San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-21
ELDERLY LADIES PLAY BALL.

| According 10 the correspondence Oh
a contemporary devoted to the inter-
ests of the female sex, Mrs. Garrett
Anderson's excellent advice to elder
ly ladies to play at ball now and then
has already been followed in France;
and is stated that at a
Partisan gymnasium it is by
no means unusual to see
ladies of a certain age in full gymnas-
tic costume exercising ON the parallel
bars, the swings, the mechanical
horses, and so forth. 1t is possible
that some institutions may be found
in London where the teaching of cal
esthenics includes ball playing; but
perhaps the number of English ell
derby ladies is limited who would
care to resort to a gymnastic
academy, and to don the con-
ventional garb of the feminine ath-
lete, merely to enjoy the benefits of
throwing and catching ball. Nor,
if they objected to INDUCING in such
pastimes in the presence of young
women and girls addicted to giggling,
would they feel inclined TO patronize
reserved" apartment in the acad-
envy into which only ladies above so
were allowed ipgress. There Is
chorus of old men in Faust, but he
would be bold composer who pro-
posed to comprise in his score
a chorus of old women; and
very recently all the courage
of Mr.. Henry Irving was re-
quired to cause the parts of the
witches in Macbeth to be performed
by actresses instead of actors. Ball
playing is, nevertheless, so pleasant
and so healthy an amusement that 1t
is a shame that ladies whose dancing
DAYS are over, and who are even
chary of joining the equestriennes in
Rotten row, should be debarred from
an exercise eminently calculated to
give suppleness to the muscles and to
res tore to stiffening limbs something
of their prestine agility. Still, lady
ball-players who have passed the
meridian of vain and giddy youth
might with advantage vary the
monotony of lawn tennis by
chasing the flying ball or
hurting it high in the air in the
seclusion of their back gardens. Ball
playing in a drawing-roOm in these
DAYS of excessive bric-a-br might
be somewhat dangerous diversion, an
ill-directed shot might wreak untold
havoc among Venetian glass and
rare old china; but, if outdoor prac-
tice was found inconvenient, a room
at the top of the house denuded of
furniture and with the windows de-
Tended by wire netting might be
found capital place for solo or a
duet at ball-playing.
Although our modern Minerva
medine may be congratulated on her |
courage in recommending to the ma |
ture members of her sex an exercise
which the unthinking might deem to |
be only suitable for schoolgirls, 1t
should not be forgotten that ladies
have played at ball from the remot-
est periods of antiquity. Mr.. Poyn-
ter has painted a delightful picture
of Greek girls playing at ball; but it
would be and error to sup
pose that the sports in ques-
ton was confined to the young
maidens of Hellas, Nausicaa,
the daughter of the king of Phpacia,
not only employed her maidens in
laundry work, but joined with them
in gymnastic exercises; indeed it was
owing to game of ball that Nausi-
caa first found the wanderer Ulysses
on the seashore. The ladies of ancient
Egypt were fanatical admirers of ball
playing and the lady who was van
pushed in the contest was bound to
go on all tours, while her triumphant
victor enthroned herself on her rivals
back. The Egyptian custom of ball
playing by ladies was transferred
from Egypt to Greece; but the aus
tere laws of Scion excluded mar
ried as we'll as unmarried women,
both at Athens and all the Ionian
states! and even in Sparta, where the
maidens dressed in the short cultons,
or without any chitons at all, took
part in the exercises of the youths,
married women do not appear to nave
frequented the agnostic academies. |
There is at the same time every rea-
son to believe that at the epoch when
Grecian civilization was at its very
highest the gymnac3 contained room
set apart for the playing of ball, OF
which there were at least a dozen
varieties of games. The sphere
was not only tossed from one play
eli to the other or thrown
to be caught again by a single player,
but was also picked up by the COM
petitors while running, and the
amusement of the "spoeristerlon" no
doubt included kind of football ter
minating in "scrimmage," so grace
full as to be worthy of perpetuation by
the pencil of Zeuxis or the chisel of
Praziteles. All the great medical
authorities of antiquity recommend
gymnastics to females as we'll as
males, and as rule prescribed mas
sage as we'll. Hippocrates, 1t is we'll