New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-11-27
THE NEGLEcTED UFUBERS.

The boys in the different colleges are sui
holding their Fall athletic contests, and, rot to
be outdone, tie latest hobby, we understand,
among women who make strong polnt oi
their brains, is physical culture. ! his class
Of women, by the way, are as much gwen 10
change their intellectual hobbies as weaker
ones the cut of their skirts or Donncts. One
year the vhim is spelling; the next, decorative
ant just now, physical culture. Now tins IS
all well enough for men and women both,
provided physical culture is not supposed to
mean simply training to walk hundred
mics in a hundred hours, or to row, or waltz,
or lump, in fashion now and amazing to
gods and men, The body Of a man contains
something more than legs or muscles. 1t was
a suggestive. and 10y no means pleasing
sight to see half Of one of the crack boat
clubs ut the last races, gong about with eye
glasses.
These young fellows, when they have left
college, may require their exceptional muscular
endurance and skill half Il dozen times i'll the
course Of their lives, but their eyes they need
every moment. The number OF wcil-dressed
young people and children whom We meet in
ID mornings walk i'll Broadway wearing glasses,
or peeling about half blind without them, IS
dcplorabic. Modern science has proved that a
large share Of the headaches, and other ner-
vcus affections OF the head come from dis
eased eyes; but, while modern science Is doing
mach 10 remove such diseases, cOmmon-senst
does nothing to prevent them. In tie aiore-
said mornings walk up Broadway, you VIII
meet hundreds of infants and older children,
IN the care of clddy French b0nRes, in brim-
les, caps. their weak eyes blinking hclplessly
in the glare Of sun or snow. At home, these
children live in rooms gay with brilliant hues,
pictures, curtains, dados, all Of which may
probably elevate their aesthetic taste III color,
If they leave them any eyes 10 see color with.
Yet these mothers as a rule, are cultivated,
intelligent women. They know how to place
the beds of their children IN accordance with
the flow of magnetic currents, and they leave
.hc sun 10 blaze upon ther faces before they
are awake in the morning. They have a dozen
theories IA to the development Of thcir brains,
vet suffer them to pore over fine print and Ger
man text in iil-iightcd school-rooms for years,
and presently are amazed 10 find tnat one is
near. GIFTED OF another threatened with iTitis.
Another proof of tie neglect OF the human
body by Americans which offers itself perpet
ually on the streets, is the short, constrained,
ie.ky walk Of both men and women. The
cause of it would he found in m,shapcn feet,
corns, bunions and weakened muscles, result
ing from the false position which the foot is
forced to assume in narrow, hiSh-heelcd shoes
from the period Of infancy. Not one woman
in a thousand needs the training which is now
The fashion III some Of our nciGhboring cities
TO enable her 10 walk ten or fifteen miles, but
every one Of the thousand ought to be ena-
blcd 10 walk freely and gracefully, instead of
hobbling wrctchedly through htc.
L is not our province to lecture on physi-
ology, bat simply to suggest to ;nc enthu5ias-
tie defender. Of bodily training, who make 4
school Of their own nowadays, that the eyes,
feet and stomach nave claims to attention also,
and that purely muscular strength i likely 10
prove rs much Of il failure as purely muscu-
lar Christianity.