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Title: A guide to the history of physical education
Author: Fred Eugene Leonard
Editor: R. Tait McKenzie
Release date: February 22, 2026 [eBook #78009]
Language: English
Original publication: Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1923
Credits: Tim Lindell, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GUIDE TO THE HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION ***
[Illustration: EDWARD MUSSEY HARTWELL (1850-1922)]
=THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION SERIES=
EDITED BY R. TAIT MCKENZIE, B.A., M.D., M.P.E.
MAJOR, ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND PHYSICAL THERAPY,
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
PHILADELPHIA
A GUIDE
TO THE
HISTORY OF
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
BY
FRED EUGENE LEONARD, A.M., M.D.
PROFESSOR OF HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN OBERLIN COLLEGE
OBERLIN, OHIO
ILLUSTRATED WITH 99 ENGRAVINGS
[Illustration]
LEA & FEBIGER
PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK
1923
COPYRIGHT
LEA & FEBIGER
1923
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
TO THE MEMORY OF
DR. EDWARD MUSSEY HARTWELL
WHO FIRST IN AMERICA BLAZED THE TRAIL WHICH I HAVE TRIED TO FOLLOW
PREFACE.
Thirty years ago, when the writer of these lines was called to a
professorship in physical education, there existed no comprehensive
survey of the field he was entering. The reports of Dr. Hartwell
contained excellent summaries which suggested our debt to the past
and to foreign lands, and fuller treatment of certain earlier periods
in the United States; but the English language offered little else of
value. Suitable preparation of courses in the principles and methods
of physical education required more ample knowledge of what others had
done and were doing, and the task of finding out and gathering together
the best of the European literature bearing on the subject was at once
begun and has been continued ever since. A summer trip to Germany in
1896 whetted an appetite which later found satisfaction in an entire
year (1900-1901) on the Continent, where the large special collections
at the Stockholm Central Institute of Gymnastics and the Berlin
_Turnlehrerbildungsanstalt_ supplied for the first time an opportunity
to become familiar with the older books and periodicals. The year also
contributed to the linguistic knowledge and experience needed for the
handling of such material. The direct contact with historic spots and
significant aspects of physical education in Europe which it brought
was afterwards renewed and broadened by five months (February to June,
1913) spent at important centers in Switzerland, Germany, the three
Scandinavian countries, and Great Britain.
Meanwhile the collection of material had progressed at a rapid rate, and
from time to time as circumstances permitted chapters of a book-to-be
were prepared and published, in irregular order, and biographical
sketches which might later be incorporated in such a work as the present
one. Thus it happens that only five of the twenty-eight chapters
in this volume are altogether new, though all have been carefully
revised and many of them largely rewritten within the last year and
a half. The selection of topics, order of arrangement, and manner of
presentation have been determined experimentally in courses given to
students in Oberlin College since the spring of 1894, and for thirteen
years (1899, 1902, and 1908-1919) at the Harvard University Summer
School. The illustrations are chosen from nearly six hundred which have
been employed in the form of lantern slides in these courses. With
few exceptions the references in the text and footnotes are based on
first-hand examination of the originals.
If we except Viktor Heikel’s _Gymnastikens Historia_ (issued at
Helsingfors in four parts, 1905-1909), comprehensive in plan but quite
erratic in its treatment of the United States, no work undertaking to
trace the history of physical education in Europe and America and to
describe the chief present-day movements has appeared hitherto in any
language. Euler’s standard _Geschichte des Turnunterrichts_ and the
lesser German manuals, while they are in general excellent guides so far
as ancient and medieval Europe are concerned, and for the recent history
in that particular country, have little or nothing to say of the rest
of modern Europe, except as it has influenced Germany herself. This is
less true of Euler’s monumental _Encyklopädisches Handbuch des gesamten
Turnwesens_ and the more recent _Handbuch des gesamten Turnwesens_ of
Dr. Rudolf Gasch, but in these, too, the space allotted to non-German
subjects is altogether insufficient. Similarly Illeris and Trap’s brief
_Grundtræk af Gymnastikkens Historie_ covers chiefly Danish experience.
For each country one must consult its own literature, and particularly
the periodical publications, and he needs also to supplement his reading
by personal observation and investigation on the ground in order to avoid
distorted views and arrive at sound conclusions.
If this attempt to set forth clearly the characteristics of the different
stages and phases through which physical education has passed, to
introduce the persons who have contributed to its advancement, and to
guide the reader to the best that has been written on the subject, shall
lead to deeper and more general appreciation of the place which physical
education should win and hold in general education, and to the adoption
of wiser measures where it is introduced, the labor expended upon the
volume will be well rewarded. Much has been omitted which might have been
included. If inaccuracies are discovered the author will be glad to have
his attention called to them.
F. E. L.
OBERLIN, OHIO, 1923.
EDITOR’S PREFACE.
The shore of physical education is strewn with the wrecks of systems
and movements, many of them good in themselves, but left to drift when
the personal support and enthusiasm of the founder was removed from the
helm. It has only been when some great national crisis had to be faced
and the minds of patriots and scholars were engaged in the effort to meet
it, that systems have been evolved great enough to survive the death of
their founder, the test of time and change in their national conditions.
This is notably true of the gymnastics of Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
Incomplete as systems of physical education without the addition of
games, but logical and accurate in their application to the conditions
they have had to meet, whenever similar conditions have arisen it is to
them we have turned for inspiration and instruction, and nowhere was
this better shown than in the great war of 1914, where crude masses of
untrained and underdeveloped men had to be made quick and accurate in
response to command and given that control of their bodies that is the
true function of physical education in its highest sense.
To the sincere student of physical education nothing has a more sobering
effect than the study of those advances made by the great men who have
given their lives to their cause. He finds that most of the theories that
come to him as new and startling have been thought before and have been
either rejected or put into practice as well or better than he is likely
to do, and so if he is a philosopher, he can avoid the inevitable failure
of schemes that have been discarded and adapt from material of proved
worth the material that suits his special conditions.
Such a study will save him from the outstanding characteristic of many
exploiters of this subject, the unfounded claims for originality and
novelty in their work. Small collections of free exercises are dignified
as systems and published as such with apparent seriousness, slight
variation of method is hailed as a great discovery, has its little day
of notoriety and takes its place on the library shelves as a literary
curiosity of interest only to the antiquarian, and the busy teacher has
neither the time nor the inclination to separate the wheat from the
chaff. Up to the present there have been but incomplete and fragmentary
reports available for our guidance, often in translation, and frequently
garbled by personal bias, so that the need has become more and more
urgent for a complete and scholarly review of the growth and distribution
of systems that are associated with certain names and certain periods.
Dr. Leonard is peculiarly fitted for such a great task. An enthusiastic
scholar, with an intimate knowledge of the languages in which the
originals were written, he has devoted the leisure and the vacations
of thirty years to collecting, reading and making available rare and
inaccessible works on the subject, for students of education in general
and of physical education in particular. Repeated visits to Europe and
pilgrimages to the shrines of the pioneers have given him the proper
perspective, and this volume presents his conclusions as delivered in his
yearly lecture courses at Oberlin and Harvard.
It comes appropriately early in a series of books designed to place
physical education on an equality with other more strongly entrenched
parts of a general educational system. The soul is indeed dead that does
not react with a generous glow when reading the difficulties overcome and
the work accomplished by the heroes of any field of endeavor, and what
could be more inspiring at this time than to have set forth the conquests
and defeats of those patriotic spirits whose lives have been given to
upbuilding the health and fitness of the youth of the world, throughout
the ages, as a guide and inspiration to us who have these same problems
to meet at the present time.
R. TAIT MCKENZIE,
Editor.
CONTENTS.
PART I. EUROPE.
CHAPTER I.
THE GREEKS.
Two Types of Education, Spartan and Athenian 17
Physical Education at Sparta 18
Physical Education at Athens 20
The National Festivals 24
CHAPTER II.
THE ROMANS.
The Roman Conception of Education 28
Military Training and Discipline 29
The Introduction of Greek Gymnastics 31
The Exercises of the Public Baths 32
The Public Spectacles of the Amphitheater and the Circus 33
CHAPTER III.
THE TEUTONIC INVADERS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 34
CHAPTER IV.
ASCETICISM IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Causes 37
Nature of the Period 38
Effects 39
CHAPTER V.
MONASTERY AND CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS. 41
CHAPTER VI.
CHIVALRY. 43
CHAPTER VII.
THE UNIVERSITIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 47
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND THE REFORMATION.
Changes in Education—The Humanists 49
Vittorino da Feltre 49
Physical Training Advocated by Writers on Education:
In Italy—Cardano, Mercurialis, etc. 50
Luther, Zwingli, Camerarius, Comenius 53
The Spanish Scholar Vives 54
In France—Rabelais and Montaigne 54
In England—Elyot, Mulcaster, Milton 57
CHAPTER IX.
LOCKE AND ROUSSEAU.
John Locke 59
Jean Jacques Rousseau 61
Medical Writers of the Period 64
CHAPTER X.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY.
Basedow, and the Dessau “Philanthropinum” 67
Salzmann, and the Schnepfenthal Educational Institute 70
The Life and Work of GutsMuths 71
His Writings 77
Vieth’s “Encyclopedia of Bodily Exercises” (Footnote) 81
CHAPTER XI.
FRIEDRICH LUDWIG JAHN, AND POPULAR GYMNASTICS IN GERMANY.
Jahn’s Early Life 83
The Outdoor Gymnasium (Hasenheide _Turnplatz_) near Berlin 88
The Spread of the Jahn Gymnastics in Germany, up to 1819 95
The Reaction of 1819—Jahn’s Later Life 98
The Development of Popular Gymnastic Societies since 1840—The
_Deutsche Turnerschaft_ 101
CHAPTER XII.
ADOLF SPIESS, THE FATHER OF GERMAN SCHOOL GYMNASTICS.
Early Life, and School Days at Offenbach 109
University Student and Tutor 110
Teacher in Switzerland, at Burgdorf and Basel 112
In Charge of School Gymnastics in the Grand Duchy of Hesse 116
His Contribution to Physical Education 117
CHAPTER XIII.
PHYSICAL TRAINING IN THE PRUSSIAN SCHOOLS.
Ernst Eiselen in Berlin 120
Massmann Endeavors to Revive the Jahn Plan 121
Rothstein at the Berlin Central Institute 122
The Training of Teachers in More Recent Times 124
Gymnastics in the Schools 127
The German Universities and Technical Schools 130
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT IN GERMANY.
Koch and Hermann in Brunswick 132
Hartwich in Düsseldorf 135
Von Gossler’s “Playground Order” 137
Von Schenckendorff and Eitner at Görlitz 138
The Central Committee, 1891-1915 142
CHAPTER XV.
PER HENRIK LING, FATHER OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN SWEDEN.
Early years in Sweden 146
Student in Copenhagen 148
The Lund Period 149
The Stockholm Period—The “Central Institute” 151
CHAPTER XVI.
LING’S SUCCESSORS AT THE CENTRAL INSTITUTE IN STOCKHOLM.
Branting, Georgii 156
Nyblæus, Hartelius, Hjalmar Ling 158
Törngren, Silow, Balck, Sellén 161
The Central Institute in 1900 163
Proposed Reorganization (1912) 170
CHAPTER XVII.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS OF SWEDEN.
Elementary Schools 171
Higher Schools for Boys 173
Higher Schools for Girls—Private Schools 176
CHAPTER XVIII.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN DENMARK.
Under Nachtegall 178
Under la Cour, Wegener, and Amsinck 183
The Rifle Clubs 184
The People’s High Schools 186
The Swedish System of School Gymnastics Introduced 187
Under Ramsing and Knudsen 189
The Playground Movement 194
CHAPTER XIX.
GREAT BRITAIN.
Sports and Organized Games 198
Archibald Maclaren 203
The Swedish System of School Gymnastics Introduced 208
The Dunfermline College of Hygiene and Physical Training 213
CHAPTER XX.
INTERNATIONAL GATHERINGS.
European Gymnastic Federations 215
The Modern Olympic Games 216
Congresses for the Promotion of Physical Education 224
PART II. UNITED STATES.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF THE JAHN GYMNASTICS INTO AMERICA.
Early Life of Follen and Beck, in Germany and Switzerland 227
They Settle in Northampton and Cambridge, Massachusetts 232
The First School Gymnasium in the United States, at Round Hill 233
The First College Gymnasium in the United States, at Harvard
University 235
The Boston Gymnasium, the First Public Gymnasium in the United
States 237
Lieber Succeeds Follen at the Boston Gymnasium 238
Later History of Beck, Follen, and Lieber 242
Introduction of Gymnastics in Other Schools and Colleges 244
CHAPTER XXII.
THE “NEW GYMNASTICS” OF DIO LEWIS.
Early Life of Lewis—Becomes Popular Lecturer 251
Introduces His “New Gymnastics” in and about Boston 255
The Normal Institute for Physical Education 256
Lewis’s Writings 259
School for Girls, at Lexington and Spy Pond 261
Later Life 262
CHAPTER XXIII.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.
In the Period of 1830 264
In the Eighteen-fifties 264
Harvard, Yale, and Amherst Build Gymnasia 268
Amherst Establishes a Professorship of Hygiene and Physical
Education 272
Other Colleges in the Eighteen-sixties and -seventies 274
The Land-grant Act of 1862, and Military Training 276
Beginning of Rowing, Baseball, Football, and Track Athletics 277
Dr. Sargent at Hemenway Gymnasium, Harvard University 279
Progress since 1880 284
CHAPTER XXIV.
GERMAN-AMERICAN GYMNASTIC SOCIETIES AND THE NORTH AMERICAN
TURNERBUND.
Early History, up to the Close of the Civil War 290
The Period 1865-1886 295
George Brosius, and the Milwaukee Normal School of Gymnastics 296
The Year 1886 a Turning Point 301
Carl Betz, and German Gymnastics in American Schools 302
Recent History of the Turnerbund and Its Normal School 306
CHAPTER XXV.
PHYSICAL TRAINING IN THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS.
Robert J. Roberts and His Work 309
Luther H. Gulick at the Springfield (Mass.) Training School 312
The Chicago and Lake Geneva Training School 318
Recent History of Physical Training in the Associations 319
CHAPTER XXVI.
SWEDISH SCHOOL GYMNASTICS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Posse, and the Introduction of Swedish Gymnastics in the Boston
Schools 322
Dr. Hartwell’s Contribution to Physical Education in America 326
The Work of Nissen, Enebuske, Bolin, and Others 331
Swedish Gymnastics at the Woman’s College and the Bryn Mawr School
in Baltimore 335
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. STATEWIDE PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
Sand Piles and Outdoor Gymnasia in Boston 337
Chicago Small Parks and Playgrounds 342
Status of the Playground Movement in 1916 347
Legislation Favoring Statewide Physical Education 348
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
Dio Lewis 352
The North American Turnerbund 352
Dr. Sargent, at the Private Gymnasium and the Harvard Summer School 352
The Anderson Normal School of Gymnastics, and the Chautauqua Summer
School 353
The Young Men’s Christian Association Colleges 355
The Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, and the Posse Gymnasium 356
Teacher’s Courses in Colleges and Universities 357
HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
PART I
EUROPE.
CHAPTER I.
THE GREEKS.
Man’s earliest endeavor to perfect the body, discipline the mind, and
mold the character of the young by means of selected forms of physical
activity and special regimen could doubtless be traced back to a
prehistoric age. The study of ancient customs of China and India, Egypt,
Babylonia and Assyria, the Phœnicians and Carthaginians, the Persians,
and the Hebrews might also yield some curious facts. But if one’s
purpose is to follow the evolution of modern forms of physical education
in Europe and America and to note the significant contributions and
modifications introduced at various stages, it is sufficient to begin
with Greece as it was in the century and a half whose middle point is the
year of Salamis and Thermopylæ (480 B.C.). There we find “gymnastics”
generally adopted as a necessary part of education, provision everywhere
made for the exercise of youths and grown men in establishments supported
and administered by the state, great national festivals at which the
chief attractions were contests in physical prowess, and at a later day
sculptors able to reproduce from the types presented to them in the
gymnasia ideal human figures which have never been excelled in beauty.
Several things must be borne in mind when one thinks of Greece in the
period of the Persian Wars. It was not a nation in the modern sense of
a political unit with a central government and circumscribed territory,
but a group of independent states and cities in European Greece, on
the islands of the Ægean Sea, along the west coast of Asia Minor, and
wherever else the Greek language was spoken by persons who felt the tie
of a common descent, common religious beliefs, and common customs.
These customs, furthermore, were not uniform. For example, education
embraced two subjects of instruction and training, gymnastics and
“music.” The former reached primarily the body and the will; the latter,
which included literary studies as well as music in the narrower sense,
affected the intellect and the emotions. Sparta, surrounded by an
unfriendly and subject people, was little more than an organized camp,
in which self-preservation required a form of training designed to mold
every citizen into the best possible weapon of defense. Individual
welfare was therefore strictly subordinated to that of the community.
Education was viewed as a function of the state, and physical hardihood,
skilful use of weapons, self-reliant courage, and iron discipline
were developed by a type of education which was chiefly gymnastic and
military. Literary training was neglected, and music, in the form of
religious and patriotic hymns, war songs, and ballads recounting the
deeds of heroes, was valued solely for its stimulating effects. At
Athens, on the other hand, we find a much broader type of education,
which came more and more to dominate the practice of her sister states
and cities. Complete and harmonious development of the individual was the
object sought, and the schools were private affairs, over which the state
exercised nothing more than police supervision. Gymnastics was hardly
less essential than at Sparta, but literary training occupied a prominent
place, and music was esteemed for its refining influence on character and
its contribution to social enjoyment.
A third point to be noted is that whatever may be said of Greek education
applies to free citizens only, and hence takes no account of slaves and
the foreign-born, who made up possibly as much as three-fourths of the
total population—at least in the case of the larger cities. And even
within these limits it is usually boys alone for whom provision was made.
Turning first to physical education at Sparta, the earlier type, we find
that the state began its efforts to secure a sound body of citizens by
carefully regulating the life of the women, and formed an exception to
the statement just made in that it prescribed for girls a course of
gymnastic exercise. There was need of vigorous mothers for the sturdy
race which public welfare demanded. As a further precaution, the new-born
infant was brought before a council of old men, whose decision whether
or not he should be raised was based upon his physical condition and
promise, and was final. The first six years were passed in the home,
but at the age of seven the boy was taken away from his parents, to be
placed in public quarters. Here he slept and ate in company with a large
number of other boys, and shared with them a common discipline at the
hands of state officials who shaped every detail with reference to his
future career as a citizen-warrior. He spent the night in a room open to
the sky, without the luxury of bedclothes, on a pallet of hay or straw,
exchanged when he was older for one of rushes which he had gathered
himself along the river banks. He went summer and winter clad in a single
scanty garment, unshod, bare-headed and with close-cropped hair. The
food, of the plainest sort, was hardly sufficient to satisfy the cravings
of hunger. The amount might be eked out by theft, however, but with the
understanding that anyone so indiscreet or maladroit as to be detected in
the act would receive prompt and severe punishment. Indeed, the rod and
lash were freely applied, by public officers or by any offended citizen,
upon the least provocation, and as a necessary part of the regular
discipline, since it accustomed the future soldier to the endurance of
pain. There were even what might be considered periodical tests of this
capacity to endure, for at one of the annual festivals the flogging of
youths was an essential feature, often carried to the drawing of blood,
it is said. Like the Indian under torture, the victim was expected to
give no signs of suffering.
For the gymnastic instruction which occupied the greater part of their
time the boys were arranged in squads or “packs” according to age,
and these in turn were combined into companies. Each division had its
young leader, chosen on the score of ability and longer experience,
but all were subject to the direction of special state officers. The
course of training included practice in wrestling, running, jumping,
throwing the javelin and the discus, marching in time to music, together
with other military exercises, swimming in the Eurotas, riding on
horseback, hunting, and certain rough games. There was also practice in
choral dances, for use on religious occasions, and in the war dance,
representing the movements of attack and defense. This latter, the
so-called Pyrrhic dance, was sometimes executed in armor, and by whole
companies moving together in rhythm to the accompaniment of music.
Occasional public exhibitions and contests acted as incentives to
improvement and furnished opportunity to test it, satisfying at the same
time the general fondness for such displays.
With the advent of his eighteenth year the youth left the common training
quarters of the boys and entered upon a second stage of discipline.
During the next two years his preparation took more and more the form of
scouting in outlying districts of the state, and might involve actual
warfare. His understanding had been matured meanwhile by constant
intercourse with grown men in the affairs of daily public life.
Not much is known of the training imposed upon the Spartan girls; but
it included both gymnastics and music, and among the exercises practised
were running, jumping, throwing the spear and the discus, dancing,
swimming, and even wrestling.
