The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-06-13
Partial Muscular Development.

while there are many strong ones and
many hearty ones; there are very few
bwho are either thoroughly ereci or we'll
proportional throughout. And when it is
remem hercd that Il large majority of men
in the country are sons of farmers, mer-
chants, mechanics, or laborers, it is not
difficult to account for this onc-sidcdness
of build and indifferent carriage. For
while the farmers work is vigorous and
in the open air, far the greater part Of it.,
and especially the harder part Of it, con.
stantly uses bis back, and does but little
for his front, and particularly for the
front of his chest. Moving s,oops him
over and rounds his back; so do spad-
ing and hocing, and wedding, and lifting
of nearly every sort His back grows
thick and strong, perhaps massive; So do
some of the muscles of his arm. of his
abdomen, and OF his legs. until they soon
so outsirp the others that his spine,
getting once crooked from being so long
and so firmly held in one position. never
gets out of it day or night. While his
whole work strengthens, it also stilens
him. He is seldom good walker the
habit Of always hitching up, though the
crraud Is toG place hardly Il mile away.
contributing to this stiffness found, as
it usually is, with an ircrect position as
he rides, so unlike, by-tho.way, that
which is 30 common among the English
stage-diiveis, who elected praise from
Emerson for ;htir digniaed grand
fathtriy air.
Few Of the mechanic arts are any mole
,.,;, GAL
and uprightuess Of carriage. The black
smith, like the farmer, works some mus
Giles tremendously; those of his hands, Of
one of his shoulders, and of one Of his
arms, for instance; but his legs are often
Indifferent, and his loins nothing great,
while, in common with hosts of me-
chanics, his work is not done in the
open air. Painters and plaSterers have
good wrists; carpenters plsne and SAW
and drive nails well with their right
hands; masons, with backs bent,
lift heavy stones which, with one of
their hand, they have chiselled into
shape for their purpose; shoemskers
hoop their backs rather more successfully
than any other trade; and the jewellers,
compoSitors designers, and all who do
the finer lighter work, would never,
merely by their daily toll, develop into
well built, erect men, if they kept at it
for thousand years. Men in mercantile
life sit or stand many hours each day,
are frequently burdcncd with important
and trying work, have so many irons i'll
the fire as to get no rest, and at the end
of the day find themselves thoroughly ex
hausted, and in humor for anything but
vigorous muscular eXertion. If their
work calls them out much, it uses their
legs only, leaving the arms idle, and so
keeping the development but partial.
The spade, the pick and the bar OF the
laboriug man keep him stopped over in
spite of all he can do, and he lives and
dies. as Chlrlcs Reado described him in
his admirable sketch of the brave blind
swimmer OF the Scottish firth, James
Lambcrt-a man with a siouch in his
gait.
But how about the young mans row
ing, and all the preparation horefor'
Do not these fill the billi Well, what
has he doncl Rowcd, if faithful oar
perhaps five or more miles day for two
hundred days a year, maybe for several
years; pulled an equivalent on nifty or
sixty pound rowing weight daily through
out the cold weather; run three or four
miles three or four times each week IN
the cooler months, and has done some
walking at intervals. And what have
these done for him! Enlarged his chestt
The lo1t-worl has, but the rowing not
one iota. 1t has thickened his back
muscles so that close under the arms he
girths more, perhaps, than before, but
the whole front of the shoulders, the
breast muscles, and the front upper
chest instead of filling out, have very
likely, as in the case of not few we'll
known professional oarsmen, absolutely
fallen in, until a post morton eNamina-
ton would very likely show, as It did
with an English student fond Of hard
rowing, tina, the ribs actually pressed in
on the lungs so hard rs to indent them.
The work was good SO far as it went,
and in bringing strong legs and loins,
back and abdomen, contributed much
toward giving him strength enough to
hold himself erect. Bat unless cores
pondingy difficult and continuous work
was done for the front chest and arms,
then he is disproportioned, thin in the
upper arm, with shoulders habitually
warped forward, very often enough t.
permanently crease his coat near where
the sleeves meet the body in front.
When, in later years, different associa
tons, business cares, and long,hard head
work, accompanied as the latter usually
is by only partial imitation of the lungs,
get him out of the way Of using these
large back muscles, their very size, and
the long spell of warping forward which