Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-04
Physical Exercise for Girls.

An English writer believes that books and lectures directed against fashionable absurdi- ties find readier acceptance with men than the sex in whose interest they are promul-
 Sated, because men look at the matter in the cold, clear light of abstract reason, and in the strong sense which adapts means to ends
 while their wives and daughters are under the thraldom of the despot fashion, and are blind to all considerations save those of pay lng implicit obedience to his imperious die tates. An enduring reform is not to be looked for as a consequence of the fulmina- tions of professors and doctors, however strongly urged and backed up by weight of argument and diagram, but as the outcome of the requirements of modern life It may be postulated that the women of a nation fond of outdoor life and sport involving exertion. will, at any rate, during the time spent in exercise, study to some extent the necessity of fit garb, and one adapted to the requirements of the free play of body and limbs.
 A sedentary and inactive life will, on the contrary, permit of a morbid following of the unnatural impulses to distort and eranp themselvrs to the prevailing fashion The multiplication of the facilities for iaw1-ten- his and other outdoor games and pursuits in which Q woman may, without detriment to the soft dignity of her sex, compete with men, is, we feel confident, a great factor in the contest with disease generating tight corsets. Medical authorities are almos. un- animous that with certain reservations the physical education of both sexes need not iiffer up to the adult age. The full and free development of the physique of both boy and girl should undoubtedly be as largely attend d to by parents and guardians as the educs- ton of the mental faculties. We haze only to notice the springy step, ringing voice and splendid health of the devotee of tennis to be -a1 of -ha of every girl, and of the fallacy Of supposing that women must necessarily be delicate and more susceptible to ailments than men Up to few years ago the sphsre Of outdoor ex- ercises for women was a very restricted one Now lawn tennis, whilst fulfilling all the neces- sites of outdoor exertion, yields an inter est and pleasure to players both good and in- different.
 Indoor gymnastics, too. afford a good means of attaining to physical perfection and health, and there are in this metropolis many facilities for the systematic training of girls and women in classes or singly. Professors of gymnastics do not now feel 1t incumbent upon them to confine the exercises to a few calisthenic contortions, but put their fair pupils through the same course In many in sta-ees of parallel bar, jumping horse, high jump, etc, as was formerly considered only desirable for men. The result of such 8 training cannot but be beneficial in every Eay, giving as it does command Of muscle and nerve, and inducing a strengthening of the body not otherwise possible These de sirable reforms in physical education are steadily gaining ground. and many of those to whom the care of girls is entrusted. who formerly looked with diSapproval on anything which had the faintest taiut of an approach to what they considered to be purely manly exercises. now enter enthusiastically into the question of bodily training, and reap their reward in the increased health snd vigor of their pupils.