In Athens, as at Sparta, weak, deformed or sickly infants were sometimes
put out of the way (“exposed”), but in this case the decision rested
with the father. Here, too, the first six years were spent at home,
under the charge of the women of the household. The play of childhood
took most often the form of active exercise and games, and in the list
of amusements, under the thin disguise of strange names, we discover
many varieties which have survived to the present day with undiminished
popularity: The small box of metal or wood containing stones which
rattled when it was shaken; hobby-horses, swinging and seesaw, walking on
stilts, trundling hoops, kite-flying; spinning tops, whipping the humming
top, and a game resembling our peg-top, but played with sharpened sticks;
shooting or tossing smooth stones or nuts and the like, as in some of
our modern games with marbles; tossing up and catching jackstones, in
the shape of pebbles or small bones; making flat stones skip along
the surface of the water, various exercises and games with balls,
hide-and-seek, blindman’s buff, games like our drop-the-handkerchief, and
others in which sides were chosen and one side then chased its opponents
in the attempt to make them prisoners. Besides a share in the less
violent of these sports, the little girls had, of course, their dolls,
made of clay or wax and sometimes painted. They seldom left the women’s
quarters, but acquired there whatever training was considered necessary
for their later life.
The school age for the boy began with his seventh year. Custom required
that each son of a free citizen should be given instruction in gymnastics
and music, but beyond keeping an eye on the morals of teachers and the
conduct of their charges the state did not concern itself with education.
It rested with the parent alone to decide how much schooling his boy
should receive, and the schools were in all cases private institutions,
supported by the fees of pupils. The status of the teacher was not an
exalted one—the pay was small, and the position was often the last resort
of the unsuccessful. We may be certain, therefore, that the results
of education, even at Athens, too often fell far short of the exalted
ideal cherished by many of her foremost citizens. The general features
of the system are sufficiently clear, but many details of instruction,
including the amount of time devoted to different branches, and the age
at which they were begun, remain to be discovered. The literary training
comprised reading and committing to memory selections from the poets,
especially Homer and Hesiod, writing, and the elements of arithmetic. For
musical training there was practice not only in singing selections from
the great lyric poets, but also in the use of stringed instruments—the
seven-stringed lyre, or the later cithara—as an accompaniment to the
voice. The flute, as an instrument for ordinary use, was held in less
esteem.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.—Scene in a Palæstra.]
Games and gymnastics, however, seem to have occupied the larger part of
the boy’s time. The private school where these were practised was known
as a _palæstra_, a name derived from the Greek word for wrestling. The
exercises must have been given out of doors originally, and whatever
structures were used for them in later times can hardly have contained
more than an open court for wrestling, with one or more small rooms
adjoining, where clothing might be laid aside or put on and where oil
and sand were kept, and some provision for bathing in case there was
no stream close at hand. No clothing of any sort was worn during the
exercises. These seem to have included most of the forms practised in
later life—running, the broad jump with and without weights in the
hands, throwing the javelin and the discus for distance, and above
all, wrestling, besides the rudiments of boxing, and a form of the
_pancratium_, a struggle which combined certain features of both boxing
and wrestling with others of its own.[1] Mention is also made of simple
exercises to develop correct carriage and a graceful step in walking, and
it is said that the art of swimming was early acquired, and that games,
especially those in which the ball was used, were by no means forgotten.
Dancing, at least in its more advanced forms, was not a regular subject
of instruction at Athens, but was left to choral bands which received
special training for their appearance before the public on festal
occasions.
Upon reaching the age of eighteen the youth, now known as an _ephebe_,
passed under state control for a two-year period of discipline comparable
to the enforced military service in modern continental Europe. He first
took a solemn oath of allegiance, and was then sent to join the garrisons
at the neighboring harbor of the Piræus, for training in the use of
weapons and the performance of a soldier’s duties. At the end of the
first year he received from the state a shield and spear, and might now
be employed at other garrison ports or as a frontier patrol. Hunting
afforded additional preparation for active warfare. Meanwhile the former
gymnastic exercises were continued, but for these, instead of visiting
the palæstra, he now joined the grown men in the city gymnasia. The
ephebes were conspicuous figures in the numerous local festivals held at
Athens, taking part in processions like that represented on the frieze
of the Parthenon, and in various athletic events. Aside from this later
gymnastic and military training there was no higher education in Greece
until the rise of the sophists, or professional lecturers on rhetoric and
philosophy, after the middle of the fifth century before Christ.
The Greek _gymnasium_, unlike the palæstra, was intended for ephebes
and for grown men who had finished their schooling. It was a state
institution maintained at public expense and administered by public
magistrates and other functionaries. Structures of this sort began to
be built, or, more properly, laid out, as early as the sixth or seventh
century before Christ, and by the end of the fifth century B.C. there
was probably no important Greek town, at home or in the colonies, that
did not possess at least one of them. Almost any open spot would serve
the purpose at the start, but, as population increased and civilization
advanced, buildings of special design became necessary, and these grew
in size and splendor with the addition of new features from time to
time. Exact information with regard to the different parts and their
arrangement is almost wholly lacking for the period under review.
Descriptions which have come down to us, and the remains discovered at
Olympia, Delphi, and other places belong to later centuries. The same
general plan seems to have been followed, however, but with considerable
variation in details. Originally, we may suppose, as in the case of the
palæstra, there was only an open space for wrestling, running, and the
other exercises, and surrounding or adjoining this covered colonnades,
into which various rooms opened. The essential features at a later stage
seem to have included, besides this spacious court or course and its
colonnades, a room where clothing might be taken off and left, others
for the oil with which visitors rubbed the body before exercising, and
for the dust or fine sand with which the wrestlers were then sprinkled,
and some sort of baths, either basins set on high supports, or running
water issuing from outlets under which one might stand, as in a modern
shower-bath. Before washing himself the gymnast removed the oil, sand,
and dirt from his body with a scraper of metal, bone, or reed, hollowed
out somewhat like a spoon and furnished with a handle, but concave
along one edge. Some provision was usually made for playing at ball
and for running under cover, in addition to the open spaces intended
for wrestling, running, and throwing the discus and the javelin. The
whole might be enclosed in spacious grounds, as was the case with the
three ancient gymnasia outside the walls of Athens, and these were laid
out like public parks, shaded with trees and planted with shrubs and
flowering plants, watered by streams or fountains, and further adorned
with statues of favorite gods, legendary heroes, and eminent citizens.
The position of general superintendent of the gymnasium was one of great
dignity. Other officials were charged with enforcing good order and
decorous behavior, and there was a variety of trainers and servants who
gave assistance in one way or another. Like the boys in the palæstra,
those who were about to exercise stripped themselves entirely naked
before commencing—a practice which must have stimulated each to make
himself an object worth beholding, and gave to the sculptor unparalleled
opportunities for study of the human body in action and repose. Among
the favorite occupations were running, wrestling, the broad jump with
stone or metal weights in the hands, throwing the heavy stone or metal
discus for distance, and throwing the javelin by means of a leather
thong wound about it near the center and ending in a loop for one or two
fingers. The javelins commonly used in practice were blunt rods about
a man’s height in length, and thrown for distance more often than at a
mark. A combination of these five exercises, known as the _pentathlon_,
or five-fold contest, furnished a popular form of gymnastic competition.
Another exceedingly popular sport was boxing, with the knuckles protected
by long, thin, leather thongs wrapped about the hand and wrist, and there
was also the _pancratium_, a sort of rough-and-tumble fight reduced to
orderly form. In this the hands were left bare, and the struggle was
continued until one of the contestants acknowledged himself defeated.
Besides answering the original purpose for which they were laid out,
the gymnasia came to be more and more the centers of Greek social and
intellectual life, a gathering place of citizens for conversation and
amusement which combined some of the features of a modern clubhouse with
those of a city park. Philosophers and rhetoricians found a general
audience or met their special pupils there, and thus it happened that
each of the three great gymnasia at Athens became associated with a
particular school of philosophy—the _Academy_, on the banks of the river
Cephissus about a mile to the northwest of the city walls, with Plato,
whose followers assembled in a small garden which he owned within the
enclosure, and were therefore dubbed the “Academic sect;” the _Lyceum_
with Aristotle, whose favorite walk was here, whence he and his disciples
were known as “Peripatetics;” and the _Cynosarges_ with the school of
the Cynics, or followers of Antisthenes, who frequented that spot. It
is these later and secondary uses of the gymnasium that alone give
significance to such modern words as the German _gymnasium_ and the
French _lycée_ (secondary schools), and to our own “academy” and “lyceum.”
The most striking illustration of the important place accorded to
physical training among the Greeks is found in their great national
festivals. The very beginnings of recorded history show that in every
town there were periodic religious festivals, where sacrifices to some
hero or divinity were followed by feasting, dancing, choral songs to
the accompaniment of the lyre or the flute, and exhibitions of bodily
agility, strength, and skill in the form of competitive exercises.
Gradually, in the case of certain localities, the importance and
attractiveness of the festival increased and the circle from which
visitors were drawn grew wider, until four of them, all in or near
the Peloponnesus, finally developed into national occasions—first and
foremost of the number, and as far back as the end of the eighth or very
early in the seventh century before Christ, that held at Olympia, and
in the first half of the sixth century before Christ three others, the
Pythia, the Nemea, and the Isthmia. During three centuries in particular,
from 600 to 300 B.C., the service they rendered as common centers of
interest, binding together the politically distinct members of the Greek
race in the parent land and in the far-scattered colonies that dotted the
borders of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, was of the greatest value.
Olympia lies in a plain near the western limits of the Peloponnesus,
about ten miles from the Ionian Sea. The sacred enclosure, some ten acres
in extent, contained a grove in the center of which stood a great altar
to Zeus, and near it his temple, wherein was a wonderful statue of the
god in ivory and gold, the most famous work of Phidias and one of the
greatest triumphs of Greek sculpture. Besides other temples, there were
numerous altars, votive offerings, statues of gods, heroes, and victors
in the games, and treasure houses erected by cities which had sent
gifts to the shrine. Just outside the enclosure, to the east, were the
stadium and the hippodrome. The stadium, to which most of the contests
seem to have been transferred after the middle of the fifth century
B.C., was at first merely a stretch of level ground overlooked from the
north by spectators who stood or sat on the slope of the Hill of Cronus.
Afterwards an artificial embankment was raised along the opposite side
and straight across the ends of a parallelogram, completely enclosing it,
so that 40,000 persons or more might find standing-room, but no permanent
seats. Modern excavations have allowed exact measurements of the race
course, from the starting to the finish line, and it is found to be just
192.27 m., or a trifle over 210 yards in length. No trace remains of the
neighboring hippodrome, intended for chariot races, but it is supposed
to have resembled the stadium in general plan, although much longer. A
gymnasium, to the northwest of the enclosure, belongs to a much later
date.
The festival was held at intervals of four years, at the time of the
second or third full moon after the summer solstice, coming therefore
in the late summer. During the lunar month in which it occurred a truce
of the god was observed throughout Greece. For an armed force to set
foot on the soil of the district of Elis within that period, or for
anyone to do violence to travellers on their way to or from Olympia,
was considered sacrilege. Heralds were sent to announce the coming
celebration through all the states of Greece and to carry the news to the
Greek colonies which had been established on the islands of the Ægean
Sea, in southwestern Italy and Sicily, and along the shores of the Black
Sea and the coast of Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Gaul, and Spain. From the
whole of this wide area deputations and private citizens made their way
to the sacred spot. It was essentially a Greek gathering, though many
foreigners were doubtless present in the throng, and except the priestess
of Demeter, who occupied a conspicuous seat in the stadium, no women were
allowed to view the exercises.
In the games which followed the sacrifices on the altar of Zeus none but
free-born Greek citizens, of pure Hellenic descent and untainted by civil
or religious crime, were allowed to have a share. Each contestant had
passed through a long period of preliminary training, the last thirty
days of which were spent in the gymnasia at Elis, thirty miles away to
the northwest, or in later years the one at Olympia itself. Originally a
single day had sufficed for the festival, but from time to time, as the
occasion grew in importance, new features were added until finally the
program required five days for its completion. Interest centered chiefly
on the competitive exercises, which consumed the greater part of the
time. The list of these varied in the course of years, with the addition
or dropping out of one item or another, but in general they included the
foot race—a single course (210 yards), or down and back, or back and
forth a number of times, or a race in armor; the pentathlon; wrestling;
boxing and the pancratium; races between men on horseback; and the
chariot race, commonly with four horses, less frequently with two. As far
back as the seventh century B.C. separate contests for boys in running,
the pentathlon, wrestling, and boxing were introduced.
So much importance was attached to the games in the popular mind, and the
fame of the winner spread so widely over the Hellenic world, that to wear
the victor’s wreath on such an occasion became one of the highest honors
a Greek could covet. At first the prizes offered possessed intrinsic
value; but as victory became more and more a sufficient recompense
in itself, they were restricted to the simple crown of sacred wild
olive, placed upon the brow of the successful athlete. There were other
rewards than this, however. In recognition of the honor done to them the
citizens of the victor’s town sometimes received him with extraordinary
demonstrations. It might be that, clad in purple, he entered the gates
in a chariot drawn by white horses, and made his way through singing
and cheering throngs to hang his wreath as an offering in the principal
temple. We even hear of city walls torn down to make a passage, as though
where such a citizen dwelt there was no need of other defense. The
choral ode which greeted him might have been composed for the occasion
by lyric poets like Pindar and Bacchylides.[2] His statue would be set
up in the home city, or placed within the sacred enclosure at Olympia.
He was perhaps granted a seat of honor in the theater, and provided with
board at the public table for the rest of his life. Solon, at Athens, is
said to have offered five hundred drachmæ to an Olympian victor, and one
hundred in the case of other national festivals.
At Olympia the gymnastic competitions were the only ones. There were many
among the visitors, however, who did not fail to take advantage of the
great crowds to advance some private interest. Historians, philosophers
and rhetoricians, poets, painters, and sculptors found listeners and
patrons. The occasion was also one of commercial interchange, like the
great fairs of the middle ages, or the religious gatherings at Mecca and
Medina. To other proofs of the wide influence exerted by the games are to
be added the facts that the length of the race course in the stadium at
Olympia was adopted as the standard unit for measuring distances, and
that in the third century before Christ Greek historians began generally
to employ as a unit of time the Olympiad, or four-year period including
one celebration and extending to the next, designating each by the name
of the victor in the foot-race at its particular festival. The first
recorded Olympic festival was held in 776 B.C., and they were not finally
abolished till 394 A.D.—a period of 293 Olympiads.
Next to the Olympic festival in importance was the _Pythia_, in honor of
Apollo, celebrated near the famous shrine of the god at Delphi, a few
miles north of the Corinthian Gulf. It was quadrennial, like its greater
rival, falling in the third year of each Olympiad. In the case of the
two remaining national festivals the contests took place at intervals of
only two years. The _Nemea_, in honor of Zeus, was held in Argolis, in
a valley near Cleonæ where there was a grove containing a temple of the
god. The _Isthmia_ was celebrated on the isthmus of Corinth, in a grove
of pines sacred to Poseidon. They fell in the second and fourth years of
the Olympiad, one occurring in the summer and the other in the following
spring. A general truce of the gods was observed during the progress of
all three of these festivals. Unlike the Olympia, they added musical
and literary competitions to the usual gymnastic contests and chariot
races. The victor’s reward, at first substantial, was afterwards reduced
to a wreath of sacred laurel at the Pythia, and to one of wild celery
(“parsley”) at the Nemea and the Isthmia, replaced at the latter by one
of pine in later times.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
General works in English which will be found of value are J. B. Bury’s
“History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great,” E. A. Gardner’s
“Handbook of Greek Sculpture,” T. G. Tucker’s “Life in Ancient Athens,”
and K. J. Freeman’s “Schools of Hellas,” all four published in London
by Macmillan & Co. Freeman’s chapter on Physical Education is the least
satisfactory in his book, largely because of failure to distinguish
between conditions at different periods, and taken alone would prove
quite misleading.
The following special works are indispensable, and contain ample
references to the older literature: E. N. Gardiner’s “Greek Athletic
Sports and Festivals” (London, Macmillan & Co., 1910), and Julius
Jüthner’s “Philostratos über Gymnastik” (Leipzig and Berlin, B. G.
Teubner, 1909) and “Über antike Turngeräthe” (Vienna, Alfred Holder,
1896).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For details regarding each of these exercises the reader is referred
to Part II of E. N. Gardiner’s “Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals,” and
Julius Jüthner’s “Über antike Turngeräthe.”
[2] For English translations see Ernest Myers, “The Extant Odes of
Pindar” (London, Macmillan & Co.), or Sir John Sandys, “The Odes of
Pindar,” in the Loeb Classical Library (New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons);
and Sir Richard C. Jebb’s “Bacchylides” (Cambridge, England, The
University Press). Pindar’s forty-four “Odes of Victory” include fourteen
in honor of Olympian winners, twelve Pythian, eleven Nemean, and seven
Isthmian. Of the thirteen odes of Bacchylides four are Olympian, two are
Pythian, three Isthmian, three Nemean, and one relates to a Thessalian
festival.
CHAPTER II.
THE ROMANS.
The year 400 B.C. may be taken as marking roughly the close of the two or
three centuries which witnessed the gradual development and culmination
of physical training in Greece. Meanwhile a people differing widely from
the cultured, reflective, beauty-loving Athenian in character and ideals
had been establishing itself on the banks of the Tiber, and was already
beginning to display a military prowess and a genius for organization
that were to make Rome mistress of Italy within the next hundred and
fifty years, extend its sway over the Mediterranean states in another
century, and finally achieve world empire. The early Roman possessed
some traits in common with the Spartan. He was first of all a man of
affairs, intensely practical, and interested in things whose usefulness
was apparent. A stranger to the Greek passion for beauty, he considered
vague and worthless the notion of harmonious development as something
desirable for its own sake. Education should fit a man for his work in
the world. It was to make of him a good citizen and a capable soldier,
ready to play his part in public life. Bodily exercise was desirable only
as it gave robust health and prepared for military service. Music was
an unprofitable art, and anything more than the rudiments of literary
training was unnecessary. Until the time of the later emperors the state
did not concern itself in any way with education, but left it altogether
in the parents’ hands.
So long as Roman education was free from foreign influence, _i.e._,
down to the middle of the third century B.C., it was given in the home
and by the parents. Schools, if they existed at all, were few and
relatively unimportant. In free intercourse with his father and mother
the boy received moral and religious instruction and became acquainted
with ancestral traditions, mastered the rudiments of reading, writing,
and counting, and acquired experience in the care of the estate and the
management of a household. Among his games, exercises with the ball
were especially popular, but even his childish sports must have felt
the influence of the military career that awaited him. As he approached
the age when he must be enrolled among the citizens and assume a man’s
obligations, both civil and military, companionship with his father on
the streets and in the forum completed the necessary preparation for
public life. Now, too, he met with other young men for military exercises
on the Field of Mars, which lay between the Tiber and the foot of the
city hills. They practised running, jumping, throwing, and the use of
weapons, and learned to swim in the neighboring stream.
During the larger part of the period of conquest which terminated in
universal empire, and until the Roman army was reorganized as a mercenary
body of professional troops under Caius Marius, about a hundred years
before the beginning of the Christian era, every citizen except those
of the lowest class was liable to military service between the ages
seventeen and sixty. The older men (forty-seven to sixty years) acted
as home guards or did garrison duty only, except in times of emergency,
but the younger legionary might be called out for from sixteen to twenty
campaigns in the field, unless earlier disabled by honorable wounds.
Army life, therefore, became an educational factor of the first rank.
Under the earlier (Servian) plan of enrolment citizens above a certain
minimum property rating were grouped in five classes according to wealth,
beginning with the richest, and if chosen served without pay and also
furnished their own equipment and rations. The first class was protected
by helmet, cuirass, greaves, and shield, and fought with long lance and
sword. The second and third were not so completely armed, but with the
first constituted the heavy infantry, arranged in three parallel lines
for battle. The fourth and fifth wore no defensive armor, but were
supplied with lances and javelins, or other light weapons. Each “legion”
contained twenty centuries of the first class, five each of the second,
third and fourth, and seven of the fifth—a total of three thousand heavy
and twelve hundred light infantry, to which three hundred horsemen were
added. The latter, who rode without saddle or stirrups, played only a
minor part in the wars of the Republic. Soldiers were called out in the
spring, and disbanded at the close of the summer campaign.
Various modifications had been introduced before the conquest of Italy
was completed. The state assumed the cost of field expenses, and age
rather than wealth became the basis of division into groups. The
youngest troops now formed the light-armed centuries, and the older and
more experienced men were distributed among the three successive lines
which were to withstand the heavy shock of battle. The short, two-edged
sword for thrusting had become the favorite weapon. The enemy was first
attacked with a shower of light javelins, which might easily transfix a
shield and render it useless, and then the sword was used for personal
combat at close quarters. The soldier’s clothing consisted of nothing but
a woolen tunic which did not reach his knees, hob-nailed sandals, and a
cloak or hooded cape. His ration was usually wheat, served out once a
month or oftener at the rate of about a bushel a month per man, ground
in hand mills as needed and made into cakes or porridge. Barley might be
substituted, and meat was an accessory, if issued at all. The average
day’s march was fifteen miles, preferably accomplished in the morning
hours. Whatever the climate or the condition of the roads, the legionary
carried, besides his clothing, armor and weapons, a supply of wheat
sufficient for two weeks or more, a pot for cooking, several long stakes
for the palisade about the nightly camp, and perhaps intrenching tools
or other implements—a total estimated by Colonel Dodge at something more
than eighty-five pounds, or considerably over half his own weight. The
camp site must then be fortified by means of a ditch, mound, and palisade
extending entirely around it.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.—Roman soldier, on the march.]
