Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-05
TRY HANDBALL
TO REDUCE FLESH
CLUB MEN FIND IT HEALTHY
ANTl-FAT
Members Of Athletic Association Have
Taken Up the Pastime as Fad
and Find Their Waist
bands Decreasing

duce the superabundance of alderman
ic-like decoration which spoils the eff
fell they came down plump" but
forbids their appearance in frock
coat society men Of Los Angeles,
chiefly those of the younger class have
taken to playing handball at the Los
Angeles Athletic club in way which
would make t. efforts of woman to
reduce flesh appear feeble and anna
teurish.
That Los Angeles has more fat boys
among the ranks of its society circles
than any other city of the country Is
a historical fact and attendance at any
of the fashionable clubs almost any
night in the week will convince the
public that such reputation Is based
on weighty statistics.
When the skating Kinks were opened
| in Los Angeles several months ago
there was a rush of hefty maidens to
the polished floors in the hope of de-
creasing their weight by strenuous
exercise on the rollers.
Skating Not Anti-Fat
Many of those who were unusually
fleshy managed to win some consola-
tion by the fact that every time they
fell they came down plump" but
that was about all the satisfaction they
gained.
Then they took recourse to sending
in little squiblets to the beauty edi-
tor of various newspapers and jour-
nails throughout the country. Now.
though the unsophisticated be kept in
the dark regarding the inner workings
of newspaper office, it is time to let
few of them in on the fact that the
beauty editor, who is generally styled
Doris Dotty' or Aunt Kate" is
not Doris Dotty or Aunt Kate at all,
but is generally some old, peevish gen.
tleman about the office who thinks he
ought to be editor-in chief and who is
retained and allowed to manipulate the
beauty column because his third cousin
is brother-in-law to member of the
board of directors Of the newspaper
company.
So that when those charming little
notes, dizzy with the whiff ofssubdued
vera violets or some other scent, is
mailed by a distressed young Woman
it never reaches a nice looking old
lady, as per picture at the head of a
column. Neither does it find its way
into the hands of the girlish looking
individual who signs her name as Dor
ris and whose picture accompanies
each treatise on how to get rid of
freckles and cure superfluous hair.
Nothing like that occurs.
Office Secrets Privileged
fat little office boy (most newspa-
per office boys are fat). grabs the
dainty epistle in his soiled clutch and
throws it with a bunch of other let
ters into Aunt Emily's desk and there
the beauty. editor gets hold of them,
reads the patent medicine advertise
ments in the mornings paper, looks
over an encyclopedia, peruses an al
manac and glances at the dictionary to
find out whether wart Is any relation
to a mole. and then after lighting a
cigarette "Aunt Emily" proceeds to
write an answer for Sundays paper,
in which the fair one is told to wash
the face with warm water, then use
three sections of sandpaper and a
husky bath towel so that freckles may
be taken from the complexion.
Some such reasoning came to the
minds of the fat boys of Los Angeles,
and when they read about the girls
who request beauty editors to tell them
how to decrease weight, the men de-
cided to try some other style.
For instance the girl who would de-
crease weight is coached to kick out
the lights forty times each minute for
symmetry, walk fourteen miles and
don't drink water, don't eat any more
meat nor sweet things, don't sleep
much, don't drink water with meals,
don't drink beer, don't eat vegetables,
don't eat at all, don't drink for more
than an hour after meals, don't drink
at all.
Walking Wouldn't Do II
But nothing like that appealed to the
fleshy male members of local society.
With CONSERVATION they noted the in
crease in weight, noted how their coll
lars became too small and how their
vests had to be replaced with larger
ones each month or two and they did
not know what to do. Many of them
picked up exercise by walking back to
town after their autos had blown up
on the road, but as they drank a little
something at each stopping place on the
road they did not decrease much.
At last they have all settled down
to decreasing weight at the Los An
geles Athletic club. Attorneys, physl-
clans, magnates, corporation direct
ors and many others are to be seen
hurrying to the club gymnasium for the
noon exercise and the scene is a lively
one. The automobiles sizzle up to the
building on South Spring street and
wait while the fleshy occupant leaps
OFT, rolls upstairs and hurries, for he
needs plenty of hard exercise, and then
pounces up the steps to the handball
courts. There 1t is scene worth see
ing. Like giant buffaloes moving about
over the polished floors the big men
move, dashing after the ball, putting
and steaming, humping into one an
other till 1t sounds like some football
in full swing. And oh, those shapes!
If the ancient Greeks could get Just
one little wink in on the figures Of the
club 1t would startle all the Greek
nation.
Nevn Is a Whirlwlnd
But some of the big fellows are rat
Ting good players. "Billy" Nevins, the
pet of local society, is probably the
best heavyweight player of the club.
Nevins appears fleshy, but he is not.
He, is all muscle and moves like light
ming, and when he starts play with
other heavies he plays circles about
them while the spectators gasp with
astonishment. Nevins. incidentally. is
the Beau Brummel of the club and has
a different gymnasium suit every week.
Incidentally he is the only member who
can keep his gymnasium clothes clean
and when BILLY" appears In the hand
ball courts, often clad in a sleeveless
vest of French muslin, the other play
ers look forlornly at their apologies for
trunks and sigh that they cannot wear
more clothes and feel comfortable.
After the game comes a cold shower