BATHERS AND DECENT BEHAVIOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 6858, 8 February 1884, Page 3

BATHERS AND DECENT BEHAVIOUR.

TO THE EDITOB. Sin, —A great deal is said just now about indecency at St. Clair, aud tho unfortunate lords of croation are told they ought to be ashamed of their scandalous behaviour, and all the rest of it. I belong to the male persuasion, and frequently I bathe. Perhaps you will call mo ungallant, and the softer sex may dub me brute; but I cannot help asserting that the scandalous behaviour doesn't all proceed from our side of the house. Tho ladies are really most unblushing occasionally. Over tho St. Clair baths there is a high bank; the pool is directly below; and it is_ no uncommon thing to see a bevy of ladies (generally more or less elderly) viewing the evolutions of the males in the water with apparent interest and delight. The other day, going for my dip, I passed two or three ladies sitting on the edge of the pool. I had my towel over my shoulder, and naturally thought they disappear at the hint. Undressing behind a projecting rock, not 10 yards away as it turned out, what was my horror, on emerging to take a header, to find them all gazing intontly at me. I blushed warmly from the nape of my neck to the sole of my foot. Whan I came up after niy plunge the ladies were reluctantly retiring; but I did not get cool again for a long while. Another day at Lawyer's Head, whilst a companion and I were towelling ourselves, two ladies walked acroßß the1 sandy cove within 20 yards of us, turning neither to right nor left, though they must have seen us both blushing down our backs, which wo turned towards them, wishing the earth could swallow us up and screen us from the rude gaze of these unprotected females. More examples could I give of what the ditiylent male bather has to suffer from the curiosity of the female frequenter of the seaside, but enough has been said ; only tho blame is not all on one side. —I am, &c, ■ ■ A Bashfui, Bather. February 7.