^ LI EIURY OF CONGRE SS, t ♦ .♦united states of AMERICA THE NEW GYMNASTICS MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN. DIO LEWIS, A.M., M.D., PRINCIPAL OF THE LEXINGTON SEMINARY FOR TOUNG LADIES, PRINCIPAI. OF THE NORMAL INSTITUTE FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AUTHOR OF " WEAK LUNGS AND HOW TO MAKE THEM STRONG," ETC. " By no other way can men approach nearer to the gods, than by conferring health 1 men." — Cicero. TENTH EDITION, REVISED, AND GREATLY ENLARGED. / BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS 1868. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, hy TICKNOR ANB FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. TO THE GRADUATES OF THE NORMAL INSTITUTE FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION, WITH THE HOPE THAT IT MAY ADD SOMETHING TO THE INSTRUC- TION WHICH I HAVE HAD THE GREAT PLEASURE AND HONOR TO GIVE THEM IN PERSON. DEAR FRIENDS, OUR PROFESSION IS A MOST USEFUL ONE, AND WILL FIGURE PROMINENTLY AMONG THE AGENCIES WHICH SHALL DEVELOP THE NOBLE MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD OF THE FUTURE. PEEFACE TO THE TENTH EDITION, In sending forth the tenth edition of the New Gymnastics, the author cannot refrain from express- ing his gratification at the wide welcome accorded to the system of physical culture which it describes. Five years ago, at a moment full of national peril, this book was presented to the notice of the Ameri- can people. Til at it met at such a time an instant and extended sale, may surely be accepted as evi- dence of a great want, and of the eagerness of the people to welcome any effort to supply that want. More than one edition of the New Gymnastics have been published in London, England, and from that great centre the book and the system have gone to all parts of Great Britain, to Australia, South Africa, India, and to other British Colonies, — in short, wher- ever the English language is spoken, this treatise has made its way, and is influencing the educational sys- tems and the personal habits of the great Anglo- Saxon race. This does more than satisfy an author's pride, it brings joy and gratitude to his heart. VI PEEFACE. This is called a new edition ; it perhaps deserves to be called a new book. More than half of the treatise as hitherto published consisted of translations from the German of Kloss and Schreber. These translations are no longer included ; their places have been supplied by original exercises, now for the first time published. At the same time, changes have been made in that portion of the book which was devoted to an illustration of the author's system of Gymnastics. In the constant practice of the system for the past five years, among thousands of pupils, a multitude of new exercises have been added, and the entire method has been improved in many respects. This edition is an attempt to reflect upon the pages of a book the changes which have taken place in actual practice. I invite the attention of the intelligent reader, who would enjoy a lucid and complete discussion of the philosophy of the New System., to the admirable lecture of Moses Coit Tyler, found upon the last pages of this volume. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. This book describes and illustrates a new sys- tem of physical training. Like air and food, it is adapted to both sexes, and to persons of all ages. The new system has been introduced into female seminaries with complete satisfaction. Its beautiful games, graceful attitudes, and striking tableaux pos- sess a peculiar fascination for girls. Public classes, composed of adults of both sexes, elicit general en- thusiasm. Very young children are warmly inter- ested, and improved in form and strength. The exercises are arranged to music, and when performed by a class, are found to possess a charm superior to that of dancing and other social amuse- ments, while the interest increases with the skill of the performers. This system of exercises will correct drooping or distorted shoulders, malposition of the head, and many other common defects. Its author has been engaged many years in teach- ing gymnastics. He began with a few simple exer- VIU PREFACE. cises, and, making additions from time to time, has at length developed a comprehensive system. Not one exercise is presented which has not been proved by long and varied use, while hundreds have been devised and rejected. Although the author has en- joyed during more than twenty years the discipline of the medical profession, its suggestions have not been adopted unless fully justified by experience in the gymnasium. Efforts are being made to disseminate a practical knowledge of the new system. A college has been incorporated, — the Boston Normal Institute for Physical Education, — from which persons of either sex, after a full training, are graduated, with the honors of a legal diploma. It is the ardent hope of the author that his labors may contribute something to the beauty and vigor of his countrymen. CONTENTS. ' . Page Physical Education 1 Interest in Physical Education 2 Do Children require special Gymnastic training? . 3 Development op the Mind requires special training 3 The Body is equally dependent upon special Methods 4 Military Drills . . . . *. . . . . 5 History of the New Gymnastics 6 Advantages of the New System . . . . . 7 Origin of the New System of Gymnastics . . 9 Other Teachers of Gymnastics 10 Order in which the Exercises were developed . 11 Normal Institute for Physical Education ... 13 Music with Gymnastics 14 The Gymnastic Hall 15 The Gymnastic Costume 18 The Gymnastic Apparatus 19 A Word of Advice to Teachers 19 Free Gymnastics 20 Order op Free Exercises. First Series 22 Second Series 38 Third Series 50 Fourth Series 57 X CONTENTS. Dumb-Bells. Weight op the Dumb-Bell 73 Philosophy of the Light Weights . . . .74 The Model Gymnast 76 Training op Horses 76 Influence on the Nervous System ... 79 Importance op Accuracy . . . - . . .80 Thorough Work in the New School ... 81 Influence upon the Lungs and Heart . . .81 Size and Quality 83 Dumb-Bell Exercises. First Series 84 Second Series 97 Third Series 104 Fourth Series 114 The Rings 124 Ring Exercises 129 The Wand 152 Wand Exercises 153 The Indian Club 171 Club Exercises. First Series 172 Second Series . . 175 Third Series 179 Bean-bags — Exercises 182 Bean-bags 196 Percussion 198 Modes op Walking . 203 Mutual-help Exercises 207 Pin Running 220 CONTENTS. XI Marches 223 Dress in the Intervals between the Exercises . . 231 Ladies' Short Dresses 232 Shoes 233 Moderation in Exercise 235 Soreness after Exercise 236 Bathing 236 The Warm Bath 237 Food 237 Drinks . . 241 Condiments 242 The New Gymnastics as an Instrument in Education 243 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. I HAVE nothing to say of the importance of Physical Education. He who does not see in the imperfect growth, pale faces, distorted forms and painful nervousness of the American People, enough to justify any and all efforts to elevate our physical tone, would not be awakened by words. Presum- ing that all who read this work are fully cognizant of the imperative need which calls it forth, I shall enter at once upon my task. My object is to present a new system of Gym- nastics. Novel in philosophy, and practical details, its distinguishing peculiarity is its complete adap- tation, alike to the strongest man, the feeblest woman, and the frailest child. The athlete finds abundant opportunities for the greatest exertions, while the delicate child is never injured. Dispensing with the cumbrous apparatus of the ordinary gymnasium, its implements are few and extremely simple, but are admirably calculated not only to impart strength of muscle, but to give flex- ibloness, agility and grace, 1 A 2 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. None of the apparatus is fixed. Each piece is held in the hand, so that any hall or other room may be used for the exercises. INTEREST IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION. The true educator sees in the present public m- terest in physical education a hope and a prom- ise, and now he is only solicitous that the great movement, so auspiciously inaugurated, may not degenerate into some unprofitable specialty. One man strikes a blow equal to five hundred pounds ; another lifts a ton ; another bends his back so that his head rests upon his heels ; another walks a rope over the great cataract; another runs eleven miles in an hour ; another turns sixty som- ersets without resting. We are greatly delighted with all these, — pay our money to see them perform: but, as neither one of these could do what either of the others does, so we all know that such feats, even if they were at all desirable, are not possible with one in a thousand. The question is not, What shall be done for these few extraordinary persons ? Each has instinctively sought and found his natural specialty. But the question is. What shall be done for the millions of children, women and men, who are dying for want of physical train- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. ing ? My attempt to answer this momentous ques- tion will be found in this work. DO CHILDREN REQUIRE SPECIAL GYMNASTIC TRAINING V An eminent writer has recently declared his con- viction, that boys need no studied muscle culture. " Give them," he says, " the unrestrained use of the grove, the field, the yard, the street, with the vari- ous sorts of apparatus for boys' games and sports, and they can well dispense with the scientific gym- nasium." This is a misapprehension. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND REQUIRES SPECIAL TRAINING. In the midst of conversations, newspapers, and lectures, which evoke intense mental activity, we turn aside for the methodical training of the acad- emy. The poorest man in the State demands for his children the organized school. He is right. An education left to chance could not result in that symmetry which is the highest form of all true de- velopment. No man doubts that chess and the newspaper in- duce growth ; but growth, without qualification, is not our purpose. We require that the growth shall 4 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. be of a peculiar kind, — symmetrical. But there is no need of argument on this point. In regard to mental training, there is no difference of opinion. Discriminating, systematic, scientific culture, is our demand. THE BODY IS EQUALLY DEPENDENT UPON SPECIAL METHODS. Is not the argument applicable to the body? Is the body one single organ, which, if exercised, is sure to grow in the right way ? On the contrary, is it not an exceedingly complicated machine, the symmetrical development of which requires discrim- inating, studied management ? With the thought- ful mind, argument and illustration are scarcely necessary ; but I may perhaps be excused by the intelligent reader for one simple illustration. A boy has stooping shoulders, displacing the organs of the chest and abdomen. Give him the freedom of the yard and street, — give him marbles, a ball, the skates ! Does any one suppose he will become straight ? Must he not, for this and other defects, have special, scientific training ? Before our system of education can claim an approach to perfection, we must have attached to each school a Professor, who thoroughly compre- hends the wants of the body, and knows the means by which it may be made symmetrical, flexible, and vigorous. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. MILITARY DRILLS. Since we. have, unhappily, become a military people, the soldier's special training has been much considered as a means of general physical culture. Numberless schools, public and private, have al- ready introduced the drill, and make it a part of each day's exercises. But this mode of exercise can never furnish the muscle culture which we Americans so much need. Nearly all our exercise is of the lower half of the body, — we walk, we run up and down stairs, and thus cultivate hips and legs, which, as compared with the upper half of the body, are muscular. But our arms, shoulders, and chests are ill-formed and weak. Whatever artificial muscular training is employed, should be directed toward the upper half of the body. Need I say that the military drill fails to bring into varied and vigorous play the chest and shoul- ders ? Indeed, in almost the entire drill, are not these parts held immovably in one constrained position ? In all but the cultivation of upright- ness the military drill is singularly deficient in the requisites of a system of muscle training, adapted to a weak-chested people. Dancing, to say nothing of its mischievous con- comitants, brings into play chicfiy that part of the body already in comparative vigor. b THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Horse-back exercise is admirable, but may it not be much indulged, while the chest and shoulders are left drooping and weak ? Skating is graceful and exhilarating, but to say nothing of the injury which not unfrequently at- tends the sudden change from the stagnant heat of our furnaced dwellings to the bleak winds of the icy lake, is it not true that the chest muscles are so little moved, that the finest skating may be done with the arms folded ? I make these suggestions, and now take the liberty to request your careful examination of the " Ring " and other exercises which appear in this work. . A WORD OF THE HISTORY OF THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Educated to the medical profession, I was con- stantly and painfully impressed, during several years of professional experience, with the feeble vitality of the thousands with whom I came in contact. At length I was filled with the desire to contribute something to the physical improvement of my fel- lows. A Health Journal was established in a west- ern city, and published several years. Accident led to a lecture, which was followed by eight years of life on the platform. During the eight years of lecturing, the spare THE NEW GYMNASTICS. ( hours were devoted to the mventioii of a new sys- tem of gymnastics. The old, or Grerman gymnasium, the one so com- mon throughout our country, was obviously not adapted to the clasLes most needing artificial train- ing. Athletic young men, who alone succeeded in the feats of that gymnasium, were already provided for. Boat clubs, ball clubs, and other sports fur- nished them in considerable part with the means of muscular training. But old men, fat men, fee- ble men, young boys, and females of all ages, — the classes most needing physical training, — were not drawn to the old-fashioned gymnasium. TIi^ few attempts that had been made to introduce these classes to that institution had uniformly and signally failed. The system itself was wrong. ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW SYSTEM. ^ The advantages of the New System of physical culture are, in part, the following : — 1st. The varied movements of the New System give opportunity for the full play of every muscle in the body, resulting in an all-sided development. 2d. The exercises are constantly changed from one set of muscles to another, tlnis obviating weari- ness and undue disturbance of the circulation. 8 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 3d. The centrifugal impulse of the predominating series secures a completeness smd grace attained by no other means, while the centripetal character of the old or German method has long been the oppro- brium of physical culture, with the philosophical. 4th. In the New System the exercises are subor- dinated to personal or individual wants, while in the old, the person is entirely subordinated to the per- formance of difficult feats. 6th. The physiological purpose of all muscle training is to perfect the intermarriage between nerve and muscle. The skill exacted by the accu- rate lines, changing attitudes, and difficult combina- tions of the new methods, compels the most com- plete interaction between soul and body. 6th. The New School employs apparatus which cannot strain and stiffen the muscles, not even in the extremely old and young or feeble, while the old school sanctions weights which must produce the slow, inelastic muscles of the cart-horse. 7th. The New Gymnasium invites to its free and social life persons of both sexes and of all ages, while every attempt that has been made to introduce the old, or the very young, or women, to the Old Gym- nasium has failed. 8th. In the New Gymnasium persons of both sexes unite in all the exercises with great social en- joyment, thus adding indefinitely to the attractions THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 9 of the place, while the attractions of the Old Gym- nasium are about equal to those of a ball-room from which ladies are excluded. 9th. In the New Gymnasium everything is set to music. Marches, free movements, dumb-bells, wands, rings, mutual-help exercises. No apathy can resist the delightful stimulus. The one hundred persons on the floor join in the evolutions inspired by one common impulse. Under the old system each individual works by himself, deprived of the sym- pathy and energy evoked by music and the associ- ated movement. ORIGIN OF THE NEW SYSTEM OF GYIVINASTICS. As I have never undertaken to vindicate, in full, my own claims to originality in the field of physical culture, I deem it only just to myself as well as to others to distinctly state, in this new edition of the gymnastic guide, what portions of the New System were of my own creation. 1st. The idea of exercise with the rings, the ring itself, and every one of the more than forty exercises with this piece of apparatus, were my invention. 2d. The substitution of the wooden for the iron dumb-bell, and all the movements in the New Sys- tem of dumb-bell exercises, save four, were also my invention. 1* 10 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 3d. The hean-hag itself^ and eighteen of the twen- ty-one exercises with it, were devised by myself, 4th. Of the more than sixty exercises with the wand, all, with four or five exceptions, were the result of my own experiments. 5th. Of the present system of free gymnastics, I devised about half. 6th. The idea of the " Mutual-Help Exercises " I obtained from a German writer; but the system employed in the New School is my own. 7th. Of the marches and skippings practised in the New School, the larger part were invented by me, but some of the best were devised by my assist- ants, who have served as teachers in our Training School. 8th. The sixteen exercises with clubs employed in the New Gymnasium, were mostly my own. 9th. The adaptation of gymnastic exercises to music, although perhaps not quite new, is, in the modes we have adopted, entirely new. OTHER TEACHERS OF GYMNASTICS. Of the more than two hundred and fifty ladies and gentlemen who have graduated from our Train- ing School, nearly all have proved heartily loyal to my leadership. Three or four have rearranged the exercises, and thereupon preferred claims to origi- nality. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 11 Several works have been published containing the principal features of the New System, with unre- served recognition of my claims. A single work, published in New York, appropriated, without even a mention of my name, all the principal features and much of the detail of the system to which I have devoted so many years. I have not said this much of my personal claims in the spirit of vanity, but because I think it simply right, that in a great movement which, within a quar- ter of a century, is to enter as an integral part of all school culture, the origin of the essential parts of the system should be known. ORDER IN WHICH THE EXERCISES WERE DEVELOPED. CLUBS. The club was first employed. Wherever a course of lectures was delivered, the teachers and others were called together, instructed, and trained. RUBBER BALLS. Large rubber balls were soon introduced. The exercises with these were admirable, but the win- dows Were broken and they were difficult to catch. Soon it was observed, if the balls were but partially inflated, for many of the exercises, they were much improved. This suggested the bags. At first they 12 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. were made very large and filled with corn. Then wheat was thought to be an improvement. BEAN-BAGS. In a town where neither corn nor wheat could be conveniently procured, the dealer asked if I could not use beans. These were found to be just the thing. As the games were multiplied the bags were re- duced in size. Within three years, at least forty bag exercises were devised. Twenty of these exer- cises or games are retained, and constitute our series of Bag Exercises. But for the dust the bag exer- cises are second to no others, save those with the rings. They cultivate quickness of the eye and hand, presence of mind, and in the series of twenty games afford a great variety of profitable exercise. DUMB-BELLS. Next in order the dumb-bells appeared ; at first, very small iron ones, but soon it was observed that not only were they cold to the hand, but they were not sufficiently long to produce any considerable mo- mentum in the twisting movements, or to enable the eye to take accurate and instant cognizance of their position. As the weight could not be increased, the wooden dumb-bell was suggested. This, for many reasons, is greatly superior to the metal bell. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 13 THE WAND. Next in order came the exercises with the wand. This piece of apparatus was introduced to my Mten- tion by Professor Langdon of New York. Much time was given to the development of the w^and series, but for reasons which I will not discuss, these exercises, although very valuable, have never maintained their due share of favor. THE RINGS. Next in order appeared the exercises with the rings, of which a somewhat full account is given in another place. MUTUAL-HELP EXERCISES. Last of all, what we have named " Mutual-Help Exercises," a description of which will in part ap- pear in this volume, claimed attention. Upon a series of exercises of this class, which shall be adapt- ed to schools, we are at present engaged. NORMAL INSTITUTE FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION. I HAVE written this brief history of our various series of exercises, which I fear will prove of little interest to the reader, and now venture a word of the " Normal Institute for Physical Culture." 