For such a strenuous life the recruit was prepared and the veteran
kept fit by a training to the severity of which the name of the army
(_exercitus_) bears witness. There was steady drill in marching forward
and to the rear, or by either flank, in wheeling, changing from line to
column and back again, and taking open or close orders. Practice marches
of twenty miles or so were executed under full equipment and at the
regular rate of four miles an hour, or with forced marching at five miles
an hour. They were made to run, jump, climb, swim, hurl the javelin, and
fight with swords against posts set firmly in the ground, taking care
through all the movements of attack and defense to keep the body covered
with the shield. The operation of intrenching camp, and of attacking or
defending it, was rehearsed. In peace times there might be employment
on public works, such as roads, canals, bridges, fortifications,
amphitheaters, or aqueducts.
It was not until the third century before Christ that the influence
of Greek literature, philosophy, and art began to be felt in Rome,
introduced through contact with Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily, by
Greek slaves, and by Romans who had sojourned in Greece. But the new
culture awakened such interest and spread with such rapidity that by
the time Greece had become a Roman province, soon after the middle of
the succeeding century, it had profoundly modified the scheme of Roman
education, except on the side of physical training. The boy’s earliest
instruction, received at home or in a private school, still included
reading, writing, and reckoning. He was afterwards sent to a secondary
school, where the chief subject of study was the writings of favorite
Greek and Latin poets, and the practical end sought was accuracy and
facility in the use of the two languages. To these a little music and
applied geometry might be added. Young men who were looking forward to
public life received further preparation in schools of rhetoric. These
taught the art of effective speaking, as needed in the law courts, before
a popular assembly, or in the senate. The home life of the boy had thus
lost its earlier place as chief factor in education, and the old training
for domestic, political, and religious duties had been replaced by one
essentially grammatical and oratorical.
Military service, meanwhile, had ceased to perform its part in national
discipline, for during the last century of the Republic it was committed
to mercenary troops, and these developed into a standing army under the
Empire. While the Greek gymnastics was introduced to some extent among
the Romans of the upper class, it never acquired a hold upon the popular
mind or entered as an important factor into education in the fosterland.
Its pedagogical aim had become obscured, and the great national games
which once exhibited its most perfect product had fallen into ill
repute. The Roman nature lacked that intense love of competition which
was so characteristic of the Greek. The exercises of the palæstra and
the gymnasium, an inexhaustible mine of subjects for the painters of
red-figured Greek vases in the latter half of the fifth century B.C.,
were nothing more than idle amusements to a people bent upon world
conquest. They were disgusted at the nakedness of the performers, which
had been the inspiration of sculptors like Myron, Phidias, Polycletus,
Praxiteles, and Lysippus; and the sight of young athletes contending in
generous rivalry in such events as made up the pentathlon could have
aroused little interest in a generation accustomed to the thrills of the
circus and the amphitheater.
The Greek national festivals, too, were in the last stages of decline.
The better class of citizens no longer appeared as contestants, for
the religious character of the celebrations had largely disappeared,
boxing and the pancratium had become the favorite exercises, prizes
more valuable than the wreath had been substituted, trickery and
falsehood were less uncommon, and a class of professional athletes had
been developed, whose members were usually of low birth and looked
upon with little favor. They submitted themselves to an irksome and
exacting routine which set them apart from the rest of mankind, left
no time for other occupations, and made them virtual slaves of their
trainers. Numerous attempts by Roman emperors to revive the glory of the
ancient games, and to imitate them on Italian soil, met with no enduring
success.[3]
A structure quite as typical of its time and habitat as the Greek
gymnasium of the Periclean age was the public bath, or _therma_, found in
Rome and in every important provincial town in the days of the Empire.
Both made provision for exercise, and contained a system of baths;
though in the thermæ the baths occupied a greater part of the space, and
the rooms and courts for exercise were fewer and smaller. Both added
seats and walks and places of meeting and conversation for visitors,
were lavishly decorated with objects of art, and were frequented by
rhetoricians, poets, and philosophers, as well as by the common populace.
Although the various forms of Greek gymnastics were introduced and
occasionally practised at the baths, that which seems to have been most
popular, and which gave the name to one of the halls or courts (the
_sphæristerium_) was play with various sorts of ball, filled with air,
feathers, or hair. Other exercises were movements of the arms with
dumb-bells in the hands, and fencing with wooden swords against a post,
as practised by the soldiers. Besides the large public baths, such as
those of Caracalla and Diocletian, almost every private house of any size
possessed its own sphæristerium, where light exercises, and especially
games with the ball, were engaged in as a preliminary to the bath. All
such exercises were taken at the whim of the bather, and only as a means
of recreation or to heighten the enjoyment of the bath and meal which
followed it. The resemblance to the Greek gymnasium, though at first
striking, is therefore much less real than apparent, and the effect of
the institution on Roman life was to favor its decay.
Between the pan-Hellenic festivals celebrated in the stadium and
hippodrome at Olympia in the time of Pericles, and those public
spectacles which crowded the amphitheater and circus of the degenerate
Roman world during the first centuries of the Christian era, a greater
contrast can be drawn. The chariot races of the Circus Maximus and the
gladiatorial combats, the contests of men with beasts, or those of
beasts with one another in the Coliseum, reveal the changed type of
civilization, and also mark the last stages of athletic professionalism.
The charioteer and the gladiator were either prisoners of war, slaves,
condemned criminals, or freedmen who adopted the calling from choice.
They were trained in special schools, and unless the property of private
citizens, were commonly let out by their owners to any person who desired
their services.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
General works: Besides the standard dictionaries and handbooks of
classical antiquities, the “Companion to Latin Studies” edited by J. E.
Sandys (Cambridge, England, at the University Press. See especially the
sections on Education and the Roman Army), and T. G. Tucker’s “Life in
the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul” (New York, The Macmillan Co., 1911).
On Roman education: S. S. Laurie’s “Historical Survey of Pre-Christian
Education” (second edition. London and New York: Longmans, Green, & Co.,
1900. Pp. 301-411 are devoted to the Romans), and A. S. Wilkins’ “Roman
Education” (Cambridge, England, at the University Press, 1905).
On the Roman army: Col. T. A. Dodge’s “Hannibal: A History of the Art
of War among the Carthaginians and Romans down to the Battle of Pydna,
168 B.C.” (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1891), and his
“Caesar: A History of the Art of War among the Romans down to the End of
the Roman Empire” (Boston and New York, as above, 1892).
FOOTNOTES:
[3] For details of this period of decline consult chapter eight
(Athletics under the Romans) in E. N. Gardiner’s “Greek Athletic Sports
and Festivals.”
CHAPTER III.
THE TEUTONIC INVADERS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
The Germans as we meet them in the pages of Caesar and Tacitus[4] are
a race of sturdy, blue-eyed giants, who dwell in a land of forest and
swamp. Their straggling villages consist of low, thatched, dirt-floored
huts of rough timber, and in spite of the harsh climate they go about
scantily clad in skin mantles or garments of coarse linen. Small fields
of barley and perhaps other grains are tilled by the women, but flocks
and herds form the chief support of the family, and these, with wild
animals taken in the chase, supply the greater portion of their food.
For drink there was a crude beer, made without hops. Next to warfare,
hunting was the favorite occupation, and for this the surrounding forests
yielded the aurochs or bison, the wild boar, elk, and bear, besides packs
of predatory wolves and numerous lesser animals. Arms were a token of
the freeman’s position and dignity, and were carried constantly. Only
a few could equip themselves with breastplate and helmet, and iron for
swords was scarce, but each man had a shield, and short, sharp spears
for thrusting or throwing. Their cavalry rode without saddles. A public
spectacle much in demand was a dance of naked youths in the midst of
drawn swords and upturned spears. Swimming and horsemanship furnished
other means of active exercise in time of peace.
With such a people the training of the young could not fail to be a hardy
one. Since there was no written language, and the only records were those
handed down in ancient songs, formal instruction was unknown. While the
girls busied themselves with domestic duties, the boys early learned
the arts of the chase and the use of weapons. Hunting and warfare were
their chief school-masters. At maturity the youth was publicly equipped
with shield and spear in the periodical assembly, as a sign of admission
to the rights of citizenship. It was the custom of young men to attach
themselves to favorite chiefs, who vied with each other in the number and
quality of such followers. These promised loyalty in peace and war, and
received in turn horses, arms, and food.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.—Northern warrior of about 300 A.D.]
Among the Northmen of the viking age we find a somewhat more advanced
type of civilization, but hunting, fighting, and vigorous sports in the
open air are still the chief delight of men. Hawking was a favorite
pastime, and the northern falcons were famous throughout Europe. Coats
of chain mail, helmets, swords, and battle axes are added to the earlier
shield and spear, at least in the case of chieftains, and we hear of
bows and arrows, clubs, and slings. A variety of popular exercises were
also practised, which survived throughout the Middle Ages. They included
wrestling, foot races, broad and high jumping, putting the stone, hurling
the spear, throwing with knives, racing on snowshoes or skees, and
several games of ball.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to follow with certainty the
particular changes wrought in portions of the Roman Empire which were
occupied by the Teutonic invaders. In general, lines of communication
were interrupted, the foundations of new and independent nationalities
were laid, and city life became less dominant. There was also an
admixture of sturdy barbarian stock with native populations, though the
latter seem in most cases to have gradually absorbed the conquerors.
Roman forces put an end to Vandal dominion in Africa in 533. Neither
Vandals nor Suevi were numerous enough in Spain to exert a greater
influence than that of bands of roving plunderers, and the Spanish
kingdom of the Visigoths fell before the Mohammedan invasion of 711. In
Italy, also, Gothic power was broken in 533, and the Lombard kingdom
which followed came to an end with Charlemagne’s conquest in 774. West
Goths and Burgundians in Gaul were overcome by the Franks, who seem
themselves to have lost little by little their distinctive national
traits and been merged in the earlier Gallo-Roman population. The Normans
of the tenth century met a similar fate. In the case of England, where
the Teutonic element gained the ascendant, one would like to trace the
British fondness for fox hunting, shooting, horse racing, yachting,
rowing, games like football and cricket, lawn tennis and golf, and the
falconry and archery of an earlier period, to the surviving influence of
Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and Norman ancestors; but actual demonstration of
any such connection could hardly be expected.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Edward Gibbon, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,”
chapter nine (The State of Germany till the Invasion of the Barbarians,
in the Time of the Emperor Decius).
Francis B. Gummere, “Germanic Origins: A Study in Primitive Culture.” New
York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892.
Karl Weinhold, “Altnordisches Leben.” Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung,
1856.
Paul B. Du Chaillu, “The Viking Age: The Early History, Manners, and
Customs of the Ancestors of the English-speaking Nations, Illustrated
from the Antiquities Discovered in Mounds, Cairns, and Bogs, as well as
from the Ancient Sagas and Eddas.” New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1889.
C. F. Kerry, “The Vikings in Western Christendom, A.D. 789 to A.D. 888.”
London, T. Fisher Unwin, and New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1891.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Caesar, the _Gallic War_, especially book six, chapters 21-28;
Tacitus, _Germania_, published in 98 A.D.
CHAPTER IV.
ASCETICISM IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
No sooner had the Teutonic tribes overrun Romanized Europe than they
began to yield, in turn, to the proselyting activities of the young and
lusty Christian Church. And with it came the doctrine of _asceticism_,
which left its mark on education for a thousand years and more, and
tended to counteract, in a measure, the invigorating effect of the
barbarian strain.
The Hindu fakir, the Christian saint of the desert, and the Mohammedan
dervish are different expressions of a belief which at some time or other
has prevailed among a very large proportion of the human race. It has
been one of the fundamental ideas of the oriental religions that evil
inheres in matter, while mind or spirit is essentially divine and pure.
According to this view, the flesh and the spirit wage perpetual warfare
on each other; the body is not a useful servant, but an enemy, and to
be resisted therefore at every point and struck down whenever its head
is raised. The ideal life is one of solitude, contemplation, and strict
abstinence from sensual indulgence in any form. Asceticism has thus been
an important factor in the ancient religions of China, Tibet, Siam,
India, and Persia, and very early in the Christian Era, or before its
dawn, this principle had found its way into Syria and Egypt, and through
the Alexandrian schools of philosophy into southern Europe. Brought
into contact with Christianity, it helped to prepare the way for the
movement now under consideration, and in like manner gave its impress to
Mohammedanism at a later period.
But in the case of the early Christians, living for the most part in
cities and brought into close and daily contact with all the abominations
of the decadent pagan society of the Empire, a violent reaction from the
prevailing luxury and sensual self-indulgence was inevitable. Men of deep
religious feeling desired to escape contamination from such worldliness,
and it is not strange if in protest against its excesses they sometimes
carried their stern self-restraint so far as to deny themselves the
common comforts of life and decline to gratify those cravings of the body
which are innocent and natural. The healthy appetites and impulses of the
normal man are not to be eradicated without a struggle, however, and the
constant discomfort which resulted from unsatisfied desires they viewed
as insubordination. This in turn led to belief in the innate depravity
of human nature. To subdue the rebellious flesh they resorted to renewed
and more severe privations, or punished it with self-inflicted tortures.
Mortification of the body acquired the dignity of a religious exercise,
while the idea of pleasure came to be closely associated with that of
vice.
A third cause of the outbreak of asceticism is found in the persecution
to which many converts of the growing church were subjected. This soon
kindled an intense religious enthusiasm which welcomed martyrdom and
glorified the sufferings that attended it. The liberated soul, it was
taught, entered at once into eternal blessedness. Pain and torment came
thus to be considered meritorious of themselves, and the direct road to
salvation; and after the persecutions ceased, the self-torture of the
ascetic took their place as a means and measure of human excellence.
When once the movement to the deserts was started, the desire to escape
from the burdens imposed by corrupt government, from social disorders,
and later from the wretchedness that followed the invasions of barbarian
hordes from the North, helped to crowd the ranks of the hermits and swell
the numbers gathered into monastic communities.
It was in the latter half of the third century that the first Christian
hermits fled to the deserts of Egypt, where natural caverns, or caves
easily hewn out of the rock, supplied the only shelter necessary in such
a climate, and a grove of date palms with a spring close by it solved
the problem of sustenance without labor. But the movement did not gather
much headway until the early part of the next century, when Anthony’s
career had given dignity to the solitary life and made it widely popular.
At the time of his death, in 365, the deserts on either side of the Nile
from the Cataracts to the Delta were dotted with the retreats of hermits,
and it is said that Pachomius, who was the first to gather his disciples
into organized communities and formulate a monastic rule, had no fewer
than 7000 monks under his authority. By the fifth century the numbers
had increased to 100,000 in Egypt alone, and the practice had extended
into Syria and Palestine, Armenia, Mesopotamia, parts of Asia Minor, and
Italy, whence it soon reached the whole of Western Europe.
The greatest extravagances are found among the Eastern “saints of the
desert,” accounts of whose austerities were collected by wandering
pilgrims and excited the admiration of all Christendom. Some dwelt
in deserted dens of wild beasts, in tombs and dried-up wells, on the
summit of narrow columns, or spent days in the midst of thorn bushes.
Others never lay down during months and even years, or they slept naked
in swamps, exposed to the stings of insects. Many abstained from food
altogether for long periods, or restricted themselves to quantities too
small to relieve the pangs of hunger. Bodily cleanliness was frequently
abjured, and a long list of strange penances was devised.[5]
Severe self-torture was less common in the Western monasteries,
especially after the earlier code had been supplanted by a new one
drafted (529) by Benedict of Nursia, founder of the order that bears his
name. This is distinguished by the absence of any severe austerities, and
substitutes manual labor in place of contemplation and penance. But the
conception of supreme excellence was much the same in the West and in the
East. Asceticism became a part of the accepted teaching of the Church
and the practice of a large proportion of her leaders and adherents. Of
Simeon Stylites, the famous Syrian monk of the fifth century, we read
that “from every quarter pilgrims of every degree thronged to do him
homage. A crowd of prelates followed him to the grave. A brilliant star
is said to have shown miraculously over his pillar; the general voice of
mankind pronounced him to be the highest model of a Christian saint.”
The physical effects of the ascetic life upon the individual must have
been disastrous as a rule. Not only did it lead to broken health,
such as embittered the lives of some of the greatest among the Church
Fathers, but long-continued austerities and overwrought emotions produced
a disordered nervous system, and supplied all the conditions for
hallucination. Lecky has also called attention to certain moral qualities
that suffered from the prevailing conception of excellence. “What may be
called a strong animal nature,” he says, “a nature, that is, in which the
passions are in vigorous, and at the same time healthy action, is that in
which we should most naturally expect to find ... good humor, frankness,
generosity, active courage, sanguine energy, buoyancy of temper. (These)
are much more rarely found either in natures that are essentially feeble
or effeminate, or in natures that have been artificially emasculated by
penances, distorted from their original tendency, and habitually held
under severe control.”
Among the people at large the physical consequences of the prevailing
doctrine were hardly less pernicious. It justified the personal and
public uncleanliness and the neglect of simple sanitary precautions to
which they were already prone enough, and thus became to some extent
accountable for the unprecedented succession of plagues which decimated
the population of Europe again and again throughout the Middle Ages.
None of these widespread epidemics suggested sanitary improvement, but
they were regarded as “visitations,” and attributed to the wrath of God,
or to the malice of Satan. It is not unlikely that such phenomena,
even, as the dancing mania, the processions of Flagellants, trials of
innocence, and the persecutions of Jews and witches depend in part upon
the fact that communities and nations, no less than individuals, lacking
real physical hardihood, were often crazed by nervous excitement, and
impelled by an overstimulated emotional nature fell an easy prey to weird
delusions and morbid fancies, of which a series of moral epidemics was
the natural result.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
W. E. H. Lecky, “History of European Morals from Augustine to
Charlemagne” (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1869), =2=, pp. 107 ff.
I. Gregory Smith, “Christian Monasticism from the Fourth to the Ninth
Centuries of the Christian Era.” London, A. D. Innes & Co., 1892.
Abbot Gasquet, “English Monastic Life.” London, Methuen & Co., 1904.
Contains illustrations, maps, and plans.
Herbert B. Workman, “The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal from the
Earliest Times Down to the Coming of the Friars.” London, Charles H.
Kelly, 1913.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Lecky gives a striking series of examples in his History of European
Morals, vol. =2=, pp. 114-119.
CHAPTER V.
MONASTERY AND CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS.
In the cities of Northern Italy the dying out of the old Roman schools,
as a result of internal decay and the inroads of the Teutonic barbarians,
was not followed by the complete extinction of the race of lay teachers,
and here, and throughout southern Europe generally, education therefore
never became exclusively ecclesiastical; but in transalpine Europe, from
the sixth till the twelfth century, the Benedictine monasteries were the
chief if not the only seats of learning, and education was almost wholly
in the hands of monks of that order. There were schools attached to the
cathedrals, also, but they drew their teachers from the monasteries and
seldom rose to more than local importance until in the course of the
twelfth century intellectual activity was gradually transferred to them
and they became the germ out of which the universities of the Middle
Ages developed. The reform legislation of Charles the Great fixed this
intimate relation between the Church and education by requiring that
every monastery and every cathedral throughout his broad empire should
have its school. The origin of these institutions is to be found in the
need of educated ecclesiastics, and the earliest scholars were candidates
for admission to the Benedictine order, or for the priesthood; but about
the beginning of the ninth century “exterior schools” began to be added,
open to boys who were intended for secular callings.
The course of study, intended to prepare the way for a proper
understanding of the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Church
Fathers, was everywhere limited to the so-called seven liberal arts.
These included the fundamental _trivium_—grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic
or logic—and the less important _quadrivium_—music, arithmetic, geometry,
and astronomy. It was the world to come for which men were trained;
theological doctrines and religious interests absorbed human thought,
and the present world was deemed unworthy of attention. So long as the
spirit of asceticism remained in the ascendant there could be no such
thing as physical training in schools conducted by the Church. The
soul was the one object of solicitude, and the body was regarded with
contempt. Uncleanliness and physical neglect were not incompatible with
intellectual eminence. The monastic discipline in all its severity
was an essential part of school life. Other forms of punishment were
common, but the rod was the favorite instrument; it was used on the least
occasion, and sometimes periodically, “as a kind of general atonement
for sins past and possible.” Even the humane Alcuin, Master of Charles
the Great’s Palace School at Aix (782-796), would have a separate master
for every class “that the boys may not run about in idleness or occupy
themselves in silly play.” Their lessons were to furnish them all the
play and diversion needed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
S. S. Laurie, “The Rise and Early Constitution of Universities, with a
Survey of Mediæval Education.” New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1887.
A. F. West, “Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools.” New York,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892.
Any standard history of education, such as F. P. Graves, “A History of
Education during the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times” (New
York, The Macmillan Co.).
CHAPTER VI.
CHIVALRY.
