The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-02-08
NUMBER 3.
A FEMININE DEFICIENCf.
WHY CANNOT WOMAN LEARN TO THROW
A STONE?

The practice OF a whole life will not al
low a woman to throw a stone with grace
and accuracy. 1t was one of the first and
most knotty physiological problems which
presented itself 10 our youthful mind
why our big sister, when she tried to thfoys
snowba il at US, almost invariably sent it
caree.ling over the top of the house, while
we, IN turn, could pop ber in the ear al
most every time. 1t may bc that we took
a mean advantage of this discrimination of
nature in our behalf against our sister and
II may be that we improved the oppoItuui-
~ to rake her fore and aft whenever she
Caiue within firing distance. But that is
neither here nor there. AS time passed on
and We increased our stock of information
we saw that other fellows sis. eli labored
under about the same disadvantages that
ouI $ di0 in the matter of throwing any
kind of missile As near as we coulo gen
eraiize their 1e0das Operdndi of awk~aTti-
ness-for such we are compelled to call it
we found that they swung back the arm
over the head, with q nearly vertical mo-
ton, as though it were hung b. door
hinge on the top of the shoulder. or much
as we imagine the old Roman catapauiS
operated when firing stones At the enemy.
When the arm had swung as far back as
the hinge would allow il WAS brought for
ward with the same vertical motion and
with as much momentum as the throwcr
IN the aIC tnus described, the hand let go
the missile. While executing This quick
movement some girls jump uu a little way
off their feet others do not. Some girls
give a little feminine whoop, on mayb
half whoop and half squeal Others do not.
Onr sister jnmped and whooped both, but
then she MAS q very bad thrower. As We
stated, at some undefiued point III The aiu
described by the forward motion of the
arm the missile flew off Sometimes it
went up, sometimes it went down and
sometimes it went sideways, but il never
by any manner of means hit the thing it
was intended TO hi:, jump or no jump,
whoop OF no whoop.
Now tie point Of difference between a
girls throwing and boys We found to be
substantially this TIE boy crooked lis
elbow, and reached back with the upper
paIt of his arm about at right angles wIih
his body, and the fore arm at an angle of
forty five degrees the direct act of throw
ing was accomplished 10y bringing the arm
back with sort of snap, lks the tail of a
snake or a whip lash, working every ioint
from shoulder to wrist, aud sometimes
making your elbow sing as though you had
got whack on the crazy bone. The girl
threw with her whole arm rigid the boy
with his whole arm relaxed. Why this
marked aud unmisi akahle difference ex-
listed we never learned until. at su,ne xba
advanced period, we dove ineo book of
physiology, and learned that the clavicle.
or collar bone. in the anatomy of female,
is some inches longer, and set some de-
, grees lower down than i'm the masculine
frame. This long. crooked, awkward buI,e
inteIferes with the fun and free action Of
the shoulder, and that's The reason why
girl cannot throw q stone. The design of
this sort Of Thing is still unexplained 10
onr entire satisfac ion. We have devel-
oped pet theory of our Own, however,
that an all-wise and beneiicent Providence,
/ fCrrsCeing that there would he rolling pins
and stoVo-ho oks, aud pot lids. and hot
waterin the world, SGT he woman's ciavicle
down hitch or two for the safety of men.
its lucky for nj Of as hat women Cannot
throw stones.