The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-24
WOMEN WHO EXERCISE
THERE is NOW A FAD FOR GAMES
in THE OPEN AIR
Women Say They Exercise Because 1t
Is Good for Them, Not Realizing
That 1t Is the Fad for 1t That Makes
1t Popular. 80

The woman who does not exercise
these days is supposed to be victim
to bad health and a poor complexion.
Magazines and papers are full OF ad-
vice about physical culture, athletics,
games and gymnastic exercises with
out which no woman must expect to
keep well. Pictures Of robust-looking
women are published, whose waist
measure and shoe size has Increased
greatly since the strenuous life be-
came a fad. The woman who does not
play golf tennis or basketball feels
very apologetic in the presence of the
college girl who is an expert in them
all. We seem to have made sort OF
fetish of outdoor exercise, and declare
that no woman can be well who de-
votes her time to domestic and indoor
work. Those who are extremists in the
matter declare that ordinary walking,
such as almost every woman INDUCES
in each day, is not by any means all
that is necessary to keep well. 1t must
be the vigorous motion required In
outdoor games or in the physical Gull
ture courses, which woman must I'M
dertake if she would keep in normal
condition.
Now without pretending to know an
undue amount about it this depart
ment is going to disagree with the
statements made above which are the
sentiments of experts in this matter.
The writer knows a great many wom-
en-; many who indulge in much exer-
else, many who take none at all eX-
cept that required for their ordinary
avocationS, and she does not hesitate
to say that those who do not exercise,
who never touched the floor with their
fingers while not bending the knees,
in their lives, are just as well, just as
vigorous, as those who spend hours
each day in the way described. If this
be treason, physical culture teachers,
make the most of it. Further than
that, we defy any one to tell the diff
ference at a glance between the wom-
an who has never exercised in the way
indicated and the one who has, pro-
vided that the former Is a sensible
woman who has taken care of herself.
The writer knows a woman who years
ago was an invalid and when she be-
came well again had become so accus-
toned to doing nothing and lying down
a great deal that she has continued to
live in that way ever since. For ten
years she has never been out except to
drive, for fully five years she has never
even been out of doors at all, walking
about the house with difficulty, as sew
eral years ago she injured her hip. She
eats well and is absolutely normal and
perfectly well. Now it seems to the
writer that if exercise was necessary
to health, this woman would be in
wretched condition all the time, suf-
fering from dyspepsia and all sorts of
nervous troubles. You may say this is
inst nj IQ11%
ing back fifty years we find that our
mothers and grandmothers did not
take part in outdoor games, nor did
they take courses in physical culture,
but then nervous proStratiOn was I'M
known.
Now when we are supposed to have
the healthiest women the world has
ever known, they have all sorts of ills
and aches. Now, of course, we are not
arguing against exercise for women; a
moderate amount is necessary for all,
and while we might exist without it, 1t
is better to be normal in this as in
other things. But what we do contend
is that the ordinary exercise a woman
gets about her house and in walking
down town, or to visit friends, is quite
sufficient without the violent sort that
is required by outdoor games. Many
of them are too rough and violent for
women. The woman who takes a good,
brisk walk each day is not likely to
have any of the troubles that are said
to come from lack of exercise The
women who indulge greatly in phys
ical exercise will tell you they do SO
to keep well, but we venture to say
that if tomorrow it became a fad and
fashion to sit all day with folded hands
and never walk, these strenuous ones
would be found utterly motionless a
large part of the time 1t is a fad now
to exercise just as a few years ago it
was to ride a bicycle, but it is notice
able that all those women who rode
because it was good for them, stopped
just as soon as it was no longer fash
ionable.