The Davenport daily gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1869, 1856-10-08
THE DAILY GAZETTE.
OUTDOOR ADJUSTMENTS .

/ One Of the chiefest phenomena
which struck Mr.. Emerson, during his
late visit to England, was the frame
and muscle Of the men he saw. Sew
eral disparaging illusions to degene-
rate man, he omitted in his English
lectures, conquered and made ashamed
| by the muscle that he beheld listening.
| De could not, in the face of the over
lowing Saxon vitality, talk of feeble
frames and enervated constitutions.
II is painful to reflect that in this
country, no such impression would
have restrained him. In our manu-
tacturing cities, which compare with
those English ones in which he lectur.
ed, the physical man is almost entire
ly neglected. We pursne the dollar.
Fortune has her million worshippers.
Hygeia but few, Hard work, late
hours, rapid dinners and little exercise
make us, for the most part, dyspeptics
and valetudinariaRs.
There is no natural reason on earth,
why Americans should not be as mus
cular as Englishmen. Anatomists
have proved to us that the skeleton is
iull as large, and all we want, is, that
vigorous attention to health which it
at present seems our pride to neglect.
We have good many gymnasiums
in this country, but the majority Of
the patrons are Germans and English
men. And we have no society Turn,
yerein, which Austrian governments
view with such alarm.
We have had our attention directed
to this subject by the late cricket
match at Hoboken between the eleven
ofthe United States and the eleven of
Canada. On enquiry we find that in
the so called eleven of the. United
States there was not single Ameri-
can playing.
This tells the whole story. We
have no taste, or at least have exhibit
ed no taste for those athletic exercises
which make life fruitful and enjoyable.
We fight well, but our power even in
physical contest is more intellectual
than the result Of physical strength
Could we combine the two, how much
might we not be able to compass.
The life of young man in New
York differs terribly from the life of
youth similarly situated in London
The cockney-ii'you will call him SO,
belongs to cricket club, has a wherry
on the Thames, or q share in small
Yacht, and after hours Of business bats
or bowls, or pulls at oars or ropes, as
if his life depended omit. The young
men of England do not seem to know
what to do with their snperhuity of
animal fife. Gloves and foils, and
single sticks compose the furniture of
their rooms, and although they dissi
pate perhaps as much as we, they
know how to work the poison OFF
One sees them walking along the
streets big chested, fresh colored, with
that loose movement of the limbs and
erect carriage, which to all eyes is
pleasant to look on.
The New York youth knows not
these enjoyments. Down town early
and close at figures or sales. Del
monico's at noon with brandy cocktails
work again till or 5, and then to
dinner. And after dinner WHAT
billiard saloons, where the
green board is an unwholesome pic.
ture of the open fields-drugged bran
dy swallowed by the pint, which
tramps and riots on a stomach too fee
Bile to resist-until late at night, with
flushed check and wandering eyes,
the worn ont youth rambles--let US
hope TO his home.
When shall we see Americans en-
Lering into cricket clubs, boat clubs,
loot ball, curling, fencing, boxing, sin.
gle stick, and all those manly amuse-
nents, which, through the body, make
he mind healthy? Emerson says the
English schools foster brutality
through their patronage of the use of
The fists. We beg to differ.
The gentlest men come from Eton
md Rugby, and those tremendous
workers in English State affairs, Rus
,ell, Palmerston, Derby, and the late
Lord George Bentinck, would never
iaye been able to sustain late hours
md brain labor to such an extent if
hey had not had their eyes blaeked
md their noses blooded when they be
onged to third or fourth storms"
We have the Anglo Saxon frame
in MS. There is nothing
% prevent our going ahead of our an
,estors in this as in many other things,
ave our enervating habits. We
,oast that we have bigger trees, big
,er rivers, and a bigger country than
he English. Let US add to the list
bigger body muscle.--N. Z. Times.