Sporting notions of present days and past

(fit totIt10f
I
"tttt4l+f"J.
nti5r±ii^1'.•w.. �
-
s
-
i.W�ieni.*�
,
.�:Ftetr.i�r`�fi'4itW�...fi
1
,
10 SPORTING NOTIONS
with his ( John Bull's) property, and ought to be
strictly limited in taking risks.
Could a scheme for compulsory education
in swimming be made universally workable?
Well, universal is a big word, general would be
more convenient, and in some outlying sparsely
populated districts there might be too much
burthen to the ratepayers in constructing baths
for the purpose of affording facilities for teaching
and practice. Still, it must be borne in mind
that you are not
obliged
to have a big area of
water for the purpose, nor are appointments
necessarily costly. I should say that there are
few places where the boys do not somehow find
a means to get into the water in hot weather,
and in the great majority of cases these pools
or puddles, which they use for want of better,
might be readily converted into something
superior. Swimming
is
taught at Board schools,
and quite right, too. We should be very foolish
indeed if, after laying out so much money in
stock, we did not go to the insurance office.
The board scholars cost a terrible power of
money, and as we have to spend it on the boys
and girls, it is only common-sense to teach
them how to take care of their lives instead
of wasting them, and by consequence our money.
Thanks to the Schools Swimming Association
and the better-late-than-never movement among
corporations and vestries, we are being fairly
well done in one way and another; but what
we want is a general order to learn swimming.
Each year the list of fatal accidents in the
water grows, or seems to grow, and in almost
all cases of what are called bathing fatalities
" death " and " waste " have been interchangeable