Not only has she no guide in this direction, but her very lack of physical vigor makes her indisposed to anything like continued or even momentary muscular exertion; indeed, often she is afraid to take it, and even thinks it dangerous. Many a day passes in which she does not take one single full breath. Is it any wonder that she has small lungs, when she does nothing to expand them? Miss Von Hillern, the pedestrian, walks six miles in an hour; but how many girls in the highest class in any grammar school in the United States can walk four and a half or even four miles in one hour? Yet the latter is hardly more than worthy of the name of a smart pace, and one at which any really good walker can stay many hours, often all day, without discomfort. Notice the daily walks taken by girls and young ladies at the more prominent female seminaries and colleges-a listless affair of from two to three miles an hour, just enough to make them nibble at cakes, confectionery, and other trash between meals, and then wonder why they have no appetite for their meals.

under it, carried it off on his shoulders! | the time wholly forget her brain-work? No man who ever saw Garfield before his last illness, or who ever read the story of that illness, need be told that he was a man of exceptional vital and muscular power, and his whole younger life abounded with further conclusive proofs of this, were there room here to recount them. Mr. Huxley says he would far sooner have his son broad-chested, deeplunged, and enduring, and with sound, well-trained common-sense, for anything he may have to do in life, than a keen and brilliant man, flashy and unsteady in his efforts, and not to be relied on for persistent hard work. Who would buy an axe with an edge like a razor's, but without much of any back to it at all? Yet is not this the kind of mental axes our schools are producing to-day? Look at that mighty army of absentees from the New York city schools alone who are annually detained at home by sickness! All of us may at times be sick, but who are the likelier to sicken easily, the weak, half-built, and delicate, of low vital power and even lower muscular, or the well-knit, deep-chested, and sturdy? When the steam-heating companies were digging up Broadway and other adjacent New York streets, a while ago (and occasionally blowing a citizen skyward), it was remarked that many gentlemen whose offices were on the first floors of buildings near the upturned earth sickened with disorders which were pronounced malarial, but that the stalwart laborer, with his nose right down in the foul-smelling earth, saturated with sewer gas and coal gas, never sickened at all, in fact rather seemed to thrive on it. When the system is toned up and hearty, it is not only harder for disease to get in, but there comes also an indifference to physical privation and discomfort wholly unknown to the delicate or nervous person.

What spur has a bright and studious girl in one of our city schools to build up her health and strength? Who teaches her anything about either? Ambitious to stand well in her class, no matter how much work is set before her, she goes at it with determination, and willingly spends not only all her school-hours, but often, as has been already seen, her hours out of school as well, in close, exacting study. Who teaches her to intersperse these with an hour or two, not of a dawdling walk at a dead-and-alive gait, but with sensible hearty exercise and play, making her for

In what contrast with this make-believe walking and the wofully defective physical culture and condition of many of our city girls is the story told in the following dispatch from the Montreal Carnival last winter:

"Next came skating races, which were only second, in drawing spectators, to the trotting. As is universally known, Montrealers are like ducks, who take to the water when born. They assume skating frolics when escaping from the cradle. It is literally true that they are skating almost before they are able to walk. The fascination in the exercise, which seems to be hereditary, increases as they grow up, and when they have arrived at manhood or womanhood-for the girls are even more expert than the men—they can rival the world for grace and agility as runners. Proof of this last assertion was seen by thousands on the river this afternoon. The contests were in some cases more tightly fought out than by the trotting equines."

What a ring and tingle and glow of ruddy health there is about all this! We wonder if those girls know what a headache is, or a side-ache? Or if "the shawl, the sofa, and neuralgia" are likely soon to be their destiny? Or if there is any

