Show nELRF TILE SWIMMING Great Itccorihtl flat Hnvc Been Made in tlin Water toy Melt nml TTomcit The recent performances of professional profession-al swimmers and the arrangements for the annual swimming championship next week have caused a revival in natatorial contests and much general interest is manifested in them Swimming is the most healthful of all athletic pursuits Strong limbs and luifgs are necessary to successful efforts in sustaining and pro polling onosolf through the water and without thoso requirements aspirations for championship honors are vain indeed The list of swimming champions is along a-long one and the records show that the English have always excelled in this branch of sport In England more attention at-tention has been paid to swimming than elsewhere and by the natators of Albion most all the improvements in i style and time have been made The side stroke now so popular in this country originated on the other side of the herring pond The speed that oar be attained by the side stroke is wonderful wonder-ful It is used by all professionals and many amateurs in races of short and middle distances although the old breaststroke breast-stroke is still relied on in long journeys because of it being less tiresome It is a strange fact that fondness for the water and an ability to accomplish great nata torial feats is hereditary In some families fami-lies the championship at various distances dis-tances has descended from father to son I for generations and in no case is this more noticeable than in that of the Beck with family Father and sons mother and daughters have performed great feats of speed and endurance and today Willie Beckwith and his sister Agnes are considered second to none in the world i I The Finny family too or as they might I be punningly termed the Finny tribe have best records to their credit The Joneses and E T and W Blew are also record performers Of the lady swimmers however Miss Agnes Beckwith is the most remarkable Many will remember her great swim from Sandy Hook Rockaway inlet in heavy sea about tWQ years ago and qn vyhich I occasion she swam sixteen miles in 4 hours 50 minutes 10 secqncs Her long swim of 100 hours in the Westminstei aquarium in 1880 was also a remarkable feat When but 14 years old or in 1875 Miss Beckwith accomplished the unpre cedentec feat by a woman of swimming live miles in the Thames river in 1 how and 9 minutes ancj a year later she swam twenty inilcs in G hours and 23 minutes One of the most remarkable swimming feats on record however was also accomplished accom-plished by a female natator Miss Edith Johnson who swam and floated for thirty one consecutive hours in the Black Pool England baths Other women have also distinguished themselves in the water Miss Theresa Johnson Miss Laura Saige man and Miss Emily Parker have all got through the water for given distances in faster time than any other females Lurline the water queen was wont to remain under water long enough to partake par-take of light refreshments and at the Oxford Music Hall in London in 1881 she remained submerged for two minutes and fiftyone seconds Wonderful as that appears it is nothing when compared to the feat of Peter Johnson who on April G 1883 remained under water in a tank at the Royal Music Hall in London for I four minutes and two seconds While it is of course desirable that a woman should know how to sustain herself I self in the water yet it seems that as a sport it should be a purely masculine I pursuit Men always have and probably always wilt excel as natators and record performances by males are far superiqr I tq those by the gentler sex The great performances by tho lamented lament-ed hero Webb often caused wonder and yet ho was not so successful as a prize winner as Willie Beckwith or J Finny Indeed they generally proved superior to the rash athlete who found his death in the whirlpools of Niagara But Webb was a remarkable swimmer While others proved speedier for short distances he was unapproachable at I long distances His records for swimming I swim-ming seventyfour hours with only four minutes rest and for keeping afloat sixty I i i I hours without having touched anything i by which rest could be obtained are still I 1 the best I Among shoi tdistance swimmers the names of Harry Gurr and Harry Moore I will always remain first They were really the modifiers of the English sidestroke I side-stroke and more than twenty years ago I startled the aquatic world by their speed At that time the facilities for timing races j were not so good as of recent years and j 1 records are now on the books which i Moore and Gurr could beat with little trouble QUITS record of swimming a I I half a mile on his back in 10 minutes i and 29 seconds is still the best There I are few of the contemporaries of those two great swimmers who now trouble themselves with matters aquatic and the i i only two in this country so far as known I are Theodore P Donaldson the cole brated swimmer and athlete and Ed Plummer The former is still in the i ring and daily disports himself in the waves at Fort Hamilton and enjoys himself while he instructs others in the useful art Plunging and swimming under water are two useful branches of swimming that arenot cultivated to any great extent hero Th best recorded plunire was by l J Stripklam at Mel bourne Australia in March 1880 when that athlete dived from a stand five feet above the waters surface with sufficient force to traverse seventythree feet and one inch before he appeared on top of the water The nearest approach to that performance was by Horace Davenport Englands examateur champion who 1 plunged seventy feet and seven inches At swimming underwater J Finny holds the record At Black Pool England in 1882 Finny swam llo1 yards before ap pearing alxjve the water In this country the records of profes Bjonil swimmers are generally more I fishy than the swimmers Those made by the amateurs however have generally been made under proper j I auspices At only four distances have i records been made in this country that Iii I-ii 1 < 1 show greater speed than that of English I swimmers In those cases the greater speed is only apparent as very strong I differences tides have made very great As au instance the mile records may be cited Here Charles F Soak has swam 42 seconds with a a mile in 12 minutes strong tide With only a moderate tide in his favor R P Magee of Baltimore swam on the Harlem river one mile in 25 minutes 11Jt seconds while in England in still water T J Collier a prominent professional took 28 minutes 193 f seconds to swim one mile In swimming however as m every other branch of sport Americans are coming to the front and the prospects are that within a few years the amateurs and professionals will hold the best records rec-ords New Yorl World |