Chivalry, or the body of law and custom relating to knighthood, prevailed
almost universally throughout western Europe between the eleventh and
sixteenth centuries. Its usages were international, and in its ideal of
war, religion and gallantry was summed up the whole duty of the gentleman
of that age. The system can be traced in part to various customs of
the ancient Germans, developed later under the influence of feudalism;
but its final form was not received until the time of the Crusades
(1096-1270), when the Church, in order to further her own designs,
adopted and modified its practices. It was in large measure the inroads
of Mohammedan warriors in Christian territory and their profanation of
the Holy City which led to a substitution of military Christianity for
the ascetic ideal cherished hitherto, and caused war with the infidels
to be pronounced a religious duty and the battlefield a direct road to
salvation. This union of chivalry with religion—the consecration of
military prowess to the service of the Church—is typified in the three
orders of soldier monks, the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the Teutonic
Knights, which had their origin in the twelfth century. The hermit of
early Catholic legends had thus been displaced as a popular hero by the
king and the knight who figure in the romances of Arthur and of Charles
the Great. The decline of chivalry as a military system began soon after
the last crusade (1270), and in the fifteenth century became complete;
for the introduction of gunpowder in warfare, with the increased
importance attached to infantry and artillery, made the arms and armor
of the knight of no avail and lessened the opportunities for personal
distinction on the field. At the same time the growing centralization
of power in the hands of the sovereign was rapidly destroying the
independence of the nobility of lesser rank.
The early training of a knight bore no resemblance to the ascetic type
seen in the monastery and cathedral schools. Although the boy intended
for such a career was sometimes brought up at home, it was the common
custom to send him away, at the age of seven or soon after, to the
court or castle of some nobleman, in whose household, among other young
attendants of gentle birth, he might learn the principles, acquire the
breeding, and become proficient in the practices of chivalry. As a
_page_ he was expected to render to his master and mistress personal
service of all sorts, even the most humble and domestic, waiting on
them at the table, carrying messages, following them to the chase or
camp, and in visits to neighboring castles. Meanwhile, under the tuition
of the ladies, he was mastering the rudiments of reading and writing,
together with the rules of courteous behavior and the first principles
of gallantry. He gained some familiarity with Latin and French, the
universal languages, tried his hand at playing the harp and in games
of chess and backgammon, picked up many facts of history, learned much
of heraldry, and became acquainted with the songs and poetry of the
troubadours. But the principal part of his training was carried on
outdoors, where he was already imitating grown men in his play, learning
the business of a _squire_, and seeking to prove himself worthy of
advancement to that rank.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.—Knight Templar (Gasquet).]
Promotion to this second grade did not come until after the age of
fourteen, though it is probable that the change from page to squire
was not a sudden one. The personal service to his lord became more
responsible in its nature, and thus led to a more dignified position in
the household; but vigorous sports and martial exercises, in which he had
already made some progress as a page, now occupied his time increasingly.
Instruction in dancing was a part of his discipline in polished manners.
He was early taught how to train a falcon and handle him in hawking, and
in the pursuit of the stag and wild boar found occasion for the display
of greater skill and daring. Running, jumping, wrestling, swimming,
climbing ropes and poles and ladders, hurling stones, casting the spear,
shooting with the bow and cross-bow, wielding the battle-axe, and
fencing, at first with dull wooden swords, helped to harden his body and
give mastery of its powers for future need. The most essential exercise,
however, was horsemanship, including the adroit use of shield and lance,
and the ability to endure the weight and overcome the hindrance of full
armor. There was practice in leaping into the saddle without the help
of stirrups, dismounting quickly, and reaching down to pick up objects
from the ground. Tilting at the ring or quintain, or afterwards with a
living opponent, developed a firm seat and the skill required to govern
the galloping charger with the legs alone while one received and parried
a thrust with the shield upon his left arm, and with the right guided
the lance so as to lift his antagonist from the saddle, if possible, by
striking him squarely in the throat or upon the center of his shield.
The young squire also followed his master to the field, sharing with
him all the dangers and privations of a military career. He helped him
to adjust and fasten the numerous pieces that composed his armor, after
taking care that these were in perfect condition, assisted him to mount,
held extra horses, supplied fresh lances as they were needed, raised
him if unseated, attended to his wounds, received and guarded whatever
prisoners were taken, sought to release him if he were taken captive,
or bore away his dead body to give it proper burial. After this long
apprenticeship, in case he had proved his fitness for the dignity and
possessed the means to support so costly a profession, the squire who
had reached the age of twenty-one might hope to take the final step.
By a blow upon the shoulder with the flat of a sword some knight or
noble ended his tedious years of waiting and admitted him to the great
brotherhood of chivalry.
A public spectacle no less brilliant and fascinating than the
pan-Hellenic games or the gladiatorial shows of the Roman world, and
equally characteristic of their age, were the tournaments common all
over Christendom in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Originally
the rough trials of strength and skill that were a natural occurrence
whenever knights met at leisure, they were little by little modified and
regulated until they became the chief pastime of nobles and gentlemen,
a school of war in times of peace, where the young contestant not only
displayed but developed his personal bravery, presence of mind, and
ability to find at once the right means of attack and defense, the field
in which he often won his first laurels or attracted the attention and
interest of influential men. After the decline of chivalry as a military
system tournaments lost their value as an image of war, and became more
and more a means of mere amusement and an occasion for display, though
they did not pass entirely out of fashion until toward the close of the
sixteenth century.
In tournaments proper groups of combatants on each side fought together
with lance and sword in a miniature cavalry battle; while in the joust,
which was far more frequent although it also formed a part of many
tournaments, two horsemen only met each other, with lance and shield,
sometimes continuing the combat on foot with swords after one of them
had been unseated. The contestants, in both cases, appeared in full
armor, and commonly, but not always, the swords were blunt and the lances
tipped with flat or slightly toothed plates of metal; but injuries,
nevertheless, were not infrequent, and heavy falls or suffocation from
heat and dust, or serious wounds when the lance struck fair and did not
split cost many a life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Paul Lacroix, “Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages and at the
Period of the Renaissance.” London, Chapman and Hall, 1874.
Léon Gautier, “La Chevalerie.” Paris, 1883.
Alwin Schultz, “Das höfische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger.” Leipzig, S.
Herzel, 1879 and 1880 (second edition, 1889).
Julius Bintz, “Die Leibesübungen des Mittelalters.” Gütersloh, C.
Bertelsmann, 1880.
F. Warre-Cornish, “Chivalry.” London, Swan Sonnenschein, and New York,
The Macmillan Co., 1901.
CHAPTER VII.
THE UNIVERSITIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
A succession of influences operating in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries had widened the scope of human interests and produced a vague
longing after knowledge which was not to be satisfied by the traditional
teaching of the schools. Along with the demand for a different type and
more advanced grade of instruction, there arose here and there famous
lecturers, such as Abelard (1079-1142) at Paris, who gathered about
themselves great numbers of disciples. Centers were thus created to which
other teachers and their followers were attracted, and this in turn
led to an informal association of masters and pupils, out of which the
medieval university developed. The complete university came at length to
include four departments—theology, law, medicine, and philosophy or the
arts. Certain texts were thought to contain explicitly or implicitly the
sum of ascertainable secular truth, just as the Bible and the writings
of Church Fathers held all religious truth; and this was to be extracted
by prescribed methods of reasoning, with no fresh resort to the facts of
observation and experience. Instead of seeking new harvests, the typical
schoolmen of that day were content with the continual threshing over of
old straw.
As regards treatment of the body, the influence of asceticism was
still supreme. Provision for lawful amusements was rarely made in the
university statutes, which appear frequently to regard harmless attempts
at pleasure with more hostility than they display toward actual vice
and crime. The sports of chivalry—hunting and hawking, jousts and
tournaments—were not considered seemly for the student, even if he had
the means to indulge in them. Dancing was seldom countenanced in any
form. “Playing with a ball or bat” is sometimes found included in the
list of “insolent” games, and other prohibitions make mention of “profane
games, immodest runnings, and horrid shoutings.” The ideal student would
appear to be the one who denied himself all recreation and amusement; but
we may be sure that no such suppression of animal spirits was possible
for the average full-blooded young man of that age. In the absence of
any authorized outlet they found vent in drinking, gambling, and grosser
forms of vice, in street brawls and rough practical joking, and not
infrequently in violent outbreaks of organized lawlessness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
S. S. Laurie, “The Rise and Early Constitution of Universities, with a
Survey of Mediæval Education.” New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1887.
Gabriel Compayré, “Abelard and the Origin and Early History of
Universities.” New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893.
Hastings Rashdall, “The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages.”
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1895.
J. B. Mullinger, article “Universities” in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_,
11th edition.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND THE REFORMATION.
The universities of the Middle Ages had made their contribution to
the intellectual advancement of Europe, but they could not break the
bands of ecclesiastical tyranny that still fettered the human mind. It
required the joint action of other and more potent forces to provide
escape from a conception of the world and the flesh which associated them
with the devil, and to weaken the authority of that theological dogma
which centered the thought and imagination of men for centuries upon
the rewards and punishments of a future state and meanwhile paralyzed
or thwarted every effort to master the resources or investigate the
phenomena of the material universe. Man’s rightful heritage upon this
earth was not yet restored to him. In some way the feeling of personal
dignity and independence must be aroused, the spirit of emulation
provoked, and his powers of achievement challenged as they had never
been before. Among the chief factors in this process of transition
from the medieval to the modern world was the Revival of Learning,
that appreciative study of the Greek and Latin classics and all the
long-neglected records of ancient civilization which supplied the Western
nations with a new ideal of life and culture. The recovered masterpieces
of literature and art excited the passionate admiration of scholars; they
revelled in the free existence of what seemed to them a Golden Age, rich
in such treasures as they had begun already to covet for themselves.
To the Italian “humanists” of the fifteenth century we owe what is still
known as a classical education. The greatest school-master of them all
was Vittorino da Feltre (1378-1446), who undertook the training of the
sons of Marquis Gian Francesco Gonzaga at Mantua in 1423. So earnest and
successful was this teacher and so widely did his fame extend that other
pupils were added from time to time, until most of the princely houses
of Italy, together with some in foreign countries, were represented
at the school, to which many in humbler station were also admitted.
Latin, Greek, and classical archeology formed the basis and main body of
instruction. The chief end was to enable pupils to read and understand
the best works of the ancients and to express themselves with elegance
in these foreign languages. It was, in fact, an attempt to train new
citizens of Greece and Rome, and to reproduce for them the life of the
past.
The customs of chivalry had not ceased to shape the early training
of an Italian gentleman, and it was therefore natural that Vittorino
should incorporate in his school some of the characteristic features of
knightly education. The staff of assistants included special teachers
of dancing, riding, fencing, and swimming, and to these exercises were
added wrestling, running and jumping, archery, ball games, hunting and
fishing, and mock battles between two parties, or contests in which one
side sought to storm the castle or surprise the camp of its opponents.
The ample grounds about the villa which had been converted into a
school building were well adapted for such sports, and all the pupils
were required to share in them. Vittorino himself often joined them, it
is said, and occasionally led them on excursions into the surrounding
country, extending as far as Lago di Gardo, Venice, and the Alps. He
insisted on moderation in food and drink, and did not allow weather or
season to interfere too much with life in the open air.
Vittorino had thus succeeded in combining physical with mental training
and bringing them within the reach of every pupil; but outside of
the schools for young noblemen, which continued to exist in various
parts of Europe as late as the eighteenth century, he seems to have
had few, if any, successors in this respect until Basedow opened the
“Philanthropinum” at Dessau in 1774. During the more than three hundred
years that intervene, however, much was written by educational reformers
and others in commendation of bodily exercises and recognition of its
right to a place in the curriculum; and some of these authors, theorists
though they were, occupy an important position in the history of physical
training, as links between the present and the past. Vittorino, indeed,
had only applied in practice the pedagogical principles already outlined
by another Italian humanist, _Pietro Paulo Vergerio_ (1349-1428), in
a brief treatise on education sent to the young Ubertino di Carrara,
whose tutor he had been at the court in Padua. This letter, which was
afterwards printed and passed through many editions, refers repeatedly
to ancient Greeks and Romans, as authorities or by way of illustration,
and devotes two of its chapters to the subject of physical exercise.
_Maffeo Vegio_ (1407-1458), who began life as a scholar and poet but
later entered the service of the Church at Rome and finally joined the
order of Augustinian monks, wrote one of the most notable pedagogical
works of the fifteenth century, and in the chapters relating to physical
training shows in a similar way the influence of his classical studies.
To the same category belong _Enea Silvio Piccolomini_ (1405-1464), better
known as Pope Pius II, who was at one time a secretary at the court of
Emperor Frederick III, and in 1450 prepared a tractate on the subject of
princely education; _Francesco Filelfo_ (1398-1481), who wrote to the
Duchess Regent of Milan, about 1475, suggesting a method of education
suitable for her young son; and _Jacopo Sadoleto_ (1477-1547), humanist
and churchman, friend of Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, and Sturm, and
author of a book (1530) on education which indicates a return to the old
Athenian ideal and type.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.—Hieronymus Mercurialis: Title page of first
edition of his _De arte gymnastica_.]
Two other Italian writers are worthy of more extended notice. _Girolamo
Cardano_ (1501-1576) had studied at Pavia and Padua, and traveled in
France, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Germany. He obtained his
doctorate in medicine and practised that profession, devoting much of
his time, however, to researches which bore fruit in a long series of
scientific and philosophical works. In his interesting autobiography he
tells of his own early practice in running and jumping, riding, fencing,
and swimming, and elsewhere describes at length a great variety of
ancient and modern feats of strength and skill. His work on the care
of health (_De sanitate tuenda, libri iv_), of which several editions
appeared, contains an independent, systematic, and scientific treatment
of the hygiene of bodily exercise, discussing its value and effects in
general, the physiological classification of exercises into violent or
light, rapid or slow, continuous or interrupted, etc., and the nature and
usefulness of numerous special forms, which belong not only to past ages
but also to contemporary life and customs.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.—Hieronymus Mercurialis: Title page of second
edition of his _De arte gymnastica_.]
_Hieronymus Mercurialis_ (1530-1606), a famous physician, and widely
known throughout Europe on account of his medical writings, while he
was still a young man, in the household of Cardinal Alexander Farnese
at Rome, began his literary career with a treatise on the gymnastics
of the ancients (_De arte gymnastica_)[6]—a book which seems to have
enjoyed a remarkable degree of popularity and is often cited by more
recent writers. It was first published at Venice in 1569, but at least
three more editions appeared in Venice and one in Paris during his
lifetime, and others after his death, including one in Amsterdam as
late as 1672. Out of his rich store of classical learning—the first
edition contains a list of ninety-six Greek and Latin authors upon whom
he has drawn—Mercurialis seeks to reproduce for his readers the ancient
gymnasia and gymnastic exercises; but in the second half of the volume
he leaves the descriptive and historical and turns to the hygienic and
medical aspects of exercise, as viewed from the critical standpoint of
the physician. Somewhat like Cardano, he first considers the value of
exercise in conditions of health and disease and the general principles
that govern its application, and then takes up the nature and effects of
particular exercises in some detail. According to the title page the work
was not intended for the use of physicians only, but for all who were
interested in the study of archeology or in the preservation of health.[7]
In Germany _Martin Luther_ (1483-1546) realized the recreative and
moral value of bodily exercise, and recommends especially such knightly
sports as fencing and wrestling. The Swiss reformer _Ulrich Zwingli_
(1484-1531), writing on the subject of education in 1524, makes
suggestions regarding diet and clothing, and refers to running, jumping,
hurling stones, wrestling, and fencing as a means of acquiring strength
and skill. He also considers wrestling and fencing a useful preparation
for military service. _Joachim Camerarius_ (1500-1574), who taught in
Nuremberg, Tübingen, and the University of Leipsic, and was the friend
and biographer of Melanchthon, published in 1544 a brief dialogue on
bodily exercise (_Dialogus de gymnasiis_).[8] The author believes that
boys should be encouraged to run, jump, wrestle, fence, and play ball
outdoors, and one of the speakers, after mentioning the gymnastics of
the ancients and the performances of the old Germans, describes to his
companion a model school for the common people in which the teacher
provides for indoor practice in hanging from a bar, climbing a rope,
lifting weights, and matching strength with an opponent in various
ways, and for a number of active games in the open air, some of them
described in the text. Among the most illustrious names in the history
of educational reform is that of _Johann Amos Comenius_ (1592-1671), a
Moravian pastor and teacher who suffered persecution and banishment in
the course of the Thirty Years’ War. In his writings he allots eight
hours of the day to sleep, eight to work, and eight to meals, the care of
the health, exercise of the body, etc. He would have about every school
building a playground, where the boys might run and jump and enjoy their
games, since it is necessary to put the body in motion and allow the mind
to rest. A half hour of recreation is to follow each hour of study. He
would let pupils play to their hearts’ content, but forbids wrestling,
boxing, and swimming as either useless or dangerous.
_Juan Louis Vives_ (1492-1540), a well-known Spanish scholar, born at
Valencia, educated there and in the University of Paris, after 1514 a
resident of Bruges and Louvain, but dividing his time between Flanders
and England in the years 1522 and 1528 as lecturer at Oxford and tutor
in the family of Henry VIII, published several works on education which
contain frequent mention of bodily exercise. He regards it as necessary
for the health of growing boys, and appreciates the recreative value of
games.
The typical figure of the French Renaissance is _François Rabelais_
(1490-1553), monk, physician, and humorist, whose novels _Gargantua_
(1535) and _Pantagruel_ (1533) contain his revolutionary views on
education. The young gentleman Gargantua is provided with an ideal
tutor in the person of Ponocrates. After three hours of lectures in the
morning they spend an hour or so in ball games out-of-doors, followed
by dinner, an hour of music or quiet games, and three more of study in
the afternoon. Now his physical training, the object of which is plainly
to prepare for “the gentleman’s occupation, war,” begins in earnest.
With the author’s habitual exuberance of detail Esquire Gymnast is made
to teach his pupil horsemanship, how to handle the lance while in full
armor, vault on horseback and leap from one horse to another, wield the
battle-axe, handle pike, sword, dagger, and shield, and hunt the bear,
deer, wild boar, and lesser game. He also practises wrestling, running,
broad and high jumping, swimming, rowing and sailing a boat, climbing
ropes, masts, trees and walls, throwing stones, hurling spears, shooting
with bow and cross-bow and with firearms, hanging and travelling sideways
on a pole fixed in two trees, and putting up leaden dumb-bells.[9]
The eminent French essayist _Michel de Montaigne_ (1533-1592), in
discussing at some length the education of children, has comparatively
little to say of their physical training; but his few words on that
subject have been frequently quoted, and will still bear repetition.
They are found in Book I, Chapter 25, of the _Essays_ (1580). Health and
strength are necessary, he says, for “the soul will be oppressed if not
assisted by the body.... I know very well how much mine groans under
the disadvantage of a body so tender and delicate that eternally leans
and presses upon her.... Our very exercises and recreations, running,
wrestling, music, dancing, hunting, riding, and fencing will prove to be
a good part of our study. I would have his outward behavior and mien, and
the disposition of his limbs, formed at the same time with his mind. It
is not a soul, it is not a body, that we are training up; it is a man,
and we ought not to divide him into two parts; and as Plato says, we are
not to fashion one without the other, but make them draw together like
two horses harnessed to a coach. By which saying of his does he not seem
to allow more time for, and to take more care of, exercises for the body,
and to believe that the mind in a good proportion does her business at
the same time too?... Inure him to heat and cold, to wind and sun, and to
danger that he ought to despise. Wean him from all effeminacy in clothes
and lodging, eating and drinking; accustom him to everything, that he may
not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous
young man.”
An English contemporary of Rabelais, and of Henry VIII, was _Sir Thomas
Elyot_ (1490?-1546), intimate with Sir Thomas More, deeply stirred by the
spirit of the Renaissance, and held in high repute for his scholarship.
“The Boke named the Governour,” published by him in 1531, relates to the
education suitable for a gentleman’s son who is preparing to serve the
commonwealth. It passed through a half-dozen editions within the next
fifty years, and has been recently reprinted in London and New York.
Book I, Chapters 16-22, 26 and 27, comprising more than an eighth of
the entire work, are concerned with physical training, which is treated
under the following heads: “Of sundry forms of exercise necessary for
a gentleman. Exercises whereof cometh both recreation and profit” (here
he mentions the use of dumb-bells of lead or other metal, lifting or
throwing the heavy stone or bar, wrestling, running, swimming, handling
the sword and the battle axe, riding and vaulting.) “The ancient hunting
of Greeks, Romans, and Persians. Dancing. Of other exercises which,
moderately used, be to every estate of man expedient. That shooting
in a long bow (the ‘noble art of archery’) is principal of all other
exercises.”[10] Elyot’s fondness for the classics appears in his very
numerous references to Greek and Roman examples or authorities.
While Mercurialis was writing his _De Arte Gymnastica_ and Montaigne his
_Essays_, _Richard Mulcaster_ (1530?-1611) was doing hard work for scant
pay as Master of the Merchant Taylors’ School in London (1561-1586).
