The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-02
THE ATHLETIC MAID.
YNvADBs THE GYMNASIUM AND
pERFoR RMS ON THE TRAPEzE.

PEREOhI1S Yin 4AsA@ A1|'
Gu Vaults the Bar and Flies on the
Swinging Rings, and She Does It
All in the Prettiest of Divided
oovns-The Ladies Athletic Asso-
citation, Miss Mabel Jenness' Gesture
Drill and the Women Who Take to
indian Clubs for Their Complexions.
Copyright 1881
NEW YORK, Dec. 29.-Swish. swo-op!
Is there any word to describe the
.,,-o swift grace of O tird's dive through
the air?
What a slender, powerful figure it is, sup
MIA vigorous, alive; Greek in development
With the outlines of Diana, instead of
paen, Both arms are lifted, full, round,
ubite columns. The head is thrown back
on the shoulders with the abandon of a
wood nymph. The body is poised for sec
ond spring, firm, straight, elastic, without
an ounce of superfuous flesh or the visible
outline of bone.
Swo-op!
Again she goes sailing through space,
leaving a trail of laughter and floating
hair.
She is perfectly developed specimen of
xoung woInanhood according to the present
ideal. Every rounded curve covers cush-
ion of obedient muscles, and she is utterly
fearless on the flying rings.
Now she is running up the climbing ropes
like chiplnunk. There is a slight, black
haired girl after her, and somewhere down
on the gymnasium floor is pair of light,
poIished Indian clubs which will change
hands on the result of the novel race. The
black-haired girl is left behind, but look at
the long, easy sweep of the two of them
as they swing from one end Of the hall to
the other, passing from one travelling ring
to the next with freedom of movement
That is the perfection of midair grace.
Did you ever see a girl practice vaulting?
There is graceful figure going over the
bar not many feet away. To look at that
gentle, sea shell-tinted face, and listen to
the low tones of that pathetic voice,
YOU would think youthful Niobe had
straved among the athletics. But what is
the quiet, dropping little maiden say
ingl
if you please"
Therel Over she goes. Would you i'm
agine that human bodies didn't float or that
specific gravity claimed any dominion over
girls!
1t is the airy, fairy costume which adds
to the appearance of independence of ma
tural laws. There is a brown-eyed midget
of girl poised on a trapeze. Look at her
before she moves. There are little black
and scarlet slippers on her feet, slippers
with rubber soles There are long black
stockings drawn smoothly over her rounded
limbs They lose themselves just at the
bend of the knees in a butterfly skirt of
blue, a bouffant little skirt that seems
made to dance or to fly in. 1t stands cut
about her and seems almost to support her
in the air. Above the skirt comes a loose
blouse of blue open at the throat, with lis
rolling collar frightened by a touch of
scarlet She looks like bluebird ready to
take wing. She has flown, she is going
through hundred bird evolutions in the
air That is, she has begun her exercises on
the trapeze And the fluffy little skirt.
1t has turned out to be no skirt at ALL 1t
is two skirts, divided skirt, it clothes each
leg separately. 1t made pretty drapery
while the gymnaSt was motionless, but
it does not interfere with the perfect free
dom of the limbs. She is wearing Turk
ish trousers, after a model of the gymnasts'
own.
There are three score or more of these
athletic maidens. They go tip-toeing about
as if they tFod on air. They are swinging
Indian clubs, they are pulling rowing
weights, and-would YOU believe it?-theY
living now There are women who can
run. 1t is a wonderful, graceful motion,
with the light supple swaying of the limbs
alert for the start, the bound forward, the
springy, swinging step growing swifter and
swifter, the quick powerful leap of a half
dozen maidens ahead of the others, their
dash forward and laughing turn upon the
laggards, flushed, victorious, with flying
hair, and painting breath, the blood cours-
ing in riotous exhilaration through every
vein.
There is a deal of nonsense talked about
the athletic girl. In point of fact the
modern woman has not taken to eating raw
beefsteak for breakfast, nor to walking
eight miles before breakfast for a matutinal
constitutional. Not many specimens of young
feInlnlnlty are athletic or care TO be athletic
at all. They only laugh if you repeat the ex-
aggerated stories about their going into
training. Much, indeed, of the appearance
OF physical culture should be credited to the
tailor. The tabernacle gown was English.
Its strong points were chest and shoulders.
but the tallor-made gown is going. Wom-
ankind is French these DAYS. Look at the
Directoire maiden in her clinging robe that
does not admit of padding and the shoulders
have changed their outline. Much of the
athletic look of things will disappear from
the street before spring And yet grow
ing and wholesome interest in sensible
bodily development is amply testified to by
the rapid success Of the Ladies' Athletic
Association. 1t has 100 members now. 1t
expects to have 500 by the time its new
gymnasium, now in process of erection
next the Berkeley Lyceum, is finished in the
spring.
ms new gymnasium is to be the largest
IN the country, built exclusively for women,
ana as well equipped as any in the world.
IL Is to be four stories high and hand
some building enthusiastically. In the base
Inent there are to be three bowling alleys,
Gne entire rear of the basement will be
Ioored and wainscoted with marble and
devoted to huge swimming bath. Rooms
Lor games, for chess-playing, reading
rooms, reception room and a library take
up tne nrst floor. More baths, including a
SIedt plunge, occupy, with the necessary
uieoslng rooms, the second floor. The entire
upper MALT Of the building is given over to a
SSPlendld gymnasium hall, 10l feet by 25.
ms room viii be fitted with chest weights,
ttu"iIg weights, Indian clubs, dumb bells,
@aseling rings, trapezes. etc., all so ar
onseI as 70 be drawn aside easily, making
ON LOT Badminton or tennis courts and
'Oi uouts at boxing or fencing.
~ SOUNDS as If women were making some
d docount OF physical strength and grace,
ia ana they go about it scientifically, too
I aHe Athletic Association practices this
tb Inter In the Berkeley gymnasium, and
nc physical examination and series of
sieasurements adopted are, with some tri-
Hlilb notifications tho sarna ao those l., zee