The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, No. 06, June 1891: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, No. 06, June 1891: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
The Armitage Gymnasium, which we visit first, is declared by an expert
to be one of the most complete he has ever seen. Lads of all ages are
going through every form of exercise; here two or three are vaulting
the horse with a neatness incredible almost to those who have not seen
it; there another is working his way along the parallel bars; here
one stretches himself at length on the long incline, a machine used
for pulling up one's own weight, for strengthening the muscles and
broadening the chest; there another turns a nautical wheel or is doing
a mile or two on a home trainer. This last is calculated to inspire
more enthusiasm among the lads than any other athletic or gymnastic
feat. Ordinary home trainers, of course, have a dial which indicates
the distance ridden. In order that his boys, even in such a matter,
should be made as independent of other people's eyes, as it is the
object of the school to make them in all details of life, Dr. Campbell
has had fitted to the machine a bell which strikes at the completion of
every quarter of a mile. How this broad-shouldered, strong-limbed lad
astride it works away with might and main, bent, apparently, on making
a record; how keenly he enjoys the effort, and how utterly and happily
oblivious he seems of the fact that he is not as the majority of his
fellows are!
[Illustration: RINKING.]
From the boys' gymnasium let us make our way to the girls', where
roller-skating is going on. It is an apartment some 24 feet long by
some 18 wide. Here are a dozen or more girls moving on the tiny wheels
rapidly round and round. They touch neither the wall nor the seats by
the wall, whilst the immunity from collisions induces one to exclaim:
"Surely here we are not in the presence of the totally blind, whatever
may have been the case in the gymnasium." We are, indeed. But how is
it these sightless young ladies move so rapidly, and yet with a safety
and precision which might make their seeing sisters envious of their
skill? Solely by instinct and practice. When roller-skating was first
introduced, Dr. Campbell had electric bells ringing on the walls, but
he has now accustomed his pupils to do without these disturbing guides,
and for all the spectator can see they find no sort of inconvenience
from their reliance on their own senses. Here they go two and two,
three and three, hands locked in hands, with smiling faces bespeaking
infinite enjoyment. Nor does their accomplishment on the skates begin
and end in what we now see. They have been trained with the most
perfect care, and are capable of going through the most involved
manoeuvres. Those who observe them skating in lines, parting, wheeling,
crossing and recrossing each other's paths, may imagine that this sort
of performance is only possible in their own rink, but last year I had
a privileged opportunity, at St. James's Hall, of seeing that they
are as much under control in a strange place and in the presence of a
considerable public as in their own grounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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