Every animal, except man, can swim naturally on finding itself in the water for the first time, for it takes a position nearly the same as if it were on land and walking.
The physical structure of man, the lord of creation, is not so favorably adapted for his making his way through the water, his head being much heavier in proportion to its size than his trunk, while he has to make an entirely new departure, in abandoning his customary erect position, and has to adopt movements of the limbs to which he has not previously been accustomed. Still, the specific gravity of the human body, particularly when the cavity of the chest is filled with air, is lighter than that of water, in proportion to the obesity of the individual, stout people being able to float more easily than those of spare build. There are thousands and thousands of boys in this vast country who have never seen big rivers, like the Ohio and Mississippi, or beheld the broad ocean, with its white, sandy beach and small, quiet bays, or the great blue lakes, and whose only chance to swim is in the deep holes of some small stream, a mill-pond or small lake.
Beginners are just as liable to meet with serious accidents in such places as in the large rivers or the salt sea. For it must be remembered it is not the width of the water, but its depth, that troubles a beginner.
HOW TO LEARN
Beyond the practice that makes for perfection, the only other thing necessary for swimming is confidence. Every man, woman, and child— even if never in the water before—could keep afloat if he, she or it had the required confidence, but as they have not this confidence, the question is: "How can it be acquired?"
There is an old saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt." While, like many other home-made proverbs, this is only partly true, there can be no doubt but that familiarity makes for confidence. The new recruit may be as strong and brave as the veteran soldier, but the lack of experience makes him nervous and unreliable under a fire which the older soldier faces without a visible tremor of eye or hand.
It is difficult to get confidence if you begin by getting "awfully scared." Every boy, and every girl too, should know how to swim, and both are more than eager to learn. Now, the boy who can swim, and who is properly proud of the fact, will, if he stops to think, recall a time not very far distant when he lacked confidence and could not keep himself afloat for a second. And he may recall how frightened he was when some foolishly thoughtless friend or heartless bully tried to duck him, or to push him beyond his depth.
BE KIND
The first hard fight I ever had was with a big boy—it is the conflict I look back at with the most pleasure—who was holding a smaller boy under the water. We fought quite naked, and—well, I licked the bully, and never after that did he try to frighten small boys in that swimming hole.
Boys will be boys, but even then each should have in him much of the man he hopes one day to be. Therefore I say, be a protector, a guide, philosopher and friend of the younger boys, and if you know more than they do of anything, and they want to learn, teach them in a cheery, manly fashion, if you have the time. Avoid conflicts, but if you must have one, see to it that the bully will not be eager for another such meeting.