The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-01-13
A FEMININE DEFICIENCY.
Why Cannot Woman Learn to Throw
Stone?

| Why Cannot a Woman Learn to Throw
| Stone!
The practice Of whole life will not
enable woman to throw a stone with
grace Gnd accuracy. It was one Of the
first and most knotty physiological
problems which presented itself to our
| youthful mind-why our big sister,
when she tried to throw SNOWFALL at
us, almost invariably sent it careening
over the top of the house, while we, in
turn, could pop her in the ear almost
| every time. 1t may be that we took q
mean advantage Of this discrimination
| OF nature In our behalf against our Sis
ter, ana 1t may be that we improved
ehe opportunity to rake her fore and aft
whenever she came within firing dis
lance. But that is neither here nor
there. AS time passed on and we in
creased our stock OF observation wa
saw the other fellows sister laboreel nm
der about the same disadvantages that
ours did in the matter of throwing any
kind OF missile. AS near as we could
generalize their modAs operarodj OF awk-
WaIdness-for such we are compelled to
call tive found that they swung back
the arm over the head with a nearly
vertical vel motion, as though it were hung
py door hinge on the top Of the shout
der, or much as we imagine the old Ro.
man catapult operated when firing
stones at the enemy. When the arm
had swung as far back as the hinge
would allow 1t was brought forward with
the same vertical motion and with as
much momentum as the thrower could
raise, and, at some underlined point in
the arc thus described, the hand let go
the missile. While executing this quick
movement some girls jump up a little
way Off their feet; others do not Some
girls. give a little feminine whoop, or
maybe half whoop and half suueaI;
others do not. Our sister jumped and
whooped both, but then she was q very
bad thrower. AS we stated, at some un-
defined point In the arc described by the
forward motion OF the arm the missile
flew OFT. Sometimes it went up, some
times 1t went down and sometimes it
went sidewise, but it never by any man.
ner OF means hit the thing it was in
tended to hit, jump or no jump, whoop
or no whoop.
Now the point of difference between a
girls throwing and boys we found to
be substantially this The boy crooked
his elbow. and reached back with the
upper part Of his arm about at right
angles with his body, and the forearm
at an angle OF forty five degrees; the
direct act OF throwing was ACCOMPLISH
ed by bringing the arm back with sort
Of snap, like the tail Of snake or a
whip lash, working every joint from
shoulder to wrist, and sometimes max
ing your elbow sing as though you had
got a whack on the crazy-bone. The
girl threw with her whole arm rigid, the
boy with his whole arm relaxed. Why
this marked and unmistakable differ
ence existed we never learned until, at
a somewhat advanced period, we dove
into book Of physiology, and learned
that the clavicle, or collar bone, In the
anatomy of a female is some inches
longer, and set some degrees lower down
than in the masculine frame. This
long, crooked, awkward bone interferes
with the full and free action Of the
shoulder, and that is the reason why
girl cannot throw stone. The design
Of this sort of thing Is still unexplained
to our entire satisfaction. We have de-
veloped pet theory Of our own, how
ever, than an all-wise and benefcent
Providence, foreseeing that there would
be rolling pins, and stove-hooks, and
pot-lids, and hot water in the world, set
the woman's clavicle down a hitch or
two for the safety of men. 1t Is lucky
for all Of US that women cannot throw
stones.