SWIMMING THE CHANNEL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 67, 9 September 1911, Page 4

SWIMMING THE CHANNEL.

In the matter of "record breaking" the swimmer is less of a fool than any other typo of sportsman. One finds it in one's heart to excuse Burgess, who ha® successfully swum the English Channel, for achieving the great task, for this performance illustrates to what perfection one of the most useful and healthful acts known to man has attained. Continual attempts have been made to swim the English Channel, but since the late Captain Webb accomplished the feat no person has been successful. Success in such a feat sometimes unhappily makes a man gluttonous for further fame. It is remembered that Captain Webb, who had become something of a hero, desired to further augment his fame by swimming the Niagara Rapids, He died. It was said •that he was drowned, but the medical men hold that as >there was no water in his lungs, he was not drowned, and that' he died from paralysis of 'the nerves. There can be no comparison in the foolhardy feat of trying to cross Niagara in a. barrel and the one of swimming the English Channel, or between covering ten miles in the water and whirling clubs for eighty hours, or pounding a piano for several days. There is no necessity in real life for anybody to run a hundred yard* in nine seconds, or to do many of the feats that are of no practical utility. If Burgess i« content to merely undertake sane performances he will retain the admiration of his fellow-countrymen, and it is hoped he will never copy the feat of his only peer by rolling to his death over the rapids of Niagara.