The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 29, 1896, Page 25

‘THE SAN FRANCIS(‘O CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1896. Baxrd Cor\trlbutes Some Excellent and Valuable Suggestions Different Forms. of Rudimentary Exercise. JThe Home Gymnasium--Running, Havmg reflected upon female athletics in general in my‘last letier and considered ilities of female development 1n , We Will turn our attention to--specitic forms of exercise. Now there | are “different degrees of gyvmnastics and athletics, as there are grades in a school or & university, only they have not been .dictated by .competent authority. There aré no faculties or boards to prescribe the courses and the curricu’um. It might bea good thing- if there were; however, we must gef along without them as best we may. Let-is see how & young girl or alady not .- at all strong should begin. Let me warn them in the most solemn manner that the buman constitution is of such peculiar composition tbat it is possible to do a cer- tain act_ in’ defiance of nature a hundred times with impunity, and then wrench something that might send you to bed for s year. In other words, do not be rash Decause some one else is rash. Be con- tentto go =bout your exercise gradually and patiently. Avoid being hasty. A womanr is a strange piece of ma- chinery.” “‘Women are queer cattle,” a friend once remarked to me, and I guess be was abofit right. Lel a young man not particularly strong-enter a gymnasium or step on a cinder-path and it will be a strange and unusual thing if he strains or over-exerts himself; but leta girl who is sadly in need of exercise engage in the . . Rowing, Swimming While in the rudimentary stage a little running can be indul red in provided care is used. For example, take & walk to the | sea beach; then take a run on the sands, but do not rin over 100 fect at first, and even then do not stiain yourself. When you feel an 1nclination to stop, do so at once, remembering that you are not strong, and any severe excrtion might do more harm than good. Bear in mind that you cannot run as you could when a girl; not because vou are out of practice, but for the reason that your physique has un- dergone a chauge since your girlheod. The nature of this change is nctin my province to describe, as it comes under the head of a medical discourse. Suffi- cient to say that the bones of the pelvis have been transformed to an extent that robs a woman of t e agilityv and ‘speed that she formerly possessed, This should not prevent your running for pleasure and exercise; and no possible harm can resuit if proper care is used and thought given to the particular neeas and weaknesses of your own system. Another step that can be taken is bi- cycling. A woman would indeed be very weak if she could not take a short turn on the wheel every day, riding up and down asmooth thoroughfare a few times. The exertion is commonplace, and as the lim- itation can be a ba!f dozen blocks each way there is little danger of injury. Long trips should be avoided until the fair ath- GOOD, HEALTHFUL EXERCISE. e same pursuits and she must be careful or | lete is sure she is sirong enough to bear * something might give away. let me- prescribe a rule which, if iived up to, will keep you out of danger: Never exert your muscles until they strain; never exert your legs until you haustion creep over you; never try todoa little more when you already feel fa- tigued. Rudimeniary exercise can be taken in diffeyent- forms. Skipping rope, the wands, good walks, light dumbbells, run- ning, bicycling—in fact, many such pur- suits can be indulged in, provided care is used. Mest women and some men never show their ignorance and lack of sense quite as much as those parents who refuse . to'permit .their child to continue exercis- ing because by some accident, careless- ness or ignorance the beginner has been somewhat ihjured. I hops I have more reason than to Insist that a child who has a poor instructor, or who displays a want of ability to take care of himselfor her- - gelf, shoulid continue as before at the risk and likelihgod of still greater injuries, If a toddling baby slips and falls while eross- ing the floot for the first time, bumping “his nose severely, must the little one be confined in“his cradle all his life? If circumstances are unfavorable to your*taking exercise in a “rymnasium under a proper instructor much gan- be * accomplished at home. We will suppose * that you have a room sugable for the pur- pose—a garret, a store-room, a dry cellar or an out-bouse. Almost any place will do provlued it is roomy, without gas fixtures Or posts to bother you, or likeli- “Hood of annoying other people by your " hopping arsund. ° I you