HOW TO GET STRONG
far more than they have done anything else; and who do not think much about their looks; or have no spur to develop evenly, the defects rowing leaves stand out. Notice in the cut facing p. 20 (Fig. 2) the flat and slab-sided, almost hollow, look about the upper chest and front shoulder, and the small upper arms; and compare these with the full and well-rounded make of the figure whose body is sketched on the cover. It will not take long to determine which has the better front of the chest; or which is likely to so carry that chest as to ward off tendencies to throat and lung troubles. Yet these are the most famous oarsmen America has yet produced;—four out of nine brothers,—who rowed down the best two professional crews England could send; and for twenty-seven years hold the rowing-championship of the world against all comers. Better proof could not be presented of the effect of a great amount of rowing alone; and of the very limited exercise it brings to those muscles which are not called on. But do they not teach them now to row with straight backs? Well, Cornell and Yale both found the best men in England rowing on Henley water with backs far from straight. And the most brilliant oarsman of his age yet known in aquatic annals, Edward Hanlan Ten Eyck, a lad of 18, rowed down all comers on that same Henley course in July, 1897. Yet the best way to judge how he holds his back is to look at the picture, Fig. 3, facing p. 22. Would you call that a straight back? Or would hard rowing with it in that position likely make it straight?
After the student's rowing is over, and his college days are past; and he settles down to work with not nearly so much play in it; how does he find that rowing pays? Has it made him fitter than his fellows, who
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