The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-06
FENCING MAKES YOU
 STRONG AND GRACEFUL

Many physical games give health and strength. especially outdoor ones. Not all foster gracefulness, however. For the culture of grace of body fencing iB par excellence the art to learn. If it can be practiced outdoors, so much the better. It then achieves nearly all the ends sought to be gained by the various meth ods of physical culture.
 Wake up, girls, and learn fencing. Know that the most graceful women living got their suppleness and harmony of muscu- lar motion from persistent practice with the foiis. Does social leader impress with her 1.-the, beautiful movements? You may stake almost anything that she got them by practicing strenuously under 1 skilled fencing master. Undoubtedly the most graceful women are found among leading actresses. Their profession de- mands physical perfection. Sarah Bern" hardt may perhaps be called the most graceful woman In the public eye today. She is one of the most accomplished of women fencers. It is ike watching a suc- cession of classic Greek poses to see the motions of her arms and particularly the turn of her wrists as she gesticuIates in the passionate episodes of her stage per- formance. If Sarah had slumped down and given tip her physical exefcises when she reached the age of 50, she would not now be able to play to perfection the patt of q 16-year-old boy.
 Undoubtedly steady practice with tlIe foils has kept her figure young, 1.-the and graceful, and tho same is true of Mrs. Langtry, probably the most expert fencer known to British society. for Langtry is society woman as well as an actress. Marie Tempest is another noted fencsr among English actresses.
 In Apsgican society we have no distin- guished women fencers at all. American women generally are not graceful walk CTS. If they understood and practiced the art of fencing the defect in their gait and carriage would be femedied. Women walk badly because the muscles of their lower limbs are undeveloped. This is ow. ing to long. heavy skirts. which prevens free motion. Besides this. the feminine body between the waist and hips is too often smothered in fat. This is a gross deformity. Active practice with the folls in the woman's gymnasium costume will remedy both defects--the lack of leg de- velopment and the smothering fat.
 It is unfortunate that so little atten- ton is paid by our women to this art, which has been called ''the sport of kings" Such if was almost literally two centuries ago, when none below the ranK of gentlemen of high degree acquired 1t and when it was employed for purposes far more deadly than the mere acquiring of physical strength and grace. Gentle men lin those days expected to practice not always with buttons upon the points of their foils. As a mere exercise, how ever. fencing is even more beneficial to the stout, middle aged woman than to the slip of girl. for it counteracts the tend- ency to grow stlff and heavy with sd- vancing years
 New York Is the headquarters for xo- men fencers in America, while Chicago, St. Louis and San Francisco ladies to some extent appreciate its power as an aid to beauty culture. In every town where there is a women's gymnasium there might and ought to be a fencing class m connection with 1t. The most skilled teachers are usually Frenchmen. Many French women and some English | ones are expert with the foils. French women wear in practice loose, though liot at all baggy. knickerbockers. The cham pIon woman fencer of the world is at present an English girl, Miss Lowther.