The evening world. Newspaper, August 3, 1922, Page 14

pratense a f — of the Country. Bwimming and water athictics are featured at the summer school at Harvard University this year, School teachers and other co-eds are getting in the etwtm in ali the reality that Charles River water can furnish, Able instructors are giving special courses in Wfe saving and reeuscitating the drowning, and others are teaching fancy diving to those who desire a higher proficiency in water sports. Some have tried rowing, too, but that branch has not developed the champions that appear to be coming from the other lines. en Copyright, 1022 (New York Evening World) by Press Publishing Company has a private bathing beach which rivals the ol’ swimmin’ pool of boyhood days for popularity. Every Afternoon the float of the Weld Boat Club and the shore of the Charles River, within sight of the Stadium, are the gathering places for students from the Summer School. ‘When one says “swimming at Har- vard” it might not mean so much, maybe, unless you happen to think of the Summer School and its 1,000 @r more co-eds—ahem! Have your fiokets ready at the gate, please! No admission i¢ charged, but this Must be an oversight on the part of the college office. For New England School teachers are of good repute in the field ruled exclusively by Cleo- \Patra, Lillian Ruseell and Mrs, Lydig, ‘and you can’t find anything at Har- vard to upset their reputation. In fact, if Cleopatra appeared in this company with a 1922 one-piece bath- ing sult she would find more com- Petition than there was in her day. In reality, Harvard's afternoon bathing hour is one grand frollo for ®everal score of the men and women fat the school, and men of thirty, forty and fifty are seen diving and splash- ing and spouting in the waters of the Charles with maidens fresh and young —and occasionally some aro More fresh than young. Al! quality ‘as “young,” but a few are younger. However, bathing at the Weld Boat ARVARD COLLEGE Club did not start as a atrict ‘play proposition. It started as an adjunct of the Summer School of Phsytcal Rdueation, of which William H. Geer Im director and Dantel J. Kelly, Har- vard's assistant boss of physical tmining and exponent of the uni- vérsal-physical-training-fot-freshmen idea, is assistant director. This achool, which i# conducted at the Hemenway Gymnasium and at the Sargent School, situated nearly, is larger than ever before In its his- tory. More than 800 college football coaches, physical training directors and coaches and instructors from pub- Ne and private schools are gh hand for the #ix weeks’ course tn the “science”? of thelr job. For most of this ambitious crew of pupils the course im physical training lasts four years—-that is, four suim- mers. And some time during that course the Harvard authorities have deciiled that every physical ditector must have some practical training in swimming and diving, “Bvery physical director who has taken this course must at least be qualified to give instruction tn swim- ming,” Mr. Geer stated to an Eve- hing World representative. ‘We give Stunt Divin part of the Curriculum mr GN NS OR ee. Seka. " ning in swimming at must prove that they are competent to teach others, Probably 100 of the more than 300 students this summer THE EVENING WORLD, THURSDAY, AU. are engaged in taking the swimming instruction in one form or another. “Advanced swimming instruction is given to those who choose it at the Cambridge Y. M. C. A. tank, (Har- vari has no swimming pool of its own)" ‘ The advanced instruction includes training in all sorts of diving, plain and fancy, and a careful training in the various swimming strokes more commonly in use. A few never learned to swim before. And they don't always agree with the Ancient adage that !t is never too Date to begin. On the other hand, the greater number of the pupiis in the echool of physical education are trained ath- letes with considerable experience in their flelds. Many of the men and women are excellent swimmers and Givers, and are fast | coming expert under direction of teachers in the Summer Sohool “Jim'" Baldwin, famous athlete whe w coach of the baseball and foot- all teams at Lehigl versity next year, is the boss in the swimming programme at Cam- bridge. Jim's job, among others, is er to see that every one knows the dit- ference between a trudgeon and a crawl and can prove it by practical demonstration. He handles the ad- vanced swimming classes for men at the Cambridge ¥. M. C. A. pool. The women’s swimming classes are under the Wirection of Miss Helen Van Wagemeh, who at other times of the year is swimming tnstructress in the Young Women’s Christian