The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-07-02
SKIPPING THE ROPE,
CONDUCIVE 10 HEALTH ANo long LIFE
Contrary to the Ordinarily Entertained
Dtg Belief, This is the Opinion of
Distinguished Philadel- r,
phia Physician.
Philadelphia Times.l

.
"Skipping," said wellknown Philadel-
taken in moderation. It brings every
muscle of the body into play, increases the
respiratory effort and stirs up the languid
or torpid actionAof the liver and abdominal
viscera. Yes, sir, any person who will
make use of skipping-rope for quarter
of an hour every morning before breakfast
and will rub himself down with hard
| towel afterward need never suffer from
dyspepsia. Why my youngsters, five Of
them, are like professional skippers. They
can dance and double and one of them can
he touches the ground"
"Do you think there is any danger of
/ heart disease being inducedW
"In all cases where great exertion Of any
kind is indulged in for too long period
certain valves Of the heart are liable to be
weakened and condition of the hearts
action is brought about that is sometimes
called athletics heart Skipping, If iu-
dulged in to too great an extent, is of
course liable to cause such disease; also,
the natural result of too much skipping at
one time might be to cause the rupture Of
the valves of the heart and SO cause in.
Simultaneous death. This happened only a
few weeks ago in the case of little girl in
q Pennsylvania city. She had been skip
ing against time-went over the rope
three hundred odd times and then fell
dead +"
"Is it possible to train ones self to skip
for long time~ ~'nt
"Oh dear, yes. Why, there are many
professional shippers in this country who
will skip five minutes at time without
stopping. But they take the thing quietly
and skip to music"
"Has music anything to do with it"
"Why, certainly. Don't you know how
much easier it is to march to music than
without and how much further you can
walk when a band of music is playing
good time for your feetp It's the same
with dancing or skipping. Music is great
assistance. Correct time is kept and the
heart, suppose, gets accustomed to the
beat as long as there is no irregularity.
There is one young lady in the variety
business, as they call it in this country,
who calls herself the champion endurance
skippist.' myself timed her one evening
while at st. Louis and she skipped for
eleven minutes and eighteen seconds with.
out ceasing for breath. l saw her after.
ward and asked her IL 1t did not exhaust
her very much. She told me that she used
at one time to faint when she got off the
stage. But now If she is in fairly good
health she feels no bad effects at ALL"
j "Was her heart affected in any wayW
X "No. examined her heart, at her own
request. There was no valvular lesion of
any kind. Her heart was as sound as a
bell. She told me that she never suffered
from indigestion or dyspepsia and seldom
mad headache. Strange to say, however,
she often had rheumatism. She is one of
the most perfectly formed women ever
saw"
sis skipping practiced abroadw
1"The game of 'Saute la Corde' Is very
popular among the children in France, and
in certain parts Of the northern provinces
it is practiced by grown-up people Of both
sexes. l remember very well some twelve
years ago, being at a little seaside place at
Bretagne, called Baudine. On Saturday
IL
out on the green and dance and play just as
you see done on che stage The villagers of
Baudine were expert shippers. You would
come across group of dancers, about
fifty dancing in ring. In the middle Of
the ring would be two young men twirl.
ing long rope, over which four or six
other people would be jumping, each
, at the same time skipping with short
piece of rope. Sometimes the twirlers
would turn quite suddenly and in a way
10 ME quite marvellous, skip over the long
rope themselves. assure you, sir, it was
very pretty sight The place might
, very we'll be called 'Skipping-town.'
I Everybody skipped there. The prim
old landlady at the village inn, who
sold vinegar for vim ordinaire and in
insisted it was Bordean vintage, 1885,
! used the rope with the same facility
that she employed her imagination. 1t
was great fun to see her draw in the thread
/, at the bottom of her gaudily striped petit
, coat and go to work sautsr.ing like a girl
If fourteen"
"What was the thread forW
"Oh, all the women at Baudine have d
strong thread run round the bottom of
,, their dresses and when they skip they
!, draw this thread tight so the dress don't
catch the rope" .. I'll. ,e'a.1a, os.
"Don't you think skipping would be apt
to shorten life If, as you say, it affects the
heartW' s,i7 -7H -'h''s Hl7a
VI snow didn'tsay It affected the heart,
! said it might If over-indulged in. So
may the inhibition of too much. water.
Shorten life? Well, I'll tell you, Perhaps
you may have heard an old comic song
called The Perfect Cure.' You havei
Well, that used to be sung twenty.eight
years ago by5aa man named Stead, at all
I the variety theaters in England. The tune
is of a peculiarly ,jerky kind and the words
are even more ipane than the majority
= of that class OF song. Stead used to
I, dance on 10 the stage Oh his toes
to the time Of the music, exactly in the
D same jumping way rs. do skippers. He
{ continued this quaint unvarying step-h
SO may call it-thronghout the entirs
l song, which consisted Of ten long verses,
with q refrain at the end of each verse,
J, The song and the quaint dance, created a
u furore, and Stead, from being poor scene
shifter or stage-loafer at about nine shil'
lings week, literally jumped himselfinto