have a suit of bloomers, so much the better; if not, remove all the clothing vou can without catching cold, and have your muscles and limbs free and un- strammeled. Youcan now také a wand, and by the examples set forth in a book that you cén pragure for the purpose, gain ' considerable flexibility and grace, and some strength thereby. ILight dumb- beils can also be used, working the limbs in every conceivable direction, aiming to bring “into vlay every possible muscle. - Then try the skipping rope for a change. ' 1f you like dndian clubs, I would advise that you not only usce them but aim to be proficient as® possible. There “is little or .no danger of overdoing this particular exercise unless it is kept uptoo long; and itis gnc.ehfl invigorating and fascinating tosome. A young lady who would become an artist at this branch of gymnastics ‘Would be a star attraction at stage enter- tainments. These implements are to be recommended as an excellent form of exercise. They bring about every_ muscle into play with little if afiy danger to be feared by the most timid. As one becomes accustomed to their use, they can be sub- itutsd by heavier gnes, or if they are of Fittle monewary value, they can be bored around, the circumference and at the base, and the holes filled with lead. Indian 'ubs give strength and grace to the one Who uses them with perseverance. Therefore, | feel ex- | the effort with impunity. 1f you have the opportunity rowing is an excellent form of exercise, provided you do not row such a distance from the shore that you ¢row tired and then turn back. You will then haveto return an equal distance and may reach the shore ex- bausted. Otherwise yowing is a most healthiul form of exercise. Under proper restrictions there is no more healtniul form of sport than swim- ming. For one who is not strong care should be taken that the water is not too cold. The human constitution is exceed- ingly pesuliar about such matters, for L have kaown an instance where a young man who had not entirely recovered from a siege of typhoid fever could plunge into an ice-cold bath, while a champion nthleta stood on, the brmk unwilling to do ti same, well knowing that it would chm bim to the bone and reduce his tempera- ture to a degree that would b¢ unhealthful’ A person’s build, temperament-and habit have a great deal tQ do with suca mat- ters, and I say unhesitatingly if persons q,hrmk from the plunge, let them hnve their own way. Baly water is very invigorating, to say, nothing of the sait dir, thg run on the beach untrammeled by-a cloua of skirts, and the exertion of the muscles of the arms and legs while nwnnm,mg, or even attempting to swim. It is a well-known fact that one must be exceedingly caréful about catching cola"if bathing in fresh water, but i?is a rare thidg to be troubled that way aftera sglt bnb In my next letter we will discnu a more advanced routine for those who ,are some- what more _robust than those whom we have been speaking to, of who have at- tained that condition by following these precepts. GEORGE D. BAIrD. Nelson’s Flagship and Her Sails. British officials have been inquiring the whereabouts of the sails of Neison’s old flngeh\p, the Victory, totally oblivious of the fact'that twenty years ago they were discovered in the store at Chatham, where they were placed after °Trafalgar when the Victory was paid’ off. When they were . unrolled and stretched out they presented aremarkable sight, The main topsail was riddled‘in 315 places by the leaden balls of musketry, and even the foretopsail’s bolt rope was completely shattered, whife spotsand streaks of hu- man blood were disternible on the center of the sail. Now these sails are packed away on ihe Victory at Portsmouth, but they will be brought out and shown to vis- hors.—Wenmin-ter Gazette, —— It.is estimated that twenty-two acres of land are necessafy to sustain one man on fresh fneat. The same space of land, if devoted to wheat cuiture, would feed forty-two peo “if oats, ‘eighty-eight; potatoes, Indian " corn. and rice; 176; and if to the plantain or breadtree, over 6000 people. | the leaves turn, 2 NOVEL girship has recently beea exhibited in the pleasure park of the Berlin Exposition, says the l\ew York Herald. It isthe work of Dr. Wolfert, the well-known aeronaut, who for years has been trying to solve the problem of aerial navigation. This problem he now claims to have solved with his new airship Deutschland, an illustration of which accompanies this article, and to those who bave seen 3 him speed through the air in Deutschiand his claim seems to be well founded. The great difficulty hitherto has been to matiuiscture airships that could be steered in any direction; this difficult feat