Among other striking points of difference, he stands in pleasant contrast
with his more successful contemporary Sturm, at Strasburg, in his
attitude toward the bodies of the young. His _Positions_, which appeared
in 1581 and was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, deals with the principles
to be observed in the training of children, “either for skill in their
book or health in their body.” A third of the volume is given up to the
physical side of education, and the nature of the contents cannot be
better revealed in brief space than by a partial list of the chapter
headings, slightly altered and condensed: Chapter 4, That exercise must
be joined with the book, as the schooling of the body. 6, The importance
of exercise and physical training (as an agent of health). 7, The order
followed in the present treatment of the subject. 8, Definition and
varieties of exercise (athletics, martial exercises, exercises for
health, etc.). 9, Choice of exercises. 10-15, Of loud speaking, loud
singing, loud and soft reading, much talking and silence, laughing and
weeping, holding the breath. 16-27, Dancing, wrestling, fencing, top
and scourge, walking, running, leaping, swimming, riding, hunting,
shooting (archery), ball games. 28-34, Circumstances to be considered
in exercise, nature and quality of exercise, the bodies which are to
be exercised; place, time, quantity, and manner of exercise. 35, The
training master (the same teacher is to serve for both mind and body). Of
all books on gymnastics, he says in this last chapter, “I know not any
comparable to Hieronymus Mercurialis, a very learned Italian physician
now in our time, which hath taken great pains to sift out of all writers
whatsoever concerneth the whole gymnastical and exercising argument,
whose advice in this question I have myself much used, where he did fit
my purpose.” Mulcaster seems never to have caught the ear of the age in
which he lived, and it is only within the last few decades that he has
been rescued from oblivion and rated at his real worth, as a man far in
advance of his time. His book was reprinted in London in 1888.
Standing at the very end of this period of the Renaissance and the
Reformation is _John Milton_ (1608-1674), whose _Tractate on Education_
(1644), though not of great value in itself, is yet deserving of mention
here because it associates a form of bodily exercise with mental and
moral training. In his model school, intended to bring up gentlemen’s
sons “to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices
both private and public, of peace and war,” he would have the young men,
between the ages of twelve and twenty-one, live together in barracks,
like the Spartan youth. “About an hour and a half ere they eat at noon
should be allowed them for exercise, and due rest afterwards; but the
time for this may be enlarged at pleasure.... The exercise which I
commend first is exact use of their weapon, to guard and to strike safely
with edge or point; this will keep them healthy, nimble, strong, and
well in breath; is also the likeliest means to make them grow large and
tall, and to inspire them with a gallant and fearless courage.... They
must be also practised in all the locks and gripes of wrestling, wherein
Englishmen were wont to excel, as need may often be in fight to tug or
grapple, and to close....” About two hours before supper they are to
be called out for their military motions under sky or covert; “first
on foot, then, as their age permits, on horseback, to all the art of
cavalry; that, having in sport, but much exactness, and daily muster,
served out the rudiments of their soldiership ... they may as it were out
of a long war, come forth renowned and perfect commanders in the service
of their country.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
R. H. Quick, “Essays on Educational Reformers.” New York, D. Appleton &
Co., 1890.
F. P. Graves, “A History of Education during the Middle Ages and the
Transition to Modern Times.” New York, The Macmillan Co., 1910.
Foster Watson, “Notices of Some Early English Writers on Education, with
Descriptions, Extracts, and Notes.” In annual Reports of the United
States Commissioner of Education for 1900-01 (I: 861-884), 1902 (I:
481-508), 1903 (I: 319-350), and 1904 (I: 633-701).
W. H. Woodward, “Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance
(1400-1600).” Cambridge (England), at the University Press, 1906.
W. H. Woodward, “Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators: Essays
and Versions.” Cambridge (England), at the University Press, 1897.
Wilhelm Krampe, “Die italienischen Humanisten und ihre Wirksamkeit für
die Wiederbelebung gymnastischer Pädagogik. Ein Beitrag zur allgemeinen
Geschichte der Jugenderziehung und der Leibesübungen.” Breslau, W. G.
Korn, 1895.
O. Richter, “Die Ansichten und Bestrebungen italienischer Humanisten
auf dem Gebiete der Leibeserziehung. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
Leibesübungen.” In _Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_ 14 (1895); 98-107,
139-149, 193-200, and 262-270. Berlin, R. Gaertners Verlagsbuchhandlung.
Carl Rossow, “Italienische und deutsche Humanisten und ihre Stellung zu
den Leibesübungen.” Leipzig, C. G. Naumann, 1903.
S. S. Laurie, “John Amos Comenius, Bishop of the Moravians: His Life and
Educational Works.” Cambridge (England), at the University Press, 1895.
M. W. Keatinge, “The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius now for the
first time Englished, with Introductions, Biographical and Historical.”
London, Adam and Charles Black, 1896.
W. S. Monroe, “Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform.” New
York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900.
Foster Watson, “Vives: On Education. A Translation of the _De Tradendis
Disciplinis_ of Juan Luis Vives, together with an Introduction.”
Cambridge (England), at the University Press, 1913.
Foster Watson, “Vives and the Renascence Education of Women.” New York:
Longmans, Green & Co.; London, Edward Arnold, 1912.
Arthur Tilley, “François Rabelais.” Philadelphia and London, J. B.
Lippincott Co., 1907.
Walter Besant, “Readings in Rabelais.” Edinburgh and London, William
Blackwood and Sons, 1883.
M. E. Lowndes, “Michel de Montaigne: A Biographical Study.” Cambridge
(England), at the University Press, 1898.
Edward Dowden, “Michel de Montaigne.” Philadelphia and London, J. B.
Lippincott Co., 1905.
L. E. Rector, “Montaigne: The Education of Children. Selected,
Translated, and Annotated.” New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1899.
H. H. S. Croft, “The Boke named The Governour, Devised by Sir Thomas
Elyot, Knight. Edited from the first edition of 1531.” In two volumes.
London: Kegan, Paul & Co., 1880.
Sir Thomas Elyot, “The Boke Named the Governour.” London, J. M. Dent &
Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton & Co. (Foster Watson’s Introduction is dated
1907). Number 227 in _Everyman’s Library_.
R. H. Quick, “Positions: By Richard Mulcaster, First Headmaster of
Merchant Taylors’ School (A.D. 1561-1586); with an Appendix, containing
Some Account of His Life and Writings.” London and New York: Longmans,
Green, & Co., 1888.
Oscar Browning, “Milton’s Tractate on Education. A Facsimile Reprint from
the Edition of 1673. Edited with an Introduction and Notes.” Cambridge
(England), at the University Press, 1890. The _Tractate_ is also
published in Barnard’s _American Journal of Education_ II (1856): 76-85.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] The first edition, dedicated to Cardinal Alexander Farnese, has
the following title-page: “Artis Gymnasticæ apud Antiquos celeberrimæ,
nostris temporibus ignoratæ, Libri Sex. In quibus exercitationum
omnium vetustarum genera, loca, modi, facultates & quicquid denique ad
corporis humani exercitationes pertinet, diligenter explicatur. Opus
non modo medicis, verum etiam omnibus antiquarum rerum cognoscendarum,
& valetudinis conservandæ studiosis admodum utile. Palæstræ descriptio
ex Vetruvio sub litera B. Auctore Hieronymo Mercuriali Foroliviensi,
Medico & Philosopho. Venetiis, Apud Juntas. MDLXIX.” The second edition,
like the third and the fourth, is illustrated, and dedicated to Emperor
Maximilian II. The title-page is changed to read: “Hieronymi Mercurialis
de arte gymnastica Libri Sex, in quibus exercitationum ... admodum utile
(as in first edition). Secunda editione aucti, & multis figuris ornati.
Ad Maximilianum II. Imperatorem. Venetiis apud Juntas, MDLXXIII.” The
Paris issue of this second edition substitutes the words “Parisiis, Apud
Jacobum du Puys, via Joannis Lateranensis, sub signo Samaritanæ. 1577.”
The third edition (“Tertia editione correctiores, & auctiores facti”)
was published “Venetiis, MDLXXXVII. Apud Juntas,” and the fourth edition
(“Quarta editione correctiores, & auctiores facti”), “Venetiis, apus
Juntas. MDCI.”
The title-page of the Amsterdam edition reads: “Hieronymi Mercurialis
Foroliviensis de Arte Gymnastica Libri Sex: in quibus exercitationum
omnium vetustarum genera, loca, modi, facultates, & quidquid denique ad
corporis humani exercitationes pertinet diligenter explicatur. Editio
novissima, aucta, emendata, & figuris authenticis Christophori Coriolani
exornata. Amstelodami, Sumptibus Andreæ Frisii,” (1672).
In this connection may be mentioned also “The Muscles and Their Story,
from the Earliest Times; including the Whole Text of Mercurialis, and
the Opinions of Other Writers Ancient and Modern, on Mental and Bodily
Development. By John W. F. Blundell, M.D., Licentiate of the Royal
College of Edinburgh, Author of ‘Medicina Mechanica,’ etc.” London,
Chapman & Hall, 1864.
[7] The table of contents, translated, is given in full at the foot of
pp. 477-479 in the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education
for 1891-1892, vol. =1=.
[8] Translated by Karl Wassmannsdorff in _Deutsche Turnzeitung_, =17=
(1872); 272, 279.
[9] Chapter 23. The entire passage is given in English at the foot of pp.
472-474 in the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for
1891-1892, vol. =1=.
[10] Quotations from these chapters will be found in Barnard’s _Am. Jour.
Educ._, =16=, 490-496 (1866). In 1545 _Roger Ascham_ (1515-1568), author
of The Scholemaster, published his “Toxophilus, the schole of shootinge
conteyned in two bookes.”
CHAPTER IX.
LOCKE AND ROUSSEAU.
The best of the Renaissance writers on education had begun to break
away from authority and tradition, and with reason as a guide were
groping their way toward a training better suited to the nature and
present needs of man than any the past could supply. That their ideas
gained currency throughout all Europe and the way was thus prepared for
practical reforms is very largely due to the powerful influence exerted
by two philosophers, _John Locke_ (1632-1704) and _Jean Jacques Rousseau_
(1712-1778), the former of whom published “Some Thoughts on Education” in
1693, and the latter his “Émile, a Treatise on Education” in 1762.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.—John Locke (1632-1704).]
Locke was an Oxford graduate and lecturer, had studied medicine and
been physician in the household of Lord Ashley, afterwards Earl
of Shaftesbury, and his chief work, the “Essay Concerning Human
Understanding,” had already appeared (1690). His views, therefore,
commanded attention at once, and whatever relates to the physical side
of education came with the added weight of special knowledge. The author
begins by dwelling at some length upon the hygiene of childhood. “Keep
the body in strength and vigor,” he says, “so that it may be able to obey
and execute the orders of the mind.... A sound mind in a sound body, is
a short but full description of a happy state in this world: he that has
these two has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them
will be but little the better for anything else.... He whose mind directs
not wisely will never take the right way; and he whose body is crazy and
feeble will never be able to advance in it....
“Most children’s constitutions are either spoiled, or at least harmed, by
cockering and tenderness.” They should not be too warmly clad or covered,
winter or summer, and to prevent colds the boy’s feet are to be washed
every day in cold water, and his shoes made “so thin that they might leak
and let in water whenever he comes near it.” For safety and for health’s
sake he must learn to swim. He is to be “much in the open air, and very
little, as may be, by the fire, even in winter.” Clothing should never be
made tight, especially about the breast, and the diet ought to be very
plain and simple, with only small beer for drink, and that after eating.
Serving his meals at irregular intervals will train him to endure hunger,
if necessary. As regards fruit, “our first parents ventured paradise
for it, and it is no wonder our children cannot stand the temptation,
though it cost them their health.” Some kinds are wholesome and may be
taken freely before or between meals, but others are forbidden. Allow
no sweetmeats—“one of the most inconvenient ways of expense that vanity
hath yet found out; and so I leave them to the ladies.” Nothing is more
to be indulged children than sleep, but insist upon early rising, and
let the bed be hard and rather quilts than feathers. All may be summed
up in these rules: “Plenty of open air, exercise, and sleep; plain diet,
no wine or strong drink, and very little or no physic; not too warm and
strait clothing; especially the head and feet kept cold, and the feet
often used to cold water and exposed to wet.”
Further on, in the body of his work, Locke comes to what we should now
call physical training proper. He recognizes that “besides what is to be
had from study and books, there are other accomplishments necessary for a
gentleman, to be got by exercise, and to which time is to be allowed, and
for which masters must be had. Dancing being that which gives graceful
motions all the life, and above all things, manliness and a becoming
confidence to young children, I think it cannot be learned too early....
As for the jigging part, and the figures of dances, I count that little
or nothing, farther than as it tends to perfect graceful carriage. Music
... wastes so much of a young man’s time to gain but a moderate skill in
it ... that amongst all accomplishments I think I may give it the last
place.... Fencing, and riding the great horse, are looked upon as so
necessary parts of breeding that it would be thought a great omission
to neglect them: the latter of the two, being for the most part to be
learned only in great towns, is one of the best exercises for health
which is to be had in those places of ease and luxury ... and ... is of
use to a gentleman, both in peace and war.... As for fencing, it seems to
me a good exercise for health, but dangerous to the life, the confidence
of their skill being apt to engage in quarrels those that think they have
learned to use their swords.... If ... a man be to prepare his son for
duels, I had much rather mine should be a good wrestler than an ordinary
fencer; which is the most a gentleman can attain to in it, unless he will
be constantly in the fencing school, and every day exercising....
“I would (also) have him learn a trade, a manual trade; nay, two or
three, but one more particularly.... Manual arts, which are both got and
exercised by labor, do many of them by that exercise not only increase
our dexterity and skill, but contribute to our health too; especially
such as employ us in the open air....” He “is not for painting;” but
proposes “one, or rather both these, viz., gardening or husbandry in
general, and working in wood, as a carpenter, joiner, or turner; these
being fit and healthy recreations for a man of study or business.”
The effects produced by Rousseau’s educational romance, “Émile,” upon
the modern pedagogic world it would be difficult to exaggerate. The
times were ripe for a revolt, and close upon the radical criticism of
existing methods to which this theorist gave such convincing expression
followed the actual reforms inaugurated by Basedow, Pestalozzi, and other
innovators. It will be sufficient here to mention only a single phase of
the education which this disciple of Locke would give to his imaginary
hero. “The body,” says Rousseau[11] in Book I, “must needs be vigorous in
order to obey the soul: a good servant ought to be robust.... The weaker
the body, the more it commands; the stronger it is, the better it obeys.”
Upon the subject of sleep, cold bathing, and the clothing suitable for
young children his views are those of Locke.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.—Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).]
In Book II we read: “If ... you would cultivate the intelligence of
your pupil, cultivate the power which it is to govern. Give his body
continual exercise; make him robust and sound in order to make him wise
and reasonable; let him work, and move about, and run, and shout, and be
continually in motion; let him be a man in vigor, and soon he will be
such by force of reason.... It is a very deplorable error to imagine that
the exercise of the body is injurious to the operations of the mind; as
if these two activities were not to proceed in concert, and the second
were not always to direct the first!... These continual exercises, thus
left wholly to the direction of Nature, not only do not brutalize the
mind while fortifying the body, but on the contrary they form within us
the only species of reason of which childhood is susceptible, and the
most necessary at any and all periods of life. They teach us thoroughly
to understand the use of our powers, the relations between our own bodies
and surrounding bodies, and the use of the natural instruments which
are within our reach and which are adapted to our organs.... In order
to learn to think, we must ... exercise our limbs, our senses, and our
organs, which are the instruments of our intelligence; and in order to
derive all the advantage possible from these instruments, it is necessary
that the body which furnishes them should be robust and sound. Thus, so
far is it from being true that the reason of man is formed independently
of the body, it is the happy constitution of the body which renders the
operations of the mind facile and sure....
“... Let him learn to make jumps, now long, now high; to climb a tree,
to leap a wall. Let him always find his equilibrium; and let all his
movements and gestures be regulated according to the laws of gravity,
long before the science of statics intervenes to explain them to him....
When a child plays at shuttlecock he trains his eye and arm in accuracy;
when he whips a top he increases his strength by using it, but without
learning anything. I have sometimes asked why we do not offer children
the same games of skill which men have, such as tennis, fives, billiards,
bow and arrow, football, and musical instruments. I have been told, in
reply, that some of these sports are beyond the strength of children,
and that their limbs and organs are not sufficiently developed for the
others. I find these reasons bad.... I do not mean that he shall knock
the balls in our tennis courts, nor that his little hands shall be made
to hold the racket of an expert; but that he shall play in a hall whose
windows are protected; that at first he use only soft balls; that his
first rackets shall be of wood, then of parchment, and finally of catgut
stretched to accord with his progress.... To spring from one end of the
hall to another, to estimate the bound of a ball still in the air, and to
send it back with a strong and steady hand, such sports do not befit a
man but they serve to train a youth....
“... I insist absolutely that Émile shall learn a trade,” Rousseau
continues, in Book III. This is not so much for the trade itself, as for
overcoming the prejudices that despise it. “His apprenticeship is already
more than half done, through the tasks with which we have occupied our
time up to the present moment.... He already knows how to handle the
spade and the hoe; he can use the lathe, the hammer, the plane, and the
file; the tools of all the trades are already familiar to him. All he
has to do in addition is to acquire of some of these tools such a prompt
and facile use as to make him equal in speed to good workmen using the
same tools, and in this point he has a great advantage over all others;
he has an agile body and flexible limbs, which can assume all sorts of
attitudes without difficulty and prolong all sorts of movement without
effort.... All things considered, the trade which I would rather have be
to the taste of my pupil is that of cabinetmaker. It is cleanly, it is
useful, and it may be practised at home; it keeps the body sufficiently
exercised; it requires of the workman skill and ingenuity, and in the
form of the products which utility determines, elegance and taste are not
excluded....”
As he approaches maturity (Book IV) Émile requires “a new occupation
which interests him by its novelty, which keeps him in good humor, gives
him pleasure, occupies his attention, and keeps him in training—an
occupation of which he is passionately fond and in which he is wholly
absorbed. Now the only one which seems to me to fulfil all these
conditions is hunting.... Émile has everything necessary for success in
it: he is robust, dexterous, patient, indefatigable. Without fail he will
contract a taste for this exercise; he will throw into it all the ardor
of his age; for a time, at least, he will lose in it all the dangerous
inclinations which spring from idleness. Hunting toughens the heart as
well as the body....”
Book V is concerned with the education of Sophie, Émile’s future wife.
“... Plato, in his _Republic_, enjoins the same exercises on women as
upon men, and in this I think he was right.... Since the body is born,
so to speak, before the soul, the first culture ought to be that of the
body; and this order is common to both sexes. But the object of this
culture is different; in one this object is the development of strength,
while in the other it is the development of personal charms. Not that
these qualities ought to be exclusive in each sex, but the order is
simply reversed: women need sufficient strength to do with grace whatever
they have to do; and men need sufficient cleverness to do with facility
whatever they have to do. The extreme lack of vigor in women gives rise
to the same quality in men. Women ought not to be robust like them, but
for them, in order that the men who shall be born of them may be robust
also. In this respect the convents, where the boarders have coarse fare,
but many frolics, races, and sports in the open air and in gardens, are
to be preferred to the home where a girl, delicately reared, always
flattered or scolded, always seated under the eyes of her mother in
a very close room, dares neither to rise, to walk, to speak, nor to
breathe, and has not a moment’s liberty for playing, jumping, running,
shouting, and indulging in the petulance natural to her age; always
dangerous relaxation or badly conceived severity, but never anything
according to reason. This is the way the young are ruined both in body
and in heart.... Delicacy is not languor, and one need not be sickly in
order to please.”
While Locke and Rousseau were urging the necessity of some sort of
physical training in the scheme of education, and philologists and
students of ancient art kept alive the knowledge of Greek gymnastics, a
number of medical writers had been directing attention to the importance
of bodily exercise in the restoration and preservation of health. In
London, in 1705, _Francis Fuller_ (1670-1706), a graduate of St. John’s
College, Cambridge, published “Medicina Gymnastica: or a Treatise
Concerning the Power of Exercise with Respect to the Animal Œconomy,
and the Great Necessity of it in the Cure of Several Distempers.”[12]
A German translation appeared in 1750,[13] after the book had already
passed through seven or eight editions in England. _Friedrich Hoffmann_
(1660-1742), a distinguished German physician referred to several times
by GutsMuths in his “Gymnastics for the Young,” and the first professor
of medicine at Halle University, published in Latin an essay “On Motion,
the Best Medicine for the Body”[14] in 1701; and eighteen years later
several of his articles on the hygienic influence of exercise appeared
at Halle under the title “The Incomparable Advantages of motion and of
Bodily Exercises, and How They are to be Employed for the Preservation
of Health.”[15] _Joh. Friedrich Zückert_ (1737-1778), a Berlin physician
quoted by Basedow, in discussing the hygiene of infancy and childhood
(1764-1765),[16] mentions various bodily exercises, such as wrestling,
dancing, riding, vaulting, bowling, skating and swimming. Upon his
appointment to the chair of medicine at Lausanne, in 1766, _Simon
André Tissot_ (1728-1797) delivered a Latin discourse on the health
of the literary class (_De valetudine litteratorum_), in which he
recommends games and gymnastics for the youth of both sexes. A French
translation of the address was published in 1767,[17] a German one
in the following year,[18] besides later editions in both languages,
several in English,[19] and at least one in Swedish,[20] “Italian, and
six other languages.” A well-known French physician, _Clement Joseph
Tissot_ (1750-1826), published in Paris in 1780 his “Medical and Surgical
Gymnastics: an Essay on the Use of Motion and of Different Exercises
of the Body in the Cure of Disease.”[21] Translations of the work were
printed in Leipsic[22] and Stockholm.[23]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
R. M. Quick, “Some Thoughts concerning Education, by John Locke. With
Introduction and Notes.” Cambridge (England), at the University Press,
1880. Revised edition, 1884.
J. W. Adamson (Editor), “The Educational Writings of John Locke.” New
York: Longmans, Green & Co.; London, Edward Arnold, 1912.