14 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. After several years of invention and teaching, Bos- ton was selected as the best field for the establish- ment of a Training School for teachers of the New System. In 1860 an act of incorporation was ob- tained, a corps of professors appointed, and on the 1st of July of that year the first session opened. The first class consisted of one person. Since then nine sessions have been held. More than two hun- dred and fifty persons have taken the diploma of the Normal Institute. Much instruction in Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene is given, with a thorough training in the New School of Exercises. Gradu- ates of this Institution are now engaged in teaching in all parts of the Northern States. Three or four are very successfully occupied in the Pacific States, while one gentleman has, during several years, been teaching in London, England, with remarkable suc- cess. MUSIC WITH GYMNASTICS. A PARTY may dance without music. But the exercise is dull. Exercises with the upper extremities are as much improved by music as those with the lower ex- tremities. Indeed with the former there is greater need of music, as the arms make no noise, such as might secure concert in exercises with the latter. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 15 A small drum, costing perhaps $10, which may be used as a bass drum, with one beating stick, is, I suppose, the sort of music most classes in gymnastics will use at first. It has advantages. While it is less pleasing than some other instru- ments, it secures more perfect concert. The violin and piano are excellent, but on some accounts the hand-organ is the best of all. Feeble and apathetic people, who have little courage to undertake gymnastic training, accom- plish wonders under the inspiration of music. I believe twice as much muscle can be coaxed out, under this delightful stimulus, as without it. For gymnastic exercises, we always use music which has eight accented and eight unaccented beats in a measure. In describing the exercises I shall speak uniformly only of accented beats, (with special exceptions always named in their place.) The pupil always resumes, on the unac- cented beat, the position with which he began the last preceding accented beat. THE GYMNASTIC HALL. The Gymnastic Hall should be on the ground floor, as in stamping and charging the building is a good deal shaken. It must be light and well ventilated. Exercise in a close, vitiated air, is 16 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. absurd. The atmosphere must likewise be free from dust, which stamping often produces. For this evil I have devised a remedy. The floor should be washed frequently, while in each pail of water, (which should be hot if convenient,) a half-pint of cheap molasses is dissolved. Proceed with the washing as if the water were pure. The dust in the cracks and under the thousand little splinters which are found upon the surface of most floors, is fixed by the sticky syrup. In my own halls we add one or two ounces of glue to the half-pint of molasses. This cure for dust is invaluable to the managers of dancing and gymnastic halls. The hall should not be cold. A temperature below 50 degrees checks that free circulation of the blood "which is the condition of muscle-growth. Perhaps the best plan is to raise the temperature to 65 degrees, and when the class begins to exer- cise, drop the windows, closing them again when the company would rest. The floor of the Gymnasium should be marked, as shown in the cut. The painted feet should be about fifty inches apart lengthwise of the hall, and thirty inches apart sidewise. The feet must have the relations exhibited in the cut. It will be observed that each pair is so placed that the pupil may extend his arms side- ways without touching the extended arms of his THE NEW GYJ^INASTICS. 17 18 ■ THE NEW GYMNASTICS. neighbors. A large piece of tin cut out in the Bhape of a pair of feet and laid on the floor, at the right points, may be used with a stencil brush to make the marks. THE GYMNASTIC COSTUME. The cuts will assist the reader to understand the costume adopted in the New Gymnastics. Men and boys exercising in an occasional class simply remove the coat and exercise in the ordi- nary dress ; but a costume made of flannel, in the style seen in the cuts, is better for regular work. In the ladies' costume, perfect liberty about the waist and shoulders is the desideratum. Many ladies imagine if the skirt be short it constitutes the gymnastic costume. The skirt should be short, but this is of but little importance compared with the fit of the dress about the upper half of the body. The belt should be several inches larger than the waist, and the dress about the shoulders very loose. The best waist is a regular Garibaldi, with the seam on the shoulder so short that the arm- hole seam is drawn up to the top of the shoulder- joint. The stockings should, for cold weather, be thick woollen, and for appearance sake another pair of cotton stockings may be worn over them ; the shoes strong, with broad soles and low heels. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 19 GYMNASTIC APPARATUS. Every piece of apparatus should be of black walnut, very smooth, and kept scrupulously clean. To secure cleanliness there must be provided a place of deposit, easy of access, and free from dust. The Dumb-Bells should be three and a half inches thick for men, three inches for women, and two and a half inches for small children, with han- dles pleasant to the hand. The Rings should be made of three pieces of wood glued together. We make them six inches in diameter, with a body one inch thick. The Wand should be four feet long and one inch thick for men and women, and about three feet long for small children. The Club should be twenty inches long and four inches thick for men, eighteen inches long and three inches thick for women, and fifteen inches long and two inches thick for small people. A WORD OF ADVICE TO TEACHERS. I TAKE the liberty to advise yo. to introduce gymnastic exercises in schools, and in private classes, in the order published in this work. Begin with a few exercises, say from five to ten, 20 THE NEW GYMNASTICS, and repeat them till your pupils can execute with accuracy. During the first lesson or two it is well to use the music but little, as many explanations will be needed, and as the exercises at first must be practised with great deliberation. In each suc- ceeding lesson three to five additional exercises may be introduced. The teacher should insist that every pupil stand in his place, with shoulders and head drawn well hach^ and that the very best dis- cipline be maintained throughout the lesson. It is wise to allow frequent recesses ; but wMe the work is in progress perfect attention and silence should be maintained. FEEE GYMNASTICS. The word free^ as applied to gymnastic exercises, has come to mean, perhaps for no good reason, those movements in which the pupils exercise, each by himself, without apparatus. The possible variety of these movements is almost infinite. Many inven- tors and teachers preceded myself in this depart- ment. A French author devised more than a thou- sand movements. The exercises in the following four series are in considerable part new, and have been used with sat- isfaction in the New Gymnasium. The order is physi- ological. Heretofore it has not been uncommon to THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 21 repeat consecutively a number of movements involv- ing the action of the same set of muscles, producing not only fatigue but too strong a determination of the blood towards one particular group. The French author constantly fell into this grave error. His system is impracticable for this reason. It will be observed that in the following arrange- ment diffusion has been sought. Besides, the physi- ologist will observe that the order provokes circu- lation always from the main blood-vessels toward their natural and successive distributions. Studied attention has been bestowed upon this physiologi- cal order, without which many of even the most important movements would fail to reach their best results. While free gymnastics are less valuable than the exercises with apparatus, because of a too strong centripetal tendency in all unloaded exercises, they are nevertheless so convenient and susceptible of immediate use in the school-room, that they will al- ways enjoy a certain popularity. I advise teachers to use the order in the Free Gymnastics which appears in tliis book. The Free Gymnastics, like the other series, should be taught with accuracy. If, for example, the teacher command a thrust of the fist upward, let it be exactly vertical. The teacher should require the class, and then groups of five or three, and 22 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. finally each individual, to execute this thrust until the vertical line is secured. During the first days the wise teacher will intro- duce from five to ten exercises, and, running through the whole class, will secure an exact execution by each and all. This individual drill in the presence of the class leads to appreciation of accuracy, and affords opportunity for rest. Besides, the interest evoked secures against fatigue. It will be found in these series, as in all other gymnastic training, that permanency of interest rests upon accuracy in exe- cution. No matter how spirited the teacher or fine the music, the interest will not be long maintained without studied accuracy ; but with it the zeal of the average pupil will constantly increase. ORDER OF FREE EXERCISES. No. 1. — Standing in the attitude seen in Fig. 1, thrust the left hand down by the side twice, the right hand twice, alternately twice, and simultaneously twice. This completes one strain of the music. No. 2. — Thrust the hands directly outward at the side, and repeat as in No. 1. No. 3. — The same, but the thrusts are upward. Fig. 2. The tendency, especially among girls, is to fail in thrusting the arms straight upward. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 23 Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 24 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 4. — The same, but the thrusts are directly and horizontally forward. Fig. 3. This thrust should always be exactly horizontal ; and when both arms are thrust forward, they should move in parallel lines. No. 5. — - Thrust the left hand downward, and re- turn once, the right hand the same, then both nearly simultaneously, the left, however, preceding the right by the fraction of a second ; then both hands simul- taneously. . ^ No. 6. — The same movement, but the thrusts are sideways. This, with No. 5, completes one strain of music. No. 7. — The same, upward. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 25 No. 8. — The same, forward. 7 and 8, like 5 and 6, will fill one strain of mu- sic. No. 9. — Thrust the left hand downward once, the right the same. This occupies two beats. Now two beats more should be given to clapping the hands, as seen in Fig. 4. Fig. 4. No. 10. — The remaining half of the strain is de- voted to the same exercise, except that the thrusts are sideways. No. 11. — The same, with the thrusts upward. No. 12. — The same, with the thrusts forward. No. 13. — Placing the hands upon the sides, step forward, as shown in Fig. 5. On the first beat the 26 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. tv ^ ^% \ \ Fig. 5. pupil steps forward, as shown in the cut ; on the second, he steps diagonally forward to the left ; on the third, directly sideways ; on the fourth, diago- nally backward to the left ; on the fifth, directly backward ; on the sixth, diagonally backward and across the other foot to the right ; on the seventh, directly sideways to the right, behind the other foot ; on the eighth, diagonally forward to the right, in front of the right foot. No. 14. — The same with the right foot. The step of* the right foot backward, and straight side- ways to the left, behind the left foot, are shown in Fig. 6. The step sideways to the right of the right foot, with the position of the arms, &c., is shown in THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 27 Fig. 6. Fig 7. 28 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. T. The step to the left, with the right foot in front of the left, is shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 8. No. 15. — Charge diagonally forward with the left foot, as shown in Fig. 9, stamping three times. In the first stamp the foot is carried forward its length, second stamp the same, third stamp the same, and on the fourth beat it comes back to the place of beginning. In this case both accented and unac- cented beats are employed. Same with the right foot. Same with the left foot, diagonally backward. Same with the right foot, diagonally backward. The stamp diagonally backward on the left side is shown in Fig. 10. The last four numbers occupy but one strain of music. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 29 Fig. Fig. 10. 30 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 16. — With the hands upon the sides, twist the body from side to side. Fig. 11. Eight beats. Fig. 11. No. 17. — Bend the body from side to side. Fig. 12. Eight beats. No. 18. — Bend the body forward and backward. Fig. 13. Eight beats. No. 19. — This is a difficult exercise to describe or to illustrate with a cut. It is, to some extent, a com- bination of the last two exercises. Standing upright, the hands upon the hips, bend to the left as far as possible ; then, without rising to the perpendicular, carry the body round so it is bent backward ; then, without rising, continue the twisting until the body THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 81 Fig. 12. .^TN Fig. 13. 32 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. is bent to the right ; still go on with the twisting in the same direction, until the body is bent forward. Now, without rising, go back through the same move- ments, first bending to the right, then backward, then to the left, then in front ; and now, without stop- ping, come to the left again, and then behind, to the right, in front, and finally to the right, backward, to the left, and to the perpendicular. This exercise oc- cupies two strains of music, as a motion is made only on the accented beats. No. 20. — Turn the head from side to side, as in Fig. 14. Eight beats. No. 21. — Bend the head from side to side, as in Fig. 15. Eight beats. Fig. 14. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 33 Fig. 15. Fig. 16. 2* 34 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 22. — Bend the head backward and forward, as in Fig. 16. Eight beats. No. 23. — This exercise is similar to No. 19. An attempt is made to illustrate it in Fig. 17. Fig. 17. No. 24. — Holding the arms directly in front, hori- zontal and parallel to each other, carry them a few degrees upward, and bring the elbows forcibly back. Eight, beats. No. 25. — • With the arms horizontal and parallel in front, carry the left arm into the position shown in the dotted lines of Fig. 18, twice. Right arm the same. Alternately two beats, simultaneously two beats. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 35 No. 26. — Beginning with the hands upon the chest, thrust downward, then out sideways, then up- ward, then forward. Now repeat. In this exercise the arms should be vigorously twisted while in the act of thrusting. Fig. 18. No. 27. — Touch the floor with the hands, without bending the knees, then bring the hands to the chest upon the unaccented beat, now thrust them directly upward, rising to the tips of the toes, then, on the unaccented beat, bring them to the chest, then to the floor, and continue through one strain of music. Fig. 19. 36 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 19. No. 28. — With the left foot step diagonally for- ward to the right, in front of the right foot, a long step, and clap the hands over the head, as shown in Fig. 20. Same with the right foot. Alternate through eight beats. No. 29. Stamp with the right foot, then with the left, then charge diagonally forward with the left foot to the left, swinging the arms backward in the hori- zontal plane as you go forward, then rise on the un- accented beat to the position of the dotted line, and so continue through a strain. Fig. 21. No. 30. The same on the right; side. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 37 Fig. 20. Fig. 21. 38 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. SECOND SERIES. No. 1. — Beginning with the fists upon the chest, thrust the left downward, bring back to the chest, now thrust upward, and so continue through a strain. Same with the right hand. Eight beats. Same al- ternately, as seen in Fig. 22. Eight beats. Then simultaneously. Eight beats. Fig. 22. No. 2. — Thrust with the left hand directly side- ways on the left side, once ; now thrust it in exactly THE NEW GYMNASTICS. d9 the opposite direction (on the right side). Alternate through a strain. Fig. 23. Same with the right hand. Eight beats. Next thrust both hands to the left, and then to the right in alternation. Eight Fig. 23. beats. Fig. 24. Then, four times to the left, con- secutively, to be followed by four consecutive thrusts to the right. No. 3. — Standing upright, hands upon the hips, thrust the left foot diagonally forward on its own side, three times, and stamp on the fourth beat. Then thrust the right foot the same, and stamp on the fourth beat. Fig. 25. Now, the same, back- ward. Fig. 26. 40 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. ¥ig. 24. Fig. 25. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 41 Fig. 26. •• -^^ Fig. 27. 42 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 4. — Upright, hands by the sides, carry the left hand from this position to the perpendicular over the head, without bending the elbow. Be sure it is exactly in front, so that, if both arms were being car- ried up at the same time, they would be parallel to each other. The left arm four times, right arm four times. Alternately, four beats. Simultaneously, four beats. Fig. 27. 'J ^'-^ Fig. 28. No. 5. — The same exercise, but the arms are car- ried up at the sides. Fig. 28. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 43 Fig. 29, No. 6. — Hold the arms horizontal and parallel in front, and swing them directly backward, without bending the elbow, eight times. Be sure they do not, when reaching the backmost point, fall below the horizontal plane. No. 7. — Raise the left shoulder directly upward as far as possible four times, right the same, alter- nately four beats, simultaneously four beats. Fig. 29. No. 8. — Holding the closed hands by the side, spread them very wide, and thrust the fingers into the position seen in the dotted lines of Fig. 30. The same at the sides. Fig. 31. The same overhead. Fig. 32. 44 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 30. Fig. 31. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 45 Fig, 32. The same holding the hands horizontal and paral- lel in front. The value of these four finger exercises turns upon a wide spreading of the fingers. To young ladies ambitious of ease in playing the piano this exercise is valuable. No. 9. — Stand upright and swing the arms from side to side, as in mowing (Fig. 33), four beats. Continue the same movement, bending the trunk forward at an angle of forty-five degrees from the hip-joint, to the end of the strain. Fig» 34. 46 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. e^,- Fig. 33. Fig. 34. No. 10. — Hands upon the hips, draw the elbows together behind. Figs. 35 and 36. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 47 Figs. 35, Fig. 37. 48 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 11. — Thrust the hands diagonally forward and downward, four beats on the left side, and four beats on the right. Fig. 37. No. 12. — Slap the hands about the chest and over the shoulders as wood-choppers do to warm their hands. Fig. 38. Eight beats. Fig. 38. No. 13. — Stamp the right foot, then the left, now a long step diagonally forward with the left foot on its own side, then sway backward and forward dur- ing the remainder of the strain. Same on right side. Fig. 39. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 49 Fig. 39. Fig. 40. 50 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. THIRD SERIES. No. 1. — Stamp the right foot, then the left, then a long step diagonally forward on the left side with the left foot, then inhale to the end of the strain. Now, holding the breath, percuss the chest from the collar- bone down to the stomach with the flats of the hands through a whole strain. Fig. 40. Same, stepping forward with the right foot. Same, stepping diagonally backward with the left foot. Same, stepping diagonally backward with the right foot. No. 2. — Joining the hands just under the shoul- der-blades upon the back, thrust them vigorously downward eight times. — Fig. 41. No. 3. — Hold the arms by the side with clenched hands, and twist the arms vigorously four times. Hold them out at the sides and repeat. Fig. 42. Over the head the same. Horizontally in front the same. No. 4. — Hold the arms horizontally in front, with the palms of the hands in contact. Now, without bending the elbows, draw the hands alternately back- ward and forward, if possible, drawing each hand entirely off the other. In this exercise the hands must not be moved from side to side, but must main- * THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 61 Fig. 41. Fig. 42. 