1. Q. What proportion of men either erect or thoroughly well-built will
be seen among those usually passing a given point on Broadway, in New
York? A. Scarcely one in ten.
2. Q. What is said of the training ordinarily had by farmers, merchants,
mechanics and laborers, who constitute a very great majority of
Americans? A. No one of the four classes has ordinarily had any training
at all aimed to make him equally strong all over.
3. Q. What is said of regular exercise among the great majority of the
women of this country? A. No regular exercise is common among the great
majority of the women of this country which makes them use both their
hands alike, and is yet vigorous enough to add to the size and strength
of their shoulders, chests and arms.
4. Q. What is the character of the popular sports and pastimes of
boyhood and youth to supply the lack of inherited development? A. Good as
these sports are, as far as they go, they are not in themselves vigorous
enough, or well enough chosen to remedy the lack.
5. Q. What does a leading metropolitan journal say an inquirer will
see by standing at the door of almost any public or private school or
academy at the hour of dismissal? A. He will see a crowd of under-sized,
listless, thin-faced children, with scarcely any promise of manhood to
them.
6. Q. What is stated in reference to the play-grounds of our cities
and towns? A. It is not a good sign, or one that bodes well for the
future, to see them so much neglected; and many of our large cities are
wretchedly off for play-grounds.
7. Q. What description is given of the physical appearance of the
majority of the girls in any of our cities or towns, as seen passing to
and from school? A. Instead of high chests, plump arms, comely figures,
and a graceful and handsome mien, you constantly see flat chests, angular
shoulders, often round and warped forward, with scrawny necks, pipe-stem
arms, narrow backs, and a weak walk.
8. Q. What does a distinguished surgeon say as to the ability to endure
protracted brain-work without ill result? A. It is not brain-work that
kills, but brain-worry.
9. Q. What does our author state there ought to be in every girls’ school
in our land, for pupils of every age? A. A system of physical culture
which should first eradicate special weaknesses and defects, and then
create and maintain the symmetry of the pupils, increasing their bodily
vigor and strength up to maturity.
10. Q. What is the first thing most women should do in order to get
health and strength and the bloom of perfect physical development? A. The
first thing is to bring up the weaker muscles by special effort, calling
them at once into vigorous action, and to restore to its proper position
the shoulder, back, or chest which has been so long allowed to remain out
of place.
11. Q. What is the next step after the symmetry is once secured? A. Then
equal work for all the muscles, taken daily, and in such quantities as
are found to suit best.
12. Q. In our Christian lands what do we find in regard to the fathers
and mothers of the great men? A. We find that the great men have almost
invariably had remarkable mothers, while their fathers were as often
nothing unusual.
13. Q. What does our author say as to the means of getting a vigorous and
healthy body kept toned up by rational, systematic, daily exercise, by
every girl and woman? A. The means of getting it are so easily within the
reach of all who are not already broken by disease, that it is never too
late to begin, and that one hour a day, properly spent, is all that is
needed to secure it.
14. Q. Had the lungs and also the muscles of the man had vigorous daily
action to the extent that frequent trial had shown best suited to that
man’s wants, of what is there very little doubt? A. That a large majority
of the ailments would be removed, or rather would never have come at all.
15. Q. What is well nigh essential to attain success and length of
service in any of the learned professions, including that of teaching? A.
A vigorous body.
16. Q. To win lasting distinction in sedentary, in-door occupations
which tax the brain and the nervous system, what does all professional
biography teach? A. Extraordinary toughness of body must accompany
extraordinary mental powers.
17. Q. What are all that people need for their daily in-door exercises?
A. A few pieces of apparatus which are fortunately so simple and
inexpensive as to be within the reach of most persons.
18. Q. What appliances can be readily fitted up for the home gymnasium?
A. A horizontal bar, a pair of parallel bars, or their equivalent for
certain purposes, a pair of pulling-weights, and a rowing-weight, to
which may be added a pair of dumb-bells.
19. Q. What may be accomplished with these few bits of apparatus? A.
Every muscle of the trunk, nearly all those of the legs, and all those of
the arms, can, by a few exercises so simple that they can be learned at a
single trying, be brought into active play.
20. Q. To what extent should these articles of the home gymnasium be
used? A. Every member of the family, both old and young, should use them
daily, enough to keep both the home gymnasium and its users in good
working order.
21. Q. What is said of the shaping power of teachers with children in
school? A. When children are with their teacher in school is almost the
best time in their whole lives to shape them as the teacher chooses, not
morally or mentally only, but physically as well.
22. Q. With what should prompt and vigorous steps be taken to acquaint
every school teacher in this country? A. With such exercises as would
quickly restore the misshapen, insure an erect carriage, encourage habits
of full breathing, and strengthen the entire trunk and every limb.
23. Q. What did President Eliot of Harvard say a few years ago of
a majority of those coming into that university? A. That they had
undeveloped muscles, a bad carriage, and an impaired digestion, without
skill in any out-of-door games, and unable to ride, row, swim or shoot.
