112

A WORD
WITH THE WOMEN

(By Elia W Peattie)

The Open Door has recently been given
a buggy, a horse, a fly net and a whip.
Unfortunately, all of these things are
useless without a harness. If there
should chance to be any one with an unused
harness, who would like to bestow
it where it would "fit it" so remarkably
well, the gift would be appreciated.

The record of the best sprinter of the
State Normal school was given the other
day in this paper as 100 years in 10 3/4
seconds. For the credit of the school
one ventures to make a correction. The
record was 9 3/4 seconds, 100 years, standing
start. Not bad, eh? With Iowa
ahead of the eastern colleges on runners,
the west is making headway in athletics.
Yale's trainer actually insulted Mr. Crim
the Iowa representative, in the hour of
his victory and the intercollegiate sports.
He accused him of not having told his
right name and of not being a college
man. The reason in which he founded
his suspicions were merely that the Iowa
boy had beaten Yale. It's not only insufferably
bad manners for Yale, but it
shows a stupidity. The strength and
activity of western men is known to
everyone---except, apparently, the trainer
of Yale. Lest some one should object
that this is not a woman's subject and
does not belong in this column, one hastens
to remark that it is a subject which
interests a woman very much.

The subject of athletics is always interesting
to women. They are not, in
spite of the futile attempts of the nineteenth
century to supplant physical
standards with intellectual ones, much
changed from the women of Greece or
of Rome. They like a stalwart sons, and
perhaps even the American woman has
few happier moments than when she
looks upon the perfectly developed body
of her baby son, and notes a breadth of
shoulder, swelling of the chest, a film
setting of the neck, and a free swing
to the dimpled arms and legs. She likes
to test this baby strength in all sorts of
curious ways, to let him hang by his
pretty arms, suspended like the prehensile
any of the African forest, she
loves to gently thump the little chest,
to roll and toss the pink body, to tug
with him playfully, to see how hard he
can pull. Primitive man was born
strong of muscle and firm of body, and
the love for this form of power lies
deep in the heart and can never be eradicated.
A strong man is the acme of
power. He appeals to the imagination
more than anything else in the world,
as a force. It has always been the
women who have not most applauded
our college athletes. They appreciate
the need that the world has of strong
men. They view the question more or
less objectively, and attach even more
importance to it than do men. It is a
great pity that they do not themselves
strive more for physical development.
The last few years, it is true, have seen
a marked improvement in this direction,
especially among the women of the upper
classes. Women who raise their
sons and daughters conscientiously put
their daughters in the gymnasium or in
the hands of a physical culture instructor.
Moreover, the standard of beauty has
changed. When Heine wrote, and
Thackeray, the favorite type was undeniably
delicate. These writers confounded
fragility with femininity. But
such maudlin standards are fortunately
passed. Health, power, vitality and vivadly
are now admired in women. And
these attributes are so practical, as
well as so engaging, that the present
standard is apt to endure long.

Yes, decidedly, athletics interest
women.