I
The Omaha Sunday
A $ -T . .. t
.r
A Type of Open Air Dem
onstration on the Beaches
Much Objected to.
Why the
Scanty
Attire and
Free Con
duct of
Modern
Bathers Is
Being
Condemned Throughout
the Country, and How
the Critics Are
Answered
THE attire and conduct of bathers
at the beaches this year hare
again glren rise to an eter-ln-creaelDf
wave of comment and criticism)
On the one band. It Is protested that
nerer before hare the limits of decency
been so completely ignored, while, on
the other band, tile departure from con
ventional Ideas In bathing costumes Is
hailed as a necessary reform in order
to facilitate swimming and promote
physical exercise.
The fact that women's bathing attire
this season is scantier and designed to
reveal more of the figure than ever be
fore Is evident to every one who has
visited the shore resorts. Photographs
of actual scenes taken at random on
beaches In the vicinity of New York
are shown on this page.
It cannot be denied, either, that the
craze tor the modern dance, which de
veloped originally in the ballroom, then
spread to the roof garden and gradually
became an attraction at the restaurant,
has now revealed Itself on the beaehes.
. There are those who see In these de
velopments convincing evidence of our
civilization's decay.
The degradation of society through
luxury, indulgence and the pursuit of
earthly pleasures. It is pointed out,
was the forerunner of the fall of
Greece and Rome, and there is no rea
son to hope that, exhibiting the same
symptoms, we may escape the same
fate.
On the other hand, it has been widely
contended that while in a few cases the
proprieties have undoubtedly been ig
nored, prudish people have been raising
a tempest in a teapot. Abbreviated bath
ing attire is essential if the valuable
sport of swimming and bathing is to be
properly enjoyed, and leap-frog and
dancing on the beach are extremely use-
Why Love
Sy William Lee Howard, M. D.
CHARLES LAMB, in one of his poems
describing the feelings of lovers,
says: "That they do not rightly
wot, whether it be pain or not" Cowley
signs: "A mighty pain to love It Is."
while Dryden states:
"Pains of love be sweeter far
Than all other pleasures are."
But the cold-blooded psychologist sees
In the pains of love only one of the many
symptoms of man's and woman's chang
ing natures necessary to keep the world
populated and progressing.
At first thought it would not appear
that there was any connection between
the pains of the body and the pain of the
aoul-lyre. But the causes are related;
the effects the same.
Pain in the body can destroy the souL
Palo In the soul can destroy the body.
Both sorts of pain mean that you should
search for the trouble and apply the
remedy. But too frequently soul and
body pain are so overpowering as to de
stroy self judgment
As examples: One who suffers from
constant and racking pain which cannot
A"
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7
7
I.
-'-
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The Old-fashioned Bathing Costume,
Which Is as Offensive in the Eyes of
Some as the Scanty Modern Attire Is
to Others.
ful exercises, which ought not to be re
stricted. Because physical exercise of this char
acter has been impossible on -. the
beaches in the past, owing to the hin
dering attire which women have been
timid enough to tolerate, Is no reason
why it should be neglected now, it Is
pointed out, when more sensible attire
has been adopted.
Nevertheless, many influential people
have become so incensed at the 1915
brand of beach conduct that a censor
ship of bathing attire Is being strongly
urged.
Perhaps the most outspoken critic of
the new order of things at the beaches
is the Rev. Father John L. Belford, of
the Church of the Nativity, Brooklyn,
N. Y., who believes that these things are
certain signs of our moral decay.
In a scathing tirade J'ather Belford
recently declared:
"These two months are the worst In
the year. The Intense heat makes them
physically bad and the general relaxa
tion manes mem morally bad.
11 is unrortunate that so
many people believe that
badness is the chief con
stltuent of a good time. Rest
and change are good for
everyone, but when they ;
entail dissipation and vice '
they become real evils, it ;
is an old saying that 'Satan
always aotn some mischief w-
nna for idle hands to do.'
