Omaha daily bee., 1884-06-20
AT EST POINT.
How tho Cadets Are Instructed In
Military Gymnastics aud
Swimming.
Cor. n. Y. Times.

Cor. N. Y. Times.
Previous to 1882 there was no special
training in gymnastics at the academy.
The athletic apparatus was limited, and
the cadets used to go and practice when
they pleased outside of study hours. In
1881 Lieut.. Edward S. Farrow, who
graduated from here in 1876, returned
after five years Indian warfare ON the
frontier as instructor Of tactics. His
experience in the saddle and h~ardships of
camp life convinced him Of the necessity
of q systematic course Of gymnastics to
develop and increase the physical powers
of the cadet by gradually advancing him
from preliminary movements to the most
arduos and complicated machine exer-
cises. BY June, 1882, Mr.. Farrow sue
ceeded in getting the old riding school in
the academy building fitted up as q gym
nasium, and began to put his theories
into practice. The height, weight, and
measurement, and chest measurement
of every cadet in the fourth class was en-
tered in a book, and each one put through
an hours systematic drill every day.
At the end of the frat year the advan-
tages of this treatment were apparent,
even to those who had ARTIST been op.
posed to the plan. The average gain
In weight for each cadet in the class was
132 pounds, the average increase of chest
girth A inches, the average increase of
fore-arin IL inches, tho average increase
in upper-arm 2h inches. The largest
gain In weight for any individual mem.
Der of the class was 19R pounds; the
largest increase of chest girth was "a
%incnes, and the largest increase of the
upper-arm 81 inches. Under the system
arranged ana carried out by Lieut.. Far
row, the development below the waist
is uniform with the developement above
1t. The transformation of some of the
boys at the end Of the first year is some
times marvellous. From awkward,
shopping, stumbling boys, hardly capable
of a brisk three-mile walk, they become
supple, athletic young fellows,
of q forced march of twenty-five
miles a day for three consecutive days,
and performing difficult and seemingly
impossible feats on horseback, climbing
parapets, mounting scarps, and crossing
bitches.
In this study, as in all others here, the
cadet goes through his lessons with mill
tary precision and discipline. The Sec
tions march into the gymnasium, and each
man stands erect in line until his turn
to perform the lessons of the day.
No unnecessary talking or shouting is al
and the cadets are noe allowed to
poke fun at the awkwardness of q begin
ner. Very frequently some absurd per-
Torrance of q timid fellow makes the in
.structor laugh too. The lesson over, each
man wraps himself up in his overcoat and
marches back to his quarters. The exer-
else is divided between recitation hours,
and the change stimulates the mind to
Not since the present gymnasium
was started has there been an accident.
Care is taken to arrange the mattresses to
break the force of q fall. The course In
cludes exercises in running, leaping,
jumping, wrestling, carrying, and pyra-
mid building. The agility displayed by
the cadets in the two aforementioned OK
~ercises is astonishing Feats that the
New Yorker is accustomed to see only by
trained and high-salaried athletes at a
circus they perform with apparent ease.
Six men will form a pyramid and reach q
window twenty feet high without putting
on any n man q greater proportion of
the strain than he ought to bear. These
exercises rank among the most useful in
matchmaking or entering houses. Indian
clubs, bumb-bells. bar-bells, weights,
vaultlng horses, horizontal bars, rings,
the trapeze, and climbing poles are all
brought into play in developing the
muscles. In this years class two young
men can clear 8 feet 4t inches in q run
ming jump, which in more than an inch
be tier than Harvard's last record. Three
men can do A feet 8 inches in q standing
jump, and two-thirds of the class will not
fall far short of the mark. In pole.leap.
ing, cadets easily do 81 feet, and they
could excel this if the ceiling was higher
In fact the gymnasium room is a poor
place at best-low-roofed and narrow in
the cramped basement of a building. A
bill ls before congress now to appropriate
$50, 900 for a new building and additional
apparatus, which, if passed, will enable
tho academy to fit up II OF the best
aquipped gymnasiums in the country. LII
vaulting, several of the class can easily
ClCdT uOuDlo DuChb hIJcch iCCt hphEJ'
The cadets all enter the gymnasium with
zest and thoroughly enjoy the exercise.
the first year they are left to their
own and enter the gymnasium
when they please; but all are thoroughly
trained for the more difficult duties of
the riding school. Five ear men do not
try the live horses until they have become
at home in any position on
the leather backs of the wooden ones in
gymnasium.
During the summer months the cadets
are taught how to swim, how to rescue a
drowning person, and the quickest meth
cd of restoring the apparently drowned.
In last years class sixty.seven were una
BILE to swim q stroke when they reported
for their first lesson. Before the sum.
was over, every n of that number
could swim across the Hudson river from
the bath houses near the targets in
Washington valley and part of them
could swim back again. The river is
three quarters of q mile wide at this
point. The cadets are taught all the mo.
of swimming in the gymnasium
the winter, 80 that when they get
into the water they have comparatively
little to learn.