The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-12-26
PIANO MAKES MUSCLE.
Else How Could Women Capture So
Many Burglars.

Many burglars.
There are many indications Of the
coming supremacy of woman, not
only in the realm of the intellectual
but also of the physical. That she Is
more of a reader than is the average
mar was noted not long ago by the
observing novelist, w. D. Howells.
While the man deyotes himself, mind
and body, to his business, owing to
the sharp competition and to the tact
that it is easier to keep on working
and worrying than it is to stop, and
while he confines his reading mainly
to newspaper headlines, woman reads
nearly everything that is not humor-
BUS, from the newspaper editorial
article to books. Book dealers as
sert that a vast majority Of the book
buyers are women, and the same Is
true of library readers. The In
evitable result is the intellectual SUI
periority of the sex which was long
charged with inferior brains. A re-
cent divorce case In New England
shows how a woman will subordinate
everything to the pursuit Of culture.
The man in the case Is a Photog-
rapher who scraped and saved in or
der that the wife might educate her
self. In her application for a legal
separation she admits that the man
Is good and indulgent as a husband,
but she afirms that it lnterferes with
her ambition to associate with a per-
son of his defective education.
Woman's progress Is little less
marked physically, but still it is posi-
tive. However it may be explained,
the fact is significant that Of the
burglars apprehended by others than
the police a great majority are seized
by women. Nearly every day we read
of the smashing Of an impudent male
by skilled in the art of de-
Tending herself. Besides the gym
nasium, the manual training school
and the like, it is learned that piano
playing is of all mean Of physical
development the most effective. In
an address before the Philadelphia
Music Teachers Association Mrs.
Murray declared that the. playing OF
this instrument brings into play ev-
cry muscle of the body. This con-
firms and explains a widespread opin-
Ion. That a tender young girl of ap-
parently frail body can produce noise
enough on a single piano to distract
q whole neighborhood is convincing
proof that she has concealed about
her small person muscular power to
excite the envy of a boilermaker. AS
nine-tenths of all who take piano les
SON are girls, and as the average
period of study is eight years, the Ill
innate physical supremacy of woman
is plain to every mathematician.
To insure the earlier achievements
of this revolution, an eminent Berlin
surgeon denies what was a prevalent
belief in that city, that piano play
ing is injurious to health. He de-
clares, on the contrary, that must
clans, nearly all Of whom wrestle
with the piano, live longer than any
other class of persons. The contrary
opinion was announced by a medica
man who believes it Is right for 8
doctor to lie in order to save life
his own life, in this instance. He
considered the night practice of q
neighbours girl a. menace to hi:
health. AS an ordinance has beer
adopted in Berlin limiting piano prac'
tice to certain hours in the day, it Is
no longer necessary to deceive the
performers.-St. Paul Pioneer Press