"The busy man is not tor
tured with temptation. But
as soon as he drops his
Is a REAL PAIN
be relieved and whose cause cannot be
stopped commits suicide. Another suf
fering from the pains of unrequited love
and from which there can be no relief
also commits suicide. It is a scientific
fact that the pain of the soul can cause
a heart literally to break. The reason Is
that real love Is a powerful emotion.
Emotions produce shock. Most natures
rebound to ordinary shocks. But some
times, as in a physical shock, the effect
is deadly.
In the cases of powerful soul shocks
the pains are too severe, controlling, to
live under. It la no reflection upon the
unfortunate girl who destroys her life
to say she lacked moral courage; that
she should have held up under the great
pain of injured love. We cannot place
ourselves in her awful state. To those
who never have really suffered, Ulk and
advice are easy to utter.
All pain means there Is distress some
where In body or soul. Pain is an alarm
clock; a messenger call from the affected
part asking for help. Pain Is also doctor
and nurse.
When you break your arm. If there was
no pain upon moving it you would soon
Injure the fractured ends, set up in-
p
-1
Playing Leap-frog o.
the Beach. A
Healthful Sport
Made Possible by
the New Abbrevi
ated Bathing Cos
tumes, but Which Is
Angrily Condemned
in Many Quarters as
Being Too Immodest.
i
y "-'
A
ml
and a Broken Heart CAN KILL
flamatlon and prevent healing. The pain
tells you first to keep the arm still, then
to send for the doctor to put the ends to
gether and keep them there, so they can
not rub against each other.
The pain of appendicitis acts in a sim
ilar manner to prevent further inflama
tion and possible death; for fearful pains
occur if you try to move about They
send yon to bed and call for the surgeon.
The whole body in any abdominal In fla
matlon Is able to aid in a cure on ac
count of the severe pain compelling quiet.
The pain causes temporary paralysis of
the abdominal muscles, puts your body
In a natural splint, this being necessary
to avoid spread of lnflamatlon.
Without pain as a warning, emergency
doctor and nurse, not one of us would get
out of childhood alive.
Pain always means that some sort of
relief is needed to a disturbed organ or
function, feeling or desire.
Love is that part of existence which
makes it worth whlie. It is the stimu
lating function of all living things. With
out some kind of love supporting and
feeding the hungry soul the pain la dis
tressing and destroying. It mar be slight
at first, but soon Increases unless satis
Copyright. 1815, by the Star Company.
Bee Magazine Page
up Civi
-eapf
'NYeTlA.
Tangoing on the
Beach, a Com
mon Sight This
Season.
fied to an Intolerable decree.
It may be mother love or the natural
love for mate. In either case If It is on
satis fled it causes pain. Do not forget
that mental distress, longings, lonesome
ness, the hunger for sympathy are only
degrees of soul pain.
Pain may come from another kind of
love or, better said, a longing, a hunger
to attain some object in life. Such epul
pains come from a dissatisfied ambition
to make a name In literature or art, to
be a carrier of God's messages, to give
to the world some valuable Invention or
discovery.
When a man or woman Is possessed of
these Impulses and desires to the exclu
sion of all other really important matters
In life, and falls to release or obtain
them, most obsessing mental and soul
pains are certain to follow.
This pain calls for relief. Relief only
can come through attainment This be
ing considered impossible, the suffering
Individual commits suicide or else sinks
Into a state of mental and moral lethargy.
Many of the sad tales related In the dally
papers have at their bottoms these de
plorable conditions.
Grsat Britain Rights Reserved.
4 .r
.-1 i
w
roo
izationr
rog Has Become a Popular Sport At Most Bathing Beaches This Year Owing
to the Freer Costumes Worn by Women.
business and runs away for a vacation
he finds danger on every side. The books
he buys to read on the way, the compan
ions he meets on the train, the amuse
ments provided at his destination, the
conversation and the atmospnere are
simply charged with moral poison.
"When we leave home, let us bear in
mind that we do not leave Ood. "In him
we live and move and have our being."
The Ten Commandments are not bounded
by city limits.
