The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-13


 the supervisor of physical training in the public schools of New York City when interviewed on the subject of physical culture for women. Yes. dumb bells to be sure, but not accord ing to the old school. I would no more put girl through what has been commonly called physical training than I would give her pianos to move The physical culture of the strenuous school Is a dead letter."
 What did 1t do that 1t ought not to have doney'
 Tt over-strained fragile women. tir- ing them into prostration and illness. It racked their nerves with the effort to accomplish the assigned task. When 1t did no harm of this kind. 1t built up Jumps of muscle that have no place in the contour of the beauti- full woman. Who wants to see humps and boulders standing out upon & wo- mans shoulders. arms and back7'
 And what did 1t fail to dor"
 'Tt failed to give graceful curves of form: 1t failed to give ffexibility; it failed to give nerve relaxation, prop erly distributed circulation., bodily rest.
 Then what should the ideal mod ern gymnasium offerT
 Rather say. what should it sup press? In the first place, let bully weights be done away with. I do not consider them harmful; used properly. | they may be very beneficial. But they have been over-used by the enterprise | ing young woman of the now-dyinE | fad-that fad which taught that the heavier the weight a woman could lift. the better off she was physically. Ladders, bars, weights, leather mounted horses--all these have been used improperly in gymnasiums. It | seems hard for girls to repress them | selves. otherwise they might be given | all the apparatus with impunity. But until the strenuous fad is past should say: Furnish a gymnasium with rings for swinging; mattresses for floor work: handbal1; medicine ball; foils and masks: wands; two-pound dumb | bells, and one-pound Indian clubs. Be sure to provide a plano; the outfit is | then complete"
 | Mir. Harper represents the newest
 movement in physical culture for wo- l men, and he went on to explain what that movement means. It is based on | the principle of relaxation. . It Is de- signed to ease and Timber muscles that are cramped by the ordinary life of the non-athletic woman. If she writes | at a desk, stands at a blackboard. |
 riage, her muscles are not having full | play, her body Is not free. There is 9
 bodily constraint in any life without athletics or some form of physical cul-
 ture. Even housework, although good i as far as 1t goes. has its limitations
 It leaves certain muscles unmoved.
 The new school remedies that fault
 of our modern house life and does it's
 best to make up for the time when the l Co tr fa tafe and ran wild in forests. Every form
 of exercise introduces what Is known | as extension work" This means
 nothing more than stretching.
 In the dumb bell work the reforma-
 ton shows more than in any other
 line. There was a time when you
 could see in every woman's gymna-
 sium a graduated row of bells hanging | against the wall. The beginner was
 the weight was increased. finally a
 heavy iron pair was put into heI l hands. She developed manly muscle l in the meantime. and she wielded these
 irons vigorously, pdmping them ur and down as violently as her brother She was proudly becoming hard. .
 She stood rigidly during the perform.
 ance.
 The up-to-date teacher offers noth.
 ing heavier than two-pound bell tC his most advanced pupil. His point Is
 not to work up to the power of hand | ling a heavy weight; 1t is to use the bells as a means to the end, namely stretching9 Q The light weight of the bell helps the pupil to put more force
 into her motions than she would if go- ing through them empty-handed.
 Even the primary exercises involve stretching. One bell is raised high above the head, then the other. Both
 are raised, are stretched forward. tc the sides. As soon as a few motions of this kind are learned, the steps are introduced.
 Here enters another reformation The new school does not give arm