The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-10-09
PHYSICAL DEyELOPMENT
Winners of the Sargent Prizes to the Most
Perfect Man and Woman.
The New York World. I

The human form divine, or the near
est approach to it, has been found by
DR.. D. A. Sargent, of Harvard Univer-
sity. DR.. Sargent is director Of Hem
menway Gymnasium, the inventor Of
Sargent or percentile system OF meas
urements, and he had to examine 5000
persons to find the man and woman
worthy of his money. The fortunate,
and physically most perfect woman
known to-day in the United States is
Miss Margaret Blanche Best, of Mead
vile Pennsylvania, and the most-excel-
lently formed man is Henry c. Jack
son, of Wiscasset, Maine.
Miss Best has declared, since winning
the prize in her class, which was offer
ed three years ago, that she made no
effort to win in the sense of working
for it. Miss Best is wonderfully
beautiful woman. Had she never en-
tered the contest for the Sargent prizes
she would still have been known to
friends and acquaintainces as a model
of womanly loveliness. She is well
known in and about Boston, having
spent several years at La Sale Semina-
ry at Auburndale, a part of Newton
and a suburb Of the Hub, and having
studied and taught here at Waltham.
Those who know her speak of her men
tai charms as enthusiastically as of her
physical perfections.
She is five feet five inches tall, weighs
130 pounds, and has habit of arraying
herself in gowns that fail wholly to ex-
hibit her proportions of figure. Her
head is as perfect as the rest of her
body, and gives to her "carriagen a
dignity of the sort that queens are sup
posed to be familiar with. It is set
upon shoulders whose symmetry and
beauty can not be hidden, poised with
grace and crowded with hair that places
her in the category of blondes.
But her friends never speak of her
beauty without telling Of her wonderful
eyes. Like her face and figure, they
are remarkable in their beauty. They
are of deep blue, large and clear. Had
she no other charms, these eyes would
render her beautiful.
She came to La Sale in the early
SOS, a slight, young girl, who gave little
promise of the perfection Of form to
which she has attained. She says her
selfth at the time nobody could:have
had an idea that she could ever capture
the prize of $4,000 and the fame of the
most perfect woman. 1t was while at
La Sale that she began the study and
culture of her body under the Sargent
system, and soon became so interested
in the subject and its possibilities that,
though..at first she made little progress,
she determined to keep at work until
she had conquered her tendency to slen-
derness.
In 1885 Miss Best left La Sale Semi
nary and studied elocution in Boston
and New York, meanwhile continuing
her studies aid interest ir physical cul-
ture. When asked if she could assign
a special reason for winning the prize
one day this week she said no, that she
supposed her natural form was aided
and developed by the course Of the
study and exercise she had taken in
physical culture.
Mr.. Jackson, who carried off the
prize for the most symmetrical man, is
a senior in Bowdoin College. In his
career there he has been q prominent
member of the crew, is good all-round
athlete and is a very handsome man.
He is feet inch tall and weighs 1S5
pounds.