The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-14
sP1Rrr OF THn PRnss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
From the Boston Journal.
We lament the weakness and suffering of
the women of our own time, but what m sst
be the future of those bright eyed, delicate
little creatures now growing up around us,
whose pale faces and subdued manner tell of
more evening excitement, mental stimulus,
and social restraint than any generation be-
fore them ever knew? Their diet, their dress,
their amusements, seem Intended to weaken
and destroy; and if American mothers were
bent upon the slaughter of their own inno-
cents, they could not devise more effective
manner for its accomplishment.
Bows in their early years suffer in the same
way as girls from these pernicious customs of
our domestic life, but they escape from them
sooner, and their subsequent diversions are
such as lead them into the open air and the
sunshine. Playing ball, Rshing boating
hunting, driving, all tend to physical growth
and well-being In place of these, what is
the girl taught to seek in leisure hours
Worsted work, crotcheting, piiano-playing--
pretty and fascinating employments, but
serving to develop neither the body nor the
mind.
We cross the Common on Fast day after
noon, and pause on the hill to survey the
base ball players, who are welding their bats
on the plain below, and running their bases
as though their lives depended upon making
home run. Further on we encounter
surging mass of small urchins tossing a foot
bali. with wild shouts and frantic rushes. It
is the nations holiday, and we see that this
leaping and screaming is good for the little
fellows, and that thus they will best grow
into men. But where are the girls mean
while? In what spirited games are they
strengthening their young limbs, throwing
back their shoulders, and filling the deepest
air-ceis of their lungs with fresh oxygen
There glide a few of them along the trim
paths arrsyed in their finest, most burden
some attire, with arms pinned to their sides
like the wings of a trussed fowl, and turning
neither to the right hand nor the left, as they
move demurely past. They may glance aside
to behold the wild sports of their brothers,
but proper sense of the lady-like and the
becoming keeps them from moving at a faster
pace, OF discussing the scene before them in
more animated tones. SO they balance along
on their high heels, holding parasols carefully
in their glove-cramped hands, lest drop of
sunshine should touch their pallid cheeks
The greater number of their sisters are
housed at home, hemming superfuous ruffles
or knitting tides on which to lean their
feeble heads.
Girls formerly had some outdoor fun and
jollity, but nearly all the active sports in
which they were wont to indulge seem abau-
doned. Vigorous exercise in running was
once gained by rolling hoop; but now We
seldom see, upon the uncrowded pavement,
the pretty sight of little fresh-cheeked
maiden pursuing her flying circlet Of wood.
And Il spy" and ''tag"-will this generation
ever know such wild, hazardous pleasure as
they gave? Whoever hears now the mystic
tune of "Eeny, meeny, mony, mi, recited
before row of anxious damsels, all braced
for swift start when the last decisive syllable
shall strike? Even the breathless and plod-
ding agonies of shop scotch" served to delight
us by the hour in those departed days; but
its chalked diagram has vanished from our
sidewalks. The pretty games of grace hoop
and battledoor deserved Immortality, but
they, too, have gone out with all the other
lost glories of childhood We still see
in fancy the suspended hoop, huttering
with many colored ribbons, as it few back
and forth in the summer air; out it hangs
faded and useless on the wall of an old man.
sion; no younger grandchildren learn to
catch it on crossed wands. Strolljng along
the shade -dappled sward of the orchard or
the lawn, we hear no longer the swift click
of the shuttlecock beating against the ever
shifting battle dores, nor behold the uplifted
head, the eager eyes, the flushed cheeks of
the two players, glowing with the exhila-
rating sport. More graceful games were
never invented, and they strengthened the
arms, trained the sight, and expanded the
chest; but, alas, they are no longer possible
when our girls are encased in tight bodies,
and can neither swing their arms freely, mol
lift them above their heads.
The gymnastic evolutions, of late so much
in favor in our schools, require girls to don a
loose blouse for their performance, and, il
no other advantage results, it is a good thing
for them to be conscious twice q week oi
some fr.edom and comfort in dress. The
varied posing of body and limbs which they
require is certainly an improvement upor
monotonous repose; but how much better il
some active, enlivening game in the oper
air, where the movements are spontaneous
and all the senses alive, than any methodica
tossing of the bean-bags or concerted crack
ing of elbow joints under the eye of calls
iLeric tutor!