Dr. Wolfert claims to have accomplished. The question now is, Can he also succeed in steering his airship through a storm and at any height from the ground ? As five days and ‘nights were uceupied in filling the balloon (at the doctor’s factory in Lehoneberg this task cotld heve been accomplished in an hour) much of the power was lost and the vessel, which itsell weighs 700 kilogrammes, was notin a condition to carry Dr. Wolfert, who weighsy 100 kilogrammes, the resalt being that G. Wirsum of Cannstatt ascended in his stead and made the experiments. The airship is 28 meters in length and 874 meters in dismeter in the middle and it is propelled by a ship’s paddle, with two blades, which has a diameter of 25-10 meters. There is a second paddle under the gondola, which is used alike for the purpose of ascending and descending. These paddles make about 500 revolutions to thie minute. The gondola, which is 4 meters long and made of bamboo, is firmly fastened to the balloon, How it is fastened is a secret whnich Dr. Wolfert keeps caretully to himself. new airship. He intends to make another ascent in the near {uture ana he then hopes to be able to prove the practical utility of his RN IDYL OF THE AUTUMN TIME Olive Heyden'’s Poetic Picture of the Seasor\ of Bnght Tints in Northern Galifornia- I wonder if some of those who come from the Eastern States do not missin the balmy sunshine of Central and South- ern California the ‘crisp beaaty of a frosty autumn. No wonder the coftest and sweetest words of the language have been used to faintly describe tnis loveliest sea- son of the year. It is Indian summer, indeed; the crown of the year, the time when the lotus-eaters might feel at home, the season of dreamy lixhts. bright tints and smoky distances, But autumn is not her renl celf unless unless there is snow in the far aistance, unless the air of early .| morning sparkles with dry celd. Does the Easterner long for this even in the midst of roses and under a ciondless sky? Let him beard the Oregon express and ride just one night northward. He will awaken in the midst of ‘the glorious autumn of Northern California. The distances which in summer were blue are now purple exquisitely shaded from lavender to almost black. The nearer mountains rise tall and seemingly more steep than before, because the un- dergrowth has cast the leaf and the hrown earth s ows through. The pines stana here and there like green-coated sentinels whose uniform cannot change, but the other forest pecple have put on the new fall styles. They have perfect taste, the fashionable foresters, and combine colors ina way that would drive 2 French milli- ner wild with envy. Watch an oak tree to see how, from pale yellow, the shades run up the scale to deep brown without ever striking a false note, and for witching combinations of pink and red sitdown and gaze at a maple, There is one picture I go to see every autuman, and I would paint it, if I could, and make My name immortal. Nature paints it for me every year anew, but she draws her brush filled with dull brown over the canvas when winter comes. Itis two trees, 4n oak and a maple, side by side, and around both, like a tie of love binding two lives, there twines a wild grapevine, spreading n-onnd and up nurly as high as they. In the summer time the viné shows lit- tle, but when the frost comes, like love'in adversity, the vine glows acord of deepest ciimson. There s nothing more lovely than a’frost-kissed aild grape. It tarns one warm red, red asdark blood, from rodt to tendril. The qak is yellow and brown, with toutches of pipk, and here and there a spot of blood. The maple’s half-drooped leaves glow blushing pink, deep red and rich wine color. Standing so close, these trees have mingled their branches until the mixture of colors is like one of ‘Keith's THE beautiful pictures, and then, with (hnt deep, rich red vine weaving in and out and up, the effect is magnifigent. A low hillside covered with scrub oak and manzanita bas been a joy to look at for two months. T:e manzanita keeps its rather pale green and the oaks have outdone themsclves in effects of yellow. Yellow and brown combine with anything. Against the earth color of the hill or against the green of the manzanita the oak leaves seem just the proper thing; snd against the purple of a more distant bill the same brown-yellow seems as beautiful, Against gray sagebrush an ozk looks iike a cameo, and even against the gold of a sunset sky they are in per- fect harmony. The lighter trees, the poplar and the cottonwood, are leafless now. In early autumn they turned to gold—their stand- ard—and then one morning, when the oaks and maples smiled brignter than ever, their mass of gold lay gfay aud sad at