clothes and dragged them to where the women could take them ashore. : \u25a0 '. -' ;• - v': ->: ; : ' ." '\u25a0 The surf has not been prolific of ac cidents during j the year, the total be ing far less than usual. ; For some rea son or other It has been 'the river and the lake and the places: which one would think were safe; that 'have- had the largest number of it atalities. -gut one surf Incident can : hardly 'pass', with out .note, and that occurred Jut Seaside,' Ore., where adergymanvflgured asCthe THE.,;SAN::.^RXt^T3(^;.I.SUXpAY.: ? QALU> rescuer, Lea Cohn, a ' young, womar. fond of rj swimming and a-.resolu tion for, courage, swam away from the main body , of j. bathers ? and'lwas'dplng beautifully among^he ; breakers, when they ; became ; unexpectedly.'?: too" strong for. her. 1 -There; was a* cry.- from? the shore and a call for volunteers. '.-.Lus tily the young. 'Episcopalian rec^or.iDr. A. Morrison," -took^to* the: watfer./and with a sturdy! stroke/fbeat out the reg ular boathouse; swimmer Karl Kronbar In any effort to r§aeh -Miss Cohn. >;The young " lady * was- stlH : struggling- when they > reached^ her »ana\ she; was; .'easily taken^ ashore! \u25a0•?."' "\u25a0\u25a0"• :',v-~; \u25a0'\:'>'-" l-iv".*- 1 \u25a0 s These* are? but the c fconsplcu6us\?lri-; glances which, have crept: into' the 'dally press. •\u25a0 : The ' dosens, 'or hundreds, v of others? which' have not : been noted: te!| a\larger.and.;broador. story which 1 prab- ( ably , *w(ll. continue 'to be told with in creasing interest and intensity, each succeeding. year. For as the life in the larger cities giwws more compact and trying, tha summer exodus. to the water resorts and mountains. becomes gr«at«r ing becqme more numerous. The stream* ;will always lure the boater and bather, and the careless will al- W«y« fall victim* to th« unexpected sinkholes, quicksands and whirlpools. And If there Is not enough chance for deatn. in plain water, fresh or salt. some will do as the Kanaka did In Kealia, In the Hawaiian Islands, and fall into. a molasses vat to end life in •sweet : surroundings: or as the Italian [ did last year when he took his annual •isth In his annual brew of win* an> ,<n«4 by drowning "therein.