HALF-BUILT BOYS
went into athletics with no such zeal and devotion, to stand life's wear and tear, especially when that life is to be spent mainly indoors? When, in later years, with new associations, business cares, and long, hard head-work; accompanied, as the latter nearly always is, by only partial inflation of the lungs; when all these get him out of the way of using his large back-muscles; he will find that their very size, and the long spell of warping forward which so much rowing gave the shoulders, tend more to weigh him forward than if he had never so developed them. Instead of benefiting his throat and lungs, this abnormal development often cramps them.
Here, then, is the case of a man who gave much time, thought, and labor to the severest test of his strength; and who had hoped to bring about staying-powers; and he comes out of it all, to begin his real race in life, no better fitted, perhaps not nearly so well fitted, for it as some of his comrades who did not spare half so much time to athletics. The other men, who worked less than he did, hit upon a sort which, instead of cramping their chests, expanded them; enlarging the lung-room; and so gave the heart, stomach, and other vital organs all the freest play.
If the ordinary play and exercise of the boy do not build and round him into a sound, well-made, and evenly balanced man; if the hardest work he has found, when left to himself to seek it, mostly to be paid for by quite an amount of money;—if these only leave him a half-developed man; can it not be seen at once that an improvement is wanted in his physical education?
Are we not behindhand, and far behindhand, then, in a matter of serious importance to the well-being of the people of our country? Do we not want some system of
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