Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-02

MODERN WOMEN HEALTHIEB
THAN THEIR GRANDMoTHERS.
Observations Made by Sir Edwin
Arnold-Improvem in the
Condition of Girls.


testimony of all observers. have worked
wonders for the physical good of woman
kind That period is practically genera
ton and the full issue. therefore, of this
great change has yet to be manifested.
The young women who are now becoming
or have lately become mothers are health
Ter stronger and better fitted for the duties
CT life than were their mothers and grand
mothers, even though they belong to the
numerous class which has been herded for
many years in mills and factories.
1T would be difficult to enumerate the
causes which have produced this welcome
result" says Sir Edwin Arnold, but l
should put first the spread of popular edu-
cation, which has directly or indirectly
taught even the most ignorant the great
truth that to be healthy depends principally
upon the person concerned and upon the
observance of two or three very simple laws
of nature. Next came the salutary Incl
dents attending the invention of more than
one out-of-door pastime widely available
for girls, such as croQuet lawn tennis.
hockey and the bicycle. If accurate sta
tistics could be obtained. think we should
be aStonShed to learn how many weakly
frames have been rendered robust, and how
many lives directly or indirectly prolonged
and frightened by those new forms of open
air exercise. We want more of them; we
ought to encourage and reward that emf
nently useful kind of social genius which
can create such q recreation as lawn tennis
furnished. And if. as l have often wished,
every future cabinet in Downing street
contained minister of public amusement,
such inventors would be specially dis
tinsuished as benefactors of their age.
Healthful Pastimes.
mo doubt 1t is extremely difficult to hit
upon any novel pastime pleasure which
shall be at once attractive. cumulative, in
expensive. everywhere available, and in its
conditions hygenic Most good games are
of immense antiquity and in their adoption
by modern nations of differing race have
to be modified and must accommodate
themselves to the taste and temper of their
latest home. Among the most ancient may
be reckoned knucklebones, the Italian
game of mora. shuttleCock and playing
with a ball.
Mature sometimes permits or forbids the
success of a sport which regenerates the
whole people. England, for example, with
her exDanse of green grass seems made for
cricket. and If that game could be intro
duced and adopted by the japanese do not
know any single reform which would prove
a truer blessing. To make cricket universal
among the subjects of the mikado would
give them an exercise healthy, manly and
absorbing, which is greatly needed, while
the cultivation of turf would imply the crea-
ton of grazing grounds for sheep and cat
tie, of which they are now SO destitute that
in Japan you never see two or three cows
together; indeed, 1 have paid copper coin
III VIe VI tlle NllIdkeS as price OF ADMISSION
to inspect that wonderful animal. sheep,
shut in cage! Why, then does not Japan
borrow cricket from us, as 1t is to be hoped
she will soon take the Roman character for
the printing of all her books, instead of that
cumbrous and costly Honti' the Chinese
characters of which rob every Japanese boy
and girl of five or six years of their school
time? The answer is that she cannot A
dwarf bamboo grows over all her downs
and uplands, which pricks the living MEM
brane of any grazing creature into infiam-
nation and death, and this, tbs said abso-
lutely forbids her the cultivation of turf
which. indeed, is nowhere seen from end to
end of the country.
Games for Women.
Cricket however is not game for girls
or srown-up women, and In continuing to
encourage athletics as a most important
part of female education In the united king
dom. those are wise who insist that such
pursuits would be pressed too far if they
tended to change women into men and to
create champions and athletic prodigies
where the nation would fan see healthy
wives and mothers. 1t is good to behold
the strong and vigorous frames the rosy
cheeks. the graceful step. the superb and
stately ngures which have become common
among US since this age of exercise so hap
ply dawned. but no one wishes to observe
too many of such devotees of the gvmna-
SUM as are described to US In the subtoined
passage from the pen of lady of long ex-
perience: l am aware that some have done
well at high jumping and In mems athletics,
put they are rare exceptions which prove
the RUE They spoil their carriage and de-
pertinent. develop muscle at the expense of
gracetulness, give unnatural forward in
ciination to the head, and above all. a
strained. tense expression to the face. You
eail see tHlS Tor yourself in any gymnasia
Irequented by ladies. and much the same
description applies to most violent exercises
performed by girls and women
"A 100 ardent passion for exercise tends
no.
ing that she should develop and bring tn
their pest uses those special points which
make her womanhood perfect The Greeks
, VINO were masters on this subject, never al
lowed their women to cross the line which
separates the glory and the beauty of Ar
tennis or or Pallas from the massive dignity
or a hero or god In their best statues. !
ana almost nowhere else, can be observed
10 what splendid perfection Nature can
bring her archetype of lovely line and form
the nappy female soul inhabiting the fault,
tess IL female nody The legend is that in or
Der 10 execute his greatest work-the image
OF Pal!as Athene for the AcropoIis-the
sculptor Phidias selected their several
charms from fifteen of the most beautiful
iiialuens In Attica so lofty was his concep-
! .ion OF what a woman may be, so rare is it
that they do full justice to the building ~
that palace Of flesh with which Nature evar
s SUI h, 20 endow them. Shall l be thought
100 bold or accused Of patriotism mora
complimentary than sincere If l venture RI
express the opinion that the renowned arr
ust OK antique Hellas might have found in
Great Britain that which ne sought and
without taking nearly so much trouble?
Beauty and Grace.
Yet. In sober truth, and with no want of
respect to ancestors. 1t will hardly be de.
MED by any good observer that the rising
generation OF womanhood does display an
extraordinary advance In loneliness. grace
OF carriage and healthy development of the
physical side of life beyond that of past
generations. Those same high authorities
the ancient Greeks. valued feminine beauty
not merely for lite own sake, but because of
the harmonious adaptation of body to soul
OF which IT was the outward and visible sign
II the pagan world could so honor and re-:
we're mere human beauty, there is more
than ever reason in a Christian country like
this, and with better and higher knowledge.
to estimate. as 1t deserves, the dignity of
the body and the duty of educating it to be
the obedient and willing instrument of the
spirit. Everybody has heard that solemn
text. What know We not that your bodies
are temples of the living God% 1t seems
far, perhaps, to contemplate such a height
from the low ground of a few casual OBJ
servations upon the modern culture of
hygiene: but the road is straight and plain
between, and there will be more and more