Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-05-07
SPORT HEALTHY DIVERSION
OR A PHYSICAL CURSE

SPORT HEALTHY DIVERSION
OR A PHYSICAL CURSE
sport may be healthy diversion
or il may be physical curse" This
is the conclusion to which Mrs. Alec
Tweedle comes in her article in the
London Mail on athletics for women.
One can hardly say that Mrs. TweedIc
is not acquainted with the subject
she discusses. She has hunted the
fox and the stag; she has ridden on
horseback through Iceland, Morocco
and Mexico; she has slated, sledged
snuwshoed and toboggancd i'm Scan
dinavia; and she has followed the
guns in Scotland. There are few
kinds of exercise which she has not
attempted. She knows the whole
series of sports, from hockey To ping
pong. 1t is evident, therefore, that
what she says is not the wall of the
woman who is sorry to see her sex
take up anything more unwomanly
than point lace. 1t is the mature
Judgment of the woman who enjoys
exercise and believes in it, but who
feels that overeNercise is almost as
bad as no exercise at all.
"a finely developed woman is
joy" she says, but u tall, overgrown,
leggy, scraggy armed female is an
eyesore." This modern proverb
should be laid to heart. No woman
wants to be leggy and scraggy armed.
Yet in many cases devotion to sport
has brought her to just that pass.
Moderation is what Mrs. Tweedle adj
vises. Let the woman get the happy
average between the Arabian and the
British system. Let her be neither
fat nor gaunt. Let her not spend
all her time sitting on a mat. eating
sweets, and putting ON flesh, but
neither let her spend all her time
chasing the golf ball across the links.
In one case she becomes too much
like an elephant; in the other too
much like a camel. There is no
doubt" says Mr.. Tweedle. that
Americans take much less exercise
than Britishers. The result is that
the overgrown girl is not SO often
met with in the states as she is in
England. The American woman,
however young. is usually well devel-
oped with an excellent carriage and
great repose of movement" 1t is in
England that the tall lamp post.
angular girls, with ugly gaits." have
grown up to possess the earth. One
NAV suspect, however. that if Mrs.
Tweedle looked closely she would
find few such girls even on this
side of the Atlantic. Over exercise
has its victims in all Anglo-SaXOn
countries. The man who leaves col
lego with overdevcloped heart and
lungs is by no means an unfamiliar
figure, and he has his feminine coun-
terpart.
The severity of American training
is always Il surprise to English visi-
tors. An American football team
submits to regimen which an Eng
lish team would never think of adopt
ing. The case is the same in track
athletics. When the last Oxford and
Cambridge team was in New York
the Americans were scandalized at
their laNity. They were eating,
drinking. and loafng as they pleased,
while their rivals were grinding like
professionals. AS far as the colleges
are concerned, there can be absolute
ly no question but that the American
system IL lnHnltelN naruef ON inc
men than the English system ever
can be. Frequently the consequences
are serious. AS one of the profess
SIGNALS at Northwestern is reported
to have said, there is great differ
ence between physical strength and
vital strength. 1t is vital strength
that a man wants. When he leaves
college for business he often finds
that he has sacrificed vitality for
Nevertheless it is by vitality
and not by muscle that he will sue
coed. What is true with the men is
even more true with the women.
Mrs. Tweedle's warning does not
come too soon. If indeed, it would
prevent many unfortunate develop
ments.