WHAT A GYMNASIUM MIGHT BE AND DO
until, at the end of the year, or often long before it, it is found that one arm is now as strong as the other, that the gain in girth at almost every measurement is nearly or all of an inch, and at some even two or more inches.
Suppose—a more important thing—a series of exercises, aimed directly to enlarge and strengthen the respiratory power, were given to all; and every one, also, had a few minutes each day of "setting up"; and other work aimed, not so much to add size and strength, as to make the crooked straight; to point out and insist on a proper carriage of the head; the neck; the shoulders; the arms, the whole trunk, and the knees; and to show each pupil what length of step best suited him; and which he ought to take.
Suppose that the director showed that he not only knew what to do all through; but how to do it; and how to interest his pupil in his work, and so promptly won the confidence of those he sought to instruct and benefit. Is there any question that each young man would soon make desirable progress?
What a benefit a gymnasium so conducted would be to any college or university! And yet almost any college, even of limited means, could afford it. Change the plan a little, and make the attendance by all students just as it is in other branches—just as it is at West Point in horseback-practice—compulsory. Give the director a salary adequate to secure a first-class man in his calling—not merely an accomplished gymnast, acrobat, boxer, or fencer, but an educated physician, the peer of any of his brother-members of the faculty; fond of his calling; fond of the field before him; thoroughly acquainted with the plainer kinds of gymnastics and of acrobatic work; and a good boxer; an instructor espe-
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