Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-06-12
SOCIAL g. PHYSICAL TRAINING.

sung ankee u00Qle at MS own execution .
SOCIAL & PHYSICAL TRAINING.
Every day brings more clearly home to
thinking minds conviction of the necessity
of important changes in the nurture and ed
ucation of youth. That We are fostering in
telectual development atthc expense ofphy-
sical health is becoming, with each succeed
ing generation, but too painfully apparent.
At the age of sixteen, our precocious boys
have reached premature manhood and at
twelve our girls begin their career of firta-
tion. Cigars and walking canes are exchan-
ged by the former for athletic exercises !;
while the latter reject catisthenics for silk
dresses and confectionery, and dumb bells
for diminutive beaus. Our merchants, alb
sorbed in business cares, find no time to en-
courage those exercises which invigorate the
youthful frame. Fine houses and gay dress
es are the principal attraction of American
mothers, and, from the force of example,
necessarily become passion with their daugh-
ters. Wealth has become the touchstone of
respectability, and, in the pursuit of it, all
that makes life delightful is ruthlessly sac
rifced. The immense consumption of drugs
and nostrums throughout the United States
proves conclusively the frial condition of the
general health. The life we lead has given
rise to heap of diseases which were almost
unknown to our progenitors.
Prominent among these are dyspepsia, and
the various nervous disorders incidental tc
gestric arrangement.
There are very few among us who are
blessed with that joyous elasticity of spirits
which is the result of perfect health, and
the cause of this condition of general inva,
lidism lies in the fact that we have eglectcd
in our own persons, and in the education oi
our children, to promote due observance Of
those sports and recreations which are com
mon to other countries; but which, among
US, have come to be regarded as indecorous
and, above all-unfashionable What is the
consequence? As people we are assuming
peculiar type-a gaunt, bony, sharp-fea
tured race, impulsive in temperament, quick
in apprehension, and reckless in carrying ou
the projects we conceive. Discursive read
ers, rather than deep thinkers, and shallow
reasonerSs rather than profound logcians.
Ingenious in invention, and expert at mani
pulation, we tax our faculties to the utmos
in the study of improvement bearing upor
material progress, while we leave uncultiva
ted taste for the beautiful, and fail to en-
courage those pleasant diversions which in
vigorate the body and give buoyancy to thu
mind
The old Greeks had their chariot and foo
races; their boxing and wrestling matches
quoits and other games; which they sedu
lously fostered, as combing amusement will
the best means of obtaining bodily strength
and activity The happy consequences 0
these physical recreations were so apparent
that the older physicians judiciously recon
mended the practice of them ''as a means o
counteracting the bad effects Of increasing
luxury and Incidence"
The principle upon which gymnastic exer
cises act is evident. "Their immediate et
feet" says modern writer, "is'an increas
both in the size and power Of the parts ez
ercised, in consequence of an admirable lay
which obtains in living bodies, that-withi
certain limits-in proportion to the exerto
which it is required to make-a part increa
ses not only in strength and fitness, but ais
: in size. Nor does the beneficial inauenc
stop here. If the exertion be not carrie