W. M. Payne, “Rousseau’s Émile: or, Treatise on Education. Abridged,
Translated, and Annotated.” New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1892.
Thomas Davidson, “Rousseau and Education according to Nature.” New York,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898.
Gabriel Compayré, “Jean Jacques Rousseau and Education from Nature.”
Translated by R. J. Jago. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1907.
R. L. Archer (Editor), “Rousseau on Education.” New York: Longmans, Green
& Co.; London, Edward Arnold, 1912.
Karl Wassmannsdorff, “Aerztlicher Einfluss auf die sogenannte Erneuerung
der Leibesübungen in Deutschland; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
Turnkunst,” in _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_ =15= (1869): 111-133.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] These quotations are taken from Rousseau’s Émile, abridged,
translated, and annotated by William H. Payne. New York, 1892.
[12] London: Printed by John Matthews, for Robert Knaplock, at the
Angel and Crown in St. Paul’s Church Yard, 1705. A second edition, with
additions, followed in the same year, a third (“printed for Robert
Knaplock, at the Bishop’s-Head in St. Paul’s Church-Yard”) in 1707, a
fourth in 1711, a fifth in 1718, a sixth in 1728, another in 1740, and
the “ninth and last” in 1777.
[13] Medicina gymnastica, oder von der Leibesübung, in Ansehung der
animalischen Oeconomie, oder der zu Erhaltung der Gesundheit des
menschlichen Lebens nöthigen Ordnung; und wie solche bey Curirung
verschiedener Krankheiten unumgänglich nöthig sey, von Franz Fuller, aus
der sechsten Englischen Herausgabe übersetzt. Lemgo, Johann Heinrich
Meyer, 1750.
[14] “De motu, optima corporis medicina.”
[15] “Vorstellung des unvergleichlichen Nutzens der Bewegung und
Leibes-Uebungen und wie man sich derselben zur Erhaltung der Gesundheit
zu bedienen habe.”
[16] “Unterricht für rechtschaffene Eltern, zur diätetischen Pflege ihrer
Säuglinge” (Berlin, A. Mylius, 1764. Second edition, 1771); and “Von der
diätetischen Erziehung der entwöhnten und erwachsenen Kinder bis in ihr
mannbares Alter” (Berlin, A. Mylius, 1765. Second edition 1771).
[17] “Avis aux gens de lettres et aux personnes sédentaires sur leur
santé, trad. du latin” (Paris, Herissant Fils, 1767). It was later
corrected by the author and published under the title “De la santé des
gens de lettres” (Lausanne, F. Grasset & Cie.; Lyon, Benoit Duplain; and
Paris, P. F. Didot le jeune, 1768). Other editions bearing the same title
appeared at Lausanne in 1769, 1770, 1772, and 1788; at Lyon in 1769; and
a “nouvelle édition, augmentée d’une notice sur l’auteur et de notes, par
F.-G. Boisseau,” in Paris (J.-B. Baillière) in 1825 and 1826.
[18] “S. A. D. Tissot, der Arzneygelahrtheit Doctor und öffentlicher
Lehrer zu Lausanne, der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
zu London, der Medicinisch-Physischen Akademie in Basel, und der
Oekonomischen Gesellschaft in Bern Mitglied, von der Gesundheit der
Gelehrten. Aus dem Französischen übersetzt von Joh. Rud. Füesslin.”
Zurich, Füesslin und Compagnie, 1768. Later editions are said to have
appeared in Zurich in 1769 and 1775. The German translation was also
published in Leipzig (J. G. Müller) in 1768 and 1775.
[19] “An Essay on Diseases Incident to Literary and Sedentary Persons.
With Proper Rules for Preventing Their Fatal Consequences, and
Instructions for Their Cure. By S. A. Tissot, M.D., Professor of Physic
at Berne.... The Second Edition, with very large Additions. With a
Preface and Notes by J. Kirkpatrick, M.D. London: Printed for J. Nourse
... and E. and C. Dilly ... MDCCLXIX.” The English translation was also
published in Dublin (“Printed for James Williams, at No. 5, Skinner Row.
MDCCLXXII.”)
[20] “Råd till de Lärde och till dem som föra ett stillasittande
lefnadssätt. Af Tissot. Öfversättning i sammandrag. Pendant till
Underrättelse om Gymnastik. Upsala, hos Palmblad och C. 1821.” The
dedication “till studerande corpsen” is signed “Gustav von Heidenstam.”
[21] “Gymnastique médicinale et chirurgicale, ou essai sur l’utilité du
mouvement, ou des differens exercices du corps, et du repos dans la cure
des maladies; par M. Tissot, Docteur en Médecine, & Chirurgien-Major du
quatrième Regiment des Chevaux-Légers.” Paris: Bastien, Libraire, 1780.
[22] “Medicinische und chirurgische Gymnastik, oder Versuch über den
Nutzen der Bewegung oder der verschiedenen Leibesübungen, und der Ruhe
bey Heilung der Krankheiten. Aus dem französischen des Herrn Tissot,
mit Anmerkungen des Herausgebers bereichert. Mit Churfürstl. Sächs.
Privilegio. Leipzig, bey Friedrich Gotthold Jacobäer und Sohn, 1782.”
[23] “Medicinsk och Chirurgisk Gymnastik, eller Försök om nyttan af
Rörelse och Stillhet vid Sjukdomars botande. Af Herr Tissot, M.D., Öfver
Fältskär vid fjerde Regementet af Franska lätta Cavallerier. Stockholm,
Tryckt hos Bokhandlaren Joh. Dahl. 1797.”
CHAPTER X.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.—Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723-1790).]
_Johann Bernhard Basedow_ (1723-1790), the son of a Hamburg wigmaker,
attended school in his native city and was for several years a student
of theology in Leipsic, later accepted a position as private tutor, and
for eight years, from 1753 till 1761, was professor of moral philosophy
and belles-lettres in the school for young noblemen (Ritterakademie)
at Soröe, in Denmark. This institution belonged to a type common in
Continental countries during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.[24]
It had been founded in 1623 by Christian IV, who merely followed the
custom of the age when along with teachers of the literary branches he
appointed professional masters of riding, fencing, and dancing, a master
of gymnastics, and a special teacher of various games of ball. Basedow,
therefore, had before his eyes a system of education which actually made
the attempt to combine physical with mental training, in the case of
youth of a certain class. After leaving Soröe he taught for seven years
in Altona, near Hamburg. Thoughts of reform in school life had already
begun to fill his mind, and the appearance of Rousseau’s Émile (1762)
just at this time no doubt influenced him profoundly. In 1768 he gave
up teaching in order to devote himself wholly to the improvement of
educational methods.
For some years Basedow had been pondering plans for a model school which
should embody his ideas and force them upon the attention of educators,
and where among other innovations physical training should be given a
place in the daily program. The support of the Duke of Anhalt, at whose
invitation he removed to Dessau in 1771, enabled him to realize this
project, and on December 27, 1774, he opened there his private academy,
named by him the Philanthropinum. A year and a half later the number of
pupils was only fifteen, including Basedow’s daughter, and only three of
these were above eight years of age. But in spite of the unwillingness
of parents to subject their children to the new methods, and although
the founder himself soon resigned his position at the head of the
institution, the effects produced by the experiment were far-reaching
and it was watched with the greatest interest. Basedow severed all
connection with the school in the spring of 1778, but other men, with
greater capacity for organization and administration than he possessed,
continued the work in conformity with his views until 1793, when the
Dessau Educational Institute, as it had been called after the first few
years, finally closed its doors.
According to the prospectus issued in December of 1774, five hours a day
were to be allotted to studies, three hours to recreation in fencing,
riding, dancing, music, etc., and two hours to manual labor. Basedow
promises that if the numbers are sufficient and the ages suitable there
will be drill in military positions and movements, and frequent marches
on foot; he also hopes to have the school dwell under tents in the field
for two months of the summer, and in this way to give opportunities for
hunting and fishing, boating, bathing, climbing, and jumping, as well
as for the study of geography and the natural sciences. The physical
training of the pupils was first entrusted, as a part of his duties, to
_Johann Friedrich Simon_, a teacher in the Philanthropinum from January
2, 1776, to October 20, 1777; and he was succeeded by _Johann Jakob
Du Toit_, whose connection with the school lasted from Easter of 1778
until the end came in 1793. The earliest exercises mentioned are weekly
lessons in dancing, free instruction in fencing for the older boys, and
six lessons a week in the Duke’s private riding-school. The latter’s
riding-master also gave free instruction in vaulting the (living) horse.
Thus the “knightly exercises,” as these four were called, had all been
introduced, and Basedow himself refers to this fact, evidently recalling
the school at Soröe.
But children of such tender age plainly required a different sort of
bodily training, and accordingly it was not long before Simon began to
give his pupils lessons in what he termed “Greek gymnastics,” apparently
including under this head nothing more than orderly contests in running,
wrestling, throwing, and jumping, such as formed the staple of discipline
in the Greek palæstra. For the broad-jumping he used ditches, cut so
that they were perhaps eight feet across in the middle, but tapered
almost to a point at either end, the pupils starting with a width which
they could easily clear and working gradually toward the center as their
strength and skill increased. For the high-jump two vertical poles were
fixed at a distance of two and a half feet from each other in the ground,
reaching about five feet above its surface; into holes bored in these,
at intervals of an inch, wooden pegs were set at any desired height, and
a stick resting crosswise upon the pegs furnished a barrier which would
not injure the person who happened to strike it with his foot. Another of
Simon’s devices was a long round beam raised about four feet above the
ground and fastened firmly between posts at its thicker end and again
near the middle, but with the smaller half left unsupported. The pupils
were taught to balance themselves upon this beam, first at the fixed end,
while the teacher lent a hand from below, and then, as they accustomed
themselves little by little to the feat, upon the swaying portion, and
without assistance. A simpler exercise of the same character consisted in
crossing ditches on a narrow plank. The list of games, all of which were
under the oversight of a teacher, included shuttlecock, tennis or fives,
skittles, and playing with a large ball filled with air. For the younger
children there were also hoops and seesaw.
Under Simon’s successor, Du Toit, other varieties of exercise were added
from time to time—singing and reading aloud; swimming, skating, shooting
with the bow and with firearms; marching in time and playing soldier;
making excursions on foot into the surrounding country; walking up the
rounds of a ladder set obliquely, without the help of the hands, or
swinging from its under side and climbing hand-over-hand; carrying bags
full of sand with the arms stretched out horizontally at the sides,
while a teacher, walking among them, counted his steps aloud, and the
pupils noted the number when their muscles began to pain them, and when
they were finally overcome with fatigue, gauging thus the daily increase
in strength and endurance. Gardening is mentioned, and in the fall of
1777 working in wood was introduced—the use of the lathe and plane, and
cabinetmaking. Thus, at the very beginning of modern physical training,
and under these earliest teachers of the art, we find in embryo most of
the varied forms which have been advocated at one time or another since
that day, _i.e._, simple games and athletic sports, gymnastics, military
drill, manual labor and manual training, and school excursions. It will
be observed, further, that these exercises had been incorporated into the
plan of education as an essential factor, and that they were entrusted,
not to a special master, but to one of the regular teachers in the school.
Other institutions were soon started in imitation of the Dessau
Philanthropinum. The first of these was opened in October of 1775 at
Marschlins, in Switzerland, but closed its doors in the following year. A
second, at the castle Heidesheim, not far from Mannheim, lived only from
the first of May, 1777, until some time in 1779. The task of organization
in each instance was confided to Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, who had spent
four weeks at Dessau and was recommended by Basedow himself. But one
philanthropinistic school, the Schnepfenthal Educational Institute,
long outlived its parent, and has survived even to the present day. Its
founder, _Christian Gotthilf Salzmann_ (1744-1811), had been called
from a pastorate in Erfurt to become liturgist and teacher of religion
in the Philanthropinum at Dessau, remaining there from the spring of
1781 until the end of February, 1784, and he himself attributed much of
his later success to what he saw and learned in these three years. A
growing desire to carry out independently his ideas of education, upon
similar principles but with some important differences in organization
and surroundings, finally induced Salzmann to give up his position in
order to found a new school in the country, remote from the influences
of city life. The site selected for the venture was Schnepfenthal, an
estate in the vicinity of Gotha. Toward its purchase Duke Ernst II of
Saxe-Gotha contributed four thousand thaler, and the cornerstone of the
main building was laid June 18, 1784.
Besides the Director’s four children, there were during the first
year nine pupils, all of them under twelve years of age, and for the
instruction of this small number five assistants were employed. On July
18, 1785, _Christian Carl Andre_ entered upon his duties as a teacher
at the Institute, and to him Salzmann assigned the physical training of
the pupils. About eleven o’clock they were called away from other tasks
for the gymnastic lesson, commonly given in an open space under the oaks
which shaded a neighboring hill. Here a jumping-ditch had been dug, and a
balance-beam and pair of upright poles set up, like the ones at Dessau.
The new exercises mentioned at this period are throwing at a target,
running through the long jumping rope, pole-vaulting, and running up
and down hill. When the weather was unfavorable they practised indoors
various movements and positions intended to teach the proper carriage of
the body—the beginnings of our present “free exercises.” The knightly
exercises had not yet been introduced. After the midday meal the children
were allowed the time until two o’clock for relaxation and games, and
again in the evening these alternated with “musical entertainments.” The
whole of Sunday afternoons was set apart for amusements, excursions on
foot, and games under Andre’s direction. Pupils who showed proficiency in
the events of the morning were distinguished by a few oak leaves on the
hat, and as a further reward they were sometimes permitted by the teacher
to choose the exercises for the following day.
In July of 1786 this portion of Andre’s work was turned over to _Johann
Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths_ (1759-1839), who continued to discharge
the duties of the position for nearly fifty years. During fifteen years
of this time, _i.e._, from October of 1787 till 1802, Christian Ludwig
Lenz assisted him by giving instruction in swimming and vaulting. The
preëminence of GutsMuths among pioneers of modern physical education does
not rest upon priority in time—as we have seen, he was not the first,
but the fourth teacher of gymnastics in a school open to all classes
of society—but it is due rather to his long period of service, to the
character and results of his teaching and the favorable impression which
it made upon visitors, and to the series of volumes from his pen which
formed what has been aptly called the first normal school of physical
training for other teachers, and not in Germany alone, but elsewhere in
Europe and even beyond its borders. For these reasons his career deserves
somewhat extended notice.
GutsMuths, son of a tanner in moderate circumstances, was born August
9, 1759, in the ancient Prussian town of Quedlinburg. The boy’s
first library consisted of a great Bible illustrated with beautiful
copper-plate engravings, an old geography with woodcuts of the different
races of men, and, best beloved of all, the “Acerra philologica,” in
German. This last book, containing hundreds of selections from the
writings of well-known Greek and Latin authors, he read through a score
of times, he said, and it may have given him his first introduction to
the gymnastics of the ancients. He was also fond of working with tools,
and skilful with his pencil and afterwards with brush and paints. In
the spring of 1773, while he was in his third year at the _Gymnasium_
or classical secondary school of Quedlinburg, his father died. Four
years later, upon recommendation of the prorector of the _Gymnasium_, he
became private tutor in the family of Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Ritter, a
respected physician in the town and medical adviser to the then abbess
of Quedlinburg, Princess Anna Amelia, sister of Frederick the Great.
GutsMuths now found his time fully occupied. Besides preparing his own
school tasks, he must teach the two oldest of Dr. Ritter’s four sons and
a merchant’s boy whom he had also accepted as a pupil, and to fit himself
the better to discharge the new duties he studied carefully Basedow’s
“Elementarwerk” (1774) and especially the “Methodenbuch” (1770).
In 1779 GutsMuths entered the university of Halle, intending to take
up the study of theology; but inclination led him to attend as well
courses in mathematics, physics and modern languages (including English
and Italian), and pedagogy, too, continued to interest him greatly.
After three years in Halle he returned to Quedlinburg to resume his old
position in the Ritter household, where there were now six children,
five of them boys and the oldest barely nine years old. The next to the
youngest, aged three, was Karl, the geographer-to-be. Only two years
later, in June, 1784, Dr. Ritter succumbed to a severe attack of typhoid
fever. His young widow found herself unable to continue the salary which
GutsMuths had been receiving, but he was unwilling to desert the family
in its time of need and was easily persuaded to remain for another year
in spite of the changed circumstances.
During this same year Salzmann was making preparations to open his new
educational institution at Schnepfenthal, about seventy miles away
to the south and west in a straight line. Already teachers had been
selected, but outside of his own large family there were no pupils on the
grounds. He decided to receive without charge, as the first of these,
some promising lad not yet beyond his sixth year, and having learned of
Dr. Ritter’s death from a published announcement, sent two friends to
Quedlinburg to see whether there might not be among his sons a suitable
candidate. As a result, Frau Ritter was asked to part with her favorite
Karl. June 7, 1785, taking the boy and his brother Johannes, four years
older, she set out for Schnepfenthal, accompanied by GutsMuths, and
reached there at noon of the 9th. A stay of several days led to such
favorable impressions on both sides that she accepted Salzmann’s offer to
receive _both_ children, and GutsMuths consented to remain as a permanent
assistant. He made the return journey to Quedlinburg with the widow,
arranged his affairs in the home city, and on the 30th of the same month
was again in Schnepfenthal, ready to take up the new tasks.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.—J. C. F. GutsMuths (1759-1839) and Karl Ritter
(Anders monument in Quedlinburg).]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.—Portrait of GutsMuths, and Views of Schnepfenthal
and Vicinity (Deutsche Turn-Zeitung).]
The life story of GutsMuths during the next half century, apart
from his work as teacher and author, is soon told. In a letter to a
university friend, written in June, 1791, he speaks of his garden, and
of cabinetmaking and wood-turning; he has daily gymnastic exercises with
the children in good weather, goes shooting in the fall, and in winter
skates on the meadows and coasts down the neighboring hills; he is an
industrious botanist, still takes up his brush occasionally, painting
portraits especially, but also landscapes from Nature, and enjoys the use
of a very good pianoforte by one of the best German makers; he mentions
the many distinguished visitors (Goethe, Wieland, Kotzebue and others),
but says that of more importance to him is the Gotha library of seventy
thousand volumes from which he has permission to draw whatever books he
desires, through a messenger who makes trips back and forth every day or
two. The school itself has a good collection of books, and he has been
made librarian. Together with an English pupil he has read much in that
language.
Twelve years after his arrival in Schnepfenthal, on August 15, 1791,
GutsMuths was married to Sophie Eckardt, a niece of Salzmann’s wife.
They occupied a storehouse on the grounds, at first, but after fifteen
months moved into a home of their own in the little village of Ibenhain,
a half mile distant in the valley. There they gradually improved and
beautified the dwelling and its surroundings, laid out a garden which
became famous for its flowers and fruit, and by the purchase of adjoining
pieces of ground from time to time came at length to be possessors of a
considerable estate, the source of much pleasure and not a little profit.
The family life seems to have been an ideal one. Eight sons and three
daughters were born to the couple, and two of the children who married
during his lifetime presented their parents with six grandchildren.
“Father” Salzmann died in 1811, but his son Karl succeeded to the
directorship and the new administration brought no change in GutsMuths’
relations with the school. The completion of fifty years of teaching,
celebrated June 1, 1835, found him still in full enjoyment of his powers
and busy in his calling. He continued in active service up to the end of
March, 1839, and died on the 21st of the following May, after a brief and
painless illness.
In the earlier years, while pupils and teachers were few, GutsMuths gave
instruction in various elementary subjects, but especially in geography
and the French language. Gymnastics was added, as we have seen, in July,
1786. Later, when he had moved to Ibenhain, he confined himself to his
favorite subjects—the gymnastic lesson from 11 to 12 daily (until the
summer of 1835), and geography and technology between 2 and 4. After 1802
he was swimming teacher as well. Salzmann had expected not more than
twelve pupils at the start, but in the fall of 1785 there were already
thirteen, including four of his own children, and the numbers steadily
increased during the next two decades, to forty-nine in 1790, fifty-two
in 1800, and sixty-one in 1803. The war which broke out in 1806 led to
a marked falling off, followed by another rise, from twenty-two at the
beginning of 1814 to thirty-six three years later, and forty-one in 1823.
For full information regarding the sort of gymnastic exercises which
GutsMuths practised with his pupils we turn, of course, to his books.
With few exceptions they were taken outdoors, in a spot set apart for
the purpose and provided with the necessary apparatus. Already at
Dessau, and by his predecessor Andre at Schnepfenthal, a varied list of
suitable forms had been elaborated: Marching in time, walking on the
balance beam and crossing ditches on the edge of a plank, jumping over
a stick placed on jump stands, pole vaulting, jumping across a ditch,
vaulting, carrying weights with outstretched arms, throwing at a target,
foot-races, running and jumping through a long rope swung by two persons,
simple free exercises indoors, skating and coasting, and long walks. Most
or all of these GutsMuths continued to employ, modifying them, however,
and making numerous additions as experience suggested. During the summer
of 1794, for example, or before it, he has the pupils going up and down
a rope ladder, swinging on vertical ropes, climbing a mast, hanging
and travelling on the under side of a horizontal beam, balancing rods
on the fingers, going through various exercises while standing on one
foot, jumping over a rope swung close to the ground, throwing a wooden
discus, wrestling, pushing against each other, lifting a weight hung on
a rod and moved toward or from the hands according to the strength of
the individual, estimating distance with the eye, and reading aloud so
as to be heard by a person stationed at varying distances. He kept an
accurate record of each pupil’s performance in order to note his needs
and progress.
