Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-04-18
AMATEUR GYMNASTICS.


dyspeptic, who was induced to try gymnas-
ties, sends to the KnickerbOcEer Magazine,
some of his experiences in that depart
ment of physical science. We clip and
quote
Il didn't attempt anything for good
while. 1 sat and calmly surveyed the
scene. l saw very little boys who seemed
to be qualifying themselves for&he profes-
sion of India-Rubber men. l saw great
strapping men (new comers) attempt and
fail in things which fellows whom they
could put in their pockets, did with ease.
l saw fcats performed which seemed very
hard, and which turned out to be very
easy; and feats which proved very simple
to look at and 'splitters' to try, and then
l took off my coat and went in pull
eI up the small weights five or six times, l
went along the horizontal ladder and the
parallel bars once or twice. went home,
and found two fine blisters on my hands
next morning. Still went there the next
evening exercised twice as much as 1 did
before, felt convinced that l was getting
along very fast; and lay awake almost all
night, my arms ached so.
Il staid away about week, and then
fell to work again manfully; and became
acquainted with young gentleman who
knew the ropes and, under his guidance,
performed many marvellous feats, and met
with more mishaps than 1 believe anybody
ever met with bcf1re, in the same space Of
time.
Being long and lean, and naturally awk-
ward, every new thing 1 learned was
ushered in by disaster or two. But still
l persevered. for slept like a top, and
ate at a rate very al arming to my boarding
house keeper. persevered for two long
months, and was still in the full tide of
successful experiment when, on going to
the gymnasium at my accustomed hour one
evening, l found a brilliant assembly of
beauty. brought together by invitation of
the managers, to witness our pcrforman-
ces.
Il disported myself on the floor, some
time. until at length my evil genius i'm
PEELED me to ascend, for the first time, a
. ladder which ran up one side of the room
nearly to the ceiling; then across and down
the other side of the room. Under the
horizontal part of the ladder was tempor-
ally placed a spring board, of the existence
of which l was unaware. l wriggled up
the ladder with eOnvulsive jerks of the
legs, the audience looking on in respectful
silence, but when 1 had reached the mid
die of the horizontal part, locOmotiOn be-
came impossiblel 1 could neither go back
ward nor forward, but hung suspended be-
tween heaven and earth, like Mahommed's S
coffin. 1 squirned about with my legs,
but l could find no rest for the soles ofmy
feet. l could hold on no longer, and as
the distance wasn't very great determin-
edsto drop to the floor as gracefully as pos
sible, and persuade the audience that it
was done on purpose. So l let go, and
doUn l came perpendicularly-an uP. l
went flying 1 had cone down on my
feet upon the spring -koardl
MY first impression was chaos; my Sec
ond was, that had dropped into the mouth
of cannon just as it was going off. Up
| went, like a shuttle-cock, almost to the
ladder, at which 1 made a desperate but
Intellectual claw which threw me out of
the perpendicular, and do,on I came, bang!
in a sitting posture, up went again, and
gathered nay legs under me distractedly as
1 rose, so that when L dropped again, L
was shot in slanting direction, headforc-
most, as from a cataPult into the waist
coat of two hundred pound man, who was
looking on in open-mOuthed astOnishment
Down he went, with 'squelch,' and over
him 1 went, like lightning, into the dress
ingrooml 1 rushed into my clothes, and
out of the building. and have never enter
ed gymnasium since!'