SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES 19 
unites German gymnastics with English sports 
and sparring, and takes the red Indians for in- 
structors in paddling and running. With these 
various aptitudes, we certainly ought to become 
a nation of athletes. 
Thus it is that, in one way or another, Ameri- 
can schoolboys obtain active exercise. Thesame 
is true, in a very limited degree, even of girls. 
They are occasionally, in our larger cities, sent 
to gymnasiums, —the more the better. Dan- 
cing-schools are better than nothing, though 
all the attendant circumstances are usually un- 
favorable. A fashionable young lady is esti- 
mated to traverse her three hundred miles a 
season on foot ; and this implies training. But 
outdoor exercise for girls is even now restricted, 
first by their costume, and secondly by the 
social proprieties. All young female animals 
unquestionably require as much motion as their 
brothers, and naturally make as much noise: 
but what mother would not be shocked, in the 
case of her girl of twelve, by one half the activ- 
ity and uproar which are recognized as being 
the breath of life to her twin brother ? 
It is beyond question, that far more outdoor 
exercise is habitually taken by the female popu- 
lation of almost all European countries than by 
our own. In the first place, the peasant women 
of those countries are trained to field labor from 
