Swim

Some in grease and some in bathing suits, some young, some old, all fat, all strong, all more or less indistinguishable as to sex and features, surrounded by tug boats, press boats, ferryboats, launches, shouted at by coaches, fed by trainers, 96 able swimmers got into the cold water at Catalina Island, one day last week and turned their numerous, goggled, and determined faces toward the unseen California mainland, 2 miles away. Day faded. Light came out on the shore. Now an then on the bow of a tug a trainer lit a red flare to show that his swimmer was out of the race. Slowly, doggedly, the rest splashed on.

Like music over the water came the sound of their splashing to the ears, of William Wrigley Jr. i It was an inspiration, no less--this swimming race. He was advertising his enormous real estate development at Catalina. He was showing himself to be a patron of sport. He was making a bow to the sex, for he had stipulated that if a man won the race (this channel has never been swum) he would get $25,000 and the first woman to finish would get $15,000, but that if a woman won she would get $25,000 and the men nothing. And yet most of the best distance swimmers in the U. S. had taken his dare. There was Henry F. Sullivan who swam the English Channel in 1923, and Clarabelle Barrett, the Pelham, N. Y., schoolmistress who stayed in the water of the English Channel 24 hours, and Mrs. Charlotte Moore Schoemmel (Manhattan favorite), very greasy, and Jean McKenzie who also refused to wear any bathing suit. There had been some trouble about these nude ones--preacher-men declared that, if the bodies of these athletes were exposed to view, there must be something indecent about the race.

On went the splashers. They sucked food through' rubber tubes. They listened to the cheerings of their followers. The red flares of surrender were going up often now. Few were left to flay their ways through the black water. Only two of the men--George Young, 17-year-old Canadian, and huge Norman Ross of Chicago--still faced the mainland. Between 3 and 4 miles from shore Swimmer Ross sighed finis and groped for the gunwale of his boat. That left George Young alone, and he succeeded. After 15 hrs., 44 min., 33 sec., he reached Point Vinvente, Calif., losing 25 Ibs. in this $25,000 venture.*

"My goodness, isn't it lovely," cried his mother, Widow Jane Young, in Toronto. "George has always been a good son, light-hearted but never frivolous. He likes porterhouse steak and tea." Wrapped in blankets in California, the son said: "I want to bring mother to California."

Messenger George V. Anderson of Los Angeles, rushing at 60 miles an hour to deliver swim photographs to local papers, mashed himself against a truck; died.

*Hours later Margaret Hauser of Long Beach, Calif., and Martha Stager of Portland, Ore., were discovered plodding along. Weakened they had to give up. Said Mr. Wrigley stepping from his steamer on which he had watched the contestants: "I'll give each of these girls $2,500."