the fgot of the naked tree, and the rude wind tore them and scattered them afar. From my window I can see a barren, rocky hill, whose naked sides grow soft and lovely in the magic air. In the re- lentless summer light I could see the bare rocks and the scarred ravine, but now it is one purple hillside, except when sunset turns it an indescribable color as of pur- ple dashed with pink. On that hillside of mine there is one tree. All summer { guessed what kind, bu® could not be sure while the leaves were green. In the first antumn days I thought it might be a cot- tonwood, so yellow it turned, but now, while the pop!ars point their bare branches to heaven, my solitary tree is yellow still, growing each week a shade darker. Itis an oak—I know now—the most lovely one in view, because it stands alone on that purple steep. I watch it grow darker, I watch the nearer hills grow duller, and I know how soon the beautiful leaves will lie on the cold earth. I watch the snow, which all summer lay on Shasta’s crown, creeping slowly, surely, ‘silently down — covering the tops of the high mountains, then the'r lower slopes, then the higher foothills— creeping like a foamy tide each nighta litile nearer. And soom, very soon, the suow will lie cold and white in the valley and autnmn will be winter. Does it seem sad? Not ‘so. the season of promise. Autumn is Never except then do the forast trees openly flaunt their beauty; never except then does the sun go down in such a blaze of level golden rays and leave such a glow after; never except then is the magic air so full of re- hl n "MM[H“" lll II ” ” ‘I “!, pose, never the mind so ready to hope, to begin again. The tices are not'sad. See how they re- joice before they drop their robes and begin ‘their season of rest. Théy know without doubtinz—oh, wiser than.we— that after the winter of death comes another, life in spring, and yet another, without end. Go to the forest for a lesson in faith; in duty weil done, in death without anninila- tion; breathe the air of an autumn day for strength, for resignation and for trust, and watch an autumn sunset to see how each time the sun oi life should set. Ozive HEYDEN. Influence "of Mosques. The mosque is not merely a house of prayer. Asits name, ‘“Djami,” indicates, it is also a center.of attraction.and a place of meeting. Djami brings together the in- dividual Moslems, and by grouping multi- plies the forces of lslam. At sunset a great silence falls with the night on the Eastern city; all noise is hushed, and one Lears nothing but the resounding voice of the Muezzin calling the faithful to tneir daties. Ablutions and prayer are b symbolic purifications of the body and the spirit in preparation for a duty even more noble and more civic—that is, for public deliberation on the aftairs of the country. The ceremony of the Selamlik—the visit of the Sultan every Friday in great state to the mosque—is a spec‘acle which much interests, and indeed amuses strangers who pass through Constantinople. But this procession, which closes nowadays at the threshold of the mosque, formerly went on, with even greater majesty and significance, into the interior of the sanc- tuary. There the commander of the faith- ful, after presiding at prayer and pressing the hands of his fellow believers, gave a public account to the assembly of the more important acts of the government. This splendid institution gave opportu- nity to all the great personages of the em- pire to take part in the deliberations ana to exercise influence over the conduct of affairs. Morarch and private subject, linked together by a common faith, worded tog-ther for a common interest. Islamism furnished the direction and the bond of union; the object of all was the pursuitof truth and justice. The citizen, whatever his social position, was thus trained in the art of administration, and’ it was this school which produced the great men to whom we owe so much im- portant progress. So soon as the Govern- ‘ment failed to recognize their worth and their service, the decadence of the East set in.