HALF-BUILT BOYS
home; and their heights and ages. Now send to England and get the statistics of the boys of the same age who are good at hares-and-hounds, at football, and see the difference. In every girth, save height, there is little doubt which would show the better figures. Even in height, the article just quoted would find ground for calling our boys "undersized."
Cross to Germany; go to the schools where boys and their masters together, in vacation-days, sometimes walk two or three hundred miles, or even farther; in that land where the far-famed German Turners, by long training, show a strength and agility which are astounding; and try the tape-measure there. Is there any question what the result would be? When the sweeping work the Germans made of it in their war with France is called to mind; does it not look as if there was ground for the saying that it was the superior physique of the Germans which did the business?
When work is chosen that only sturdy limbs can do; and that work is gradually approached, and persistently stuck to, by-and-by the sturdy limbs come. But when all that these limbs are called on to do is light, jerky work; and there is none of the spur which youthful rivalry and pride in superior strength bring; what wonder is it that you do not find many strong legs and arms? For it is not always easy in the hurry of a match to so arrange your frame upon the ground that half a ton of iron,—or of more or less educated beef,—tumbling down on top of it, will not snap a bone or two!
Parents also must have noticed that often, around where they live, there is not one strong, efficient boy to lead on the rest; and show them the development which they might have and should have. Boys, like men, are fond of doing whatever they can do well; and
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