PHYSICAL TRAINING. 



667 



This will prevent painful blisters. Another 

 pail of salt and water should be kept for the 

 face and hands, the lemon (care being taken to 

 keep it out of the eyes) should with the whisky 

 be well rubbed into the skin of the face, neck, 

 hands, and forearms. There can hardly be too 

 much of good hard hand-rubbing of these 

 parts. There was much in this old system of 

 training that was terribly demoralizing, and 

 it is no wonder that the lives of those who 

 went through it more than once or twice were 

 much shortened. Water for drinking was al- 

 most entirely cut off. No man in training felt 

 much like talking. 



In modern physical training all is changed ; 

 the number of events for which persons go 

 into more or less strict training is daily in- 

 creasing, and the increased gymnasium facili- 

 ties give almost all, even ladies and children, 

 a chance to reap some of the benefits to be 

 derived from even a slight consideration of so 

 important a subject. It is no longer necessary 

 for a man that wishes to prepare for an ath- 

 letic contest to go to some remote country- 

 place. Provided only his will be strong 

 enough to withstand the city temptation, he 

 would much better remain where he can have 

 all the advantages of a city home and the im- 

 proved appliances of a modern gymnasium. 

 In considering modern physical training it 

 might not be entirely incorrect to take for an 

 example a specimen of the same class of ath- 

 letes, and we will look at the manner in 

 which a modern pugilist would now train. 

 The science of boxing has now perhaps reached 

 perfection. A clever boxer can, with no 

 weapons but Nature's, and even with the ef- 

 fects of them partially neutralized by soft 

 boxing-gloves, stand face to face with a man 

 who, if not clever, may be pounds over his 

 weight, and often without getting struck at 

 all administer punishment that will entirely 

 deprive his opponent of his sense?, and lay 

 him on the ground apparently dead for from 

 five minutes to half an hour. 



A modern pugilist, if out of practice and not 

 expecting any encounter, would want about 

 three months' notice to fit himself. If he had 

 trained before, and was intelligent and careful 

 and knew his own system, ho would only re- 

 quire the services of a professional trainer to 

 rub him down. He would know how much 

 exercise he could stand and the amount of 

 food and drink he would need. The first two 

 weeks would be spent in trying to get the sys- 

 tem into a proper condition to stand a severe 

 strain. The bowels would have to be cleared 

 out and got into regular and easy working or- 

 der, as there should be at least two evacuations 

 in a day. When a person is training this 

 would be accomplished by gentle physics, and 

 the face, hands, and feet should be soaked as 

 before described and faithfully rubbed to guard 

 airainst the pain and great inconvenience of 

 Misters from running, walking, or punching 

 the bag, and to keep the face from swelling 



and the eyes from closing during the contest, 

 which would otherwise be likely to occur. A 

 little work in the gymnasium and on the cin- 

 der-path would be done in order to stretch the 

 muscles and plenty of good walking to keep 

 them from getting stiff. During the first two 

 weeks a man such as described would lose in 

 his weight from five to fifteen pounds; the 

 latter figure would be reached only in case he 

 were very large and extremely fat. About 

 the beginning of the third week the real work 

 would begin. The pugilist would retire every 

 night about ten o'clock and rise at half-past 

 six or seven in the morning. His breakfast 

 half an hour later would be light, consisting, per- 

 haps, of a little oatmeal with little or no milk or 

 sugar, one, two, or three eggs poached or raw 

 if desired, and a cup of tea, little or no milk 

 and sugar, with a slice or two of toast. The 

 eggs should only be used occasionally to vary 

 the rare or well-done (as taste dictates) broiled 

 steak or chop. An hour or an hour and a 

 half after breakfast a walk of a mile in the 

 pleasant air and into the gymnasium, where 

 exercises of all kinds would be tried for per- 

 haps an hour, light dumb-bells and Indian 

 clubs being freely used. Dumb-bells of differ- 

 ent shapes and weights and sizes have been in 

 use almost as long as athletics have been 

 known. The old Greek dumb-bells were 

 heavy, flat, generally diagonal pieces of iron, 

 with holes large enough for the hands. The 

 ancients believed in lifting heavy weights, and 

 had bells weighing as much as two hundred 

 pounds. This theory is now exploded. Not 

 many dumb-bells are now in use for active 

 work, even for strong men, weighing over ten 

 pounds apiece ; and there is one exercise, not 

 generally known but of the greatest benefit, at 

 which the strongest man can be tired in less 

 than a minute, just as a sprint runner is as 

 tired at the end of his one hundred and fifty 

 yards' dash at tremendous speed, as a six-day 

 walker is at the end of his one hundred and 

 forty-two hours' effort. This exercise consists 

 of first placing both hands on the chest, hold- 

 ing in each a one-pound dumb-bell, and then 

 striking out as if at a foe as hard and as 

 rapidly as possible with each of the hands al- 

 ternately. If it is done properly, twenty sec- 

 onds of this work will tire more than an hour's 

 slow work with heavy bells, and it will be 

 found equal to sprinting as an exercise to in- 

 crease the wind, and far superior to anything 

 in developing the muscles of the back, arms, 

 and chest. In some suitable part a large ball 

 or bag should be swung up at a suitable height, 

 and at this bag, armed with light one-pound 

 dumb-bells and with hands incased in dogskin 

 driving-gloves, the pugilist should punch for 

 from thirty to fifty minutes, three or four min- 

 utes at a time, letting go every blow as if life 

 depended upon its being squnrely and forcibly 

 delivered. One minute's rest should bo tnken 

 at the end of each round, and during this time 

 a short walk should be indulged in. 



