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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Out-Door Play for School-Girls.— Pro- 



fessor W. E. Anderson, in a paper on " The 

 Physical Side of Education," forming part 

 of the Wisconsin Ftatc Board of Health Re- 

 port for 1887, makes a plea for the indul- 

 gence of school-pirls in play. lie says : 

 " Our school-girls lead a life without play, 

 in the real meaning of the term. Muscular 

 exertion is confined entirely to locomotion, 

 or to movements requiring exercise of the 

 lower part of the body. The restrictions of 

 dress are such that movement above the 

 waist is out of the question. The vital 

 organs arc restricted by dress, fashion, 

 and occupations supposed to be suitable to 

 the sex. Notice the difference between the 

 movements of boys and girls of the same 

 age, and attending the same class. While 

 the boys can engage in every species of ac- 

 tivity, and practice some sports perhaps too 

 grotesque to be permissible for the opposite 

 sex, the girls of sixteen are satisfied with a 

 stately walk around the block, two under 

 one shawl, conning the next lesson to be 

 heard after school is called. All this is 



certainly a perversion of what Nature re- 

 quires. There is no reason why such dif- 

 ferent dispositions should be manifest be- 

 tween the sexes at this age. The avoidance 

 of play or exercise, and the conventionali- 

 ties of dress, explain in a large part the 

 want of full and natural development so 

 characteristic of the female sex at the age 

 when they should present in every respect 

 of form, health, and color, the picture of 

 human physical perfect ion. As it is, the 

 majority of them at twenty years of age 

 are already pale and faded, unnatural in 

 color, wanting in spiiit and force, and give 

 evidence of retarded or obstructed develop- 

 ment. Where exceptions occur it is usu- 

 ally owing to a violation of the regime of 

 the school. Many of our district schools 

 are supplied with a large, well-lighted, 

 and well-ventilated hall. This hall might 

 be used every day in the week for sys- 

 tematic plays designed or contrived to call 

 into active exercise the senses and the 

 whole muscular system. The running leap 

 of the German gymnasium should form a 

 feature of the sports of this hall. Girls 

 could loosen their waistbands and adopt a 

 style of dress which would enable them to 

 exercise their shoulders and arms. They 

 might find in this practice healthful sport, 

 and a means of developing the tissues of 

 the arms and shoulders, which would result 

 in the development of that beauty of form 

 so highly prized and so frequently simulated 

 by artificial means. The muscles of the 

 hands and arms can be exercised by the 

 play of grace-hoops, cast by the use of two 

 wands, and caught in the same way. The 

 game of shuttlecock, requiring the use of a 

 light bat, alternately in the right and left 

 hand, calls into activity sight and touch. It 

 would not be difiicult to contrive games of 

 which young people would not grow weary, 

 and which would without question insure 

 for our feeble school-girls a more durable 

 tenure of good health and a larger stock of 

 force and endurance. While the school ig- 

 nores the necessity of play to the young, 

 society gives it questionable recognition, 

 and that most potent ruler of society — 

 Fashion — finds in it opportunities for the 

 display of her power. Tennis and archery 

 are resorted to for amusement, and would 

 vicld most abundant good exercise were 



