NUDISTS IN U.S.A.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 7

NUDISTS IN U.S.A.

PHILADELPHIA PARTY.

AN INDIGNANT MAYOR. " INSIDIOUS GROWTH OF INSANITY." PHILADELPHIA, September 8. Most of us can take our nudism or leave it alone. But not in Pennsylvania. The city of brotherly love, particularly, has a cold municipal shoulder for the whole proposition.

Mayor Moore rushed into action when his official tranquility was disturbed by what might be called a nude request. Somebody wanted to hold mixed nude bathing parties in an indoor swimming pool. The city fathers were asked about it. The Mayor said it was taboo, but that wasn't half of what he said. The whole thing struck the Mayoral dignity as "an exhibition of nudity by men, women and children on the pretence they are seeking health—a perfect physical manhood and womanhood, as it were."

Mr. Moore spake further: "Apparently these cultists, if they are not fakers pure and simple, would turn civilisation back more than GOOO years and walk in public places without the shelter even of a fig leaf." He hinted at the "insidious growth of insanity" and added there would be no ''ugly nakedness in this great city of homes." The nudest leader had a thin"or two to say, including that "there is nothing vulgar or unwholesome in our programme." He said married persons couldn't join the colony without the consent of their spouses: And that was the loophole for some dirty work. The chief nudist revealed all. He said a married spy had come into their midst, posing as single. He got considerable information, it seems, and then, said the head man, he betrayed the trust. In Lancaster County a school teacher left off teaching school for a bit to discover how the well-dressed man would feel shorn of conventional garb. It felt'all right, thank you, until the! school board got around to it. |

There was a public'hearing and the teacher—Alfred Bennetch —lost the job he'd held for eleven years. But some of the testimony was good: Q. —What were these nudists to do after they took all their clothing off? A. —Well, they were to play handball together. Q. —And swim together? A.—Yes, sir, its very good exercise. Q. —What were they going to do when it was too cold to swim? A.—They could wrestle. No dancing. I'd rather have tliem wrestle than dance. Along about this point the nudistic pedagogue—all dressed up in a white shirt open at the neck—refused to answer questions on the kindred subjects of nudism and wrestling, on advice of counsel. —(N.A.N.A.)