The Irish standard., 1891-06-27
ATHLETIC WOMANHOOD.
Girls Outstripping Boys in Physic-
al Development.
Schools and Colleges for Young Ladies
Adopting Measures for the Perfec-
ton of the Muscular
System.

The athletic girl may outstrip her
brother in time, though she has both
inheritance and tradition to oppose her,
says the New York Sun. Every one is
noticing how tall our girls are growing,
and some one has said that the men
seem to be growing shorter in the same
ratio as the girls grow taller, and at
tribnte the difference to the fact boys
smoke and girls do not. DR.. Smith, of
the Berkeley schools, is a strong be-
lever in the theory that nicotine re-
tards the growth Of boys, as has been
proven by experiments that it does OF
dogs and kittens. Girls of to-day are
taller, stronger and in every way more
perfectly developed physically than the
girls of the last decade. Athletics in
some form or other enter into the course
of almost all schools and colleges, and
women manifest much enthusiasm in
athletic work.
The Womans club of the Berkeley
lyceu1n has a long waiting list and
the beautiful clubhouse is crowded
every day with wo1nan-seekers after
health and beauty, which means health.
Men have a cynical habit Of setting
down vanity as the inspiring cause for
all this delight in healthful recreation,
and, though they are perhaps correct III
their suggestions, why is the vanity OF
women for pretty faces and symmetrical
figures more to be condemned than the
pride of men in broad shoulders and
sinewy limbs, particularly when both
kinds of beauty depend upon physical
health? For physical health is ever the
grand foundation of mental strength
and prowess, and Of the great cardinal
virtues 5000 patience, pleasantness and
beacefulness. 1t is amusing to see at
the races. in the theaters, or Oh the
avenue q splendid specimen Of physical
girlhood attended by a slim, punny snip
Of an escort, as one so frequently sees
now, and though it must BE- admitted
that she is the exceptional girl, and he
the unusual man, still it is prophetic of
the future.
A man says that you can't tell whetf-
er d girl is physically developed or
dressmakerly flied out when she has
her gown on, and perhaps there is a
grain Of truth in his idea, but the pad
sufficient for all the gowns girl would
have in whole season.
The weakest looking specimens OF
the masculine race are the college boys
not included III athletic classes, and one
reason for this is the severe mental dis
cipline TO which they are subjected dur
ing the growing period. Girls are stu
dents as well, but they are rarely hur-
ried through school as rapidly as boys
and are better cared for physically,
both at home and in the schools, than
boys, and only the exceptional girl,
with strong intellect and genius, is sent
through the colleges where serious and
sustained mental effort is required.
But women lack the sustained end1r-
ance of men, and the exacting demands
of modern living tell on them as the
years pass, and at forty. or forty-fve
men are much finer specimens Of phys
ical attractiveness than women of the
same age, though much thought and
study are given by women now to the
preservation Of their youthful beauty
with marked results, The improve
uent in physical womanhood has been
great in the last Eve or ten years, and
Ut is the more noticeable to see straight,
supple, strong women Of graceful pro-
portions in fashionable society than to
see vigorous men Of fine physique. be-
cause so much more unusual. But when
really athletic mothers give an inner
itance Of physical beauty to athletic
daughters, and they in turn transmit it
to the granddaughter, there will then
need to be change in the marriage
ceremony, and the ::obeying'' will be
incorporated in the husbands vow rath-
er than that of the wife's, unless the
soft-handed, narrows houldered youth
xenounce cigarette-s1noking and devote
their lordly intellects to something be"
sides swallowing canes and wearing