The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-20

The next year I went to the Sargent
school at Cambridge and had such won-
derful term of instruction that became
enthusiastic over gymnastics, folk dane
ing. swimming and everything connected
with the course" Il
1.-THE Sargent school IL the Mecca" I
suggested. ''for all physical work for
women, is it not?'
Practically. you might say" Miss Per-
ldns answered. "Dr. Dudley A. Sargent Is
really the founder OF physical culture for
women in this country. or course, he Is
a very old man now and does very little
work, except balancing He sometimes
does little feat that is one Of his old
time tricks, of sitting in a rocking chair
and balancing himself on a trapeze-but
he merely superintends and overlooks the
work now"
After the year / had at the Sargent
school," Miss Perkins continued. I'VE
went into camp in southern New Hamp-
shire for the month of 6eptember--thls
being a part of the work mapped out by
DIR. Sargent. Ii Is the most wonderful life
imaginable. Right in the heart of the
mountains we have the most delightful
out-of-door advantages. Basket ball,
| soccer tennis, swimming, thiking'-in
other words. trampins over the country
miles and miles around: water polo and
| field hockey, are only a few of the out
of-door sports that are indulged m. 1t IL
| magnifcent physical training and gives
you the necessary experience in field
work that is required"
What line of work will you partcu-
| larly emphasize this winter?' I asked.
Before l answer that question, want
| to say one thing about the swimming
| pool at the Young Women's Christian as
sociation." said Miss Perkins. Il have.
as I've Just stated worked at Vassar ami
| at the Sargent school. and in neither of
! these places or anywhere else have /
every seen anything more beautiful or
more beautifully kept. than the SWIM
ming pool here. 1t is drained every night
| and scrubbed and cleaned and fresh
| water turned in, and 1t affords a magnifi-
cent place for those who like swimming
and enjoy cleanliness under such condi-
tions. Now, then. to answer your ques-
1 ton, one thing that I shall inaugurate
| here is a physical examination of every
one who classifes: heart, lungs. weight,
and general health will be thoroughly
| gone over and report made after a cer-
| tain length of time as to Improvement
and what is necessary to further general
/ conditions"
another thing. corrective work will ho
a speciality" said Miss Perkins by
that / mean round shoulders. fat feet,
protruding stomachs and all physical de-
| fects will be considered and corrected as
far as possible. / studied this branch Of
the work with Dr. Mulliner of Boston, ono
of the foremost ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF the
| world
How can this be done?' ! asked.
Folk dancing and aesthetic dancing"
said Miss Perkins, ''are both instrument
tai In corrective work. Indeed, 1t has
been said that in one lesson In modern
folk dancing, or aesthetic dancing (and
this of course, must not be confounded at
all with social dancing, for. of course. We
do not teach that whole Swedish days
work may be embodied
II am very optimistic as to the winters
work at the Young women's Christian
| association" said Miss Perkins In con-
clusion. "for with such equipment as We
have there. and the improvements that
are contemplated In the gymnasium. there
is no reason why our work shouldn't rank
at the top of anything In this country"