MORMON BATHING CARNIVAL IN SALT LAKE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1525, 2 April 1886, Page 3

MORMON BATHING CARNIVAL IN SALT LAKE.

A " Gentile," writing in the Olobe, describes a Mormon bathing carnival in Salt Lake. A train with about 300 persons of both sexes has arrived in ♦he evening at the lake from the city 20 miles distant: —" All the world jumps out, and a rush is made for an office at one end of the platform, where by the expenditure of a 4 quarter,' and of a vast amount of energy and insistance, each oue even'uiHy procures a sad-coloured garment of the 'combim - tion' type, two towels, and an enormous key. Tbusequippod the crowd disperses among the little luits on the pier, and, after an interval, re-app<-ars in a very metamorphosed condition upon the steps leading down to the lake. And now there may bo noticed a certain cautiousness in the manner in which the bathers go into the water, eschewing 'headers' abd all such summary modes of entrv, preferring rather to walk in soberly and circumspectly on their feet. And there is a reason for this caution. Tho water of the Great Salt Lake is four times the density of sea water, and contains nearly 20 per cent, of brine. The effect of a small quantity of this mixture applied externally to the unprotectected portion of the human eye is startling; and unpleasant; if taken internally it is apt, as the Americans forcibly say, to ' strangle' the patient. The other properties of this strange concoction of salt and water, in which the bather finds himself, soon become apparent Its extreme and marvellous buoyancy makes it difficult for him at first to preserve his equilibrium. His legs seem always on the point of flying from under him, while his head shows a corresponding tendency to seek the lowest depths. If he tries to swim, he finds his progress retarded by the fact that his feet are somewhere over his head, vainly beating the empty air. Further, it is not easy to start, it is far more difficult for him, when once started, to stop or guide himself, i There is a queer feeling of physical j irresponsibility, engendered by a sense !of general want of ballast, which j makes it impossible for him to be quite ! sure what he is going to do next. He will find him«elf jostling up a.ainst hi* fellow bathers, or turnin? round aimlessly in a circle, unable to make any resistance, where seemingly there is nothing against which he can resist. After a time, however, it will probably be found that a position half-way between sitting and lying on the water is the one best adapted for the environment, and he will ho able to turn his attention to the scene' around him. Another train has just arrived bringing; the members of a social club, to the number of at least ICO of both sexes. The costumes of the ladies of the Pleasant Hour Club, as it is railed, form a valuable addition to the picture. Many of them are clad in crimson, with a neat little cap of the tame colour on the head. Lone black stock* ings are much affected, and are in 3ome cases also worn by men, to whom they impart a slightly Mephistophelian appearance. Other costumes are of plain white, blue and red. bbek and white, and some many-hued and brilliant. The men as a rule wear dark blue or white, but bolder combinations of colour in check and tartan are not wanting. The whole scene is animated and picturesque in the extreme. The water is alive with brightlv-clad forms; the ladies in some cases beirg towed or pushed along by the feet by the gentleman, who are swimming attendance, so to speak, upon them, with as much assiduity as it they were in a ball-room. Everyone can swim; and, indeed, in this buoyant element, the difficulty, perhaps, would be to sink."