Reagan the lifesaver

QUESTION Did Ronald Reagan save a young girl from drowning?

At the age of 16, Ronald Reagan took a summer job as a lifeguard at Lowell Park on the Rock River in his home town of Dixon, Illinois. he returned for seven years during which he saved 77 swimmers from drowning. he would later claim it was ‘one of the best jobs I ever had’.

Forty years later, in June 1969, Reagan was once again called on to save the life of a young girl.

As Governor of California, he was hosting a party at the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento. Seven-year-old Alicia Berry, the daughter of a filing clerk, was playing in the nearby swimming pool.

She couldn’t swim and was holding the edge of the pool. When a dinghy passed by, she tried to grab it, but missed.

Reagan’s son, Ron Reagan, Jr., recalled the event: ‘My father was standing nearby, chatting with guests. In retrospect, I’m sure he had positioned himself at that spot to keep watch over the pool.

‘While he hadn’t seen the mishap, he had been periodically scanning the pool,

taking note of the weaker swimmers. he would have noticed Alicia.

‘When she went under, a clock began running in his head. he probably gave her about ten seconds to surface before politely excusing himself from his conversation and diving in.’

the governor jumped in fully dressed and pulled Alicia to safety. Characteristically modest, he said: ‘I guess it’s just an instinct that still remains.’

Ian Mason, Reigate, Surrey.

QUESTION Why is a partisan journalist known as a hack?

the word hack can describe a number of occupations, usually with a hint of disparagement. Most often, the term describes a writer who churns out words to order, usually on assignment for a fee.

hack is derived from the word hackney, the term for a small horse let out for hire. It dates from as early as 1300, probably derived from the place name hackney.

Perhaps it comes from the Old english Hacan ieg, which means haca’s Isle, a patch of dry land in a marsh. Now part of London, hackney was once pastoral and horses were kept there.

the word subsequently became a term for any vehicle for hire. hackney cabs were introduced in London in the 1600s and were soon regarded as a nuisance.

In his 1635 work the Old Old Very Old Man, the poet John taylor wrote that ‘the multitudes of hackney or hired coaches . . . never swarmed so thick to pester the streets as they doe now’.

the metaphorical links relating to the words hack and hackney reflect this negative connotation.

Alexander Pope used the term hackney in the Dunciad in 1728, which immortalised Grub Street writers who lived hand to mouth in a bohemian quarter of London: ‘Poverty, never to be mention’d in satire, in the opinion of the journalists and hackney writers.’

Oliver Goldsmith used the abbreviation in a 1770 poem: ‘Here lies poor Ned Purdon, Who long was a bookseller’s hack.’

Wilf Garner, Oxford. IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.