"Propriety and decorum are guardians
of virtue, and nothing should induce us
to set them aside.
"Style may demand certain concessions
but it may never demand the sacrifice of
modesty or decency.
"Prudery Is contemptible, but we may
never disregard St. Paul's Injunction,
"Let your modesty be known to all men!
The Lord is night" Read the Epistle to
the Epheslans, especially the fifth chap
ter, where the apostle tells us that Im
modesty should not be so much as named
Among vi, nor obscenity nor foolish talk
nor scurrility.
"Let people say what they
will about dancing, the fact re
mains that It is always dan
gerous and often positively
sinful Promiscuous dancing
Is Inexcusable. Dancing with
strangers is worse.
"A visit to the beaches Is
quits enough to convince the
most broad-minded that there
prevails a degree of Immorality
that Is absolutely Inexcusable.
"No one will dispute the fact
that a certain degree of un
dress Is essential for bathing,
but when that degree Is used
to soend the day or a largs
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Pbcay?
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part of It en the sands, where the sexse
mingle with a degree of freedom that
would not be tolerated en the street er
even In s ballroom, it la time to cry out
In protest
"The spectacle of half-naked women
and men lying about the beaches, and,
often In each other arms, should not be
toleratedNn any civilized eommunlty.
"Canon Llddon has a passage which we
may well read and ponder:
" 'When Greek thought was keenest, and
Greek art most triumphantly creative,
and Greek political Ufa so organized as
to favor in a degree elsewhere unknown
among men. the play of man's highest
natural energies. Greek society was pen
etrated through and through by aa in
visible enemy, more fatal la its ravage
to thought, to art to freedom, than the
sword of any Persian or Macedonian foe.
And already in the age of the early
Caesars Rome carried in her bosom the
secret of her impending decline and fall
in the coming centuries.
" 'St Paul detected and exposed it la
terms which are more explicit than those
employed by Tacitus and JuvenaL The
life-blood of a race may be drained away
leas nobly than on the battlefield. Every
capacity for high and generous exertion,
or for the cheerful endurance of suffering
at the bidding of duty, all the stock of
moral force on which a country can rely
in lta hour of trial, may be aapped, de
stroyed, annihilated by a domestic traitor
" 'So it fared with imperial Rome. The
fate of the great empire was not really
decided on the Rhine or on the Danube.
Before the barbarians had as yet begun
to muster their savage hordes along the
frontiers of ancient civilization, their
work had well-nigh been completed, their
victory bad been won, in the cities, the
palaces, nay, in the very temples of the
empire.
"'And upon what resources could the
old Tagan society fall back in lta alarm
at and struggle with this formidable foet
It could not depend upon the State. The
Emperor was the Bute by impersona
tion; and not unfrequently it happened
that the Emperor was the public friend
and patron of the State's worst enemy.
Nor could any reliance by placed upon
philosophy.
"'Doubtless philosophy means well la
some of lta phases, in some of Its repre
sentatives. But philosophy is much too
feeble a thing to enter the lists success
fully with animal passion: and, as a mat
ter of fact philosophy has more than
once been compelled or cajoled into plac
ing her lntelluctual weapons at the dis
posal of the sensualist
"This enemy is our enemy. It Is not
imaginary. It is real. It Is at our doors.
It stalks abroad without disguise. Its
agents are legion. Its power grows
apace. Never was it so bold, so strong,
so Impudent as it is here and now. Nor
are these manners confined to the vulgar
East Sldera.
"Under the flag of the Knights of Colum
bus some of our own young men and wo
men spend Sundays and holidays in bun
galows and tents at Coney Island and
Rockaway In this less than half dress,
dancing and amusing themselves on the
sands.
"Let others do what they will, we whe
have the light to know evil and the power
1 to overcome It should do all we
can to limit it
"Evil is not to be trifled with.
There ia only one way to handle
it. That is to avoid the places
where it prevails and the persons
who practice it."
Another Photograph
Snapped at a Public
Beach Showing
Bathers Enjoying a
Modern Dance.