t off "play" as mere school-girls, and
took on those sedentary habits of life peculiar to fashionable society
girls. Thanks to the growing popularity of ladies' cut-door sports,
such as lawn tennis, rowing, archery, equestrian exercise and the like,
the old sedentary mode of young lady life is being greatly modified,
and American girls, under the improved method, bid fair soon to
show as healthy physiques as the girls of the leisure-class of English
society do. There is one special benefit to be derived from the system-
atic exercises of the ladies' calisthenic class of a g^^mnasium, and that
is, that for the two or three hours of these exercises the ladies are
freed from the restraints impo.sed on their bodily movements by the
SPORTS AND GAMES FOR LADIES. lOI
fashionable costume of the day. Clothed in the loose folds of their
gymnasium costume, with corsets unlaced, and freedom given them
for lung expansion ; with feet in their natural position and relieved
from the stilted heels, and in every respect with room given them for
the play of cvcry^ muscle of their bodies, a delightful relaxation from
the bonds of fashion is enjoyed ; and this freedom from dress restraints,
combined with the invigorating effects of the exercise itself, imparts
new life and action to the blood and thereby strengthens the vital
functions of the system. Of course, calisthcnic exercises are not so
necessary to those girls who frequent the lawn tennis or archery fields,
or who are to be seen rowing on the lake or riding on horseback on
the park drives, as they arc to the confined and unexercised fashion-
able girls who are such valuable patrons of the medical fraternity.
And just here, by the way, it is worthy of remark that a singular unan-
imity of opinion seems to exist among a certain class of fashionable
doctors in regard to the disadvantages of this, that and the other
out-door exercise, and of the injurious effects of this or that in-door
game on their young lady patients. Does it arise from the fact that
such indulgence in healthy recreation is calculated to lessen the
amount of sundry yearly medical bills ?
Late improvements in the paraphernalia of calisthenic class exerci.ses
present facilities for home recreation of this character in which the
girls of a single family can benefit to an extent but little less than
in the regular gymnasiums. What the majority of girls most need
in the way of such exercises, however, is the development of the chest
muscles with a view to healthy lung expansion, and this is attainable
in a parlor or the home garden-plat. How many a girl is there to be
seen who, by her dancing practice, has trained up finely developed
nether limbs, but who, from the total neglect of the muscles of the
.arms and chest, is left round-shouldered and with thin arms out of al!
proportion to the exerci-sed limbs of her body !
SKATING.
Skat.ng is, beyond question, the inost graceful sport a girl can
engage in, and as an out-door exercise it has no superior in its
I02 THE HEARTHSTONE ; OK, LIFE AT HOME.
Page 59
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
t off "play" as mere school-girls, and took on those sedentary habits of life peculiar to fashionable society girls. Thanks to the growing popularity of ladies' cut-door sports, such as lawn tennis, rowing, archery, equestrian exercise and the like, the old sedentary mode of young lady life is being greatly modified, and American girls, under the improved method, bid fair soon to show as healthy physiques as the girls of the leisure-class of English society do. There is one special benefit to be derived from the systematic exercises of the ladies' calisthenic class of a g^^mnasium, and that is, that for the two or three hours of these exercises the ladies are freed from the restraints imposed on their bodily movements by the
fashionable costume of the day. Clothed in the loose folds of their gymnasium costume, with corsets unlaced, and freedom given them for lung expansion ; with feet in their natural position and relieved from the stilted heels, and in every respect with room given them for the play of every muscle of their bodies, a delightful relaxation from the bonds of fashion is enjoyed ; and this freedom from dress restraints, combined with the invigorating effects of the exercise itself, imparts new life and action to the blood and thereby strengthens the vital functions of the system. Of course, calisthenic exercises are not so necessary to those girls who frequent the lawn tennis or archery fields, or who are to be seen rowing on the lake or riding on horseback on the park drives, as they arc to the confined and unexercised fashionable girls who are such valuable patrons of the medical fraternity. And just here, by the way, it is worthy of remark that a singular unanimity of opinion seems to exist among a certain class of fashionable doctors in regard to the disadvantages of this, that and the other out-door exercise, and of the injurious effects of this or that in-door game on their young lady patients. Does it arise from the fact that such indulgence in healthy recreation is calculated to lessen the amount of sundry yearly medical bills ?
Late improvements in the paraphernalia of calisthenic class exercises present facilities for home recreation of this character in which the girls of a single family can benefit to an extent but little less than in the regular gymnasiums. What the majority of girls most need in the way of such exercises, however, is the development of the chest muscles with a view to healthy lung expansion, and this is attainable in a parlor or the home garden-plat. How many a girl is there to be seen who, by her dancing practice, has trained up finely developed nether limbs, but who, from the total neglect of the muscles of the .arms and chest, is left round-shouldered and with thin arms out of al! proportion to the exercised limbs of her body !
SKATING.
Skating is, beyond question, the inost graceful sport a girl can engage in, and as an out-door exercise it has no superior in its