24. Q. What do both the physician and experience tell us rest the tired
brain? A. Nothing rests a tired brain like sensible physical exercise,
except, of course, sleep.
25. Q. When exposure to out-of-door air is associated with a fair share
of physical exertion, what does Dr. Mitchell say it is an immense
safeguard against? A. The ills of anxiety and too much brain work.
26. Q. In a country like ours, where the masses are so intelligent,
concerning what does our author consider the ignorance of the people as
marvelous? A. As to what can be done to the body by a little systematic
physical education.
27. Q. Of what do few people seem to be aware on this subject? A. That
any limb, or any part of it, can be developed from a state of weakness
and deficiency to one of fullness, strength, and beauty, and that equal
attention to all the limbs, and to the body as well, will work like
results throughout.
28. Q. What course of exercise with many has resulted in largely reducing
superfluous flesh with fleshy people? A. Vigorous muscular exercise,
taken daily and assiduously.
29. Q. What contributes to keeping some people thin? A. Most thin people
do not keep still enough, do not take matters leisurely, and do not rest
enough; while, if their work is muscular, they do too much daily in
proportion to their strength.
30. Q. What is the character of the physical exercises the late William
Cullen Bryant continued up to the last year of his life? A. Immediately
after rising he began a series of exercises performed with dumb-bells,
a pole, a horizontal bar, and a light chair swung around his head,
continued for a full hour and sometimes longer.
31. Q. What does a former business associate of Mr. Bryant, who knew him
intimately, say of his health? A. “During the forty years that I have
known him, Mr. Bryant has never been ill—never been confined to his bed
except on the occasion of his last accident. His health has always been
good.”
32. Q. What two classes of men are there in our cities and larger towns
that more than almost any others need daily and systematic bodily
exercise in order to make them efficient for their duties, and something
like what men in their line ought to be? A. The police and firemen.
33. Q. What are some of the ways of developing the muscles of the leg
below the knee? A. Walking, and at the same time pressing hard with the
toes and the soles; running on the soles and toes; hopping on one foot;
jumping.
34. Q. What are some of the methods of developing the muscles of the
front thigh? A. Holding one foot out, either in front or back, and then
stooping down wholly on the other; jumping, fast walking and running.
35. Q. What exercise is especially recommended for strengthening the
sides of the waist? A. Hopping straight ahead on one foot, and then on
the other.
36. Q. What kind of a walk does a man usually have who is not strong in
the abdominal muscles? A. A feeble walk.
37. Q. What is said of the development of men generally above the waist?
A. It is not an uncommon thing, especially among Englishmen, to find a
man of very strong legs and waist, yet with but an indifferent chest and
shoulders, and positively poor arms.
38. Q. With the use of what can the muscles above the belt be nearly all
thoroughly developed? A. With the use of dumb-bells.
39. Q. What is a simple method for improving the ordinary grip of
the hand? A. Take a rubber ball in the hand, or a wad of any elastic
material, even of paper, and repeatedly squeeze it.
40. Q. What will expand the chest? A. Anything which causes one to
frequently fill his lungs to their utmost capacity, and then hold them
full as long as he can.
41. Q. What practice of breathing is a great auxiliary to enlarging the
lung room? A. The practice of drawing air slowly in at the nostrils until
every air-cell of the lungs is absolutely full, holding it long, and then
expelling it slowly.
42. Q. Beside light gymnastic exercises in school, what should a teacher
insist upon with his pupils? A. He should insist upon the value of an
erect position in school hours, whether the pupils be standing or sitting.
43. Q. What care should be taken in regard to school chairs? A. That they
should have broad and comfortable seats, and that the pupil never sits on
a half of the seat or on the edge of it, but far back on the whole of it.
44. Q. What weight of dumb-bells should be used in ordinary exercises
with them by pupils? A. Dumb-bells of a pound each would be fit for
pupils under ten years of age. For older pupils the same work with two
pound bells will prove generally vigorous enough.
45. Q. What are some of the daily exercises recommended for girls and
women? A. The use of dumb-bells, walking, riding, and, with girls,
running.
46. Q. Beside these things, what ought a girl or woman to determine to do
while sitting? A. To sit with the head and neck up, trunk erect, and with
the shoulders low.
47. Q. How ought every man in this country whose life is in-door to
divide his time? A. So that come what may he will make sure of his hour
of out-of-doors in the late afternoon, when the day’s work is nearly or
quite done.
48. Q. What two things ought consumptives to determine to do when
sitting? A. To sit far back on the chair, and to sit at all times upright.
49. Q. To what does a great German anatomist attribute the principal
cause of pulmonary diseases? A. To the breathing of foul air.
50. Q. What is it far from uncommon for delicate persons to do who take
good care of the small stock of vigor they have? A. To outlive sturdier
ones who are more prodigal and careless.