ATHLETICS FOR WOMEN IN COLLEGES. 517 



we must be slow in adopting them. The inquiry into the super- 

 normal has but just begun, the support of the great body of 

 scholars has not by any means been won, and the fundamental 

 facts are still in question. The first need is more observation and 

 more experiment. The theories framed by Mr. Myers and others 

 will serve as guides in the inquiry, and in future, as facts ac- 

 cumulate, what there is in them of value will become manifest. 







TENDENCIES IN ATHLETICS FOR WOMEN IN 

 COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.* 



By SOPHIA FOSTER RICHAKDSOISI. 



FROM correspondence with the leading colleges and universi- 

 ties which educate women, I find that they have very gener- 

 ally introduced, or are preparing to introduce as far as possible, 

 physical training and athletic sports. 



I find, too, from this correspondence that if I describe the con- 

 ditions at Vassar, where I am most familiar with them, I shall 

 describe the general tendencies in athletics for women. 



From the beginning Vassar has required practice in the gym- 

 nasium and an hour of outdoor exercise daily from every student 

 throughout her course. A riding school was provided and a 

 bowling alley, and the lake furnished boating of a mild type. 

 There was not sufficient interest in riding to maintain the school, 

 and after a few years it was given up. The bowling alley atro- 

 phied and fell off as a member of the body academic. The hour 

 of outdoor exercise has been very generally spent in walking. 

 The result of this daily practice is that members of the upper 

 classes can walk, so that when the Professor of English at one 

 time introduced the delightful custom of annually inviting fifteen 

 or twenty seniors to accompany him on an autumnal tramp of 

 from ten to twenty miles through the highlands of the Hudson, 

 the invitation was always accepted with enthusiasm and the walk 

 greatly enjoyed. 



About twenty years ago, when I was a freshman, seven or 

 eight baseball clubs suddenly came into being, spontaneously as 

 it seemed, but I think they owed their existence to a few quiet 

 suggestions from a resident physician, wise beyond her genera- 

 tion. The public, so far as it knew of our playing, was shocked, 

 but in our retired grounds, and protected from observation even 

 in these grounds by sheltering trees, we continued to play in spite 

 of a censorious public. One day a student, while running be- 



* A paper presented to the Association of Collegiate Alumnte, October 31, 1896. 



