The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-11-28
Old Game Revived as an Adjunct
to Philosophy.
EXPLAINED BY BIG WORDS
Which Is Quite Proper in the Atmosphere of
Boston-What the Colors Stand For
Some Pretty Movements.
From the New York Press.

Ring-toSS, or grace+nOOp, OF Delle-cy-
Gle as they say in Boston, is again in
vogue. Miss A. e. Morgan, professor Of
philosophy in Wellesley college, has
taken up with the ancient game and
added thereto various pretty conceits or
what shs declares embody fundamental
physiological and psychological princi-
pies. That is just what girls like In and
around Boston, and the game has sprung
into Immediate popularity. Already 1t
rivals golf.
1t is a good game by whatever name
1t is called, for 1T makes the young ladies'
raise their arms, square their shoulders,
throw out their chests, breathe deeply
and stand erect. 1t is played with two
STICKS and a lot of rings or hoops of va
rious diameters. The sticks are held
one in each hand, and crossing each
other like a pair of shears with long
handle. By putting the sticks through
a ring and pulling, uhem abruptly apart
The ring is sent sailing off through the
air. Practice enables the stickhcGd5r
10 aim with considerable accuracy, and
this power to determine the direction of
the ring makes a game possible.
MISS Morgan has brooded over THE
possibilities of grace-hoop, and has
evolved belle-cycle. which she says illus
trates her thaory of the interdepsmdence
of psychlcal and physical circulation.
The original inventor of grace-hoop
never suspected this. He was but u
pigmy. Miss Morgan has rings of each
of the seven colorS of this rainbow, and
shoots them at an olive green target.
Green stands for growth. The more
the girls shoot the stronger they grow
as the fundamental interdependent idea.
The rings, according to color, are inter
pI'eted as follows: l, red, Warm Affec-
ton; 2, organge, Admiration; 3, yellow,
Deligt, that is, Simple Heaven-Sunshine
A, green. Growth and Hope; 5, blue, I'M
mortal Loyalty TO TRUTH and T. violet,
Victory of the Ideal; 6, indigo Conflict of
the Immortal Desire with the Tran
silent Conscience, or vice versa. These
rings are of different sizes, the smallest
being red and 50 ON up to the largest,
VIII CHI is violet. The white ring of the
target represents the fulillment of color
scheme in the psychical and physical
blending into the harmony OF perfect
purity and truth
Miss Morgan takes the members of her
GLASS in philosophy, one at a time, and
has them reach up just as far as they
cam She then measures each distance
carefully from the ground to the tip of
the index finger, and calls 1t muscular
reach" The muscular reach of the
girl determines the distance She Shall
stand away from the green target Truth
and it's ring of Perfect Purity.
"A rOu pIOJSEDS lIOIu Illt CSHCSu VI UlpS
target horizontally. At the end of the
rod hangs Perfect Purity. To the lower
half of Perfect Purity's perfme.er a net
is fastened which reaches back to the
lower half of tire perlmeter of the target
Truth. Then there is bag between
Perfect Purity and Truth. or hammock
shaped pocket, into which the rings fall
if they are we'll aimed.
Standing her muscular reach away
from Perfect Purity the student of phil
osophy and belle-cycle grasps her sticks
and shoots the little red ring Warm AT
fection through Perfect Purity into the
pocket If she can. Probably she can
not ait first, but after few lessons she
will find that Perfect Purity is easy
especially with Warm Affection. or
course it is harder with the larger rings
Conflict of the Transient Desire with the
Immortal Conscience is We king, indeed
and Victory of the ideal, which us almost
as large as Perfect Purity, will hardly
go through at all. though the young phil
osopber drive ever so hard. But pa
thence. though colorless, conquers all
things. and in time Miss Morgan has a
team of experts capable of landing even
Victory of the Ideal in the pocket nine
times out of ten.
AS am embryo philosopher advances in
proficiency Perfect Purity is hung high
er and higher from the height of the
shooters head UP ito about 11% feet
With increase in height the body OF the
shooter must be thrown back more and
more in order to deliver the ring on a
more inward course. This idea of rails
dng Perfect Purity originated with Miss
Morgan and is beneficially effective
There are no STOPPING shoulders IN tine
philosophy class now.
When the girls have attained speed
and accuracy, Miss Morgan divides them
into sets, as though for dance, and,
giving to each girl nest of rings. puts
her Drobsges through many exceedingly
pretty figures The simplest OF THESE Us
exchange. Two girls toss rings to each
others ring ON her sticks and then re
turning it. In this way all the rings
from Warm Affection TO Victory OF the
Ideal may pass to and from the SUCKS
off all the girls. This Is varied IN nAtiy
ingenious ways. .,,,,,,o
dfately on shooting the ring, and does II
quickly enough to catch the ring OF ner
yiz-a-yiz. who has shot her ring at the
same time and also turned around rms
requires a very nfee muscular aoJuSt
rnent and is an excellent cure for awk-
wardnass Another variation is to nave
one girl take Warm Affection ana an
other Victory as they meet in midaIr;
After perfecting themselves with VIC
tory of the Ideal as one OF the PAIRS gu
rings they try Coniiiet on 'ne Ilar l.sl ~
Desire in its stead. This, of course, is
more difficult. as Conflict is nearer tine
size of Warm Affection than is Victory
and there is hess room for Warm Afec-
ton to pass through. This substitution
Is repeated until Simple Heaven-Sun-
shine is reached. That is the limt with
rings of the sizes Miss Morgan uses.
Tt is nice work to shoot Warm Affection
through Simpls Heaven-Sunshane AS
wet only tho most expert of the young
philosophers can do it as often as three
out of ten tries.
other variations are for one girl to
keep two rings going by herself and for
two girls to keep three rings going. -Four
GIRLS can keep five, six, seven and even
eight rings going. 1t Is pretty sigh
40 sea Warm Aft ction, Admiration, SIM
pie Heaven-Sunshine, Growth and Hope
immortal Loyalty to Truth Conflict OF
ths Transient Desire with Immortal Con-
science. Victory eff the Ideal. Perfect Pu'
u.ity and Truth all in the air at once
Sugar in Mexico.