52 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. tain the same position in front. This is a particu- larly valuable exercise for rigidity of the shoulders. Fig. 43. Fig. 43. No. 5. — Holding the arms loosely by the sides, make a large circle with the point of the shoulder from behind forwards, first with the left shoulder four times, then with the right four times. Alter- nately, four beats. Simultaneously, four beats. Fig. 44. No. 6. — The same, but the circle should be made from before backward. Fig. 45. No. 7. — Holding the fists firmly in the armpits, thrust downward four times with the left hand, four THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 53 Fig. 44. Fig. 45. 54 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig, 46. i"u Fig. 4T. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 55 times downward with the right hand. Alternately, four beats. Simultaneously, four beats. Fig. 46. No. 8. — Holding the hands upon the top of the shoulders, repeat No. 7, only the movements are up- ward as in Fig. 47. No. 9. — Holding the left fist in its armpit, and the right fist on the top of the right shoulder, thrust the left downward and the right upward. Four beats. Now with the right fist in the armpit, and th3 left on the top of the shoulder. Thrust downward and upward four times. Alternately, four times. When the hand which is thrust downward is to be ■A ,n Pig. 48. 66 THP] NEW GYMNASTICS. carried to the top of the shoulder, instead of bring- ing it up in front of the chest with the bent elbow, carry it directly outward at the side, keeping the arm straight, and not bending the elbow till you have passed the horizontal line. Eight beats. Now simultaneously, eight beats. An attempt is made to illustrate this circle outward at the side in Fig. 48. M Fig. 49. No. 10. — Standing in the position seen in Fig. 49, carry the left arm to the horizontal in front with much force, stopping exactly in the horizontal plane. Right arm the same. Alternately, four beats. Si- multaneously, four beats. No. 11. — Holding the arms horizontal in front, THE mm GYMNASTICS. 57 carry them to the perpendicular over the shoulders in the same order as in the last figure. No. 12. — At the close of No. 11, the arms being perpendicular over the head, move the whole body with the arms from side to side. The motion of the body is illustrated in Fig. 12 of the Free Gymnastics. No. 13. — Stamp the right foot, then the left. Now a long step diagonally forward with the left foot, looking backward over the right shoulder. Hold in this position through eight beats." Same on the right side. Same diagonally backward on the left side. Same diagonally backward on the right side. FOURTH SERIES. In the fourth and concluding series a number of exercises which have already appeared in the preced- ing series are repeated, most of them with variations more or less important. No. 1. — Hold the left foot a little from the floor, diagonally forward, and make a circle with its toe through four beats. Same with the right foot. Fig. 60. No. 2. — Crossing the hands on the back, thrust them downward eight times. Fig. 51. Let this be done with great force. No. 3. — Standing on the right foot, make a circle 53 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 50. Fig. 51 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 59 at tlie side with the left, from behind forward. Four beats. Same with the right foot. Fig. 52. Fig. 52. No. 4. — Interlock the fingers on the back of the head, and draw the head just as far backward as possible, and hold there, pulling forward with your hands with as much force as possible. Eight beats. Fig. 53. No. 5. — Holding the hands upon the back, as seen in Fig. 54, thrust diagonally downward and backward. Eight beats. No. 6. — Execute the movement seen in Fig. 55, eight times. No. 7. — Hands upon the hips, draw the elbows with great force backward, and try to touch them. Eight times. Fig. 5Q. 60 THE NEW GYMNASTICSw Fig. 53. Fig. 54. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 61 Fig. 55. Fig. 56. 62 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 8. — Placing the hands upon the hips, sit down upon the heels. Eight times. Fig. 57. Fig 57 No. 9. — Bend backward, as seen in Fig. 58. Eight beats. No. 10. — Thrust the left hand, the first time directly upward, and then three times as seen in Fig. 59. Right the same. No. 11. — ^^ Bend from side to side, as seen in Fig. 60, eight times. It will be observed that this is a more vigorous exercise than No. 12 in the first series. It is fairly presumed that persons who have worked up to this point successfully may intensify fliis very difficult but profitable exercise. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 63 Fig. 58. Pig- 50. 64 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 60. Fig. 61. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Q5 No. 12. — Execute the movement represented in Fig. 61, eight times. No. 13. — Draw the knee of the left leg into the position seen in Fig. 62, four times. The right knee the same. Fig. 62. No. 14. — Execute the movement seen in Fig. 63, very slowly, only moving on the accented beats. No. 15. — Holding the left hand upon the side, with the right arm over the head, bend towards the left and take four deep breaths. Same on the other side. Fig. 64. No. 16. — Hold the hands as in Fig. 65, and thrust them vigorously backward, as seen in the dotted lines. Eight times. eQ THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 17. — Carry the left foot forward, and perform a semicircle with the toe, four times. Same with the right foot, four times. Fig. QQ. Eight beats. /■r--" Fig. 63. Fig. 64. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 67 Fig. 65. Fig. 66. 68 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 18. — Interlocking the fingers upon the back of the head, and drawing the head backward as vigorously as possible. Sit down on the accented beats eight times. Fig. 67. ^-■•^ Fig. 67. No. 19. — Carry the left foot and the right in alternation, each in the direction represented in the dotted lines. Fig. 68. If the pupils cannot balance without using their arms, the position of the hands upon the hips may be abandoned. No. 20. — Draw the hands backward and forward without moving from side to side, Fig. 43, (keeping the elbows stiff as in that exercise,) holding them horizontal in front. Four beats. Then carry them down into a position near the person, and thrust the THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 69 Fig. 68. 70 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. fingers widely and vigorously outward. Four beats, as seen in Fig. 69. No. 21. — Perform the exercise seen in Fig. 70, eight times, alternating the hands. Fig. 70. No. 22. — Strike the attitude seen in Fig. 71, four times on either side, filling two strains of music. No. 23. — Strike the bold and effective attitude seen in Fig. 72, and maintain it during four beats on either side. No. 24. — Now change the music to such as would be used in rapid dancing, and hop, four times on the left toe, four times on the right toe. Alternately, THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 71 four times, as seen in Fig. 73, and simultaneously, four times. Fig. 71. Fig. 72. 72 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Make a skipping exercise backward and forward, the two feet passing each other through eight beats. Then hop with both feet eight times, crossing the feet each time on coming to the floor. Fig. IS. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 73 DUMB-BELLS. The dumb-bell has been in use more than two thousand years. It was highly prized by the Greeks, among whom , it obtained the peculiar forms seen in the cut. WEIGHT OF THE DUMB-BELL. Heretofore, heavy iron bells have been preferred. The German Gymnasium has approved those weigh- ing from fifty to one hundred pounds, but more re- cently Schreber and other magnates in German gymnastics have condemned such weights, and ad- vocated bells weighing from two to five pounds. In my own early experience as a teacher of gym- nastics, I advocated heavy dumb-bells, prescribing for those who could put up one hundred pounds a bell of that weight ; and, as my success had always 4 74 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. been with heavy weights, pride led me, I fear, to continue their use long after I doubted their value. PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIGHT WEIGHTS. It is said that dumb-bells of two pounds' weight may do for women and children, but cannot answer the requirements of strong men. The weight of the dumb-bell must be determined by the manner of its use. If only " put up," one or two pounds would be absurd ; but if used as in the New Gymnastics, one of ten pounds is beyond the capacity of the strongest. Some years ago we enjoyed a hearty laugh at the expense of a class of young men who, in our Gymnasium, organized an insurrection against the wooden dumb-bells. Through a committee they asked for iron ones. I procured some weighing three pounds. The young men used them part of one evening, but when asked, on assembling the following evening, which bells they would have, re- plied, " The wooden ones will do." If the dumb-bell is to be used as in the German Gymnasium, — if it is simply to be put up and then put down again, — of course it should be heavy ; else there is no exercise. But if used in a great variety of ways, the performer assuming number- less attitudes and moving the half- thousand mus- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 75 cles, each and all in turn in every possible way, the bell must be light. There need be no contro- versy. We of the " light-weight " party agree that if the bells are used as you of the " heavy-weight " party use them, they must be heavy, but if as we use them, then they must be light. If any of you doubt it, we ask you to try our exercises with heavy weights. A man has five hundred muscles, some of them almost microscopic, others of prodigious size. These muscles are longitudinal, transverse, oblique, — in- terwoven in a most wonderful manner ; long and pa- tient study are required to master their relations. Who can suppose that slow, heavy, direct, and simple movements can answer the demands of this varied and wondrous structure ? The highest physiology demands a balanced, har- monious development of the motor apparatus. This is secured only by a balanced and harmonious ex- ercise of the entire muscle structure. In this view the thoughtful reader will comprehend the great value of the scores of attitudes and movements in- volved in the exercises of tlie New School. The muscles of every part, — the longitudinal, transverse, and oblique, ^ all come in for their share of the work. No physiologist, after a moment's thought upon the subject as thus presented, can hesitate to de- clare for apparatus of such weight as will permit 76 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. the entire muscle structure to participate in the training in the most varied and complete ways. THE MODEL GYMNAST. We visit the circus. Let us study three per- sons, — the man who lifts the cannon, the India- rubber man, and the general performer. The lifter and the India-rubber man are the extremes ; neither is in the highest physiological condition. The gen- eral performer is our model. He cannot lift a can- non, nor tie himself in a knot. He occupies a midway point between the two extremes. He is neither the slow cart-horse nor the loose-jointed animal, but he is the fine, active, agile, vigorous carriage-horse. He is, in a certain sense, strong ; but it is the strength of grace, flexibility, agility, and endurance. TRAINING OF HORSES. My neighbor owns a score of superior, fast horses. He is training them for the market. He owns like- wise a number of cart-horses for his farm work. Passing his estate I observe the cart-horses tugging away at great loads ; but the horses which he trains for carriage service are driven before light wagons. My neighbor is wise about the education of this THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 77 animal. We will call upon him. You believe in heavy gymnastics. I believe in light gymnastics. We seek his modes of training horses. You shall do the talking. "Mr. M., why don't you put these horses which you train for the carriage before the cart ? " " It would spoil them." . " Spoil them ! nothing would so contribute to the size and strength of their muscles. See what im- mense legs your cart-horses show ! " " I doubt not a heavy cart would increase the size of their muscles, but it would develop certain of the large muscles only, and even these would ac- quire little freedom of motion." " But don't you think a carriage-horse should be strong ? " " Yes, but not the strength that is displayed in the slow, limited movements of the cart-horse. He should be trained to wide, free, dashing motions ; this is indispensable to carriage service. If worked before a cart, and required to draw heavy weights by slow and great exertions, he would soon be ca- pable of no other movements." " Do you think that fine, spirited horse yonder could be changed into a slow, stiff cart-horse ? " " Nothing is easier ; one or two years of cart work would accomplish it. Besides, I have several cart-horses that you would little suspect of style, 78 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. which my trainers could change in a year or two to fine, stylish carriage-horses." " Don't you think there is a born difference ? " " Undoubtedly, but there is a wide range left for education. Now observe that cart-horse approach- ing us ; see how slowly he moves his limbs. For several years he has worked at heavy loads. The man walking by his side has the same gait. He has likewise been engaged in slow, heavy work. I can change the man and the horse in time so that you would hardly know them." " But don't you think they are stronger now than they would be after such light training?" " Yes, stronger for heavy loads, but not so ca- pable of rapid, flexible, and agile movements." " But don't you think, sir, the man and horse are more healthy in their present condition ? " "By no means ; these fine carriage-horses are quite as healthy as those working before the carts ; and they have a still more vigorous circulation. See the veins stand out upon that light-stepping creature ! A year of cart service would nearly bury them, while a year of the best carriage train- ing would develop the same large veins upon this cart-horse. The fact is the carriage-horse has a higher and nobler life than the cart-horse. He runs through the whole range of his capacities, while the cart-horse is in a state of comparative dormancy." THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 79 Passing by the cart-horses among men, those who for any reason must devote their lives to bearing heavy burdens, and considering those classes only whose physical training is the subject of scientific consideration, may I not say, that the movements involved in the pleasures and business of their lives correspond to those required in the fine car- riage-horse. The physiological laws brought to light in this conversation with my neighbor are applicable to man. Lifting great weights affects him as drawing heavy loads affects the horse. So far from man's body being an exception to this law, it bears with peculiar force upon him. Moving great weights through small spaces produces a slow, inflexible man. No matter how flexible the boy of sixteen, let him engage in carrying heavy bags up stairs, or in unloading barrels of flour, and in five years he will become as inflexible as a slow cart-horse. INFLUENCE ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. When we consider that the nervous system is the central fact of our life, that its elastic, vigorous condition is, after all, the aim of all hygienic meas- ures, the superiority of the New School of physical culture becomes most striking. Can any one doubt that boxing and small-sword 80 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. drill will do more to give elasticity and tone to the nervous system than lifting kegs of nails ? Is not a more complete marriage of nerve and muscle the physiological purpose of all this physical train- ing ? And can any one doubt for a moment that the almost infinite variety of graceful, dashing movements, the difficult attitudes, the skilled poise, and the complete combinations seen in the exer- cises of the New Gymnastics are superior to lifting heavy dumb-bells, and the other heavy, straining work advocated by the "lifting" school? IMPORTANCE OF ACCURACY. Without accuracy in the performance of the feats, the interest must be transient. This law finds ex- emplification in military training. Those who have studied our infantry drill have been struck with its utter simplicity, and have wondered that men can, without disgust, repeat its details daily for years. If, indeed, the drill-master permit carelessness, au- thority alone can force the men through the evo- lutions ; but if he enforce the greatest accuracy, they return to their task every day with fresh and increasing interest. What accuracy is possible in heavy dumb-bell, and other slow and heavy movements ? But in the exercises of the New School there is opportunity THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 81 for all the accuracy inculcated in tlie most elab- orate military drills. I was a student of boxing and fencing under the best masters. In neither is there such a chance for fine posturing, wide, dashing motion, and studied accuracy as is found in the New Gymnastics. THOROUGH WORK IN THE NEW SCHOOL. But it is said if you use bells weighing only two pounds you must work an hour to reach the exer- cise which the heavy bells will furnish in ten min- utes. I need not inform those who have practised the New Gymnastics that this objection is made in ignorance. On the contrary, if you work to the full, in less than fifteen minutes, legs, hips, back, arms, shoulders, neck, lungs, and heart will all plead for rest. INFLUENCE UPON THE LUNGS AND HEART. One of the great advantages of the exercises of the New School is found in the complete action of the organs of the chest. Speaking in a general way, those exercises in which the lungs and heart are made to go at a vigorous pace are among the most useful. Tlie double-quick of the soldier con- 4* F 82 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. tributes more in five minutes to his digestion and endurance than the ordinary drill in two hours. In conclusion upon this point, I would suggest, that, as our artificial training is designed to fit us for the more successful performance of the busi- ness of life, the training should be in character somewhat assimilated to the average motions in- volved in the performance of these duties. If you would train a horse for the carriage, you surely would not prepare him by a slow pace before a heavy load ! If you did] the first fast drive would go hard with him. Just so with a man. If he is to lift hogsheads of sugar or barrels of flour as a business, he may be trained by heavy lifting ; but if his business requires the average velocity and free motions of other human occupations, then, upon the basis of a heavy, slow training, he would find himself in the condition of the dray-horse who is pushed before the light carriage. Much is said of the exhaustion of the movements of the New School. All this talk about expendi- ture of vitality is full of sophistry. Writers speak of our stock of vitality as of a vault of gold, upon which you cannot draw without lessening the quan- tity ; whereas it is rather like the mind and heart, enlarging by action, gaining by expenditure. It is not true that in either intellectual or physical train- ing, bold, brilliant efforts, under proper conditions THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 83 and limitations, exhaust the powers of life. On the contrary, it is in vigorous, bold, dashing, brilliant efforts that we acquire bold, dashing, and brilliant powers. Therefore, I advise that persons of both sexes and of all ages, possessing average vitality, should, in the department of physical education, employ light apparatus and execute a great variety of feats which require skill, accuracy, a quick eye and hand, pres- ence of mind, and courage, — in brief, which de- mand a vigorous and complete exercise of all our powers. SIZE AND QUALITY. The " big-muscle " men seem to appreciate noth- ing but size. They think we can determine constitu- tion and health by the tape line ; that all exercises whose results are not determinable by measure- ment are worthless. Need I say that there are other conditions of brain, muscle, and other tissues far more important than size. Surely it is only this mania for monstrous arms and shoulders that could have misled the intelligent gymnast on this point. 84 THE NEW GYI»INASTICS. DUMB-BELL EXERCISES. Many of the exercises with the hells, it will he ohserved, consist of what are known as a Movement and an Attitude. In every case the first half of the strain of music, or the first four beats, is devoted to the movement, the second half to the attitude, in which there is no movement. If this is kept in mind it will prevent all confusion in the descrip- tions of these exercises. No. 1. — Hold the dumb-bells in the position seen in Fig. 1. They should be precisely in the same Fig.l. line, so that a straight rod passing lengthwise through one, would, if continued, pass through the THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 85 other. Pupils generally fail in this. The teacher should insist upon exactitude in this beginning position. The pupil should be watched and cor- rected till this position is secured. Now twist the dumb-bells half way round, so they shall have ex- actly the same position as in the cut, only the back of the hand is forward instead of backward. Re- peat this four times. Bring the bells to chest on fourth unaccented beat. Attitude. — Left foot diagonally forward, long step. Body half-way to floor. Body and right leg in a straight line. Turn face over left shoulder. Keep still four beats. No. 2. — Hold the dumb-bells in the position seen in Fig. 2. Secure great accuracy. Twist four times, just half way round. Fig. 2. 