Meanwhile gardening and other forms of manual labor and training were
not neglected by Salzmann. Terraces were laid out upon the sides of a
hill near the school, and here each pupil had his own patch of flowers,
vegetables, and fruit to cultivate, earning pocket money by selling
produce to the Institute. During the first year a bookbinder in the
neighboring village of Waltershausen had given instruction in his trade
and in the manufacture of little boxes, pen cases, and baskets out of
pasteboard; and after the spring of 1796 one of the regular teachers,
who had been employed in various mechanical pursuits and was unusually
skilful with his hands, continued this instruction in pasteboard work
and also taught the pupils to make wooden models of tools and machines
used in the various handicrafts, in milling, etc. Now and then a whole
day was passed in the open air by teachers and pupils, who enjoyed their
lunch together at some attractive spot in the woods. Longer excursions
on foot, when the smaller children were left at home and a wagon was
required to carry the baggage of the party are occasionally mentioned.
Thus we read of a four days’ excursion in October, 1798, undertaken by a
company numbering forty-five persons; and in another year the journeys of
Salzmann with his pupils amounted altogether to more than a hundred miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Title-page of “Gymnastik für die Jugend” (1793).]
Joseph Röckl, a professor of pedagogy, passed nine days at the school in
1805, and in a published record of his observations commends the frugal
diet there, the light and simple clothing, the unusually airy rooms for
sleeping and study, the regard for personal cleanliness, the active
outdoor life, regular walks, work in the garden, and especially the
gymnastic exercises. He visited, with GutsMuths, the newly erected riding
school, the grounds for jumping and vaulting, and the swimming pool;
watched the pupils handling saw, plane, and chisel, or engaged in paste
work; and learned of the occasional festivals and the yearly excursions.
He doubts whether anywhere in all Germany there is an educational
institution which devotes more care to the physical well-being of its
scholars.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.—One of the plates in “Gymnastik für die Jugend”
(1793).]
Other visitors also came to Schnepfenthal, and went away to spread
the news of what was undertaken and accomplished there. The lasting
fame of GutsMuths, however, depends less upon the example furnished
by his fifty years of teaching than upon his books, two of which, at
least, the “Gymnastics for the Young” (1793), and its continuation, the
“Games” (1796), not only constitute the first modern manuals on those
subjects, but deserve to rank as classics. The former[25] was issued in
two volumes, which contain altogether about seven hundred pages, nine
copper-plate illustrations of various exercises, and a folding sheet
with explanatory drawings of apparatus. The first volume is divided into
five chapters: 1, We are weak because it does not occur to us that we
could be strong if we only would. 2, Consequences of the common method
of education, and especially the neglect of bodily training. 3, All the
means hitherto employed against lack of hardihood are insufficient. 4,
Gymnastics proposed and objections answered. 5, The effects and object
of gymnastics. The second and larger volume is a practical handbook,
arranged as follows: Chapter 6, Gymnastics defined, the open-air
gymnasium described, the exercises classified. 7-15, Different sorts of
jumping, running, throwing, wrestling, climbing, balancing, lifting,
carrying, pulling, dancing, walking, military exercises, bathing and
swimming. 16, Behavior in case of fire, keeping watch at night, fasting.
17, Loud reading and declaiming. 18, Exercises of the senses. 19, The
exercises classified, according to the different parts of the body which
each affects. 20, Method, use of time, general rules. 21, Manual labor
and training. A second edition of the work, so much altered that it is
virtually a new treatise, was published in 1804.[26]
In the volume “Games,”[27] of which two editions appeared in the first
year and a third in 1802, an introduction of about fifty pages is
followed by detailed descriptions of one hundred and five different
games, arranged in natural groups and according to the faculties which
they test or tend to develop, _e.g._, attention, observation, memory,
judgment. The other works of GutsMuths include a “Manual of the Art of
Swimming” (1798, 2d ed., 1833),[28] “Mechanical Avocations for Youths
and Men” (1801, 2d ed., 1809),[29] “Book of Gymnastics for the Sons of
the Fatherland” (1817),[30] and “Catechism of Gymnastics: a Manual for
Teachers and Pupils” (1818).[31] Some idea of the wide influence exerted
by these books may be gained from the fact that the “Gymnastics for the
Young” was pirated outright in Austria (the 2d ed., Vienna, 1805);[32]
appeared in the form of translations more or less altered and condensed
in Denmark (Copenhagen, 1799),[33] England (London, 1800),[34] the United
States (Philadelphia, 1802. This is a reprint of the London edition, and
in both the work is wrongly attributed to _Salzmann_ on the title page.
See footnote on p. 89),[35] and Holland (The Hague, Amsterdam, and Breda,
1806);[36] was epitomized and issued under a different name in Bavaria
(Stadtamhof, 1800),[37] France (Paris, 1803),[38] and Sweden (Lund,
1813);[39] was freely drawn upon by Clias in the “Elements of Gymnastics”
which he published in German (1816), French (1819) and English (1823);
and with these books of Clias served as the basis of Young’s Italian
manual (Milan, 1825).[40] Of the “Games,” six editions (revised) have
been published since the author’s death, the last of them in 1914. In
addition to his books on physical training GutsMuths wrote numerous ones
devoted to _Geography_, and rendered an important service to educational
science through the _Bibliothek der paedagogischen Litteratur_, which he
edited and published in the years 1800-1820 (53 volumes).[41]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.—Title-page of the English translation of
“Gymnastik für die Jugend” (1800).]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.—Footnote on p. 89 of the English translation of
“Gymnastik für die Jugend.”]
Chronologically the names of _Franz Nachtegall_ (1777-1847), _Per
Henrik Ling_ (1776-1839) and _Friedrich Ludwig Jahn_ (1778-1853) should
follow those of the German pioneers who taught and wrote in Dessau and
at Schnepfenthal. These men, however, are best studied in connection
with the later results of their life work, _i.e._, statewide physical
education in Denmark, the Swedish system of school gymnastics, and the
popular gymnastic societies (Turnvereine) of Germany, to each of which a
separate chapter is devoted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
_General_
Encyklopädisches Handbuch des gesamten Turnwesens und der verwandten
Gebiete. In Verbindung mit zahlreichen Fachgenossen herausgegeben von Dr.
Carl Euler, Schulrat, Professor, Unterrichts-Dirigent der königlichen
Turnlehrerbildungs-Anstalt in Berlin. Wien und Leipzig, A. Pichler’s
Witwe & Sohn, 1894-1896. Three volumes.
Geschichte des Turnunterrichts. Bearbeitet von Professor Dr. Carl Euler,
Unterrichts-Dirigent der Königl. Zentral-Turnanstalt in Berlin. Zweite
Auflage. Gotha, E. F. Thienemanns Hofbuchhandlung, 1891. There is also a
“dritte Auflage, neu bearbeitet von Carl Rossow, Turnlehrer am Königl.
Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin,” issued by the same publisher in 1907.
Die Turnübungen in den Philanthropinen zu Dessau, Marschlins, Heidesheim
und Schnepfenthal. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des neueren Turnwesens. Von
Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff. Sonderabdruck aus der _deutschen Turnzeitung_.
Heidelberg, Karl Groos, 1870.
Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst (NJT). Published in Dresden (vols.
1-27) and Leipzig (vols. 28-40) 1855-1894. There were six numbers a year
1855-1881, and twelve numbers 1882-1894. In 1880 the name was changed to
“Jahrbücher der deutschen Turnkunst.”
Deutsche Turn-Zeitung (DTZ). Leipzig, since 1856. This is the official
organ (weekly) of the Deutsche Turnerschaft.
Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen (MT). Berlin, 1882-1920.
Körper und Geist (KG). Published under this title, 26 numbers a year,
in Leipzig from April 1, 1902 (vol. XI), through December, 1920 (Vol.
XXIX). It was started April 1, 1892, as the “Zeitschrift für Turnen und
Jugendspiel” (24 numbers a year), and ten volumes were published under
that title.
Karl Wassmannsdorff, in NJT 1855: 28, 153, 247, and 323; 1887: 56; MT
1882: 18, 49, and 76; and DTZ 1887: 700 and 715.
Ferd. Brehmer, in DTZ 1911: 806.
G. Meier, in NJT 1890: 257, 311, and 408.
W. Moestue, in KG 13: 213, 327, and 359 (1904 and 1905).
Jaro Pawel, in NJT 1891: 15.
Otto Richter, in DTZ 1890: 470, 603, and 622.
Richard Winter, in DTZ 1910: 189, 358, and 597.
_GutsMuths_
GutsMuths’ pädagogisches Verdienst um die Pädagogik, die Geographie und
das Turnen. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doctorwürde der
Hohen Philosophischen Facultät der Universität Leipzig vorgelegt von
Adolf B. Netsch, aus Oberkunnersdorf bei Löbau in Sachsen. Hof. a. S.,
Rud. Lion, 1901.
Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths. Erweiterter Separatabdruck aus der
Festschrift zur Feier des 100jährigen Bestehens von Schnepfenthal. Von
Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff. Heidelberg, Karl Groos, 1884.
Karl Wassmannsdorff, in DTZ 1865: 400, 409; 1884: 317, 354; NJT 1884:
233, 290, 340, 392, 430, 476; 1888: 3, 49; 1890: 41; 1894: 15, 53, 101,
and 145.
H. Brendike, in DTZ 1886: 551.
Carl Euler, in DTZ 1871: 133; NJT 1872: 2, 149; MT 1885: 217; 1886: 201;
1899: 136.
P. M. Kawerau, in DTZ 1859: 61.
M. Kloss, in NJT 1858: 249.
E. Witte, in KG 13: 33 (1904).
Other articles in DTZ 1861: 241; MT 1902: 302; and KG 13: 124, 127, and
142 (1904).
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff has described in the _Deutsche Turnzeitung_
(1870, pages 35-40 and 41-42) two of the oldest German _Ritterschulen_,
the first founded in 1575 at Selz, in Alsace, and the second the
_Collogium Illustre_ at Tübingen, Württemberg, opened in 1594. The
article is reprinted in Hirth’s “Das gesamte Turnwesen,” second edition,
1893, =1=: 290-303.
[25] “Gymnastik für die Jugend. Enthaltend eine praktische Anweisung zu
Leibesübungen. Ein Beytrag zur nöthigsten Verbesserung der körperlichen
Erziehung. Von GutsMuths, Erzieher zu Schnepfenthal.” Schnepfenthal:
Verlag der Buchhandlung der Erziehungsanstalt, 1793. Bound in two
volumes. The centenary of the book’s appearance was the occasion of
complete and partial reprints as follows:
“Gymnastik für die Jugend von GutsMuths. Unveränderte Ausgabe der ersten,
in Jahre 1793 erschienenen Auflage, veranstaltet von Gustav Lukas ... Mit
11 Tafeln.” Wien und Leipzig, A. Pichler’s Witwe & Sohn, 1893.
“GutsMuths, 1793, 1893. Die Kupfer und Einiges vom Texte des ersten
Turnunterrichtsbuches der Welt, ‘Schnepfenthal 1793.’ Mit einer
turngeschichtlichen Einleitung von Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff, einem
Facsimile der Handschrift Jahn’s in Schnepfenthal, dem Idealturnplatze
Basedow’s vom J. 1771 und einem Bilde des Herausgebers.” Leipzig, Eduard
Strauch, 1893.
[26] “Gymnastik für die Jugend, enthaltend eine praktische Anweisung
zu Leibesübungen. Ein Beytrag zur nöthigsten Verbesserung der
körperlichen Erziehung. Von J. C. F. GutsMuths, Fürstlich N. W. Hofrath
und Mitarbeiter an der Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal. Zweite
durchaus umgearbeitete und stark vermehrte Ausgabe mit 12 von dem Verf.
gezeichneten Tafeln.” Schnepfenthal, Buchhandlung der Erziehungsanstalt,
1804.
[27] “Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Körpers und Geistes, für die
Jugend, ihre Erzieher und alle Freunde unschuldiger Jugendfreuden.
Gesammelt und praktisch bearbeitet von GutsMuths, Erzieher zu
Schnepfenthal. Mit einem Titelkupfer und sechzehn kleinen Rissen.”
Schnepfenthal, Verlag der Buchhandlung der Erziehungsanstalt, 1796.
A second edition of the “Spiele” appeared in 1796, and a third in 1802;
a fourth, revised and with a new introduction by F. W. Klumpp, in 1845;
and a fifth, sixth, and seventh, revised by O. Schettler, with Klumpp’s
additions and 33 woodcuts, in 1878, 1884, and 1885. An eighth edition,
edited by Dr. J. C. Lion, was published at Hof (Rudolf Lion) in 1893, and
a ninth at the same place in 1914, “neu bearbeitet von Georg Thiele.”
Danish translations of the “Spiele” were published as follows; R.
Nyerup, “Beskrivelse over nogle Lege,” in _Borgervennen_ 1800 nos.
41-44, 1801 nos. 11 and 12, and 1802 no. 4; and Jo. Werfel, “Nyeste
Samling af gymnastiske Lege, Selskabslege og Julelege, til Tidsfordriv
og Fornöjelse. Efter Gutsmuths,” Copenhagen 1801 (The same book was
published again in Copenhagen in 1802 under the title: “Walter og hans
Elever i deres Fritimer.”).
[28] “Kleines Lehrbuch der Schwimmkunst zum Selbstunterrichte; enthaltend
eine vollständige praktische Anweisung zu allen Arten des Schwimmens
nach den Grundsätzen der neuen Italienischen Schule des Bernardi und
der älteren Deutschen, bearbeitet von J. C. F. GutsMuths, Mitarbeiter
in der Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal. Weimar, im Verlage des
Industrie-Comptoirs, 1798.” A Danish translation was published under the
title:
“J. C. Fr. GutsMuths: Lærebog i Svømmekonsten til Selvundervisning;
indeholdende en fuldstaendig praktisk Anvisning til alle Arter af
Svømmen. Overs. og udg. (translated and published) af L. Reistrup.”
Copenhagen, 1800.
“Kleines Lehrbuch der Schwimmkunst zum Selbstunterrichte; enthaltend eine
vollständige practische Anweisung zu allen Arten des Schwimmens nach den
Grundsätzen der neuen Italienischen Schule des Bernardi und der alten
allgemeinen Schwimmschule bearbeitet von Hofrath J. C. F. GutsMuths,
Mitarbeiter in der Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal. Zweite genau
durchgesehene, verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage.” Weimar: Im Verlage des
Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs. 1833.
[29] “Mechanische Nebenbeschäftigungen für Jünglinge und Männer,
enthaltend eine praktische, auf Selbstbelehrung berechnete Anweisung zur
Kunst des Drehens, Metallarbeitens und des Schleifens optischer Gläser.
Als Anhang zu seiner Gymnastik von J. C. F. GutsMuths, Mitarbeiter in der
Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal.” Leipzig und Altenburg, bei J. C.
Hinrichs, 1801. Second edition, unchanged, in 1809.
[30] “Turnbuch für die Söhne des Vaterlandes. Von Joh. Chr. Fried.
GutsMuths. Mit vier Kupfertafeln.” Frankfurt am Mayn: Bei den Gebrüdern
Wilmans, 1817.
[31] “Katechismus der Turnkunst (Kurzer Abriss der deutschen Gymnastik),
ein Leitfaden für Lehrer und Schüler von J. C. F. GutsMuths.” Frankfurt
a. M.: Bei den Gebrüdern Wilmans, 1818.
[32] Wien: In Kommission bei Anton Doll, 1805. This is the second
edition, reprinted with a few unimportant alterations.
[33] “Kort Anviisning til Legemsøvelser. Et Udtog af Gutsmuths Gymnastik,
Udgivet paa Dansk af V. K. Hjort.” Copenhagen: Paa Hofboghandler S.
Poulsen’s Forlag. 1799.
[34] “Gymnastics for Youth: or a Practical Guide to Healthful and
Amusing Exercises for the Use of Schools. An Essay toward the Necessary
Improvement of Education, Chiefly as it relates to the Body; freely
translated from the German of C. G. Salzmann. Master of the Academy at
Schnepfenthal, and author of Elements of Morality, Illustrated with
Copper Plates.” London: J. Johnson. 1800.
[35] The title page differs from that of the London edition only in the
imprint: “Philadelphia: Printed by William Duane, No. 106 Market Street,
1802.”
[36] “Volledig Leerstelsel van kunstmatige Ligchaams-oefeningen. Een
Bijdrage tot de Opvoeding der Jeugd. Gevolgt naar het Hoogduitsch van
J. C. F. GutsMuths, Hofraad, en Leeraar op de Kweekschool van den Heere
Salzmann, te Schnepfenthal, door Jan van Geuns ... ’s Gravenhage,
Amsterdam en Breda: Bij de Gebroeders van Cleef en W. van Bergen & Comp.”
In two volumes, published in 1806 and 1813. A second edition, unchanged,
appeared in 1818.
[37] “Entwurf zu einer Gymnastik, oder Anleitung zu Leibesübungen für
die Jugend, grössten Theils nach Art der alten Römer und Griechen; aber
alle nach den Bedürfsnissen und Umständen unsers Zeitalters gesammelt,
und in ein regelmässiges Ganzegebracht, von Johann Nepomuck Fischer,
Weltpriester. Stadtamhof, bey Joh. Mich Daisenberger. 1800.”
Reprinted under the title: “Des Weltpriesters Joh. Nep. Fischer Auszug
aus GutsMuths’ Gymnastik für die Jugend v. J. 1793, verfasst i. J. 1799.
Neu herausgegeben von Karl Wassmannsdorff. Den Freunden der Geschichte
des deutschen Turnwesens gewidmet.” Hof, Grau & Co. (Rud. Lion). 1872.
[38] “La Gymnastique de la jeunesse, ou traité élémentaire des jeux
d’exercice, considérés sous le rapport de leur utilité physique et
morale; par M. A. Amar Durivier, et L. F. Jauffret. Ouvrage orné de 30
gravures. A Paris, chez A. G. Debray, Libraire, près le Louvre, place du
Muséum, no. 9. An XI (1803).”
[39] “Gymnastik för Swenska Ungdomen, eller Kort Anvisning till
Kroppsöfningar. Öfversättning (by H. F. Sjöbeck, docent at the University
of Lund). Med ett Kopparstick. Lund, 1813. Tryckt uti Berlingska
Boktryckeriet.”
[40] “Ginnastica elementare o sia corso analitico e graduato degli
esercizi atti a sviluppare ed a fortificare l’organizzazione dell’
uomo, estratto dalle opere dei celebri autori di ginnastica Professori
Clias e Guts-Muths, compilato da E. Young, colonello ... ed arricchito
di 13 Tavole in rame.” Milano: Per Giovanni Silvestri. 1825.
“Elementar-Gymnastik oder zergliederte, stufenweise Anleitung zu jenen
Leibes-Übungen, welche vorzüglich geeignet sind, den menschlichen Körper
zu entwickeln, auszubilden und zu stärken. Nach den Werken der rühmlichst
bekannten Gymnastiker und Professoren Clias und GutsMuths bearbeitet
von E. Young, Oberst, Kommandant der K. K. Militär Erziehungs-Anstalt
in Mailand.... Mit 22 Kupfertafeln. Aus dem Italienischen übersetzt von
K. K. Oberleutnant S. Poschacher. Mailand, aus der kaiserl. königl.
Buchdruckerey. 1827.”
[41] The “Encyclopædia of Bodily Exercises” (_Encyklopädie der
Leibesübungen._ Three volumes, 1794, 1795, 1818) published by Gerhard
Ulrich Anton Vieth (1763-1836) of the Dessau _Hauptschule_ (not the
Philanthropinum), and the important pioneer work of Don Francisco Amoros
(1770-1848) in Madrid and Paris and of Phokion Heinrich Clias (1782-1854)
in Switzerland, England, and France, are omitted here for lack of space,
but have been discussed at length in an article which appeared in the
_American Physical Education Review_ for June, 1904 (IX: 89-110). The
sketches of Amoros and Clias, without bibliography, are reprinted as
chapters V and VI in the writer’s “Pioneers of Modern Physical Training”
(New York, Association Press, 1915).
CHAPTER XI.
FRIEDRICH LUDWIG JAHN, AND POPULAR GYMNASTICS IN GERMANY.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the father of popular gymnastics (_Volks-_ or
_Vereinsturnen_) in Germany, was born August 11, 1778, at Lanz, a
Prussian hamlet lying midway between Hamburg and Berlin and only a few
miles distant from the right bank of the Elbe. His father, the village
pastor, was a large and vigorous man, faithful to all the varied duties
of his office, and at the same time a thrifty manager of the parochial
estate, fond of his garden, and with hop-fields and sheep of his own. The
mother was a strong, brave woman of Puritan type, devoutly religious,
severely plain in her manner of living, industrious and economical, and
not unlike the peasant women of the parish in outward appearance. Their
only other child was a daughter, born two years before.
