The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-05-22

For about three years, during which
time | have been physical director of
the local Young Men 5 Christian Asso-
citation. | have been keeping records Of
all nv physical examinations, the re-
suits Of which I will send to Chicago
where scientist is preparing monu'
mental work dealing with such sab
jects.
In this period of time l have made.
to date, 271 examinations. In no other
country or community in the world
could my examinations have covered
what thew have done here. l have had
opportunities to study the physical ORR
ent and the physical Occident and the
link between the two represented by
these and other midpacifc islands, and
/ have had opportunities of comparing
what they were originally in their own
homes with what their succeeding gem
erations have developed into here in
Hawaii.
These 271 examinations cover eight
cen nationalities. Among those exam
med was one full-blooded Eskimo, who
is, however, not here now. The ScandI-
navian races are represented by Nor
wegians. Swedes and Danes, and the
Teutonic by Germans. The Lusltanlan
race has been represented by the Por-
tuguese, and the Spanish, chiefly, have
represented the Latin races of Europe.
Englishmen and Scotchmen have also
been in the classes, and with all these
the entire Occident has been ably rep
resented.
| have not had much to do with the
japanese and DO not remember exam
lining any of that race, but the physical
Orient has come before me in the Chi
nase and Koreans. | have also had
Frenchmen and Hebrews, and then there
are, of course, the Haw aiians and half
whites born in the Islands.
All these people were born in the
countries they represented and were not
a second generation thoroughly Amerl-
canized. OF course, everybody knows
that the average white man IS the equal
or superior of the average Oriental, but
nevertheless the strongest men in the
Islands are the Chinese, at equal
weights.
Generally speaking, the Germans
make the best gymnasts-that IS, better
than any other nationalities that have
come under my direction. The Swedish
are next. The German has his strength
from the waist up, while the Scandina-
Wan is the best developed from the
waist down.
In athletics the local born have
proven the best, at least at the shorter
distances. The Hawaiians and the Ha-
waiian- Chinese mixture have SO far
proven the fastest at short distances
and are ideal there. The whites are
the best swimmers over a short course,
notwithstanding the adeptness of the
Hawaiian in what might be called his
native clement.
The characters of the racial individu-
ais show to great extent the character
istics Of the nation, and that character
can best he observed when the lndl-
vidual is in athletic competition with
others supposedly his equals.
The whites make the best losers
that is, the Germans, English, Ameri-
cans and so forth will take a lost race
less to heart and Immediately buckle
down to work and try to turn the
tables. The Anglo Saxons, as a matter
of history, have that trait developed to-
the greatest degree, and as they have
conquered in almost every war they
undertook, even after being almost an
initiated in the commencement of some
of them, so they have annexed most of
the honors in the miniature wars of the
field and track.
Of course, that is a matter of general
athletics, but the trait is more promi-
nent here in Hawaii, where the Anglo
Saxon is opposing a score of varied
races for athletic honors, and that is