86 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. For the attitude charge on the right side, just as in No. 1 you charged on the left. The twisting oc- cupies four beats ; the attitude should occupy four. No. 3. — Hold the dumb-bells as in Fig. 3, the arms exactly horizontal and the dumb-bells pre- cisely parallel to each other. Twist four times. This exercise occupies four beats. Fig. 3. For the attitude charge the left foot diagonally backward, dumb-bells at the sides, as in Fig. 4, while the head is turned over the left shoulder. No. 4. — Holding the dumb-bells in the position seen in Fig. 5, with the arms exactly perpendicular and parallel to each other, and with the dumb-bells THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 87 Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 88 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. in exactly the same line, twist them as before four times, turning them just half way round, as in the other twists. Let the attitude be the same as in Fig. 4, only on the other side. No. 5. — Hold the dumb-bells in the position seen in Fig. 6. This position I may remark is very im- portant. (The artist has bent the wrist, which is Fig. wrong.) There is perhaps nothing in the whole dumb-bell series as useful as this attitude. The bells should be just as far apart as the points of the shoulders, and quite perpendicular and parallel to each other The elbows must be drawn far behind, and the wrists must not be bent. Thrust downward, as in Fig. 7. Bring back to the chest, always being THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 89 careful to carry them to exactly the same position on the chest. Now thrust them outward, as in Fig. 8. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. 90 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Now thrust them upward, as in Fig. 9. Back to the ch^t again. Thrust forward, as in Fig. 10. Fig. 9. Attitude (Fig. 11). If the back suffers in this attitude, use Fig. 12, feet together. No. 6. — Repeat tliis exercise, with the same attitude on the right side. (I may remark, that when the dumb-bells are thrust downward by the sides, they should be exactly horizontal and par- allel to each other ; when they are thrust outward at the sides, they should be exactly perpendicular and parallel ; when they are thrust upward, they THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 91 Fig. 10. Fig. 11. 92 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 12. should be exactly horizontal and parallel, and when thrust forward, they should be perpendicular and parallel. Every good teacher will study to secure this accuracy. I should prefer to have a class learn only these four movements, and do them well, than to have them learn the whole series, and execute them in a loose and careless way.) No. 7. — Holding the dumb-bells by the sides, draw the left dumb-bell into the armpit, once ; then the right dumb-bell once, simultaneously two beats. Fig. 13. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 93 Fig. 13. It is important that the elbow should be thrust out sideways as nearly as possible. If the elbow is carried as far backward as is represented in Fig. 14, the exercise will fail to reach its legitimate uses. In this movement, when the dumb-bell strikes in the armpit, it must be exactly horizontal. The attitude is sitting down upon the heels, the dumb-bells on the floor. No. 8. — Holding the dumb-bells on the top of ^ the shoulders, thrust the left one up once, the right one once, simultaneously twice. The attitude is found in thrusting the dumb-bells directly upward and rising to the tips of the toes, holding in this position four beats. 94 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 14. Fig. 15. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 95 Fig. 16. No. 9. — Holding the dumb-bells as in Fig. 15, twist four times as in the previous twisting. For the attitude charge with the left foot diago- nally forward, turning the face over the shoulder, as in Fig. 16. No. 10. — With the left arm directly upward, palm in front, right arm horizontal, outward at the side, palm upward, twist dumb-bells just half way round,' observing great precision. The attitude for this exercise, which should occupy tlie last four beats of the measure as usual, is the mate to the attitude shown in Fig. 16. No. 11. —Right arm held perpendicular over the 96 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. shoulder, palm in front, the left arm horizontal, out- ward at the side. Fig. 17, twist four times. Fig. 17. Attitude, charge diagonally backward with the left foot (Fig. 4), hands on the sides, but look over the right shoulder. No. 12. — Hold the dumb-bells in the position represented in Fig. 18, and twist four times. The attitude is the mate to that described in No. 11. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 97 Fig. 18. SECOND SERIES. No. 1. — Dumb-bells upon the chest, thrust the left hand downward, bring back to the chest, thrust it upward, back to the chest. Now the right hand the same. This will fill four beats. Attitude seen in Fig. 20, only the left arm is be- hind. No. 2. — The next exercise is mostly a repetition of the last. The dumb-bells upon the chest, the left hand is thrust downward and the right hand upward at the same time ; then the left is thrust 98 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. upward and the right downward (Fig. 19) ; then both hands are thrust downward and both upward. 7 Fig. 19. The attitude is the mate of the last one, and is seen in Fig. 20. No. 3. — Dumb-bells upon the chest, thrust the left bell directly forward once, right once (Fig. 21), simultaneously twice. Attitude. — Turn suddenly, facing towards the left, charge into the attitude seen in Fig. 22. No. 4. — Holding the bells directly in front, arms straight, horizontal and parallel, twist the body without altering the relation between the arms as THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 99 Fig. 20. Fig. 21. 100 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 22. far to the left as you can, without moving the feet, on the unaccented beat bring them in front, on the next accented beat carry them to the right as far as you can turn, on the unaccented, back to the front, and so continue through the first half of the measure. The attitude is the counterpart of the last. No. 5. — Arms horizontal and parallel in front. Swing the left arm vigorously backward over the shoulder without bending the arm, two beats, right the same (Fig. 23), alternately two beats, simul- taneously two beats. No. 6. — Arms held as in Fig. 24, left and right are swung up alternately to the perpendicular, as seen in the dotted line of the figure, through four beats ; then simultaneously four beats. No. 7. — Arms in the horizontal position in front, THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 101 '*"■• Fig. 2i. 102 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. swing the left one in the horizontal plane as far round behind without bending the elbow as pos- sible, two beats, right arm twice, both arms alter- nately two beats, and simultaneously twice, being careful to keep in the horizontal plane. No. 8. — In the next exercise you turn on the feet a quarter of the way round, facing towards the left of your former position. Now, beginning with the dumb-bells on the chest, thrust the left hand directly backward and the right hand for- ward ; then the right backward and the left for- ward. Repeat, occupying four beats. The atti- tude is a repetition of Fig. 22, except that the charge is towards the end of the hall, where the leader stands. No. 9. — Face in the direction exactly opposite that in which you stood in the beginning of the last exercise, or to the right of your usual posi- tion in the hall. While thus standing, turn sud- denly to the left without moving the feet, and thrust the dumb-bells straight upward. Turn now as far round to the right as you can without mov- ing the feet, and thrust directly upward. Repeat, filling four beats. Attitude the same as Fig. 22, except that you charge down the hall away from the leader. No. 10. — Pupil upright, arms horizontal and parallel in front, bring the dumb-bells forcibly into the position seen in Fig. 25, four times. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 103 The attitude of this exercise is represented in Fig. 26. Fig. 26. 104 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. THIRD SERIES. No. 1. — Stamp with the right foot, then with the left, charge into the position seen in Fig. 27. In this attitude, maintaining the same position of the arms, sink downward and return again twice, thus occupying half the strain. Stamp the left, then Fig. 27. the right, and perform the same on the right side. No. 2. — Hands by the sides, bring the left arm in front to the perpendicular over the shoulder twice, right twice, alternately two beats, simul- taneously two beats. No. 3. — Stamp the right foot, then stamp the left, and charge out sideways to the left, rising and sinking, as in Fig. 28, thus occupying half a strain. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 105 Fig. 28. Then stamp the left foot, the right, and charge to the right to fill up the other half of the strain. No. 4. — Dumb-bells by the sides, swing the left without bending the elbow to the perpendicular over- head, then the right, &c., &c. Let the line of move- ment be at the side instead of in front, as in the pre- vious exercise, eight beats. No. 5. — After the regular stamping the pupil should charge in the manner illustrated in Fig. 29. Fill up half the measure on one side and half on the other side. No. 6. — Begin in the position represented in the plain black lines of Fig. 30. Now make a grand circle in the direction seen in the dotted line in the 5* 106 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 29. ; ". Fig. 30. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 107 figure, and so swing from side to side through eight beats. No. 7. — Taking the position seen in Fig. 31, but on the left side, thrust alternately and simultane- Fig. 31. Fig. 32. 108 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. oiisly, as seen in Fig. 32, through the whole strain. Repeat, charging to the right. Fig. 33. No. 8. — Dumb-bells in front of the chest as seen in Fig. 33. Now draw the elbows directly backward in a horizontal plane through a whole strain. No. 9. — Stamp the right foot, then the left, then step the left foot diagonally forward a short step, say one foot, at the same time swinging up the arms into the position seen in Fig. 34, and immediately bring the dumb-bells down to the position seen in Fig. 35, then into the position seen in Fig. 36. No. 10. — Stamp the left foot, then the right, and repeat the same on the other side. No. 11. — Stamp the right foot, then the left, and THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 109 Fig. 34. Fig. 35. 110 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 36. charge a long step to the left, and move the right arm, as seen in Fig. 87, eight beats. The same on the other side. Fig. 37. No. 12. — Arms horizontal and parallel in front, dumb-bells perpendicular, swing in the horizontal plane directly backward as far as possible, eight times. (Fig. 38.) THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Ill "'->^ Fig. 39. 112 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 13. — Stamp the right foot, then the left, then charge diagonally forward with the left foot, at the same time thrusting the bells directly upward, left, right, alternately, simultaneously (Fig. 39). The si- multaneous movement is seen in Fig. 40. Fig. 40. No. 14. — - Dumb-bells on the chest, thrust them directly forward, alternately, through a whole strain, as was done in Fig. 3, Free Gymnastics. No. 15. — Stamp with the right foot, then with the left, step diagonally backward with the left foot and thrust the two hands upward alternately, two beats (Fig. 41), and simultaneously, as in Fig. 42. No. 16. — The same on the other side. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 113 Fig. 41. Fig. 42. 114 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. FOURTH SERIES. No. 1. — Holding tlie dumb-bells on the chest, thrust the left dumb-bell out sideways, and as far back of the sideways line as convenient, and bring it around in a large sweep, keeping it however in the horizontal plane, and bring it back to the chest, two beats, the right arm the same, two beats, alternately two beats, and simultaneously two beats. (Fig. 43.) Fig. 43. No. 2. — Holding the dumb-bells by the side, turn quickly to the left without moving the feet, and bring the dumb-bells into the position seen in Fig. THE NEW GYI^INASTICS. 115 12. Bring down to the sides again, turn suddenly as far to the right as possible without moving the feet, and swing the dumb-bells up as before ; so al- ternate through a whole strain. No. 3. — Beginning with the dumb-bells upon the chest, sit down and touch the floor with the bells, as seen in the dotted line of Fig. 44. Then return them to the chest, rise to the tips of the toes and thrust the dumb-bells as high as possible, and alter- nate between these two movements though a whole strain. 116 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 4. — Holding the dumb-bells on the tops of the shoulders, thrust the left directly out at the side twice, the right one twice, alternately two beats, simultaneously two beats. (Fig. 45.) Fig. 45. No. 5. — Begin with the dumb-bells on the chest in front, thrust horizontally in front, carry them up so as to bend backward, then bring them down again to the horizontal in front, and to the floor (Fig. 46), eight beats. No. 6. — Stamp with the right foot, then with the left, then charge to the left as in the dotted lines of Fig. 47, a whole strain on the left, and a whole strain on the right. This exercise should be done with great deliberation, charging only on every sec- ond accented beat. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. IIT Fig. 46. i^»A..^'.,„ Fig. 47. 118 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 7. — Standing in the position seen in the up- right figure (Fig. 48), stamp three times, departing in each step farther and farther from the perpen- dicular until on the third stamp you reach the posi- tion seen in the oblique figure of Fig. 48. This movement is done only on the accented beats. Same on the other side. Fig. 48. No. 8. — Charge at a single step into the posi- tion seen in the oblique figure, (Fig. 48,) and rising, charge at once on the other side. Thus alternate through a whole strain. No. 9. — Hands on the chest, thrust the left hand directly forward, and swing it in the horizontal plane THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 119 as far behind as possible, a half strain. Bring it then to the chest. Thrust the right hand out in front, and repeat the movement to the end of the strain. (Fig. 49.) Fig. 49. No. 10. — Stamp with the right foot, then with the left ; then, charging out with the left foot side- ways, remain there and swing the arm, as seen in Fig. 50, half a strain, on each side. The music may now change to the Anvil chorus. No. 11. — The pupil takes tlie position seen in Fig. 51, and* bringing the arm which is over the shoulder through the course of the dotted line above, strikes with its dumb-bell the bell held in the other hand, driving it swiftly through the course of the dotted line below. The arms have now 120 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. ci ■""■•>,. b- Fig. 50 Fig. 51. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 121 changed their position. The upper dumb-bell again strikes the dumb-bell in front, driving it in its turn to the position over the shoulder. Having struck the dumb-bell in front with the one over the shoul- der once with each bell, on the third movement Fig. 52. hit the dumb-bell in front from below, the striking bell passing through the line represented by the dots below. Of course tlie dumb-bell in front, being thus struck, will reach the shoulder, passing through the upper dotted line. The other bell the same.* * This stroke from the back of the shoulder was devised by one of the graduates of our Normal School, Mr. R , of Philadel- phia. 6 122 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. On the fifth beat step diagonally forward with the left foot, and swing the dumb-bells with a large sweep up at the sides, hitting them together. (Fig. 52.) Execute this movement twice on each side, thus filling the strain of music. No. 11. — Now repeat the exercise shown in Fig. 51 during the first half of the strain of music, and fill the last half of the strain by the movement seen in Fig. 53. Fig. 53. No. 12. — Repeat the exercise in Fig. 51 four beats, and conclude the strain of music by the movements shown in Figs. 54 and 55. The move- THE NEW aYMNASTICS. 123 Fi-. 55. ments shown in Figs. 54 and 6b should be alter- nated through four beats to finish the strain. No. 13. — Repeat again the exercise seen in Fig. 51 through half the strain, and close it by the ex- ercise shown in Fig. 50. This last movement oc- cupies two beats on one side and two beats on the other. 124 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. THE RINGS During 1860 I thought much of an order of ex- ercises involving ^ a new philosophy, — exercises of a composite nature. I had observed that all movements and games in which two persons touched or assisted each other were especially interesting. The great interest of dancing turns upon this personal contact. I fre- quently asked myself, " Why cannot the charm of this personal magnetism be enjoyed in gymnastics ? " This thought led to the practice of joining the pupils in couples. They joined, for example, their •right hands, and, spreading the feet to make a firm base, thrust the hands alternately backward and forward, then the left hands, and then the two al- ternately and simultaneously. These and various other movements with the joined hands were de- vised and used for many weeks. But the hands, soon becoming moist from perspiration, were apt to slip, and if a lady and gentleman were exer- cising together, his efforts to prevent the slipping would frequently hurt her hand. Besides, there THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 125 was little freedom of motion, because of the dan- ger of losing the hold. It occurred to me one day to join the hands by some artificial means. At first we procured sim- ple handles, such as are seen upon an old-fashioned wash-tub, and joining two of them by a wire link, placed them in the hands of the pupils. We named them " double-handles," and used them for several weeks. But it was observed that when one person was pulling and the other pushing, if the pushing movement were the stronger, the pusher's handle would frequently double upon its mate and bruise the knuckles. Besides, there was no firmness or certainty in the side motions. For some time we could think of no means of cor- recting this evil, and at length made the mistake of abandoning the near connection of the pupils and placing between the handles a rope two feet long, giving up the idea of pushing and side movements for the advantages of free pulling. It was indeed a capital way of exercising the flexor muscles.