—Contemporary Review. —————————— ° ‘The apple crop of the United States and Canada last year was esimated to be from 57.000,000 to 60,000,000 barrels, or from 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 barrels more than were ever produced in any previous year. This year’s crop will equal if not surpass that oflast ycar. A house well built of first-class brick will | ontlastone constructed of granite. | . MAPLE, THE OAK AND THE VINE. How Defective Visior\sl\mong Chil- dren May Be Remedied - New Schoolbook Types and Half—]'oné lllustrations. Tend to.Strain Even Well-Developed Eyes During an hour spent the other day on the Children’s Piayground in Golden Gate Park 1 noticed a dozen or more children wearing spectacles. By spectacles I do not mean the blue or dark-colored glisses that our merciless glare of drab sidewalks, drab. houses and, treeless streets render necessary, but spec- tacles worn with an air of requiring them as a remedy for visual defecis. There were tois of five and six solemnly survey- ing the world through concavo-convex lenses, and older youngsters watching their playmates through big, round gog- gles. The sight of two spectacled Jads in rapt enjoyment of the merry-go-round’s giddy whirl would bave been funny had it not been pathetic, and 1 might have smiled over the girl of tweive who checked her donkey in its mad career across the lawn, the better to adjust ber pinee-nez, had I not felt a littie justifiable wrath at the stupidity that allowed her to wear such a thing. If the vanity of spectacle-needing grown-ups leads them to wear these sight- destroying contrivances, why, the conse- | quences be on the kead and the eyes, as the Mosiems say, but the children should be better protected. It is only by careful taking thought that an adult can keep eyeglasses so adjusted as to look evenly through each lens; a child cannot do it. In the excitement of play they will shift; they get bent; not afford them sufficient support, and, the undeveloped nose does | hension may be inferred from the fagt that, being asked the nature of the profo- p'asm concterning’ which she was ais- cou % so glibly, she replied, unhesx- tatingly, ‘*“Why, protoplasm’is a.bug. B.ackboards and slates are capital s)ght- destroyers. It is possible, by the aid of colored crayons, to avoid & good deal df the evil”attendant upon the use of the first-named, but the slate and pencil in common* use are without a redeeming feature. One of these days, when we are wise, we shall give our little children tab- lets of thick eround glgss and soft black leadpencils to use in their tirst attempts at writing. We are already learning not to let them print their early lessons. It used to be thought that the babies must learn to print (a laborious, eye, brain and hand-troubling process) before they could be trusted to write. Nowadays they are tanght to write at once with satisfactory resuits. We are also coming tosee the folly of slanting letters, hair lines and shading in penmanship, and the introduc- tion of the vertical writing in our schools wiil donbtless prove a great saving to youthful sight, but we shall never attain to the best results until we have consigned the school slate to limbo. Little children are given entirely too much writing work at school. It seems a pity that so much should be required to satisfy the demands of modern education, The work of sight-destroying which we HORSELESS SLEIGH—AN EASTERN WINTER NOVELTY. more often than not, the wearer looks through the center of one lens and the rim of the other. The inevitable result is a difference in the focus of the eyes, un- equal development and much mischief, productive of after suffering. "Such in- equality in the eves may even be pro- ductive of serious brain trouble. It is rather astonishing when we come to think about it how prevalent defective vision is among the children of this gen- eration. Physiclogists used to tell us that no child- is born near-sighted. Ido not know whether this condition of things is altered, but it is a fact that near-sighted- ness among small children is becoming painfully commen. It would seem (judging from a good many of our educational methods) as though itisa partof our sense of the fit- ness of things that this should be so. Cer- tainly we exercise considerable ingenuity in devising contrivances to bring about the result. My personal recollection runs not back to the time when those versed in the science of caring for the eyes did not tell us that a flat-topped desk is particu- larly bad for youthful, or, for that matter, for adult eyes. A child sitting writing or reading at a flat desk bends forward his head in order to bringthe page within the range of vision. As a consequence the eyeball, which is susceptible of slight changes in shape, becomes more convex under the influence.of gravitation. In the course of a few months of this bend- ing over of the head the convexity be- comes permanent, and the result is near- sightedness. A very slight siant in the surface of desk or table does away with the necessity for this bending of the head, but in a large and popular schoolroom re- cently I saw tiny children and half-grown pupils sitting industriously bent forward working at perfectly flat tables. Here, too, as a matter of course, I observed the om- nipresent spectacles. About as mischievous an employment as has been devised to