As- sociation at Richmond, Va. Miss Van Wagemen is an accomplished mer- maid who can do a little of every- thing that 1s to be done in the water with perfection and grace. And shoe 1s turning out a series of accom. plished pupils, judging by the demon- strations of fancy diving indulged in near the Weld Boat Club each day, In order to !mprove the results of the swimming instruction, the school authorities have encouraged it as a form of recreation, It was for this reason that the Weld Boat Club, heatqfarters of many a Winning (and many a losing) Harvard ‘varsity crew im years gone by» was thrown open to men and women alike for an afternoon's dip (more often it's’ a ducking) between 4 and 6.30 B, M. a GUST 3) ee Rat RON 2933. ez aN ‘The deep waters of the Charles in front of the boat club are the only rendezvous for both the men and the women students in the Summer School, and not a day goes by but what anywhere from 100 to 160 take advantage of it. A high class spring- board has been bullt on the float. From its swaying and precarious ex+ tremity the pupils are permitted to try out “for fun'’ what they have been learning during the week in the formal classes. Not only do the students of the School of Physical Education take advantage of this op- portunity, but many of those whose favorite pursuits are pedagogy, trig- onometry and metallurgy throttle down their mental engines about 4 in the afternoon and throw her into the igh for @ spiash in the briny. The neighborhood of the Weid Boat Club for about two hours is a very se- lect section of Coney Island or Bos- ton's own Nantasket Beach, The difference 18 tiuat everybody on hand is there for a swim, and fot to show off a fancy bathing sult. If any one— be she man or be he woman, excuse us—shows inclinations to keep out of the water too long some big brother 4 or sister 1s likely to come along and push him in. Cherry Greve was thrown in six times in an afternoon. While the period lasts life is one grand frolic. School teachers sit on the edgo of the float dangling their tootsies in the water just as playfully and unconcernedly as if they were flappers—and maybe some of them wish they were. They splash and tumble pell-mell over one another in @f occasional mad group scramble to get in all over. Swan dives and but- terfly dives are executed with a per- fection of form that would doubtless make little Miss Helen Wainwright look nervously to her laurels, Miss Van Wagemen instructs a few of the bolder ones in the jack-knife dive. A few boldly climb over the parapet of the Larz Anderson bridge and punish the smooth surface of the water be- neath by diving from a height of 25 or 80 feet. No chance for any accidents, how- ever, Every person present receives thorough instruction in life saving. For some time past the New Eng- land division of the American Red Cross has been carrying on a cam- paign to give life-saving Instruction to vacationists and campers throughout the New England States, Robert Mil- ler, specialist in this fleld, took Har- vard in on his cireutt. Mr, Baldwin, who is an all-around rough-and-ready sport, is quito ad A group of future Swimming Experts. | "| Learned to Swim at Harvard ‘will be Their College Song © Students of Summer School, Mostly Co- Eds. Are Getting Special Instructions in High and Low Diving, Life Saving and All the Other Water Accomplishments So They Can Teach the School Children . good a swimmer as he ts football ald baseball mentor, Several others in the school are excellent performef: at the natatorial art. But Mr. Miller, in a brief series of lessons, taught Mr. Baldwin, Miss Van Wagemen and Miss Sophia Eaton, physical director of the public schools in Pontiae, Mich, the Red Cross aystem of life saving for the purpose of harmonizing their methods, All three passed the Red Cross test as lifeguards and were declared competent to give the exercises and tests according to the Red Cross method, As the result they are the busiest people at the Harvard « Summer School during the waning hours of daylight and a large propor- tion of those who go out from the Harvard Summer School will be ex- perts in manoéuvring drowning peo- ple in the water. The college bathers add to their frolicking by trying to learn to row. Some ef them never learned; a few never will learn, Undoubtedly several would have finished even behind the Harvard crew in the recent happen- ing at New London, They seem to interpret the chief function in rowing as going backward. ‘rhis is easy, on account of tho stiff current in the Charles River; s0 somebody has to wander around every 16 minutes and pick up the stranded oarsmen. Water polo hasn't come yet. But it may. oO