* We were .not unmindful of the loss to the extensor mus- cles. We had hoped in these composite exercises to secure to the extensor muscles the great advan- tage of pusliing in all possible directions, — the great desideratum in physical training. The in- * I have even now an immense quantity of these handled ropes in ai-mra 1^ THE NEW GYMNASTICS. genioiis reader will be astonished that the ring was not thought of at first. It seems to me that anoth- er person would have thought of it at once. It was six months after we began to experiment in the new order of exercises before the thought of the ring occurred to us, and even then only by the merest accident. At first a hard rubber ring was suggested. We visited a rubber store and found such an article could be made, but learned the cost would be a dollar and a quarter each. We knew this piece of apparatus should be used in immense numbers if it proved a success, and that such a price would prevent its general introduction. I mentioned the subject to my friend Tucker, the turner, who at once said, " Why not let me make some of wood ? " I was so little acquainted with the mysteries of turning I did not know that rings could be turned from wood. My friend went to his shop, and within an hour returned with a ring. He asked, " How many shall I turn ? " In the first enthusiasm I replied, " You may make a million to begin with." He concluded, however, to begin with a hundred. I clearly foresaw that the Gym- nastic Ring would become a universal and most pop- ular means of physical training. For six months the rings were made of one piece of wood, but they frequently broke, and the triple ring, as it is now named, was devised. This has given, I be- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 127 lieve, perfect satisfaction. It has now been exten- sively used for more than six years. Many hun- dred thousands of them are in active service to-day. This Gymnastic Ring is the most important con- tribution which I Lave been permitted to make to the cause of physical training. So important do I deem it, so large a part am I confident it is to play in the pliysical training of the future, that I ask no greater honor in the history of American education than an association of my name with the Gymnastic Ring. . During no period of my labors in the gymnastic field, have I been so deeply interested as during the year or two in which the exercises of the rhig were being invented and arranged. These exercises may justly claim advantages over all other possible means of general muscular train- ing. The dumb-bell is not to be compared with it. "When one is exercising alone, his own body being the centre and fulcrum of motion, the width and scope of the movemeats are trifling compared with those in which the hands encounter the varied re- sistance met in the ring exercises. In this case, not the resistance of a dead club, dumb-bell, or bar, which never changes, but the resistance of a living man, constantly varied, thereby securing an almost infinite variety of wide, free, and vigorous move- ments. Take, for example, a single thrust forward 128 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. with one hand. If the gymnast perform this move- ment alone with his naked hand, or with a dumb- bell, the variety and force of motion will be limited ; besides, the action of the extensor muscles, which so urgently demand our attention, is slight. But suppose that in the hand is a ring, and on the other side of the ring is the hand of another living man, who, when your hand is thrust forward resists that thrust. His resistance is never twice alike, it con- stantly changes both as to the amount and the line or direction. Whoever will reflect upon this for one moment will see that the thrust forward with the ring is much more valuable than a thrust with the naked hand, or with a dumb-belL What is true in regard to this simple movement is true of every other possible movement, and it may be just- ly added, that the advantage in the case of the ring is still many times greater in all sideways and ob- lique movements. From our series of exercises with the rings it is not difficult to select a single one which involves greater and more profitable va- riety of muscular training than is .found in any ten exercises with the dumb-bell or wand. I must not forget to mention in this connec- tion, that the two Hamblin brothers, Lawrence and Edward, who were with me for a long time as as- sistant teachers, made important contributions to the ring exercises. I offered a reward for every THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 129 new movement that should be adopted. When a graceful and physiological movement was devised I took occasion to mention it publicly with all honor to the inventor. This elicited the greatest enthu- siasm in the corps, which, with my own intense and almost sleepless interest, resulted, in the course of a year and a half, in the development of the pres- ent system of exercises. Yery few changes have since been made. I presume that during the time we were devising these exercises three hundred move- ments were brought forward and rejected. The pres- ent series — that which will be given in the follow- ing cuts and descriptions — comprises those which in my judgment are best calculated to develop har- moniously the average American. The exercises are adapted to the training of those muscles which in the average round-shouldered American youth most need development. THE RING EXERCISES. No. 1. — Standing in the position represented in Fig. 1, and placing the right toe against the right toe of your partner, and the left foot at right angles with the right foot, as seen in the figure, pull hard and twist the right arm from right to left, keeping time to the music. Be careful in this, as in all 6* I 130 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 131 other exercises with the rings, to draw the shoul- ders well back and keep the head erect. No. 2. — Same as the last, but using the left hand with the left foot forward. No. 3. — Join both hands and place the right toe against your partner's right, as in Fig. 1, being sure to keep the foot behind at right angles with the one in front. Twist the rings through the strain. No. 4. — Same as the last, except with the left foot forward. (Fig. 2.) Fig. 3. No. 5. — Without letting go the rings, turn back to back, place the outside of the left foot against the same of your partner, and turn the rings through the strain. Keep time in all the changes. 132 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 6. — Same as the last, but with the right foot behind. (Fig. 3.) No. 7. — Turn face to face, raise the hands as high as you can over the head, and, standing about two feet apart, bring the rings down to the floor without bending the knees, as represented in Fig. 4. In the performance of this you must not bend the elbows, which you can avoid by carrying the rings outward at each side, eight beats. No. 8. — Standing as in the last exercise, place the rings in the position seen in Fig. 5. As the arms on one side rise the arms on the other fall, THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 133 Fig. 5. Fig. 6. lU THE NEW GYMNASTICS. keeping time to the music through four beats. The last four beats the two rings are carried up and down simultaneously. No. 9. — Back to back, as seen in Fig. 6, thrust the rings up with great force as in Fig. 7, then back to the shoulders, and then thrust out at the sides, as in Fig. 8, then downward as in Fig. 9. Repeat to the end of the strain. Fig. 7. No. 10. — The last three movements consecutive- ly, through a strain of music. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 135 Mg. 8. Fig. 9. 136 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 11. — Take the position seen in Fig. 10, the inside of your right foot to tlie inside of your part- ner's right, draw your left hand as far back past your left side as possible, drawing your partner's right hand after it, and so continue to alternate. Do this strongly. Push your hand past your partner's side as far as possible, at the same time pulling his as far past yours as possible. Fig. 10. No. 12. — Same as the last, except the left foot forward. Be sure in this as in all others that your feet are at right angles. No. 13. — Same as the last, except the feet move with the hands. When the right hand is thrust for- ward the right foot goes also, and with the left hand THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 137 the left foot. The value of this exercise is deter- mined by the length of the step. No. 14. — Back to back, touching each other's heels, as seen in Fig. 11, each takes a long step diagonally forward with the right foot as represent- ed by the dotted lines of the figure, then the left and so on to the end of the Strain. Fig. 11. No. 15. — Both of the performers stand in the position of the upright one in Fig. 12. One sinks down as seen in the other figure of Fig. 12, and, ris- ing on the unaccented beat to the upright position, he is followed by his partner in the same sinking movement. Thus they alternate through a strain of music. Same with the other foot forward. 138 THE NEW GYIvmASTICS. Fig. 12. No. 16. — Same as the last, but with a change of feet. No. 17. — Back to back, charge up the hall as seen in Fig. 13, at the same time raising the hands on the same side as high as you can. Then return- ing to the upright position, hands by the sides, charge down the hall in the same manner. This should be done through half the strain. Continue to charge sideways as before, only in opposite direc- tions, as represented in Fig. 14, to the end of the strain. No. 18. — Turn face to face, and, standing very near your partner, charge up the hall as in the last THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 139 Fis. 13. Fig. 14. 140 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. exercise, and as seen in Fig. 15, then down the hall through half a strain, then move as seen in Fig. 16 to the end of the strain. Fig. 15. No. 19. — Turn back to back, and, standing eigh- teen, inches apart, swing up the arms alternately, as seen in Fig. 17, through half the strain ; then si- multaneously to the end of the strain. No. 20. — Face to face, standing the length of the arms apart, as seen in Fig. 18, charge with the right foot to the outside of your partner's right foot through the strain. In this exercise the hands are to go upward when the foot charges forward, without bending the arms. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 141 Fig. 16. Fig. 17. 142 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 21. — Then repeat, except you join the left hands and charge with your left foot. Fig. 18. No. 22. — Join both hands and stand in the posi- tion seen in Fig. 19. Now charge diagonally for- ward with the right foot, then the left, and so con- tinue to alternate to the end of the strain. Let the step be a long one, without bending the leg which is left beliind. In this exercise as in the pre- vious one, the arms go upward, and the elbows must not be bent. No. 23. — Stand back to back, place the, outside of your left foot against the outside of your part- ner's left foot, and then charge forward into the THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 143 Fig. 19. Fig. 20. position seen in the black lines of Fig. 20. On the unaccented beats sway backward and touch the 1^4 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. shoulders, or what is perhaps better, do not quite touch them. Let this exercise fill one strain of music. No. 24. — Change your feet and repeat through an entire strain. No. 25. — Stand face to face, close together, arms down by the' sides, swing up the arms on one side vigorously to the perpendicular over your heads, then the arms on the other sidC; and so continue to alternate through a strain of music. This should be done without bending tlie elbows, and when the arms are swung up on one side, the heads of the two pupils should be so near together that their faces can be distinctly seen by a person standing on that side. No. 26. — Turn back to back, arms hanging by the sides, carry the arms on one side over the head and down on the other side of your bodies as far as they can reach, on the accented beat. Now bring them back on the unaccented beat. Then carry the arms of the other side over on the ac- cented beat and bring them back on the unaccent- ed beat, and so continue to alternate four beats. Now, during the remaining four beats of the meas- ure, carry all the four hands in a knot over the head backward and forward, and let the last movement be only on the accented beat. (Fig. 21.) No. 27. — Closing the last exercise back to back, THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 145 begin the next one by turning face to face. "Now turn again back to back, then face to face, now back to back, and so continue through a strain. Fig. 21. No. 28. — Stand back to back, the shoulders touching each other. Draw your partner's left arm directly under your right arm by thrusting your arm straight forward, at the same moment he draws your left arm under his right arm. Now, on the next beat, draw your partner's right arm un- der your left, he does the same, and so you alter- nate through a strain of music. (Fig. 22.) No. 29. — Face to face, join the right hands, the distance apart should be the length of two arms, push them exactly sideways in a horizontal plane as far as you can reach on the accented beat. Now 7 J 146 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 22. bring them to a straight line between you on the unaccented beat, then on the next accented beat push in the other direction, and so continue through a strain. (Fig. 23.) No. 30. — Same, joining the other hands. No. 31. — Now join again the right hands, same distance apart, and push directly upward, down to the horizontal, then down near the floor, up to the horizontal, again upward as far as you can push through a strain of music. (Fig. 24.) No. 32. — Change the hands and repeat the same with the left hand. No. 33. — Back to back, outside of your left foot against the outside of your partner's left foot. Charge the right foot forward, hold the hands as high over the head as possible, and in this posi- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 147 Fig. 23. Fig. 24. 148 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. tion sway forward on the accented beat, and make as large an arch as possible. Eight beats. (Fig. 25.) i'lg. 25. No. 34. — Now another strain of music for the exercise, with the right foot behind. No. 35. — Join the right hands, standing as far apart as the length of the two arms, with your face towards one end of the hall and your part- ner's towards the other. Now, step straight for- ward with the left foot through four beats. Then reverse without loss of time and repeat with the other hands. (Fig. 26.) No. 36. — Back to back, standing about a foot and a half apart, push with the four hands up- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 149 Fig. 26. Fig. 27. ward as far as possible. Now draw them down be- tween your heads forcibly through one strain of music. (Fig. 27.) 150 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 37. — Face to face, left foot forward inside your partner's left foot. You push your partner and he pushes you in alternation as represented in Fig.''^8, through one strain of music. Fig. 28. No. 38. — Repeat with a change of feet. No. 39. — Face to face, standing two feet apart, step with your right foot forward on your part- ner's right side, who does the same with his right foot on your right side, with the arms quite per- pendicular. Now step with your left foot across on your partner's left side, who steps with his left foot across on your left side. Alternate through one strain of music. (Fig. 29.) THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 151 Fig. 29. 152 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. THE WAND If you have studied a picture of the muscles of the shoulders and chest, you have observed a curi- ous disposition in their arrangement. They di- verge from the shoulder joint in all directions like a fan. Control over the vital organs within turns upon the muscles without, and the exercise of these chest muscles turns upon the play at the shoulder joint. Therefore, a great point in training the muscles of the upper half of the body is to secure freedom of motion at the shoulder joint. Everything de- pends upon this. The Wand is an admirable means to this end. With it we may fix the hands four feet apart, and, thus fixed, we may reach by a great variety of move- ments a wonderful freedom in the shoulder joint. Professor Langdon, an English gentleman now residing in New York, devised a system of beau- tiful and valuable exercises with the wand. I wit- nessed some of his training in a young ladies' seminary with lively interest. I think, however, his exercises were not physiologically discriminat- ing in reference to the muscles most needing at- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 153 tention. Our drooping shoulders were not suffi- ciently recognized, but the great value of the wand as a means of general muscle training, and more especially as a means of securing a free movement in the shoulder joint, was abundantly illustrated. Prof. Langdon's exercises were not adapted to mu- sic. I think he made no attempt in this direction. The sixty-four movements with the wand devised and taught by myself are all adapted to music, and in great part aimed at those muscles whose weak- ness permits drooping shoulders. EXERCISES WITH THE WANDS. No. 1. — At a signal from the piano (a single touch of the keys), the wand is thrust out in front with straight arms in a horizontal position. Thus held in full view of the pupil, he divides it with his hands into three equal parts. At another sig- nal the wand is brought back to rest against the person, the arms hanging. No. 2. — From the position represented in Fig. 1, carry the wand to the highest stretch upward, and bring it back to the position seen in Fig. 1 four times. No. 3. — The wand held aloft over the head should be brought down to the floor without bend- ing the elbows or knees, four times. This fills 154 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. half the strain. The other half is filled by draw- ing the wand from the highest position over the head to the position seen in Fig. 2, four times. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 155 No. 4. — From the highest position over the head, draw the wand to that seen in Fig. 2, and to the chin in front, alternately eight beats. Fig. 3. No. 5. — Ending the last exercise with the wand held aloft, begin No. 5 by slipping the left hand to its end of the wand. On the next beat slip the right hand to its end of the wand, so that the wand will then be held in the position seen in Fig. 3. From this position carry it down to the position seen in Fig. 4 to the end of the strain. No. 6. — Execute the last exercise in alternation with the corresponding, one on the front of the body. Eight beats. No. 7. — Beginning with the position seen in Fig. 156 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. ri-. 6. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 157 3, carry the wand from side to side eight times. (Fig. 5.) No. 8. — Bring the end of the wand down to the floor by the feet, the wand being seized by the left liand at its upper end. Keeping the wand perpen- dicular, carry it out at arm's length diagonally to the left in front, and strike the floor. Now step Fig. 7. 158 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. as in Fig. 6 to the end of the strain, being careful not to bend the leg left behind. Repeat precise- ly the same exercise on the other side. No. 9. — Bring the wand to the perpendicular near your feet, strike the floor, and, reaching out as far as you can, keep the wand perpendicular, and strike on the floor as in Fig. 6, but at least a foot farther. (Fig. 7.) Remain during the res- idue of the strain in this position without moving the feet from the floor, and rise and sink, making as much motion with the hips backward and for- ward as is possible without disturbing the upright position of the wand. The arm with which the wand is held should be kept perfectly straight, though I observe the artist has represented it bent. Repeat the same movement with the other leg and arm. No. 10. — At the end of the last exercise rise to the perpendicular with the wand in the position seen in Fig. 8. Now thrust the hands directly forward to the full length of the arms, and draw them back to the position seen in the figure, through the strain. During this exercise keep the wand as nearly perpendicular as possible. No. 11. — From the last exercise pass at once to the position represented in Fig. 9. In this exer- cise you simply change the wand from the posi- tion seen in Fig. 9 to the same position on the other side of the body, and in passing from one THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 159 rig. 8. Fig. 9. 160 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. side to the other yon raise the arms straight to the horizontal position in front. No. 12. — At the conclusion of the strain of mnsic in the last exercise, bring the hands to the chest as in Fig. 8, and from this position thrust the wand into the position seen in Fig. 10, and alter- nate between one side and the other through a strain. Fig. 10. Noi 13. — Charge diagonally forward with the left and right foot alternately, with tlie wand in the posi- tion seen in Fig. 11. No. 14. — Step diagonally backward on the left and right side alternately, as in Fig. 12. Eight beats. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 161 Fig. 11. Fig. 12 162 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 15. — Take the position seen in Fig. 13 and reverse the ends of wand through the strain, mov- ing only on the accented beats. Fig. 13. No. 16. — At the end of the last strain turn sud- denly to the left, and, holding the wand as shown in Fig. 14, move it on the accented beats into the position seen in the dotted lines of Fig. 14. One strain on the left, one strain on the right, and one strain alternately. No. 17. — Standing upright, with one end of the wand resting on the floor in front of the feet, strike the wand there, then strike the wand at arm's length in front, then, allowing the right foot to remain at rest, step forward with the left foot THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 163 to where the wand rests on the floor, then back to the first position, four beats, and four beats with the right hand and foot. Fig. 14. No. 18. — Keeping the same position as in the last, step backward as far as the left foot can reach, four beats, then four beats with the right foot. Left foot and hand go together. Right foot and hand. No. 19. — Still maintaining the same position, carry the left foot forward to where the wand rests upon the floor, and then backward as far as you can reach with it, making a very long stride with one foot, the other foot remaining at rest, four beats. Same with the other foot and hand four beats. 164 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 20. — Now put both hands upon the top end of the wand and make a long stride, with the two feet passing backward and forward alternately. Fig, 15. Fig. 15. No. 21. — From the last exercise come at once into the position seen in Fig. 16. Change the wand from the position seen in the figure to a similar position on the other shoulder, of course reversing the hands, so that the left hand will be up on one side, and the right hand up on the other. In other words, the right arm is down when the wand is on the right shoulder, and the left arm down when the wand is on the left shoulder. This change, which must be accomplished with- out bending the elbows, and which is a most beauti- ful and profitable exercise if well done, goes through four beats. Immediately you change to exactly the same position on the back of the shoulders, and re- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 165 Fig. 16. repeat precisely the same movement, during four beats. There is not a better exercise in the whole wand series than this one. No. 22. — Beginning with the wand exactly as in Fig. '16, on the left side of the chest in front, change the wand to the right shoulder as before ; from that carry it to the back side of the rig! it shoulder, and now to the back side of the left shoulder, and now to the front side of the left shoulder, and then pass right back again from this movement till you arrive, again at the position seen in Fig. 16. No. 23. — From the position seen in Fig. 16, 166 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. carry the wand to the back side of the right shoul- der, and alternate between that and the position seen in Fig. 16, during half a strain. The other half of the strain, alternate between the front side of the right shoulder and the back side of the left shoulder. These last three exercises should be care- fully studied until they can be well done, for they are very excellent in their influence upon the chest. No. 24. — Turn the body to the left, put the wand out at arm's length in front, being sure that the wand itself is perpendicular, and, using the right hand, step exactly sideways with the right foot, simultaneously with the placing of the wand upon the floor. Now step directly backward as in E.g. 17. Fig. 17, then across behind the other foot. Fig. 18, then in front. Fig. 19. Now repeat the same with the other foot and arm. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 167 Fig. 18. No. 25. — Alternate between these two, chang- ing the hand and foot every movement. Fig 19. No. 26. — At the close of the last exercise come 168 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. at once into tlie position seen in Fig. 20. Re- verse the ends of the wand through half a strain, and finish the strain by doing precisely the same thing behind the spine. \^ Fig. 20. No. 27. — Still holding the wand behind the back, charge alternately on the left and right side into the position shown in Fig. 21, through one strain.' No. 28. — At the close of the last strain take the position seen in the continuous lines of Fig. 22. Alternate between this position and the cor- responding one on the other side shown in the dotted line, and in passing from one to the other THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 169 Fig. 21. ::;===^ Y:. Fiff. 22 170 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. let the wand fall down on the unaccented beat in front in a transverse position, as seen in the dotted line. The last exercise in the wand series is found in the charge seen in Fig. 23, alternated from one side to the other through a strain. Fig. 23. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 171 THE INDIAN CLUB. The more difficult club exercises are not practi- cable in class drill. For this reason I introduce only a few of the more simple, such as can be used with music. The size of the club is given under the head of Gymnastic Apparatus. The club exercises differ widely from all the other exercises in the New Gymnastics. They cul- tivate patience and endurance, and operate most happily upon the longitudinal muscles of the back of the neck and shoulders, thus tending to correct the habit of stooping. Besides, nearly all the move- ments in the New Gymnastics are quick. This feature is very valuable, and indeed constitutes the great claim of the new system to favor, but slow niovements have their uses. These will be found in the club exercises ; and as they are exactly aimed at the muscles which most need culture in the av- erage American, it is believed they will be especially acceptable and popular among the earnest students of physical culture. The teacher will find it very difficult at first to 172 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. secure the straight line in the arm and chib. They should in all the exercises, with the two or three obvious exceptions, be made as straight as possible, and kept so through every movement. The value of this series turns very much upon the observance of this rule. In order to make the arm and club quite straight, it will be seen that the wrist must be slightly bent. As in the other exercises, when a horizontal in front is directed, let the position be precisely horizontal, and the arm and club so held that were both up at the same time they would be exactly parallel to each other. Accuracy is of the first importance, but difficult to secure in exercises with the club. No gymnasium is complete without the clubs. They are indispensable to harmonious training. CLUB EXERCISES. FIRST SERIES. No. 1. — Clubs hang at the sides ; grasp firmly ; carry the left club up to the horizontal in front. (The left arm and club are represented in the hori- zontal position in front in Fig. 1.) The left arm having been carried up to this position and back to the side once, the right arm performs the same. Then both arms simultaneously twice. This com- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 173 pletes a strain of music as the motions arc made only on the accented beats. No. 2. — Bring both arms into the horizontal po- rtion in front, which should be done on the last Fig. 1. unaccented beat of the last strain. Starting with them in this position, carry the left arm from the horizontal in front to the perpendicular over the shoulder,, and back again to the horizontal, once. Riglit arm the same. Simultaneously twice. This, like No. 1, fills an entire strain of music. No. 3. — On the last unaccented beat of No. 2 let the clubs fall into the hanging position by tlie sides. Now bring the left from the hanging at the side to the perpendicular over the shoulder, and back 174 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. again to the hanging at the side once. Eight the same. Simultaneously twice. No. 4. — Beginning with the hanging at the side, carry the left arm to the horizontal at the sidfe, (the right arm in Fig. 1 is represented in the hor- izontal at the side position,) and back once. The right arm once. Both arms simultaneously twice. No. 5. — On the last unaccented beat of the strain of music in No. 4, carry both clubs into the horizontal at the side position. Now raise the left club and arm into the perpendicular over the shoulder, and return to the horizontal once. Right arm the same. Both arms simultaneously twice. No. 6. — On the last unaccented beat of the last exercise, drop the clubs to the hanging position by the legs. Now carry the left through the side, sweep to the perpendicular over the shoulder, and return to the hanging position at the side. Right the same. Simultaneously twice. No. 7. — Beginning with the clubs hanging by the sides, raise the left to the horizontal in front, and at the same moment the right to the horizontal at the side. Now bring them down to the sides. On the third beat carry the left up to the hori- zontal at the side, and the right to the horizontal in front. Bring back to the sides. Repeat these two movements, which will finish the strain. No. 8. — On the last unaccented beat of the last THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 175 exercise bring the clubs exactly into the position represented in Fig. 1. Beginning in this position carry the clubs both to the perpendicular over the shoulders. Now bring them down to the horizontal again, but let the loft one fall into the position in which the right is seen in Fig. 1, and the right into the position which is shown in the left in Fig. 1. On the next beat raise the clubs into the perpen- dicular over the shoulders ; oji the next beat into the position seen in Fig. 1 ; on the next beat perpendicular over the shoulders; on the next beat, left to the horizontal at the side, and right to the horizontal in front. It is well to use only the exercises in the first series during the first month. SECOND SERIES. No. 1. — Holding the two clubs in the position seen in Fig. 2, on the first beat raise the left arm into the position in which the right is shown in the figure, — the perpendicular over the shoulder. At the same moment bring the riglit down to the position in which the left is seen. So continue to alternate through a strain of music. No. 2. — Holding botli clubs in the position seen in the right arm of Fig. 2, to which position the clubs should have been brought on the last unac- 176 THE NEW CxYMNASTICS. cented beat of the last exercise, bring tliem both down to the horizontal in front, and on the next beat bear them in the horizontal plane to the hori- zontal at the side ; on the next beat carry them rig. 2. lip to the perpendicular over the shoulders ; on the next beat to the horizontal in front ; on the next beat again to the horizontal at the sides ; on the next again to the perpendicular over the shoulders ; on the next to the horizontal in front ; on the next beat back to the perpendicular over the shoulders. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 177 No. 3. — On the last unaccented beat of the last exercise, bring the clubs into the horizontal position in front. Holding the arms in this position without bending the elbows, bring the left club, by a mo- tion of the wrist, over upon the arm, letting it strike the arm, then on the next accented beat carry it back again to the straight-out horizontal position in front. The right arm the same. Both simultaneously twice. No. 4. — On the last unaccented beat of the last exercise, carry the arms around to the horizontal at the sides, and, holding the arms inflexibly in that position, by a motion of the wrist bring the left club over upon the arm, letting it strike the arm ; then, on the next accented beat, carry it back again to the straight-out horizontal position. Right club the same. Both clubs simultaneously twice. No. 5. — At the conclusion of this exercise bring the clubs back again to the horizontal in front, and, holding both arms inflexibly in this position, raise both clubs to the perpendicular, all of which must be done on the last unaccented beat of the last exercise. Now on the first beat allow the left club to fall directly outward, at right angles with the arm, down to the horizontal, and bring it back to the perpendicular. Right arm the same. Botli arms simultaneously twice. 178 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 6. — Holding the arms horizontal in front, clubs perpendicular, allow the left club to fall down to the horizontal, at right angles with its arm and toward the other hand. Carry it back again to the perpendicular. Right arm the same. Both arms simultaneously twice. No. 7. — On the last unaccented beat of the last exercise, bring the arms round to the horizontal at Fig. 3. the side, the clubs being held in the perpendicular attitude. Fig. 3. Now let the left club fall down into the hanging-behind position. Keep the arms exactly horizontal, and bring the club back again THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 179 to the position in Fig. 3. Right arm the same. Both arms simultaneously twice. Fig. 4. Fig. 4. No. 8. — Holding the arms horizontal at the side, with the clubs perpendicular, repeat the last exer- cise, except the clubs fall down in front instead of behind. THIRD SERIES. No. 1. — Holding the clubs in the position seen in Fig. 5, swing them up to the perpendicular over the shoulders, and with a grand sweep down upon the back, and on the second beat back again into the po- sition seen in the figure. Repeat through a strain. No. 2. — Holding the clubs on the chest a la mus- ket, thrust them into the position seen in Fig. 6, and hold them during one beat ; swing them through 180 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 181 tbe course represented by the dotted line, and around the back to the front of tlie chest on the second beat ; on the third beat thrust out on the other side and make the same movement. So con- tinue during a strain. No. 3. — Hold the clubs in the position seen in Fig. 7. Fig. 8. 182 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 7, and reverse their places through a strain. Let the movement be through the perpendicular over the shoulder. No. 4. — Stand erect, arms and clubs horizontal and parallel to each other in front, bend back- ward and swing the clubs alternately as far back as possible through a strain. Fig. 8. EXERCISES WITH BEAN-BAGS. No. 1. — Arrange yourselves in two classes. Classes face each other, six feet apart. Members of one class will each have a bag ; the otlier class Fig. 1. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 183 will have no bags. Each person will play with the person standing opposite him. Hold the bags under your chins as in Fig. 1. Catch the bags, standing in the position seen in Fig. 2. All ready ! one^ Fig. 2. two^ three! Let each couple throw the bag back and forth ten times. Each in turn, as you finish, hold up your hands and cry out ten. The leader announces the names of those who finish first, those who finish second, and those who finisli third. The leader will, when you are accustomed to the work, direct thirty instead of ten passes of the bag. If any couple allows the bag to fall to the floor, that couple must stand still until the next one, two^ three, is counted. 184 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 2. — Same as the last, except the bag is thrown and caught with the right hand. The po- sition is seen in Fig. 3. Fig. 3. No. 3. — Same as the last, but with the left hand. When the right hand throws, the right hand catches, and so with the left. No. 4. — The bag is thrown from the back of the shoulders over the head. * Fig. 4. No. 5. — Same as the last, except the bag is thrown with the right hand, as shown in Fig. 5. No. 6. — Same as the last, except with the left hand. No. 7. — The bag is to be thrown over the head from the position seen in Fig. 6. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 185 Fiff. 4. Fig. 5. 186 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 7. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 187 No. 8. '— The bag is to be thrown with the right hand, while the right arm is grasped with the left hand. Fig. 7. Left the same. No. 9. — The bag is to be thrown from the elbow, Fig. 8, and is to be caught with the hands. Fig. 8. Fig. 9. 188 THE NEW GYiMNASTICS. No. 10. — Same with the other jelbow. ' No. 11. — The bag is to be thrown from the hands held in front. Fig. 9. Fij,'. 10. No. 12. — Turn your right side toward your part- ner, and throw from the position in Fig. 10, catch- ing with the right hand. Fix your feet and do not move them. No. 13. — Same with your left side turned to- ward your partner. Fig. 11. No. 14. — Again turn your right side toward your partner and throw from the position seen in Fig. 12. No. 15. — Same with your left side toward your partner. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 189 Fig. 11. Fig. 12. No. 16. — Turn back to back, and throw the bag over your head, as seen in Fig. 13. To do this well, the leader must manage as fol- 190 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 13. lows : — First, he cries out, All ready ! then he counts, one^ two, three! By the time the word three is spoken, the person who is to catch the bag has bent backward, so that he can see his partner, and the person throwing the bag has likewise bent so he can see his partner, and then throw the bag into his hands. Now the two persons stand upright. The leader begins again by announcing All ready! counting as before. In this way the bags will not fall upon the floor. No. 17. — Face your partner, and throw from the position represented in Fig. 14, holding the bag on the back of the hand. No. 18. — Same as the last, except the left hand is employed. No. 19. — Face your partner, and throw the bag THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 191 Fig. 14. around the back and over the opposite shoulder, as seen in Fig. 15. Fig. 15. No. 20. — Same as the last, except you use the other hand. 192 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 21. — Eacli couple uses ten bags; you throw to your partner the whole ten in succession, he catching them if possible upon his arms.* Fig. 16. Fig. 16. No. 22. — The two classes stand as represented in Fig. 17. Place ten bags on a chair or box by the .first player in each class. The leader gives the word, and the two classes compete in passing the bags over their heads backwards to the foot of the class, when they whirl round and immediately pass them back. The class which first has the entire ten on the chair or box counts one in the game. No. 23. — Let the two classes face each other * This exercise may be omitted if you have not a large number of baffs. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 193 again, and pass the bags as in the last, except they are carried along in front, and as high as the chest. Fig. 17. No. 24. — Let the bags be all placed at the head of one of the classes. We will call one class No. 1, and the other No. 2. The first player in class No. 1 throws a bag to the first player in class No. 2, who throws the bag to the second player of class No. 1, who throws the bag to the second player of class No. 2, who in turn throws to the third player of class No. 1, and so the bag passes to the foot of the class. But one bag is not allowed to make the trip alone ; one follows another in rapid succession. In this game the bags are thrown from the chest with both hands, from the position seen in Fig. 1. 194 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 25. — The whole company now divide into trios, each trio playing with three bags, standing as represented in Fig. 18. Each person has a Fig. 18. and throws it to the player at his right hand, and at the same time catches the bag thrown from the player at his left. The players should stand four feet apart. Each player must look constantly at the one from whom he receives the bags, and never for a moment at the one to whom he throws. If you forget this rule the bags will soon fall to the floor. No. 26. — Same as the last, except the bags are passed in the opposite way. No. 27. — The company again divide into couples, and each couple plays with two, three, or four bags. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 195 A throws a bag with his right hand to his partner B, who catches it with the left hand, and immedi- ately changes it to the right, throws it back to A, who catches it with his left, and, changing it to his right, throws it back again to B. Fig. 19. Two, Fig.' 19. three, four, or five bags can be made to perform this circle between the two players. The bag, as in nearly all the other bag exercises, should be thrown from the chest, not tossed from the lap. No. 28. — Same as the last, except the bags are thrown with the left, and caught with the right hand. No. 29. — Now the players stand in two classes again, six feet apart, and the players in each class six feet from each other. Upon the word the first 196 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. player in each class seizes a bag and runs to the second player, who carries it to the third, who in turn rushes to the fourth, and so on to the foot of the class. But one bag does not go alone. One at a time the whole six, ten, or twenty are hurried onward. After reaching the foot of the class, instantly, without a signal, they are sent back to the head of the class in the same way. The class which first has its bags on the chair at the head of the class counts one in the game. It will not be difficult for the ingenious teacher to add indefinitely to the number of these bag exercises ; but the games above, in the order in which they are given, have proved most satisfactory to us. THE BEAN-BAG EXERCISES. The best material for a bean-bag is* strong bed- ticking. For young children it should, before sew- ing, be eight inches square ; for ladies, ten inches ; for ladies and gentlemen exercising together, twelve inches. Sew with strong linen or silk thread, doub- led, nearly three quarters of an inch from the edge, leaving a small hole at one corner to pour in the beans. Fill the bags three quarters full. If used daily, once in two weeks they should be emptied and washed, while the beans are rinsed. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 197 Otherwise they will fill your lungs and eyes with dust. Without this thorough cleanliness bean-bag games will prove a nuisance. These bags have usually been kicked in the corner when not in use, or thrown about at pleasure by the wild pupils. They should never be used ex- cept under the immediate eye of the leader. When thus protected and managed, the bag exercises will prove a source of permanent interest, and capital muscle-training. With the bag games alone, an ear- nest teacher can maintain a perpetual, living in- terest in the gymnastic department of any school. 198 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. PEECUSSION. No. 1. — It is well to conclude your work. in the Gymnastic Hall, each lesson, by percussion. The pupils are arranged in couples. At a signal they take the position seen in Fig. 1. The music is rapid. The percussion occupies a whole strain. In- stantly at the end of the strain they turn their faces in the opposite direction, and the percussion is repeated upon the other person. Kg. 1. No. 2. — Percussion as in Fig. 2. Eeverse and repeat. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 199 Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 200 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. No. 3. — Percussion as in Fig. 3. Eeverse and repeat. And now on the left side, the person per- cussed bending towards the right. It is perhaps an improvement, where the two sexes exercise together, to have the last two exer- cises with faces towards each other. Fig. 4. No. 4. — Percussion across the very upper part of the chest. Fig. 4. No. 5. — Percussion across the small of the back. Fig. 5. At the next lesson the percussion may be devoted to the arms, or again, at another lesson, to the shoul- ders above, in front, and behind. And so this per- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 201 Fig. 5. cussion may be varied from day to day. It is al- ways interesting and always valuable. There are few weaknesses within that are not lessened or cured by percussion.' I think it wise to close the exercises of each lesson in this way. Frequently this slapping may be practised by each pupil upon himself. In this case the blows will be confined in great part to the chest and stomach. Percussion upon and about the pit of the stomach is particularly valuable. A physician in New York acquired at one time wide fame for the cure of dyspepsia. One condi- tion which he imposed upon every patient was pro- found secrecy. A grave clergyman with whom I 9* 202 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. afterwards became acquainted was treated by this famous dyspepsia doctor. He was taken through one room, down a flight of stairs, through a long hall, up another flight of stairs, turned about, down, up, around, and through, till a small garret was reached, in which he was required to make a sol- emn promise never to reveal the secret of his treat- ment. But after the death of the wonderful doctor a number of his patients thought themselves ab- solved, and published the secret of the cure. Of course most people were astonished to learn that it consisted of slapping the stomach and abdomen. Wonderful cures were certainly performed ; hun- dreds were restored, and the doctor made a large fortune. The soreness of muscle which the first exercises produce is greatly relieved by percussing the sore places. Aching backs, sides, 'stomachs, and chests are all at once relieved, and in not a few cases the difficulty is entirely removed by this simple treatment. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 203 MODES OF WALKING. As walking is the most common exercise about the school, I have thought it wise to say something of the various positions in walking. There are many faults, and mischievous ones. Fig. 1 is the worst of the false positions. The pupil may^ with his hands thus locked behind, draw his shoulders back ; but if you will watch a school of one hundred Fig. 1. pupils as they march along, with arms thus placed, you will observe that not one of them doe% carry the head and shoulders erect. 204 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 2 displays another unhealthy position. With the arms thus folded, the respiration is checked, and the shoulders drawn forward. If the reader will Fig. 2. stand erect, shoulders and head well drawn back, his arms by his side ; then fold them across the chest in front, and carefully observe the change in the posi- tion of the shoulders, and in his ability to inflate his lungs, he will clearly see how this attitude cramps the respiratory function. Experimenters have proved that the amount of air which the lungs can take in at a single inspiration is greatly lessened when the arms are thus folded. Fig. 3 is a good position, opening the chest, and securing a good attitude of the spine. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 205 Fig. 4 is somewhat unseemly, but, in a physiologi- cal aspect, the best possible position for the pupil's Fig. 3. arms. It would do much, if practised five minutes, two or three times a day, with the head well drawn back, to strengthen the muscles of the spine, and particularly those of the neck, whose weakness per- mits the head to droop. This drooping of the head is almost universal among Americans, especially among American women. I commend this bit of muscular training to the consideration of teachers. Carrying the hands in a muff, or clasped in front, at the waist, so common and constant among ladies, is an unphysiological habit. The arms should be carried at the side, and swung. I think taste as well 206 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 4. as physiology demands this. That peculiar waddling whitjh women exhibit when moving rapidly is the result of this joining the hands in front. Let any gentleman who would study the effects of this false position of the arms experiment upon himself, and he will be satisfied that the usual and fashionable manner in which ladies carry their arms in walking spoils the gait and contracts the chest. Swinging the arms is a most important part of the exercise of walking. To undertake it with the arms folded, or the hands in a muff, is to spoil it, both in the aspect of beauty and usefulness. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 207 MUTUAL-HELP EXERCISES. In the development of a series of exercises bear- ing this title, I have been much interested during the last two or three years. With the exception of the exercises with the rings, there is in the New System of Gymnastics, as in all other systems heretofore in vogue, a deficiency in the means of training the extensor muscles. For example, in the old-fashioned system of German Gymnastics, the observer has not failed to notice that the exercises were confined almost exclusively to the flexor .muscles ; so that persons excelling in that system .have such a preponderance of flexor strength that they become round-shouldered, while every other part of the person loses its symmetrical proportions. As remarked in another place, one great desideratum in a system of physical training is the introduction of means for the equable devel- opment of the two great sets of muscles, — flexors^ and extensors. This necessity, which has impressed every thoughtful physical educator, has suggested the Mutual-Help Exercises. In these the flexors enjoy abundant opportunity. Another advantage is found in the circumstance 208 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. that no apparatus is required, and that the exer- cises may be practised in the narrowest aisles of a crowded school-room. Like the ring exercises, they give equal opportunity for the strongest and weakest in the class. If the pupils are at all well mated, the strongest have all they can wish, and the weakest never have too much. These exercises I have usually employed with three persons in each group, but think it better to illustrate them here with two persons. They may be practised to music, the same as other exercises of the New System. We always employ music in their use. For the sake of distinguishing the pupils, we di- vide them into the positive and the negative. The person executing a movement is known as i\\Q posi-- tive ; the person resisting his effort, as the negative. When, for example, the positive draws his hand from the hanging at the side position up into his arm- pit, the negative must always seize the positive by the wrist to resist that movement ; and when the hand ' of the positive reaches the armpit, and he is about to ppush it back again to the first position, the negative must close his hand over the clenched fist to resist the return. Tliis rule is a general one. When the positive is using the flexors, the negative must seize his wrist and resist ; and when the positive uses his extensor muscles, the negative must change his THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 209 hand from the wrist to the clenched fist, applying the palm of the hand over the knuckles. EXERCISES. No. 1. — Standing in couples, negative two feet behind the right shoulder of positive, on the first beat of the music, negative steps forward close to the right shoulder of positive. On the second beat, negative seizes the right wrist of positive with his right hand, and places his open left hand on top of the shoulder of positive. Positive devotes the third and fourth beat to drawing his fist slowly and steadily into his armpit, negative resisting. At the close of the fourth beat, negative changes his right hand from the wrist to the fist of positive ; and dur- ing the fifth and sixth beat, positive pushes his hand back to the first position, hanging by the side, negative resisting. (Fig. 1.) On the seventh beat, negative steps back to his original position ; and on the eighth beat they face about and are ready for a repetition of the exercise ; the parties having changed places, positive having become negative and negative positive. When another strain of music has been occupied with a repetition of the exercise already described, the same exercise is repeated on the left side with both parties. Fig. 1 may assist the pupil in Qomprehending this exercise. 210 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 1. No. 2. — Precisely the same steps are gone through with in No. 2 as in No. 1, except that the hand is drawn from the position over the shoulder (Fig. 2) down to the top of the shoulder. This is repeated with both persons on both sides. No. 3. — This exercise is a repetition of the preced- ing two, except that the arm of Mr. Positive is held horizontal at the side. When the arm is bent, the elbow is kept backwards, so that the fist is brought to the front of the shoulder, and then, as before, pushed back. to the horizontal at the side. (Fig- 3.) This is executed on both sides by both parties. No. 4. — Same position as the last, but the arm of positive is to be carried from the horizontal po- THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 211 Fig. 2. rig. 3. 212 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. sition at tlie side up to the perpendicular, over the shoulder, without bending the elbow, and back again to the horizontal at the side. No. 5. — In this exercise positive holds the arm out horizontally in front, negative seizes as usual, and positive bends the forearm upon the arm, bring- ing the fist to the top of tlie shoulder, and back again to the horizontal in front, negative resisting. (Kg. 4.) Fig. 4. No. 6. — In this exercise, positive holds the arm out horizontal in front, negative seizes as usual, and positive carries the arm from this horizontal in front position to the perpendicular over the shoulder, with- out bending the elbow, and back again. (Fig. 5.) No. 7. — The position in this exercise is shown THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 213 in Fig. 6, and is like that in Fig. 3, except that positive has a different position of the feet ; and the Fig. 6. 214 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. exercise ^is like that shown in Fig. 3, and described in No. 3, except that when the arm of positive is bent, the fist is brought to the top of the shoulder, instead of to the front of it. No. 8. — This exercise begins with both the arms of positive thrust directly upward over the shoulder. The arms are carried down sideways to the hori- zontal position, and brought back to the perpendic- ular again, the negative resisting. (Fig. 7.) No. 9. — The parties exercising take the position - of the feet seen in Fig. 8. On the first beat they THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 215 join right hands. On the second beat, the one draws back his arm into the position seen in the cut, the other giving way for the purpose ; the third and fourth beat is occupied by one in pulling the hand of the other into the position shown in Fig. 9. During the fifth and sixth beats, the position is changed back into that seen in Fig. 8. On the seventh beat, the parties both rise to a position in Fig. 8. which both of their legs are straight, and the hands hanging between them, the feet not having changed their places on the floor. On the eighth beat they let go hands, draw the forward foot back to the side of the other foot, and stand facing each other at the distance of two and a half or three feet. Now they begin with the other foot and hand. 216 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Fig. 9. No. 10. — With the same order as to music as ill the last exercise, they join on the first beat one hand, on the second the other, midway between them, as in Fig. 10. On the third and fourth beat, one Fig. 10. THE NEW GYMNASTltiS. " 2l7 of tlie parties spreads the arms to nearly a horizon- tal position at the sides (Fig. 11), the other resist- ^i> Fig. 11. ing. On the fifth and sixth beat, the arms are brought back again to the position seen in Fig. 10. On the seventh beat, the forward feet are withdrawn, and placed by the side of the back feet. On the eighth beat the hands let go. Then the exercise is repeated with the other foot forward. No. 11. — Negative stands immediately behind positive, and puts his hands upon the back of posi- tive's head. Half a strain is devoted to letting positive down, through the position seen in Fig. 12, into the position seen in Fig. 13 ; the other half- strain in raising positive into the upright posture again. Positive folds his arms, and keeps the body stiff and straight, not even allowing the neck to 10 218 THE NEW 'GYMNASTICS. Fig. 12. Pig. 13. bend. For persons with weak necks this is a par- ticularly valuable exercise. I have intimated that these exercises have, in my own Institution, more frequently been executed with THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 219 three persons in a group. In Fig. 14 may be seen an illustration of the attitude in No. 1. The ingen- Fig. 14. ious teacher will have no difficulty in making the changes from one party to another very interesting, and very striking in military precision and effect. It will be readily seen that the number of these exercises may be multiplied almost indefinitely. I have used more than half a hundred of them, and would certainly find no difficulty in multiplying the number to two hundred ; therefore, the few I have given are not designed as an exhaustive pres- entation of this department in Gymnastics, but as suggestive. 220 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. PIN KUNNING. Some years ago I saw in a newspaper an account of a curious feat attempted by a farmer's boy. Some one offered him a dollar if, putting one hundred potatoes a certain number of feet apart he would bring them all one by one, and put them in the basket within an hour. The boy was confident he could win the dollar, but found upon trial that the time required to gather his potatoes would be many hours. This feat suggested to my mind the game known as Pin Running, which has for several years con- stituted one exercise of the New Gymnasium. The game may be described in a few words, while the cut will serve to illustrate it. The company is divided, by choosing sides, into two classes, and the first two, the captains, take their places, each in his own circle drawn with chalk or black paint on the floor. Two rows of pins, gen- erally three in number, extend down the hall. The teacher gives the word, " One, two, three ! "' Upon the word "three," they run for the first pin, bring it back and set it up in the circle. Then the second, and finally the third. Whoever has the three pins standing in the circle first, wins one point in the game. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 221 Tally may be kept by setting iip the gymnastic clubs belonging to the hall in a conspicuous place, where both classes may see at a glance the standing of the game. 222 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. This game is the occasion always of great cheer- ing and excitement, but frequently produces very lame hips and legs, so great is the effort required to stop and turn round quickly, especially if the floor be slippery. It is well for beginners to exercise care in the practice of pin running. If the class is one of much experience, the game may be varied by in- creasing the number of pins, or by substituting for the last pin a small boy, or by making it a rule of the game that the pins shall not only be brought from their outstanding places and placed in the ring, but be immediately carried back again to their out- standing places. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 323 MARCHES In the New Gymnastics we have a great many marches. I will describe a few of the figures, and, from the hints thus given, the teacher will have no difficulty in multiplying them almost indefinitely. The pupils march in twos, arm in arm, around the outside of the hall, as in the ordinary promenade. Next they skip with the chassez movement. Now they leap, or run hand in hand, with short steps or •long ones. Now they march down through the centre of the hall instead of around the outside of it ; and, arriving at the end, they separate, and re- turn to the other end of the hall in single column on either side. The lines through the centre and at the sides should be perfectly straight, the pupils at equal distances apart ; the corners should be turned squarely, and all the movements marked by the same precision, energy, and dash that belong to the dumb-bells or rin<>;s. The individual bear- ing of each pupil is important. The arms when disengaged are on the hips, the elbows and shoulders well drawn back, head erect, and chin in against the neck. Now, the partners joining hands at the head of the hall, the following figures may be executed : — 2^ THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Leaping. — Short steps and long ones. The same backwards. Leaping diagonally to the side, left and right alternately. This movement may be executed with short or long steps at pleasure. The same may be repeated, hopping twice on either side. The same four times on either side. Skipping. — ■ Skip through the whole length of the hall with the chassez step. « Repeat tliis chassez step through the hall, but, joining hands with your partner, extend your arms to their utmost reach, those in front being held diagonally upward, those behind diagonally down- ward. ^ Repeat the last exercise, but after skipping four beats face to face with your partner, suddenly, (keeping hold of hands,) turn back to back, keeping right on with the chassez step, and again for four beatfe turn face to face, and again back to back, and so alternate through the whole length of the hall. This is a somewhat difficult movement, but will give much satisfaction when fairly accomplished. Again skip the chassez step through the hall, but, instead of joining hands with your partner, skip face to face with him, clapping hands four beats, and then suddenly turn back to back, keeping right on in the same course, and skip four beats in silence. Then again face to face, clapping four beats, and THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 225 then back to back in silence, and so through the hall. The last exercise may be varied by clapping while back to back, •or clapping all the time, or remaining silent all the time. Agahi, skip down through the hall, joining only the right hand with your partner. This may be pleasantly varied by one of the parties whirling as you go on, allowing his hand to turn in the hand of his partner. Marching. — Now you may march in couples, join- ing one hand and marching upon the tips of your toes, and the next time through the hall upon your heels, and now upon one heel and one toe, and again upon the other heel and the other toe, and now with the toes turned square out so that the inside of the foot is pushed forward, and now with the toes turned inward so that the outside of the foot is pushed forward, and again, with one leg much shorter than the other, the short one. being held stiffly bent, and now without bending the knees at all ; and again witli the knees constantly bent through the march, so that the person is a foot or more shorter tlian the usual height. Now join hands with your partner and pull, marching through the hall, first one hand and then the other. In order to change the hands it is well to change sides at the ends of the hall, so that he 10* o 226 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. who marches down the right side of the hall this time will the next time march down the left side of the hall. It is hardly necessary to say that good order in the hall forbids that you should pull hard enough to draw your partner off the straight line. Again, march through the hall, pushing your part- ner. In order to push to the best advantage, put the palm of your hand against the palm of your partner's hand, and, interlocking the fingers, raise the hands a foot or more above your heads, and lean heavily towards each other. The last two marches may be done in skipping, or even in mod- erate leaping, though this requires a good deal of practice. Again, as the head or leading couple, who give the cue to all who come after them, join hands at the head of the hall, they suddenly stop, face each other, and join the ends of their fingers, with the arms held high between them, so that they make an arch. The second couple immediately skip un- der this arch and place themselves by the sides of the first couple, and put their arms up in the same position. The third couple do the same, and so on through all the couples. As soon as all the couples are thus placed, the head couple immediately join hands and chassez down under the entire arch. The second couple do the same thing, and so on till all the couples have skipped through and return to the THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 227 head of the hall, marching in single file on the outside. Arriving at the head of the hall, instead of join- ing hands with your partners, remain eight feet apart, and march down through the hall thus sep- arated. When the two lines are in position, join hands, and step quickly forward towards each other four beats, then step back again four beats. But the head couple, instead of retreating with the lines, join hands and skip rapidly down through the re- treating lines, makhig their escape from the lines before the approaching lines catch them. On the • second approach ^the second couple join hands, and repeat what the first couple have just accomplished. If the line be a long one, to prevent long waiting it is well to have two couples or three couples join hands and skip down at each approach of the two lines. On going from the head to the foot of the hall, instead of separating from your partner, and return- ing to the head of the hall in single file, the first couple may pass off on one side, and the next couple pass off on the other side, and thus you return to the head of the hall in couples, instead of single file. On arriving at the head of the hall you join hands, and march down through the hall four abreast. And while thus abreast you can execute almost every figure which has been described above. 