destroy the eyes of children is the pricking work at which they are busied in our kindergartens. I was looking at a collection of this work only a day or two ago—birds, ba-kets, trees, flowers and a varied assortment of figures laboriously pricked by tiny. eager fingers in colored paper and cardboard. The designs were complicated and minute, The infinitesimal perforations were close together and made with a regularity that would have tried older eyes and steadier nerves to accomplish. Such work is par- ticularly bad for young, growing .eyes. “My Lord knoweth that the children are tender,” runs the old Oriental saying, but with all our boasted nineteenth century humanities we do not seem to have come to an understanding of childbood’s physical limitations. Too much—I had almost written any— microscopical work is had for very young eyes, particularly if the instruments used are, as is generally the case, adaptea for using but one eye at a time; yet the microscopical work done in some of our schools is of afl amazing sort. Biology is a study for infants nowadays. I came across some :papers in biology the other day that an eight-year-old child had pre- pared. They were full of long words, of which my own comprehension was the vaguest, and contained some queer little drawings of germ-cells in the course of propagation. At least, this is how my memory serves me. How much of it all was really within the child’s compre- begin in the infant classroom is faithfully continued through adult hfe. A pessi- mistic philosopher has recently advanced the theory that we are a less intelligent and thoughtful race because of our hav- ing learned to read ard write. Unques- tionably this is the view of an extremist, - but there can be no question but that our modern making of books, so far as the mere mechanical results are concerneu, is a bad thing for the eyes. No one can compare a page of any ordinary modern book with a page of an old black-letter volume without perceiving how little wis- dom the centuries have brought us in this regard. The honest black letter is easy toread. The long 8 will puzzie the tyro for a tew minutes, but once the eye has learned to recognize it the page is seen at a glance. Those first-printed books were the best in point of utility as welil as of beauty, and our modern book-makers give us nothing so beautiful. There were no subtilities about those first movable types, but the letters were beautiiul im form, and the eyes took them in at a glance. This is not possible with our modern types with their fine lines and contrasts of light and dark. Even our schoolbooks offend seriously in this regard. I have before me several books designed for young children, yet vrinted in types calculated to try and strain strongy well-developed eyes. Now, it should be borne in mind that children’s eyes are no more mature and strong than are their bones and muscles. Books printed for them should be adapted to the requirements of their eyes, as well as to the immatuarity of their minds. They should be printed in plain, black letters, with no attempt at hair lines or dscou- tion, and should be on unglazed paper. The introduction of the ubiquitous half- tone illustrations into our schoolbooks has been a bad thing in many ways. They re- quire smooth, shiny paper, just the thing on which books designed for growing eyes - should not be printed. Some of our more recent attempts dt bookmaking have aimed at improved de- signs in type faces. Notable are the efforts in this direction of the books that have come from William Marris’ famous Kelm- scott Press. Some of these have been ad- mirable and worthy of imitation for their clear, beautiful’ print. The Jensen type, s0 popular among certain of the faddists of the hour, is a hideous, irritating, eye and nerve trying thing; and the De Vinne letter, in which the Century Magazine is now printed, is but little better. In fact, we have nothing so beautiful as the old Roman block letter, save a few books of recent date printed in Romanesque letter, to which certain Eastern and English en- thusiasts are seeking to cducate the pub- lic. Before we are quite blind we ought to make some effort to go back in the direction of the black-letter books, at least in printing pages for the cbildren. + PENELOPE PowELSON. Deserters From the German Army. The number of deserters from the Ger- man army who have escaped into Franca this summer is greater than usual. They one and all give as their excuse the harsh treatment they receive at the hands of the non-commissioned officers. A very con- siderable proportion of these men volun- teer for service in the French Foreign Legion.—Army and Navy Journal. e ——— Bananas grow wild in Asia and Americs, ©