The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-03

SEATTLE POST-INTELLU
mistake for women 70 aim directly
81 the DEVELOPMENT Of muscle, the Venus
81 Milo. not the half masculine Amazon,
must always be the type Of physical pes
lection for them Their exercise should
therefore Be chiefly hygieuic rather than
athletic. A great French anatOm1st.
Cruyeiihier, was ungallant enough 20 say
that whatever women might learn % DO
they never could succeed In running grace
fully. Candor compels me 70 say that
think the indictment true, but that and
throwing the cricket ball are about the
only things which they cannot do with
twice the grace and nearly Ill the strength
Of men.
In early manhood and At that variable
period which Is known - the prime Of
iife." the object must be to keep a much
as one possibly can of the stamina ac-
ouired IN the DAYS when tuiit fecetqwe pne1.
sxdarit Il olsit, not for the sake OF 3 capri
ciOus beauty, but TO win the blue ribbon OF
the athlete A man cannot expect under
the storm and stress OF active
he must be satisfied with hav-
ing laid . foundation of physical
strength which viii make his subsequent
life happier longer and more useful than
il would otherwise have been. His de-
light IN and capacity for most forms of
exercise viii continue undated for many
years past the age-6-hxed by the Ro-
requiring elasticity Of the bones win be
given up first; football il . dangerous an
achronism after i've and twenty. Those
calling for swiftness Of foot win be sur
rendered next, and the sacrifice il made
easier by increasing weight OF body and
stiffness OF limb. In the borderiand be-
tween youth and middle age, many men
are apt to exceed in the matter Of exercise,
possibly from unwillingness to acknowl-
edge that cruel time is beginning to claw
them in his clutch. For them, therefore,
q little of what DR.. Johnson would
have called contamination will often be
required On the other hand those on
whose wind" is like womans love, as de-
scribed by Hamlet, and whose waistcoat is
beginning to yield to circumstances, have,
as it were to be driven to the stake by ply
steal exertion.
The amount and kind of exercise re-
quired by people between forty and fifty,
depends largely on individual peculiarities.
There are. however, certain definite stand
ards by which the amount of physical
work done in different kinds of exercise
can be accurately estimated. II is calcu-
lated that an ordinary laborer does work
which is equivalent to lifting from 500 TO
400 tons one foot on working day, and
Professor Haughton reckons that man
walking on nearly level surface at the rate
of about three miles an hour expends as
much force as would raise one-twentieth
part of the weight of his body through the
distance walked. Now, supposing a man
weighs II stone pounds, or loo pounds, IN
his clothes. in walking mile he would
raise eight pounds one mile or 1886 tons
An &<<<>x H. Id - - IL
same rate he would have raised 113 tons
one foot. This would represent . fair
standard Of exercise for Q healthy man Of
50 years of age; if younger, he should do
rather more. If older, he might do less.
I have already pointed out that riding is
an excellent ''pemmican" or concentrated
essence of exercise, but it is especially in
holds, that the outside of horse is the
best thing for the inside Of man. Steady
going, however, ought to be the rule and
a bishops cob is the ideal mount after Sd,
except In the case of hunting men, who
are as much at home in the saddle as other
folks are in bath chair. Oliver Wendell
Holmes, who, it must not be forgotten, is
doctor and even an ex-professov of anat-
omy, as well as q charming writer, speaks
with almost Pindaric enthusiasm Of riding
during which the liver s.goes up and down
like the dasher of q churn in the midst of
the other vital arrangements" while s'the
brains also are shaken up like coppers in q
money box" Perhaps the mutual collision
of brain cells and higher centers'' may
be as stimulating to tho intellect as the
s.shock of minds" in debate. For those
who cannot afford horse exercise there is
the tricycle., which as means of exercise
for the middie-aged has great future be-
fore it. DR.. Oscar Jennings, an English
physician practising In Paris. has written
book Ella Sante par lie Tricycle''l in
which he tells how he diminished his Cir
conference, which was beginning to give
signs of Falstaffian possibilities, and
eyicted host of infrmities by cycling
alone without any other forms Of exercise.
Then there Is golf, an ideal game, but with
Andrew Lang to hymn its praises it needs
no additional rates sdcer. To sum up,
middle aged people between say IS and
IS or 60 should ride or cycle one hour or
walk two hours every day. These exer-
cises may be varied, if the opportunity Of
fers, by rowing or fencing. but do not, as
rule, recommend men TO practice SWIM
ming after 10. cannot conclude my re-
marks on middle age without an emphatic
word of warning as to the dangerous mis-
take that Is often made by men who rush
OF to Wales or Switzerland after . year of
exhausting brain work, insufficient exer-
else and too probably overlooking. and
side they come to or take long, fatiguing
walks, thus passing at once from a long
period of repose to violent exertion with
muscles habby from disuse and q heart
utterly unprepared for any sudden call.
Can we wonder at the result that often
follows? For those over IS there can be no
doubt that the best view of q mountain is
from its foot. Of course . practiced noun
taineer like Professor Tyndal, whose mus
cles have been hardened by many years Of
climbing, may continue the exercise with
age, but such cases cannot safely be taken
as examples by linen Of mould.n
We pass next to old age, and the first
question that meets US is, When does old
age beginf Some men are old at 20, while
others may almost be said to be young at
so. A man is just as old as his tissues.
particularly those of his heart and brain.
and there are octogenarians who, for men
tai and even physical volatility, might be
their own grandsons.
The secret of such perpetual youth lies
mostly IN regular exercise, whether in fell
ing trees or in the humble form of the
daily constitutional" Even when life
has az last fallen into the sere and yellow
leaf exercise of kind and amount suited
TO the ''shrunk shanks.n stiff Joints. brit
tie bones and other evidences of senilitv
will keep the furnace of the vital loco mo-
tive aglow long after others less carefully
stocked have paled their Intellectual fires.
But this can only be done Ito continue the
metaphor) by siackening speed and reduc.
ing pressure. If old men will jump hedges
as IN their salad days they will not inn
PROBABLY do SO to musical accompani-
ment of swapping thigh bones. II
they run TO catch trains their
hearts are extremely likely ~ ,narl-