immediate danger of St. Vitus's dance? | the examples of successful men of all the Just happen in with them at meal-time, past, and of those of to-day, the comfort and see if they merely peck at their food, and often preposterous influence and powor whether they make the platter clean. er which money brings, the countless aveTry if the study done by brains cleared by nues which open to it in our land for him an hour or two of such glorious sport on whose neck "no jewel," as Hafiz says, as that is not almost as thorough and "sparkles like that of enterprise." The almost as valuable as the "superficial busy man of to-day is not content with knowledge" which the New York School his business, or with keeping his money Commissioner found so prevalent in his in it. He must also be in constant comcity. Which of the two sets of girls have munication with his broker and the stock the exuberant animal spirits, the over- tape, must be bank director and railroad flowing geniality, the vivacity, so attract- director, and make himself felt in a hunive in almost any woman, and such an dred other ways. One little man, for inaid to her socially, especially if she is stance, at the start a poor boy, then a reasonably fair to look upon? If Her- school-master, though but forty-seven bert Spencer has it aright that "men care years old, has amassed tens of millions of comparatively little for erudition in wo- dollars, controls ten thousand miles of man, but very much for physical beauty railroads, more yet of telegraph lines, and, and good nature and sound sense," in if half the rumors are true, tries his hand which class are they likely to find the ob- occasionally at controlling a Legislature ject for which they generally make the or two besides. But there is one thing best searching of their lives-those who, even he can not control, with all his brains no doubt without at all neglecting their va- and millions, and that is facial neuralgia. ried accomplishments, can yet "rival the When a shrewd coroner summoned him world for grace and agility as runners," to jury duty awhile ago, he could not serve, or those who, although well stocked with because he was suffering from this disorthe "superficial knowledge" mentioned, der, and was too deaf also from otorrhoea might possibly skate ten miles in one aft- to hear the testimony. How many more ernoon, but with the doctor inevitably on such Job's comforters as these would it take hand bright and early the next morn- to so cut down his power of enjoying anying-if not the undertaker? Do dyspep- thing that he would be inclined to feel like sia and neuralgia directly contribute to clearing out all his assets to the highest either physical beauty, or good nature, bidder, if only he could have in their place or sound sense? How would, not the a little sound good health? And yet there weakest and most inert, nor yet the fleet- are thousands, almost millions, of men in est and most enduring girl, but she who our land to-day who, constantly under fairly represents the average girl in one great strain of mind and nerve, are carryof our school classes, have fared in that ing often vast responsibilities, and doing inspiring struggle that bright winter aft- their utmost to one day obtain, like him, ernoon on the gleaming broad St. Law- great power. rence? Would she have been in it at all, much less anywhere near the front rank, at the end of half a mile, or even of a quarter? Ask her brother, and he will tell you plainly-whatever different and more flattering version some other girl's brother may make of it.

A recent writer in a well-known English paper calls attention to the rare intellectual quickness and keenness of the Jew, and his wondrous readiness at a bargain, and then points out that where he fails in the life-race is in the lack of the good old English quality of staying pow

But is not the pace telling, and especially on those who, like him, started out, not with the sinewy strength and fibre of that other railroad king, Vanderbilt the First, but rather with the light allowance of the average city boy? Observe what one of the most intelligent Englishmen who ever visited our shores has to say on this point. At the dinner given Mr. Herbert Spencer at New York city by Mr. Evarts and other gentlemen just before he left for Europe, after a somewhat extensive tour through this country, after speaking of the marvellous energy he discovered everywhere, he said:

"What I have seen and heard during my stay among you has forced on me the belief that this slow change from habitual

inertness to persistent activity has reach- | appreciated the priceless value of enduring ed an extreme from which there must begin a counter-change-a reaction. Everywhere I have been struck with the number of faces which told in strong lines of the burdens that had to be borne. I have been struck, too, with the large proportion of gray-headed men, and inquiries have brought out the fact that with you the hair commonly begins to turn some ten years earlier than with us. Moreover, in every circle I have met men who had themselves suffered from nervous collapse, due to stress of business, or named friends who had either killed themselves by overwork, or had been permanently in capacitated, or had wasted long periods in endeavors to recover health. I do but echo the opinion of all the observant persons I have spoken to, that immense injury is being done by this high-pressure lifethe physique is being undermined."

Does not this look as if staying power was a quality far too rare among our busiest men, and as though we were leaving out from our education that without which nearly all else is of little value? In the steamers they talk of building, in which they threaten to go from Montauk to Milford-Haven in five days, there are always to be engines of consummate power, easily eclipsing everything yet known in the whole field of marine travel. But there are also to be, not one or two, but many compartments, till the whole ship is so bound together by these iron inner walls that she can safely stand the mighty vibrations of engines so powerful that they would soon shake ordinary craft to pieces. But what sense would there be in putting such engines, not into one of these inflexible steel hulls, but into a craft made of deal boards? How many revolutions would be needed to send such a crazy ship soon to the bottom? But if we steadily increase the man's power of thought and action, and extend the field of his activity till it is almost boundless, yet let his body grow up anyhow, are we supplying much better than a pasteboard hull, which may possibly slip along at half speed in the smooth harbor water of youth, but when the gales and heavy seas come, and the real tests which tell what is in him, will go all to pieces in the fashion told by Mr. Spencer, and so familiar to all men who know what protracted brain-work is? Precocities like Webster and Gladstone were able to do their work because they

bodies, kept in working order by sensible daily exercise, and, with fishing-pole, axe, and walking-shoes, took care that the machinery did not get too far run down. Mr. G. R. Emerson, in his recent life of Gladstone, says that at Eton "he was not only one of the most active and successful in all school sports," but "throughout his long life he has recognized the natural alliance of the physical and intellectual portions of our compound being. Naturally hardy and muscular, he cultivated his bodily powers by regular active exercise, and his high moral nature preserved him from the temptation to indulge in enervating luxuriousness." "Don't talk to me about Gladstone's mind," said Sidney Herbert, more than a generation ago; "it's nothing compared with his body." "Throughout his life," says a recent writer in the London Standard, "Mr. Gladstone has been a particularly fast, enduring, and vigorous walker. Wiry, lean, sinewy, without an ounce of superfluous lumber about him, when a younger man he was in the habit of saying, but without a tincture of vanity or ostentation, that he was good for a fortymile walk any day. Although his thoughtful face and lithe figure are as well known in every part of this metropolis as those of any resident within its borders, who ever yet saw Mr. Gladstone in a hansom or any other cab?"

