The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-09
TENNIS ADDS TO
sa@ HEALTH AND BEAUTY.
VX YHAT a fine thing it is that the
wv feminine sex have gone in for

w fem feminine ns sex si have gone 70 in for
tennis playing again! Among
the most fashionable set at Newport
during the summer this-perhaps the
best of all outdoor games for women
has been greatly popular. At Phila-
delphia, although Paramount park con-
tains $50 courts, these do not begin to
be enough. So keen is the competition
for their use that in the bright sum-
mer mornings players arrived at the
grounds sometimes as early as 2
o'clock in order to be sure of getting
possession of court
The fact that the wonans tennis
championship of the world now belongs
to a California girl, May Sutton,
arouses among American women in
creased interest in this fine game. Well
it is too. If women played tennis
steadily for a few seasons the reproach
that their sex cannot throw a stone or
hit a ball would glide into the past.
The game trains, strengthens and de-
veIops womans limp awkward and
wellnigh useless throwing muscles
Women have naturally an accurate
eye, but their habit of staying indoors
has caused this power to be exercised
only for very short distances Tennis
playing draws the sight away to forty
and fifty feet and even farther and so
extends the accurate vision to long
range.
Tennis is to be commended above
many other outdoor games for women,
because it is not extremely violent or
taxing to the strength. Even deli
cate girl can engage in it without the
least harm. 1t develops a beautiful
arm and neck and full chest The
f1accid upper arm becomes firm and
round, the scraggy neck muscles NIL
out, the deep, powerful breathing which
the live tennis player is forced to
adopt to get oxygen into the lungs as
fast as it is demanded gives noble
chest development especially if one is
careful to keep the breastbone drawn
braveiy upward. Invaluable, too, is
that quickness on foot which the tennis
player must have or she will be no.
where in the game
Summing up physical gains to be got
from tennis one finds that it increases
the healthful circulation of the blood
all through the body, strengthens and
limbers arms and legs, feet and hands,
Increases the chest measure and
trains woman's eye to accuracy at long
range, an accuracy in which she is
generally woefully lacking.
The effect on the mind is quite as
good as that on the body. First there
is the habit of concentrated attention
which is induced. The scatter Drained,
half hearted sort of girl can never be
a tennis player unless she shakes her
self up mentally. The exhilaration of
| a spirited game of tennis is a wonder
| full brightener mentally, as well as a
| beautif1er physically.
| Many girls and women who would
| like to play this once more fashionable
game are held back by timidity, dread
lest people laugh at their awkward
ness. Naturally no woman likes to
make a show of herself before folk.
| There is way by which the tinaid ones
| may learn to hit ball with compare
| tive accuracy. 1t is to practice on the
| side of house. Take ball and racket
and stand from ten to twelve feet away
| from the house. Toss the ball lightly
! into the air with the left hand and at
| the same time try to strike it with the
racket IN the right hand and drive it
against the side of the house. If you