HOMELY GYMNASTICS. 527 



Biddy or Gretclien unless tliere is more to do than one pair of 

 Lands can accomplisli. 



The practice of these domestic exercises has also an important 

 influence upon household service. The mistress who understands 

 all the work required by her, and performs part of it herself, 

 rarely has any trouble with servants. But, in order to attain this 

 result, she must know more than the manner in which any piece 

 of work is to be done ; she must know how long it takes to do it, 

 and in order to estimate this justly she will need to make practi- 

 cal trial of it herself without assistance. The knowledge and 

 skill she gains in this way will also enable her often to sug- 

 gest an easier method or better arrangement of work. The 

 ridiculous requirements made in some households where there 

 is a lack of service, and which result in frequent changes, would 

 not be possible if the mistress had learned this lesson in its 

 entirety. 



Can it be repeated too often that it is the sign of ignorance to 

 scorn any work well done, or the doer of it ? Only when the 

 dignity and importance of labor are rightly estimated can we 

 hope for any well-founded social prosperity. While it is not sug- 

 gested that wealthy women should discharge their servants and 

 undertake their own domestic work, it may be urged that only 

 good can come from their personal performance of some share of 

 it — physical benefit to themselves and a more wholesome feeling 

 for the labor of their necessitous sisters. Between the small 

 minority who suffer from too easy living and those whose days 

 are overburdened with care, there exists, especially in cities, a 

 large class of women in moderate circumstances whose health 

 would be greatly benefited by more physical exercise. These 

 need not rashly bestride the bicycle, nor rush through the non- 

 productive drill of the gymnasium as an only means of grace. 

 They may garner their resources, develop their muscles in walk- 

 ing and in reconquering a world of flexibility and strength which 

 lies within their own thresholds. 



New evidence of the existence of a vibration or some other motion of change 

 in latitude was presented to the American Association by Prof. 0. L. Doolittle, 

 who describes the results of between eleven and twelve thousand observations, 

 made during the last fourteen years, at tlie Sayre Observatory, Bethlehem, Pa., 

 showing that such variations were recorded. Prof. George C. Oorastock, of 

 "Washington Observatory, Madison, Wis., deduced from similar observations at 

 Konigsberg, Pulkowa, Washington, and Madison, a theory that the north pole 

 is moving along the meridian at the rate of four and five tenths of a second per 

 century. The active discussion that followed the reading of these papers is an 

 indication of tlie interest that is taken by men of science in a subject that has 

 only recently begun to attract attention. 



