The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-28
GYMNASTICS PLAY A LARGE PART IN
 TRAINING ARMIES

Professor Mckenzie Tells
 College Athletic Associa-
 tion of System.
 New York, Dec. 28.-In an inter- esting address on "The Making ana Remaking of a Fighting Man de- liNered at the annual meeting of the National College Athletic association here to-day, R. Tait Mckenzie, pro lessor of Physical Education at the University of Pennsylvania and late Major R. A. M. C., England, said in part:
 |.s;'You do not need a watch to tell when it is g o'clock at the head- quarters gymnasium at Aldershot. For 15 minutes or more groups or men in black trousers and jerseys, or officers in tennis kit, have been ac- cumulating, and at o'clock precise ly a shrill whistle petrif1es them in the position of attention. There Is dead silence and the sharp command Fall in is succeeded by scramble out of which emerge 20 classes of 
 of about to 1, neatly arranged on the floor, each with a staff instructor in charge. At the command Staff fall in each instructor doubles to where the Sergeant Major stands. and there they stand at attention to receive the days orders. These gwen, they make right turn, rise on the toes and scurry to. their respecuVe classes. Another silence, and the sharp command Carry on is follow ed by a babel of orders as the various groups march out of the four doors to selected places in the 2O-acre grounds that surrounded the gym nasiu1n. For the next hour and half each class is put through the table of exercises for the day; each exercise detailed, repeated and cor rected until officer and men have the proper, speed and accuracy for/Whlch they strive.
 "At 1O:30 the whistle breaks the classes. up into groups for brief rest After IS minutes the same pro- ceeding is. gone through again, but this time the men are paired off; No. 1 teaching the last hodr's work to No. 2 and back again from to l, under the fire of the instructors criticism Again short rest and the bayonets are fixed and the position of 'on guard point and parry are ex- plained, shown and demonstrated. There is an interval for lunch and at 2:15 the classes resemble and now they are marched out, combined into one mass drill of exercises selected from the eight tables of the British gymnastic law. After this display the mass breaks up into it's component classes and the detailing of exercises bayonet fighting and gymnastic games fills the time until A. o'clock when the days work is over.N Every month a new class replaces those who have gone into the great train ing camps. -
 when the war broke out in August, 1914, the staff of gymnastic instructors, up to the inspector him. self dissolved overnight and rejoined their regiments, and for ten days this department had no head The new, inspector was confronted by an ur- gent demand for instructors, with none to send, but he at once re-en listed men who had gone into civil life (teachers in board and private schoo1s) in fact anyone who had had training and he reconstructed his staff from these veterans Soon, however, their numbers were aug mented in another way. Familiar faces reappeared (men from the trenches) one with bullet through his shoulder blade, another with part of his foot gone from shrapnel. They were not fit for active service, but their experience as teachers was in- valuable.
 styy1r. stratum of English society: the ill., disciplined lordling, whose. whim was his only law; the stripling just from school and college; lawyers, doctors. merchants, clerks (soft from vies, laborers (slow of action and speech)-al1 had to be welded into a homogeneous body, quick and alert of action, sure of eye and hand, and above all capable of e1durance; able to march and take care of them selves before a hostile aerop1ane by day or a star-snen at night; able to dig like badgers even after a hard days march: steady with the rifle; quick, powerful and relentless with the bayonet.
 ''The shooting and digging are taught elsewhere, but the headquar- ters gymnasium is the source of all knowledge on those fundamental ex- ercises that train in accuracy, balance and speed, without which the mus ketry instructor instructs invain, and the drill sergeant's shouts are futile. It. is also the source from which has come the new practical method of teaching the use of the bayonet There is no hesitation or sperring for an opening or elaborate parrying; just a short, jab, and on to the next, the two simple parries taught being not for defense so much as to clear the way for attack, a subtle but inn portant mental dierence. This is the gist of the new bayonet fighting.
 Physical training has, however, another function in the great armies that have already tasted the hard ships and casualties of life at the front The wounded man treated first at the dressing station, then at the field station, sent back to the base hospital, and finally to a hospital at home, is frequently capable of being returned for active service if time and care can only be given to his treatment. From the general hos
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