228 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. A pleasing variation may be introduced in this wise : when hopping sideways, for example, the couples may let go hands, and tlie couple on one side leap to the right, while the other couple leaps to the left, and so on. The following series of figures are adapted to four abreast : — On arriving at the head of the hall and presenting yourselves four abreast, the two inside persons join hands, face to face, with the arms extended, being thrust as far in front as they can reach diagonally upward, and behind diagonally downward.^ The outside persons join hands with no one, but they first turn their backs to their partners, and hold their arms parallel to the arms of their partners, skipping in this position four beats, when the origi- nal couples or partners join hands, face to face, keeping the arms in the same position. They skip four beats thus, and then the arrangement at the beginning is resumed, and so they alternate through the whole length of the hall. A pleasing variation in the last figure is the fol- lowing : Instead of the two inside persons joining hands, let the partners join hands with each other, and skip down the hall with their arms extended, as in the last figure, but let one couple have the arms in front held diagonally upward, the arms be- hind diagonally downward, and the other couple THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 229 hold the arms in front diagonally downward, and the arms behind diagonally upward. At the end of four beats let the arms be reversed. The effect is very queer and pleasing. Now suppose that the two lines of couples have returned up the outside of the hall, and come to- gether four abreast to go down the centre of the hall. Let the two inside persons suddenly turn face to face, raise the hands high and make an arch, the two outside persons join hands and chas- sez under the arch four short steps, and immedi- ately raise their hands to make an arch, the first couple skipping under their arms, and so continue ; the second and third quartette doing the same thing, and so through the whole class. This produces a very pleasing effect. As the two lines of couples return on the out- side of the hall, instead of joining hands in the centre four abreast to march down the hall, let one line of couples make an arch with their ^rms, and the other line of couples chassez or skip under that arch, and then they in turn make an arch, and the other line of couples skip under their arms, and so continue at pleasure. Again, march down the liall in two lines of couples, the lines being eight feet apart. When all the pupils are in these two parallel lines, suddenly stop, and face towards the centre. Of course there 230 THE NE\7 GYMNASTICS. will be a double row of persons on either side. Now let the two heads of the inside lines join hands, and leap down through the centre, followed by each succeeding couple. When they reach the end of the hall, let them separate and return just outside the lines left standing. Let the inside lines repeat the figure and return to the outside of the first line. Now the heads of the four lines may join hands, and leap down through the centre and re- turn the same way. And thus the ingenious teacher may diversify and vary this at pleasure. March down the hall precisely as in the last move- ment. Let the two inside lines join hands, making a circle. Outside lines the same. Now let the in- side lines skip in the circle to the left four beats, and the outside lines at the same time skip to the right four beats. Instantly stopping with a smart stamp, let them reverse, bringing themselves into the same position that they were in before they began to skip in the circle. Now let the arms of the out- side circle fall over the heads of the inside circle, forming what in dancing is called a basket. Now four steps to the centre of the circle and four retreat. Again four steps to the centre and four retreat. Now the foot and head of the lines drawing back a little and making straight lines, the circle exercise to close by repeating the last figure. Only a part of the marches and skippings are THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 231 given above. Some of the most interesting have not been given, because of the difficulty in describ- ing them. As in our series of gymnastic exercises for the upper part of the body, so in these the interest and beauty of the exercises depend upon sharp con- trasts. The movements most differing from each other should be brought into close proximity. The order in which they have been given therefore is not the best one. The enterprising teacher will very soon learn the best modes of combination. DRESS IN THE INTERVALS BETWEEN THE EXERCISES. After you have been in the Gymnasium- suffi- ciently long to work earnestly, you will find, at the end of ten minutes' vigorous play of the muscles, that you are in a profuse perspiration. To sit down, without additional clothing, and wait for t.he leader's call to the next series, is to secure a cold and sore muscles. Every person should take into the Gym- nasium a shawl, a cloak, or an overcoat, — a shawl or blanket is perhaps best. As soon as you are done with one series of movements, wliile resting and chatting, you must wrap yourself in the warm shawl. We ought long since to have learned the 232 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. wisdom of this by observing the training of horses : at the close of an effort, no matter though it be in August, they always cover the animal with a warm blanket. If you would secure the best results, treat yourself in the same way. LADIES' SHORT DRESSES. There is one serious drawback upon the value of the gymnastic costume as it is generally managed. Ladies wear only one thin cotton stocking over the leg below the knee. Accustomed to wear long skirts, which protect this part of the leg from the atmos- phere, they take off this protection, and then wear only one thickness of thin cotton. This is a great mistake, and ought to be corrected in every Gym- nasium. With the many sorts of beautiful leggings now in the market, there is no excuse for such exposure. Those clotli leggings and gaiters that fit the whole leg accurately, and which are made for tlie person after a measure, and have rows of orna- mented buttons, are very pretty, and perhaps, on the whole, are the best protection that can be adopted, though the knit legging with a strap under the shoe answers a very good purpose. THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 233 SHOES. You have determined to secure a muscular, vig- orous, symmetrical body. To this end, you have entered upon a course of gymnastics. In all your exercises in the Gymnasium, as well as in the hun- dred and one movements which you daily practise, you must use your feet. They must support the weight of the body, and must enter largely into every effort you make with reference to its training. If the feet play this pivotal part, they must not be distorted, they must have liberty. The foot has not only a certain length but a cer- tain width ; both are indispensable to complete loco- motion. The width of the average woman's foot is three inches and three quarters. The width of the man's foot is half or three quarters of an inch more. Now it happens that the average width of a woman's sole is two inches and a quarter instead of three inches and three quarters ; so that the sole is an inch and a half narrower than the foot. The nude foot, placed upon the ordinary fashionable shoe sole with the upper removed, would press down over the sides of the sole to the floor. Cruel fashion, not less insanely than in China, has determined that women shall move and balance upon this narrow sole, — that the foot shall never by any chance spread out to its natural width. Tliat half-crippled gait, 234 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. that unsteadiness of movement, that tenderness of the joints of the foot, those corns, that distortion of the toes, the large toe driven upon the others so that the joint at the base of the large toe is thrust out at an angle, in brief, that well-known, compressed, distorted, inflamed condition of the foot wellnigh universal among women, originates in those narrow soles. What I have said of woman's shoe is to al- most an equal extent true of man's shoe. The gait, the bearing, the whole movements, would be so changed by the adoption of a broad sole, giving complete support to every part of the foot, that, were it once introduced, nothing could ever drive it out. When you visit the shoemaker, he will tell you, " 0, I always make good broad soles." But you must not forget that this is mere talk. He means nothing by it. If you really want a wide sole, manage in this way. Ask the shoemaker to let you stand on a sheet of paper with your foot covered only by the stocking ; and, resting your whole weight upon that foot, let him mark around it thus spread out. Take that paper home with you, first having assured the shoe- maker, that, if the sole is one eighth of an inch nar- rower than that mark, you will not take the shoes. There will be no difficulty. He will make them right the first time. Now, with this broad sole, the THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 235 upper may be quite snug ; and the foot will really seem smaller than it does when crowded out over the narrow sole of the present fashionable shoe. For gymnastic exercises these broad soles are in- dispensable. MODERATION IN EXERCISE. Just as overworking the brain, producing head- ache and partial inflammation, is unwise, and al- ways defeats itself, just so working too hard in the Gymnasium is a losing game. Begin with the performance of those moderate and gentle move- ments which are similar to many of the ordinary movements of life. Commencing with these, add gradually the more difficult and trying efforts. In two or three weeks, if you are careful to avoid taking cold after your exercises, you will be able to work pretty hard. In two or three months it will be very difficult to find any attitude, or to make any effort, that will produce the least soreness of muscle. Most persons in beginning gymnastic exercises imagine that the good will be just in proportion to their efforts ; and hence, through lameness and pain, many become discouraged, and abandon the work. 236 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. * SORENESS AFTER EXERCISE. If, during your first week in the Gymnasium, your muscles are sore, use arnica, which should be rubbed over the skin ; and if a joint be particular- ly tender, it may be wrapped in a cloth saturated with arnica, and surrounded by a thick flannel wrap- per, which should be allowed to remain during the night. This will very soon relieve any soreness which the exercise may produce. BATHING. All persons ambitious of the best results in physi- cal training may use a daily bath in cold water. The best hour is generally on rising in the morning. Procure a bathing mat, or make one by sewing a rope into a piece of rubber cloth four or five feet in diameter. On springing out of bed, spread this mat on the floor close by your wash-bowl, which should contain three or four quarts of water. Standing in the centre of your mat with bathing mittens upon your hands (the bathing mittens are simply little bags made of an old towel), dip into the bowl, and apply the water rapidly to every part of the body. The bathing mittens will carry from the wash-bowl to your body considerable water. Apply to the chest, back and arms, and to every part of the body, THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 237 as rapidly as your hands can move. Now, first with a soft towel, and then with a rough one, wipe the body quickly, and with that vigor and earnestness which men display in wrestling or boxing. The feet should receive hard friction, and for a moment, standing with the bottoms of the feet upon a seam in the carpet, twisit them from side to side while they sustain the weight of the body. Nothing will warm them so quickly, while the heat thus secured will continue for some time. THE WARM BATH. Once a week, on going to bed at night, bathe the body with warm water and soap, applying the soap freely. The morning cold bath will not cleanse the skin sufficiently. I may add, that it is a good prac- tice to use more or less soap with every morning- bath, especially if you have but little exercise, and therefore perspire but little. FOOD. I HAVE always found my own liealth promoted by eating but two meals a day. It does not matter much about the hours ; eight and two are good ones. At -one time for a whole 238 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. year I ate breakfast at seven and dinner at half past twelve, and found the results satisfactory. If you should take your breakfast at seven and your dinner at four or five, you would flourish. What is needed is a certain amount of nourishing food, well digested. I once knew a man who ate but once in twen- ty-four hours, and this meal was always taken on going to bed at night. He was a farmer, worked very hard, and was one of the toughest men I have ever known. I had in my service for some time, as a teacher of gymnastics, a gentleman who is now prominently . identified with health-reform in Ne.w York City. He ate but one meal a day, and that always at noon. His endurance was remarkable. It matters very little when the food is taken, if it be taken at the usual time or times. But I have no doubt that two meals a day are better than three. If, however, for any reason, you should continue to take three meals a day, the last meal should be a very light one. I advise that you use for breakfast oatmeal por- ridge, cracked wheat, brown bread and butter, baked apples or pears, or stewed or dried fruit of any kind (prunes are especially healthy), and, if a hard labor- ing man, use a little steak or chop. Drink cold water, or, what is better, while eating drink nothing at all. For dinner use a piece of beef or mutton as large THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 239 as your hand, with potatoes and other vegetables, and brown bread. If a workingman, you can take gravies or butter with your meat and vegetables. Take no dessert at all, except it be fruit. Generally speaking, when the moment for the dessert arrives, you have already taken as much food as you can well digest. Don't eat too much. Excessive eating is not only common, it is almost universal. Of course, an un- due portion of the nerve force is given to the stom- ach. If we give ourselves up to eating, the system soon learns the habit of receiving and disposing of a very large amount of food ; but it does this at the expense of brain and muscle. The quantity of food one really needs is much smaller than most people suppose. You will be surprised, if you make an experiment extending over six months, to find how little food suffices to keep brain and muscle in the highest working condition. I believe that no vice among men subtracts so much from their physical and intellectual vitality as this excessive alimentation. Are you fat, and would you like to reduce your weight ? Take less food. Adopt none of these new- fangled theories about kinds of food. The sorts gen- erally found upon our tables constitute a good and natural variety, and you need not depart from it to reduce your flesh. 240 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Suppose your horse were too fat, how would you reduce his weight ? Of course, by giving him less food. Just as surely as such cutting off of the sup- plies * in the case of your horse would lessen his weight, just so surely it will lessen yours. I know what you say about this, — that you eat less than others, and, no matter how little you eat, you still grow fatter and fatter. This is all a mistake. If you reduce your rations one quarter, and after a month reduce it one eighth or one fourth more, and so continue for six months, you will succeed in re- ducing yourself to any weight you may reasonably desire, I have tried this myself. I have advised scores of friends to try it. I never knew a patient effort to fail. In my own case I have observed the following : Ordinarily my weight is two hundred pounds ; but I have from time to time seen good reason for reducing it to one hundred and eighty, and have always succeeded in effecting this reduc- tion in about one month, without any inconvenience. During the first two or three days, there is a little hunger ; but after that there is even less of it than when I am indulging in full feeding. But here comes a lean man. He says it is easy enough to make fat folks lean, but what shall lean people do to become fat ? This is not so easy, but nevertheless is generally quite manageable. These are the rules : Go to bed at nine o'clock, and rise in THE NEW GYMKASTICS. 241 tlie morraiig at six. On going to bed, drink one or two tumblers of cold water. Do the same on rising in the morning. Eat such food as I have advised above in pretty generous quantities. Lie down and sleep an hour in the middle of the day. Bathe frequently. Breathe a good atmosphere, especially while sleeping. Repeat all the funny stories you can hear, and laugli heartily over them yourself. Seek jolly society. Keep up a jolly frame of mind. Practise moderate exercise in the open air. DRINKS. If you would acquire the highest muscular' con- ditions, avoid tea, coffee, and other warm drinks ; use nothing but cold water, and this even in very moderate quantities while you are eating. Don't help the food into your stomach with any fluid other than the saliva. It will be recollected by those who have read the details of the training which boxers, pedestrians, boat-racers, and other similar persons practise, that warm drinks are al- ways avoided. It is impossible to reach the best results, either physical or mental, while using tea and coffee. The best way to secure the water necessary to carry on the functions of the internal economy is 11 p 242 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. to drink freely, on rising in the morning, say one or two tumblers, and the same on lying down at night. CONDIMENTS. To the gymnastic student I would say, you may take with your food salt, pepper, spice, ginger, cin- namon, nutmegs, cloves, mustard, oil, or other ordi- nary condiments, in very moderate quantity. All of these are more favorable to physical development than sugar. Use sugar and syrup, if at all, with great moderation. If you are determined to reach the best results, abandon them. THE NEW GYMNASTICS INSTRUMENT IN EDUCATION. A Lecture delivered before the British College of Preceptors, London, March 7, 1864, by Moses Coit Tyler, M. A. Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen : — The mind of Lord Bacon, brooding over and metliodizing all knowledge within the reach of man, has indicated the boundaries and the relations of physical culture, in the following sentences which I extract from " The Advancement of Learning " : '' The good of a man's body is of four kinds, — health, beauty, strength, and pleasure." Hence the knowledge that " concerneth his body is medicine, or art of cure ; art of decoration, which is called cos- metique ; art of activity, which is called athletique ; and art voluptuary, which Tacitus truly calls ' erudi- tus luxus.^ " And after several paragraphs in ex- position of the first two branches of bodily knowl- edge, he continues: "For athletique, I take the subject of it largely, for any point of ability where- unto the body of man may be brought, whether it be of activity or of patience ; whereof activity hath two 244 THE NEW GYMNASTICS. parts, strength and swiftness ; and patience likewise hath two parts, hardness against want and extrem- ities, and endurance of pain or torment Of these things the practices are known, but the philosophy that concerneth them is not much inquired into." I am quite sure that I do not need to consume the time of my auditors on this occasion with any labored arguments to convince them of the importance of physical culture. Certainly I may be allowed to take this for granted, — that all intelligent educators in this age are thoroughly persuaded that the body needs education as truly as does the mind ; that this process of bodily education should commence and continue with that of the mind ; and perhaps I may be indulged in the expression of the opinion, that if the general practice does not yet equal the general belief upon this subject, it is owing to certain in- evitable obstructions presented by the current meth- ods of carrying this belief into effect, rather than to any lack of sincerity in the belief. If those methods were more practicable, they would be more practised. At the same time, it has seemed to me that there might be a real advantage gained if I were to make, as the basis of my address this evening, a very brief sketch of the historical and literary antecedents of this important department of education, thereby in- dicating both the opinions and the proceedings of THE NEW GYMNASTICS. 245 otlier ages and other nations upon the subject. I shall paint this sketch as a sort of consecrating back- ground to my picture of " The New Gymnastics as an Instrument in Education." In searching for the first developments of the art of gymnastics, we must be content to go to that small but sacred spot of earth whither we are ob- liged to look for the germs of all our science, art, and song. For, although traces of a crude athletic practice are to be found among the Hebrews and many of the early Asiatic tribes, it was in Greece that gymnastic cultivation first received that system- atic attention which raised it to its true rank among the liberal arts. The Greek education was divided into two branches, which comprehended their entire disci- plinary method either in youth or maturity ; and these two branches were, gymnastics for the body, and music (by which they meant the topics presided over by all the nine Muses, such as history, poetry, mathematics, painting, logic, rhetoric,