Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-02-23
fTo BE CONTINUED
Milwaukee Normal.

Fourteen puzzled school principals
from the school districts of the city of
Milwaukee. who IN obedience to the de-
cree of the school boards. are trying to
acquire some knowledge of the rudi-
ments of calesthenIcs. were present at
| the daily exercise of Miss Morley class
in calesthenics at the Normal last Tues
day afternoon. Whatever their impress
sion may have been of the practicability
of introducing the system in the public
schools, they were all highly pleased
with the exhibition given by the young
ladies of the class. Miss Morley is an
exponent OF the Delsar.e school of Gales
ttenics and has but little difficulty in
making converts to her Ideas from the
start, as she is herself magnificent
example of its possibilities. 1t is now
some four months since she came to
Milwaukee and the introduction of her
system has been attended with excellent
results so far. The exercises took place
in the assembly room on the upper
floor of the Normal school building.
At signal given by Miss Morley the
class arranged themselves on tho plat
form. Miss Morley stood in front of
them, the first exercise was that of ris-
ing on the tips of their toes and letting
themselves down slowly, this was re.
peated few times after which the class
was ordered to jump first on one foot
and then on the other bearing the full
weight on the toes. The next order
was given to jump up and down coming
down on both feet. Then followed
Doises of the head in all conceivable
directions, first the heads was bent slow
iy to the left as far as possible and back,
after that to the right; then forwards
and backwards, these movements were
each practiced several times. After
the muscles of the neck had received
sufficient attention Miss Morley suggest
ed that the class get rid of all regidity
of the different muscles. To accomplish
this she first set all her fingers in rapid
motion the whole class following suit.
Then they all began to wriggle their
bodies in a manner that was decidedly
serpentine, but certainly must have set
every muscle Of the body at work.
This continued but for few seconds it
being part of the system to devote only
brief time to each exercise.
Swaying motions of the body were
next in order including courtesies and
all manner of poises, many of which
were decidedly graceful.
In concluding the exercises II march
was PLAYED on the piano aud the class
started two by two ut u rapid walk a
round the room, when the circuit had
been made once the air was changed 10
polka and the class passed around
twice more at lively polka step.
The exercises being finished Miss
Morley explained many of the principles
of Delsarte CaIesthenics in reply TO
questions put by the interested princi-
pals. She was asked among other
things whether the system was applica-
bile 10 small children, and whether il
was beneficial to boys as well rs girls.
Both of these questions she answered
in the affirmative, and she said that the
system was particularly adapted to
children. Miss Morley thought the
idea embodied in the Delsarte system
of going through easy motions a great
many times, instead of taking violent
exercise for short time was much more
beneficial for phYiscsl culture.
She said that physical strength was
attainable in this manner as readily as
in harder kinds of gymnastics.
At tho meetit g of the principals held
in one of the recition rooms after the
exercises Supt. Anderson explained
that it was not with view to the adopt
ing the Delsarte system that he bad ask
ed them to visit the Normal school
he wanted them to see what it was and
they might derive some ideas from 1t
and be able to Judge whether it would
be applicable to the wants of the school
ANNA Z WHITE.