The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-23
THE PRESENT TYPE
OF AMERICAN GIRL.

NNE evening recently a young lady,
" Miss Gunsaulus, daughter of a
well known Chicago clergyman.
left her home to put a letter in the
mail box near by. AS she showed the
letter into the box man stepped from
! behind a tree and with one hand grasp
| ed her throat. At the same time he
raised the other hand threateningly
over her head, and that other hand held
a stone. Now, the old woman type of
girl would have tainted on the spot or
would have screamed till the burly male
protector of womanhood choked her off.
Not this young lady. She confesses she
| was bewildered at first. 81 didn't know
what to do for an instant" she said.
In that pause of an instant, however.
the athletic training she had received
at school flashed into her consciousness.
Miss Gunsaulus doubled her fist and hit
the protector of womanhood a sound
blow in the face, and she adds, 81 struck
the man as hard as 1 could" The neat
feminine blow knocked him back and
staggered him for a moment Perhaps
the surprise at finding a girl who could
defend herself staggered the footpad as
much as the blow itself. At any rate,
| the young lady, having freed herself,
! took to her heels, the thief after her, so
soon as he could recover from his as
constituent.
But here, again, that most admirable
school physical training came in. 1t had
| included jumping and running foot
races. Fore and fit of wind and limb,
the young lady quickly distanced the
creature in trousers who tried to pound
woman on the head with a stone.
81 guess he must have been a poor
runner" naively remarked the new
American girl
Miss Gunsaulus is a student at the
Chicago university intent on securing
for her brains as good an education as
she has already achieved for her body.
The American college girl is undoubt-
edly the best present day type of that
new, finer womanhood for which the
world has waited. Pioneer mothers and
fathers in the newer states saw to it
that daughters had equal educational
opportunity with sons. About the same
time it was found that American wo-
manhood needed physical culture as
we'll as book learning. Girls began to
cycle, to play ball, to walk, to run, to
swim and row, to spend hours of every
week in active outdoor exercise.
The result is manifest. A new girl
has come on the scene. She is taller
larger and stronger than her mother
was. She is graceful as goddess, and
she knows how to walk, which her
mother. trained to the short, affected.
mincing step of the old woman, did not
know how to do Fashion has an
| nounced that the military gait for wo-
mans walk has come in. One may hope
/ this long, even, easy stride, legs firm at
the knees. chest up, chin in, spine
straight. will administer a final blow to
! the feeble. stumpy, semicrippled gait of
| the old woman.
The foot, the hand, the waist, of the
new American girl are larger than those
| of the old one were, fitting the taller.
| nobler type. The feet can walk, the
| hands can do useful things; that fuller
chest holds a pair of real lungs. Both
the foot and hand are better shaped
than the old woman's were, for the new
girl does not care for baby hands or a
Chinese foot. Her feet and hands are
made for use.
Along with the rest of her develop
ment, the new American girl has evolv-
ed face that is different from any 9TH
err feminine countenance the world has
sAAn. 1t is certainly beautiful and as del
rcate as flower. But the profile is not