Life — August 19, 1915 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

316 Salt Water Garb T various beaches, especially those near the greater cities, the water-side police are constant in activities at this time of year to prevent women from going into the water with less garb on than accords with police standards. Women of apparent respectability are sent back to the bathing-houses by the dozen every busy day for lack of an inch or two of skirt or for some other deviation from police standards. This police censorship of bathing cos- tumes is the greatest nonsense that ever was. After the war is over our water-side police ought to be shipped in a body to Europe to observe in August the habits of women bathers at Ostend, Deauville and on down the western coast of France and Spain. They would learn from obser- vations in these places how much alleviation of costume women bathers can stand without any noticeable crumbling of civilization. Bathing-suits are purely matters of convention. The single-piece suits without stockings that women wear in European waters seem to answer the purposes of propriety quite as well as ours, and relieve the strain on the imagi- nation by leaving less to it. To be sure, there are bathing machincs on most of the European beaches, but we can have them if necessary, The greatest improvement, however, that our beaches could sustain would proceed from the wholesale drowning of our water-side police. Editor: We CAN USE THIS JOKE IF YOU'LL TAKE FIFTY CENTS FOR IT “YT COULDN'T THINK OF IT, DOLLAR FOR THAT JOKE” I NEVER GET LESS THAN A “IL PE * A STATUE OF MILES STANDISH WAS RECENTLY ERECTED ON THE BEACH AT A PROMINENT NEW ENGLAND SUMMER RESORT Thirty Thousand Dog Bites N_ a New York court the other day Mrs. Mary B. Knoblauch, who is trying to protect her dog against the superstitious muzzlers, produced an interesting affidavit from the superintendent of the S. P. C. A. This affidavit declares that in the last twenty years employees of the society have received thirty thousand bites without a single case of hydrophobia resulting. To quote: “ Some of the bites have been severe enough to inca- pacitate the employees from duty, and in some instances bad cases of septic poisoning have ensued, but during the twenty years in which the employees of the society have been so engaged not a single case of hydrophobia has ever resulted.” Besides that, Mrs. Knoblauch produced affidavits from eleven veterinaries to the effect that the muzzling ordi- nance is unnecessary as a protection against rabies. This data should go a long way toward correcting any popular aberration that exists concerning dog bites and hydrophobia; but, of course, there are many upon whom it will have no effect, and the Pasteur is undoubtedly among this number. Convince a man against his superstition or his profits and he will be of the same opinion still. E.0. J. All Hail the Bad Boy F anything were needed to prove that there is good ma- terial in bad boys the war has helped to produce more evidence. Among the English bad boys, three Victoria Crosses have been awarded to those from reformatories and twenty-five more have earned medals for distinguished conduct. Most bad boys have courage and energy. In a crisis this is a combination hard to beat. In ordinary times, however, it may run into channels not approved of by the majority.