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Show TAX 01 BATHING IS UNPOPULAR i Charge for a Dip in the Deep Does Not Meet With Much Favor. Special Cable to Thc Tribune. LONDON. Aug. III. Tho shadow of the Impending bathing tax is hovering cloud -like over the bathers of Wcstgato-on-Sea. "Single baths, threepence," runs tho new decreo, and tho parlBh council has published it abroad on little bills of pale, dyspeptic hue. "Single baths, threepence." is a demand de-mand which threatens to bring out a hundred swimming Ilampdcns in activo rebellion against tho new tyranny of the beach. For "single baths, threepence," means that tho mackintoshed bather who trips down to tho shore from his house acrosB tho promenade is now to be charged fi cents for tho wear and tear of the sea. It lo only before R a, m. and after 2 p. m. that tho water passes from the control of thc Weslgato-on-Sca pariah .council. A lady visitor who has just rented a house for two months was bitterly sarcastic. sar-castic. "I have six children, and I don't see why I should have to pay for Frank ie he's only five to uso a thimbleful of sea. Why, I could buy enough salt and water to make a. sea of my own for less money than those bathing tickets will cost mo." Tho "Wcstgat.o bathers want to lenow how tho parish council will collect their threepences. Will a merry mixed party bo interrupted in a gamo of "rlng-a-rlng-a-rosos" by a uniformed official with a roll of tlckcta and a punching machine? Will a swimmer ho checked In his side-stroke by a demand for throe pennies? Will It be considered Quite correct for "Miss Browne" to scuttlo coyly Into tho "briny with her ticket pinned to her suit? Will it really bo etiquette for pator-famllias pator-famllias to plop about tho shallows with "Paid fori" marked largely across him a cheap sight for all the world to point at? Anothor line on the green bills says; "Bathers are requested not to loltor on tho green or In tho streets," "Just as if wo wont frolicking round liko apanlels or Ungcrod dripping like wator carts on Mother Grundy's preoious old grecn I" was tho comment or a. fair rebel as sho wrathfully fiune the bill Into tho flea. |