The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-10
WOMAN AND EXERCISE.

A cessation, which has proved to be temporary only, of diatribes against indulgence in violent forms of exercise by women led one to think that possi- ply the malconteuts had, ceased their opposition. 4eBut a recent recrudescence has maCe it clear that this is not SC. The plaint of the censors is almost al- ways made from the society point of view. It is unladylike to overheat one self. Dishevelled hair is unbecoming, if not absolutely indelicate, and the large hands and feet which we are ias- sured are inevitably consequent upon the playing of games requiring much running or walking and frequent grasping of clubs, rackets and such like implements unfit a woman for filling a place on as high a social plane as she otherwise would attain. No doubt the people who write these things from time to time are perfectly sincere, and think they are doing their best to stay the rapid downfall of their sex to a depth below redemption. It evidently never occurs to them that they may be fighting shadows, the shadows of evil of their own imaginings.
 In the first place. they take up an al- together V EsaIlted position q s- suming that all women must naturally, or, at any rate, should, aspire to a state of society, the prevailing sentiment of which is an abhorrence of high color in. the skin and large hands and feet. As a matter of fact, some of the bluest blooded of our women possess all three attributes by process of birth. without the adventitious aid of misguided course of violent exercise. Indeed, one may go so far as to say that the petite person, pale in complexion, with tiny hands and feet, unserviceable for any other purpose than that of wearing the smallest sized gloves and boots, is by no means accepted as our English fe- male type. Such fragility, when met with, Is regarded with curiosity; our inner yearning is for the fully grown, rosy checked, alert woman, whose ex- l istence seems to excite such abhor- renee in circles which we hope will re- main limited. The spectacle of well- dressed woman knows no peer in the \ eye of man, but far distant be the day when the female form divine is to be I considered in no other light than as 8 lay figure or the display of the art of the modiste.
 Il The changed condition of things calls for fresh means of building up and pre- serving a healthy constitution. When we all in attaining this end we shall disappear from the face of the earth as a nation And when we come to talk of the national health there can be no differentiation between man and wo- man. What Is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The mothers of the future England must be sound and healthy and this a judicious participa- tion in athletic exercises tends to make them. The woman who has participa- ted in games or other athletic exercises has unconsciously gone through 8 lcourse of training that is calculated to make her fit to meet the increased de- mand upon all who would succeed. I The censors tell us that the woman who devotes herself to games never can
 succeed in anything else; her time is too wholly engrossed by her darling pursuits. This is assuming that any
 one playing assiduously at lawn tennis
 or golf, CT practising figure skating | WlLH llIS V1GW OI Gt IIsh ptICi
 of excellence, or of gaining some par lticular honor, has the need for other
 distinction.
 The man and woman of leisure are not wasting their own and the worlds time by prosecuting some sport or pas time, even though it be to the exclusion
 of many other things It is curious
 were it not the way of the world, thai
 those who cast blame upon others tor 2
 devotion to games do not see that it is far better that they should have this
 than the army of incompetelts in oul art schools and musical colleges. They might even, instead of attacking wo.
 men for indulging in athletic pursuits
 animadvert upon the way in which SC
 many have taken of late years to fol
 lowing racing. Women, as lookers-on have always been welcome at racs meetings, but nowadays they are noi
 satisfied with mere speetatorship, but
 insist upon plunging into the hustle o1
 the betting ring, where of course they 1 are quite out of place. Here is plenty
 of room for the satirist or noralist, ol
 both. The '.Monstrous Regiment" oi
 women is never so pronounced as at 6
 present day race gathering within
 reach of the metropolis, sometimes te
 the partial obliteration of the male ele. ment, London Field.