What a profitable step it would be for thousands of our well-to-do business men who are getting on in years if, instead of sitting on a cushion and holding two leather straps for an hour, and calling it exercise, they would take Mr. Gladstone's brisk four or five mile tramp, or would spend their hour on their horse's back, instead of back of their horses! And if this daily attention to bodily exercise has done so much toward keeping Gladstone in such good working order, why should we not see to it that our children likewise, especially those whose life is to be spent indoors, have some systematic rational exercise which will go far toward insuring to them this same priceless working health and vigor, not only for their younger years, but throughout a long and useful life?

Well, what shall they do? Gladstone's Eton School had a beautiful and attractive play-ground, and one which has for generations been well used; but most of ours either have no play-ground at all, or only a bit of brick sidewalk, where if you

ments in the future are fair, that does not help to-day. How shall the millions of children now at our public schools, and with no attention paid to their physical education by any competent teacher, be provided for in this important matter? Dr. Sargent, in his recent article in the North American Review, laments the lack of gymnasia, their antiquated and poorly constructed appliances, and, even more, the dearth of teachers. Strange as it may seem in a country where intelligence and enterprise are as general as in ours, the teachers thoroughly qualified for such work, who have come to be at all known for thoroughness and real success, would scarcely make a corporal's guard. Physicians, with their exceptional acquaint

would become equally familiar with bodily exercise, make easily the best teachers, as Dr. Sargent has so well proved at Harvard, or as did Aristotle when he tutored Alexander. But we call the doctor in to cure us when we are ill, not to keep us from getting so; hence we make it no object to him to do what he could do so well.

get a fall it hurts. The best schools of the near future will see-indeed, a few of them even now are awakening to-the need of a first-class play-ground, and the prominent part it should play in the boy's real education, and will doubtless bestir themselves to supply this want. St. Paul's School at Concord, New Hampshire, for instance, has a pretty flat of several acres, with a quarter-mile cinder path, and a roomy cottage specially for the demands of the players. Harvard has nearly sixty acres of play-ground, and easily the finest gymnasium in the world; while Yale recently purchased thirty acres in addition to what she already had. The spacious gymnasium and drill-room of the Boston Latin and High schools in their new building would be fair substi-ance with the human body, would, if they tutes for their old fighting ground on the now distant Common, if they were only used daily vigorously and by all, and especially by the large majority who need them. But the schools with anything worthy of the name of play-ground are to-day very rare exceptions, nearly all the city schools being built not only without an approach to a suitable or adequate play-ground, but so hampered by other houses, and where adjacent property is so valuable, that the prospect is slender of their ever being much better off in this respect. Probably no benefactor of Harvard University in this century has render-efit, and yet avoid all the risks which are ed her a better or more widely felt service likely to accompany unguided efforts in than young Mr. Hemenway when he this direction, and these are the teachers built that gymnasium, at once so commo- themselves. They already know how to dious, useful, and attractive, though al- get the children forward in other branches. ready it has become so popular that it will Why not as well in this one, so important have to be enlarged to meet even the pre- that without it the others may never be of sent demands of the students. Where much use? One of the chief services a other donors have reached the compara- teacher of physical culture can render is in tively few students who elect the branch checking and holding back the pupils, and taught under their endowment, here is a keeping them from overdoing, and teachbranch-provided always a really compe- ing them what will overdo and what will tent teacher can be had—of signal service not. But if the thirty, forty, or fifty boys to every one of the many and increasing and girls in a school-room exercised for ten hundreds of favored youth who are enjoy- minutes each morning right in the school ing an education at the university. Per- aisles, either with no appliance other than sons who have in mind a legacy for their the desks and the floor, or at most each school or university may well consider with a pair of dumb-bells, each bell weighwhether they could put their money in a ing about a twenty-fifth of the user's way to do more good to many persons there weight, if the user is a girl, or a twentieth, than by aiding them in securing a reason- if a boy, doing only what the teacher did, able degree of health and vigor for their and as the teacher did, they would not life's work, and the knowledge how to re- only avoid all risk, but could easily in that tain them, no matter in what field that short time daily progress astonishingly, work may be. even in one year, and that in developing But while the prospect of better arrange- and enlarging not only one limb, or a part

There are to-day two hundred thousand ladies and gentlemen in this country who, with very little preparation, could become sufficiently acquainted with any sensible system of gymnastics for school use to render the rising generation lasting ben