The first thirteen years of the boy’s life were spent at home, mostly
outdoors and in the company of older persons. At the age of four he began
to read with his mother in Luther’s translation of the Bible, a book
with which he afterwards showed great familiarity. This was followed by
Pufendorf’s record of the Great Elector’s deeds and by the historical
writings of Frederick the Great. The latter monarch died when Jahn was
eight years old, and was made a very real hero to him by the tales of
veterans of the Seven Years’ War living in the neighborhood and of
troopers attracted by the rich pasturage there. In addition to Latin his
father taught him history, geography, and the German language, which
soon became his favorite studies and continued to interest him deeply
throughout his school and university days.
Rich cultivated lands and broad meadows alternate with pine woods
and patches of arid, sandy soil on the surface of the alluvial plain
which reaches out in all directions from Lanz. Not allowed to mingle
much with the peasant children, Jahn roamed these neighboring fields
and forests, learned from grown-up acquaintances to ride and swim and
shoot, helped his father in the garden, went with him across the Elbe
to market the hops at Dannenberg, in the electorate of Hannover, and
accompanied other hop-growers as far as Lübeck, Wismar, and Rostock,
on the Baltic. His mother came from Neustadt, in the adjoining duchy
of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and frequent trips with smugglers across
the borders of this state, only ten miles away to the north, made him
thoroughly at home on every road and foot path leading thither. It was
this frontier life and his early visits to other states that made it
easy for Jahn in later years to disregard sectional barriers and to view
as citizens of a common country all who spoke the German language. The
relation of lord and vassal was unknown in Lanz and most of the peasants
owned the farms they tilled. Jahn breathed in the prevailing spirit of
self-reliance and independence, and grew up sturdy and fearless, fond of
his native language and customs, and proud of the history of Prussia, and
of Brandenburg, his own province, in particular.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.—Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852).]
On October 8, 1791, he entered the higher classical school (_Gymnasium_)
at Salzwedel, an old Prussian town about twenty-five miles to the
southwest of Lanz. Notwithstanding the lack of system and completeness
in his home training the boy’s marked natural ability, his gift of quick
perception, and his retentive memory must have led to rapid progress;
for three years later (September 27, 1794), at the age of sixteen, he
was received into the eighth class (_Unter-prima_) at the _Gymnasium zum
grauen Kloster_ in Berlin. On the 17th of the following April, after
spending only six months at this second school, he left for home suddenly
and without taking leave, so that for a time the authorities supposed
some accident had befallen him. In contrast with the outdoor life and the
comparative freedom from restraint of his earlier years, he had found
the confinement and orderly discipline of the classroom doubly irksome;
and his country plainness, not to say roughness, of speech and manners
and want of familiarity with city ways, together with his independent
spirit and the absence of intimate companionship with boys of his own age
while he was living at home, had led to repeated misunderstandings with
teachers and fellow-pupils alike.
His university career was even more irregular and stormy, but now his
native capacity for leadership and a certain rugged eloquence in public
speaking began to reveal themselves. For five years, dating from April
27, 1796, he was a student in the University of Halle. In obedience to
his father’s wish he undertook the study of theology; but it was not in
his nature, nor had his imperfect preparation fitted him, to take one
of the usual professional courses. Prussian and German history and the
German language and literature, subjects generally neglected at that
day but dear to his own heart from childhood, absorbed more and more
of his time and thought. Thus, after three years we find him selling,
for ten thalers, the manuscript of a small treatise on “The Promotion
of Patriotism in Prussia,”[42] a glorification of that state and its
rulers, and a plea for more attention to the study of Prussian history in
the schools and universities as a means of developing love of country.
The purchaser published the work a year later, with his own name on the
title page. Meanwhile Jahn’s habits of study continued to be desultory.
Although he attended lectures, and in the philological seminar of F. A.
Wolf won that scholar’s commendation for his “language instinct,” few of
the courses begun were completed in orderly fashion, and his work was
interrupted by frequent excursions on foot to various parts of Germany.
Another disturbing factor was the war which he soon declared against
the student clubs and associations of fellow-countrymen known as
_Landsmannschaften_, the predecessors of the present _Corps_.
The sectional character of these “circles” is evident from their
names—Westphalians, Pomeranians, Silesians, Magdeburgers, Anhalters,
etc.; and it seems to have been their spirit of narrow provincialism,
coupled with the dissolute life and constant duelling of their
members, which roused him to an almost fanatical opposition and was
the occasion of incessant brawls. His increasing difficulties with the
Landsmannschaften and the effort to unite against them all students
outside their ranks brought him at length into conflict with the academic
authorities, and he left Halle to continue the same passionate struggle
for a time at Jena, where his eloquence gained him a considerable
following among the students.
Apparently it was a desire to study the Northern languages that carried
him next into what was then Swedish Pomerania, where he was received
into the University of Greifswald May 31, 1802, enrolling himself under a
false name. Here, too, in spite of poverty, he soon became a recognized
leader. It was rumored that he belonged to the proscribed secret order
of Unitists. However this may have been, before many months had passed
certain wild student pranks and the violent outcome of a factional feud
resulted in his appearance before the academic authorities, by whom he
and a fellow student were given, on February 7, 1803, the _consilium
abeundi_.
After the turmoil of his school and university life there now succeeded
a period of quiet teaching and literary labors, during which the man
gathered himself together, formed those settled convictions which were
the mainspring of his future career, and gave evidence of his underlying
strength and soundness of character. For two years he was a private
tutor, in Neubrandenburg until the end of September, 1804, and then at
the Torgelow glass-works, twenty-five miles westward. The first of these
years witnessed a foreshadowing of the great work begun seven years later
in Berlin. Every evening he gave his pupils, the sons of Baron Lefort,
instruction in swimming, in a brook near the town, followed by practice
in running, climbing, jumping, and wrestling on a neighboring height,
and by a few lively games. Any other boys who happened to be present,
although strangers to him and with no claim upon his services, were made
welcome, and in this way the number was increased to twenty or thirty.
New and equally vigorous outdoor exercises were substituted in the late
fall and winter months.
On October 1, 1805, Jahn took public leave of his Mecklenburg friends
through the columns of the _Strelitz’scher Anzeiger_. His next move,
made in the interest of literary plans and to favor his own advancement,
was to Göttingen. Some months were spent in linguistic studies at the
University, and in the summer of 1806 he removed to Jena, where he
completed a volume of “Contributions to High German Synonymy,” embodying
material collected in all parts of Germany during the excursions of his
university days. The book is the work of an ardent friend of the German
language, and not of a scientific philologist; and it reveals the keen
observer of the country and its inhabitants, as well as the student of
popular dialects.
Jahn had hoped to get a footing in the university at Göttingen, it
seems; but in the fall of 1806, while he was sojourning in the Harz
Mountains, his plans were suddenly changed and his thoughts turned
from the classroom to the camp. Napoleon’s incursions and his insolent
treatment, which were threatening the very existence of Prussia, had at
last compelled Frederick-William III to take up arms against the French.
Learning that war was inevitable, Jahn immediately gave up his visit
and hastened toward the army which was gathering in Thuringia, intending
to volunteer his services. Delayed by swollen streams, he reached Jena
on the day of the battle (October 16, 1806), saw the last struggle and
the crushing defeat, and joined the fleeing soldiery as a “volunteer
fugitive.” Frederick-William’s ill-prepared and poorly officered troops
had proved an easy prey for the French. One by one the great fortresses
were surrendered and garrisoned by the enemy’s forces, the royal family
was forced to flee from Berlin, and by the Treaty of Tilsit (July, 1807)
Prussia lost half her territory and became virtually a mere province of
France, overrun by the soldiers of the conqueror and entirely at his
mercy.
Jahn’s flight and later wanderings led him by wide detours to Halle and
Magdeburg, down the Elbe, across to the Baltic and westward along the
coast to Lübeck (November 5), thence into Silesia, apparently, and back
again to Jena, where he remained until the Treaty of Tilsit. Afterwards,
until the fall of 1809, he spent a portion of his time at home, but lived
for the most part with a friend at Dammeretz, on the Elbe some distance
below Lanz. Before the outbreak of the war he had been engaged on two
works, a “Handbook for Germans,” and “German Nationality” (_Deutsches
Volksthum_); but the manuscript of both seems to have been lost in
the days following the battle of Jena. The former was not rewritten,
but the latter, his chief literary work, was again ready in 1808 (the
introduction is dated October 14, at Lanz) and appeared at Lübeck in
the spring of 1810. Its central thought is the unity of Germany, and in
its pages his controlling passion for the German language, customs, and
history, his intense love for the fatherland, and his desire to see it
bound together into one strong nation, able to throw off the foreign
yoke, found full and forcible expression.
Late in December of 1809 Jahn arrived in Berlin, where, as he says, love
for the fatherland and his own inclination led him again to teaching.
Disappointed in his original idea of finding a position in the new
Berlin University, and failing to receive a promised head mastership at
Königsberg when the results of his faulty school and university training
became apparent, he at first received some private pupils, and the next
Easter entered a training school for teachers (the _Königliche Seminar
für gelehrte Schulen_). He also began to give instruction in history,
German, and mathematics at the _Gymnasium zum grauen Kloster_, the
school from which he had run away fifteen years before. This position
he retained for a year and a half, until Christmas, 1811, and in the
meantime he had been given some classes in Dr. Plamann’s flourishing
Pestalozzian School for Boys.
It was the custom at the Graue Kloster for teachers to spend some of
the Wednesday and Saturday half-holiday afternoons outdoors with pupils
of the lower classes. In the spring of 1810 Jahn began to make this
his practice, meeting the boys from time to time outside the Halle and
Kottbus gates for games and simple exercises like running, jumping,
and wrestling, or going farther south with them to the _Hasenheide_, a
hilly and wooded stretch of unused land on the southern slope of the
Spree valley, and to the adjoining _Rollberge_ and the _Tempelhofer
Berg_. Older scholars were welcomed whenever curiosity and inclination
tempted them to join the band, and the numbers rapidly increased from
week to week. They played at “Black Man,” or at “Robber and Traveler”
(afterwards known as “Knight and Townsman”), using a fowler’s hut for
the robbers’ den and the foot of an oak as the city or castle from which
the travelers set forth. The first apparatus, furnished by Jahn, was a
pair of light poles tipped with iron points so that they could be thrust
into the sand, and a rope with a sandbag at either end, which was placed
across the top as a barrier to be jumped over. Long, straight sticks
were used like spears for hurling at any mark that might be chosen.
The limb of an oak, their first horizontal bar, sufficed for hanging
exercises and for attempts to draw themselves up by the arms. Preparatory
jumping exercises, borrowed from GutsMuths, were occasionally practised.
One afternoon Jahn went on foot with ten or twelve boys as far as the
_Britzer Heide_, to the southeast, where they had a game together and
then walked back. The report of this first _Turnfahrt_ (gymnastic
excursion) roused the desire for others of a similar sort.
Jahn knew how to vary the exercises and make each one interesting, and
the moments of rest were filled with jokes and banter or with stories
drawn from history and from his own experiences. Winning thus the
respect and love of all his young companions, he was able to overcome
the spirit of dissension which at the start was ready to break out on
slight provocation, and made harmony and discipline prevail. During the
following winter a part of those who had been regular in attendance still
held together, and were allowed a share in the indoor exercises of the
pupils at Plamann’s school—fencing with light broadswords and shooting at
a target with crossbows. This group formed a nucleus for the next year’s
work.
The spring of 1811 saw Jahn again at the Hasenheide with pupils from the
Graue Kloster and Plamann’s school. But now he had a more definite plan
in mind. Immediately after school hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays work
was begun in an opening in the woods, opposite a few public houses. They
first fenced in a rectangular area and built in the background a small
hut or arbor where clothing could be left, and then set up within the
enclosure their simple apparatus. This comprised a horizontal mast or
balance-beam, a rope hung from a yard which was fastened crosswise in the
limbs of two trees, a group of horizontal bars made by tying three small
fir trunks, at a height of seven feet, to three pines which stood at the
points of a triangle, a roughly made inclined ladder, two climbing masts,
one fifteen and the other twenty feet or more in height, and two sets
of fixed standards for use in high jumping and pole-vaulting. They also
made a jumping ditch, and laid out a figure-of-eight track, one circle of
which served as a wrestling place. Games were to be played outside the
enclosure.
Early in June this first _Turnplatz_[43] was opened. Each boy was
assessed fourteen groschen (thirty-three cents) to meet the expense of
keeping grounds and apparatus in condition; but Jahn evidently advanced
much of the original cost himself, and he granted free admission to any
boys of good character who were unable to pay the light charge. Meanwhile
the attendance had increased to eighty or a hundred, and later in the
summer it rose to two hundred. A friend of Jahn’s came with many of his
pupils from the _Friedrich-Wilhelms- und Werder’schen Gymnasium_, and
two other teachers brought boys from the Schindler’schen Orphan Asylum.
Seeing the need of a special suit for the exercises, Jahn appeared one
day clad in long trousers and a short jacket of gray unbleached linen,
a costume so cheap and durable that its use soon became general on the
Turnplatz, and an enemy of the turners was in the habit of referring to
them later as “the unbleached rascals.” All distinctions of rank and
class disappeared with the adoption of this uniform costume. Lunches
consisted of bread and salt, or of bread and butter and eggs, and pure
spring water was the usual drink. Tobacco and brandy, together with all
sweetstuffs, were forbidden.
Tuesday and Friday afternoons were added to the usual half-holidays
during the months of July and August. Besides the games, wrestling, in
which Jahn was himself uncommonly proficient, retained its popularity in
spite of the new apparatus. There was no wooden horse as yet, but one day
Friedrich Friesen, a fellow teacher with Jahn at Plamann’s school, showed
them how to vault from the rear and the side to a seat on the thick end
of the balance beam. The exercises were not yet orderly or organized, but
every boy was an inventor and shared the result with others, learning
from them in turn. It was hardly in Jahn’s nature to be systematic,
and such a thing as a formal school of gymnastics was foreign to his
purpose. The essential thing was the active, wholesome, common life
in the open air, and especially the games, training the boys to work
together in harmony, and he sought also to kindle in them a public spirit
which might some day be of service to the nation.
With the approach of winter all movable apparatus at the Hasenheide was
stored away, and now Jahn and his oldest pupils began to read eagerly
whatever they could find on the subject of physical training, studying
with special care the books of GutsMuths and Vieth.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.—Jahn’s Hasenheide _Turnplatz_, from a
contemporary print (1818).]
A year’s experience had shown that the first Turnplatz was too small,
too near the public houses, too exposed to “weather, wind, and wit.”
With the first spring sun of 1812 work was therefore begun on a new site
farther to the east and south, the free use of which was granted by the
authorities. It lay on a tableland at the head of the slope, close to
the Rollberge, and was protected from the wind on three sides by dense
thickets of pine, fir, and oak. Paths were made leading to this spot,
the surface was levelled off, more trees were set out, another hut was
erected, in the center of the grounds this time and with a meeting and
resting place near it (the _Tie_), and the apparatus was brought away
from the old Turnplatz. The equipment received numerous additions. Three
vaulting bucks or horses without pommels, three, four, and five feet high
respectively, were constructed out of tree-trunks. Nearby stood the
first crude models of our parallel bars—three pairs of thin beams about
twelve feet long, those in each set placed parallel with each other and
about two feet apart. They corresponded in height with the bucks, and
the original aim in using them was merely to gain the strength of arm
and hand necessary for lifting and supporting the body during vaulting
exercises. New jumping ditches and running tracks, a larger balance beam,
targets with movable iron-mounted heads, and more elaborate devices for
hanging and climbing exercises were provided.
Jahn had already begun to note down and arrange the various exercises,
but everything was still in process of development. Although the other
apparatus was not neglected, the parallel bars and the horizontal bar
soon became the favorite pieces, and the boys vied with each other in
inventing new performances on them. Three turners who had received
private instruction in vaulting during the winter preceding met for
further practice at special hours with little groups of skilled
companions, and for this purpose Friesen arranged to have a live horse
brought to the Turnplatz on certain days. Less interest was taken in
jumping, and games did not hold such a prominent place as formerly.
Once a month Jahn used to stay all night at the grounds, going through
the exercises by moonlight with his pupils. It was also the custom for
several of them to keep watch there regularly, as a precaution against
thieving. The _Turnfahrten_ were renewed, and gave a great impetus
to excursions of all sorts. More than a hundred turners are said to
have gone off on foot during the summer vacation, some of them on very
considerable journeys.
Before the season was over the attendance had reached five hundred, new
arrivals streaming in from all classes of society. On Sundays adults
were allowed to take part. In general, the popular attitude toward the
movement was very favorable. Spectators of every rank and by the hundred
gathered at the sides of the Turnplatz, and the evident physical benefit
from the work, the harmony that existed and the strong national feeling
cultivated there were at once appreciated. Jahn worked alone, for the
most part, assisted, however, by the older and more experienced pupils,
whom he was now able to employ as squad leaders (_Vorturner_). If
something new was to be practised he selected a few of the most skilful
and showed them the exercise himself, and they in turn spread it from
group to group. In spite of the numbers, accidents were unknown during
this and the preceding summers. Occasionally gentle measures were not
sufficient to preserve discipline. It it said that Jahn knew how to use a
rope-end, and that when two boys had quarreled he used to furnish each of
them with a pliant root, with which they fought it out in the presence of
their comrades, clad in their thin linen breeches, and striking with all
their might lest they should appear cowardly.
In the winter of 1812-13 some of the best turners, with Friesen at their
head, organized a society for the critical study of gymnastics and to
work out an artistic arrangement of the material which had accumulated.
A hall was also rented, a wooden vaulting horse was purchased with
a hundred thalers which some of them had collected, and practice in
vaulting and fencing was continued.
The momentous events of the next three years, which drew all Europe
into the conflict with Napoleon and culminated in his final overthrow
at Waterloo (June 18, 1815), put a temporary check upon the further
development of Jahn’s work at the Hasenheide, at the same time that they
emphasized its value. On March 17, 1813, King Frederick-William III of
Prussia declared war upon France and appealed to his people to join in
the great War of Liberation. Jahn was among the first to respond. He
entered Lützow’s famous Free Corps, and his example was quickly followed
by most of the turners who were old enough to bear arms. Although he
made occasional visits to the Turnplatz in 1813 and 1814, and remained
in Berlin during the campaign of 1815 to watch over the work there, he
had entrusted it, before joining the Corps, to lottery director Johann J.
W. Bornemann, who had shown great interest in the movement. He had also
persuaded one of his earliest and most capable pupils, Ernst Eiselen,
the state of whose health incapacitated him for military service, to
undertake the direction of the exercises, and this position Eiselen seems
to have retained throughout the three seasons. At the suggestion of
Minister von Schuckmann and with the approval of Chancellor Hardenberg,
Jahn’s annual allowance was increased from 500 to 800 thalers, Eiselen
was provided with a salary of 400 thalers, and for the support of the
Turnplatz a yearly grant of 150 thalers was made, together with free
timber for building purposes.
Some important additions were made at the grounds meanwhile, and work
went on as usual, though with diminished numbers. In August of 1814
General Blücher paid a visit to the spot, and after watching some of
the exercises made a brief address. The Crown Prince, who also appeared
there, was especially pleased with the wrestling. The wife of Prince
William came with her children, and the sons of Prince Radziwill, the
King’s brother-in-law, were on intimate terms with the turners. Jahn
was married at Neubrandenburg on August 30, 1814, to Helene Kollhof,
whom he had met while he was a private tutor in Mecklenburg, nearly
ten years before. During the same summer Bornemann published a “Manual
of the Gymnastics Revived by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn under the name
of _Turnkunst_,”[44] intended to prepare the way for Jahn’s own book
which was not ready until two years later. A society of older turners,
consisting originally of nine members, was organized in the fall of 1814,
and met every Saturday with Massmann, one of their number, to practise
songs, discuss regulations, revise the exercises by series, fix rules for
the games, and choose leaders for the squads. The first anniversary of
the Battle of Leipsic (October 18 and 19) was celebrated at the Turnplatz
with huge signal fires, songs by all the turners, and a great exhibition.
The number of spectators on this occasion was estimated at ten thousand,
including many persons of distinction and delegates from six neighboring
towns.
In the fall of 1815 and the following winter gymnastics was again made
the subject of associated investigation, and now the results of so much
study and experience were gradually brought together into book form.
Eiselen undertook the technical portions, with the help of Massmann,
Dürre, and others, while Jahn wrote the remainder, decided in doubtful
cases, and revised the whole. March 31, 1816, he signed the preface,
and on April 29 the finished volume was published under the title _Die
Deutsche Turnkunst_ (“German Gymnastics”).[45]
No analysis of this book can convey any idea of the charm and vigor of
its style, or of the lofty patriotism that pervades it. The preface
(pages iii-xlviii) tells the story of the Hasenheide Turnplatz, the
origin of the word Turnkunst, and how the present volume came to be
written. The author believes that, though incomplete, it reveals the
spirit of the workers, and will serve as a guide in similar undertakings
elsewhere. Only preliminary and fundamental forms of exercises have
been described; such others as fencing, swimming, dancing, and military
exercises must be left for a larger work. The early history of
gymnastics, especially in connection with popular festivals, deserves
careful investigation, for contests of strength and skill are a necessary
feature on these occasions. The German nomenclature of gymnastics is
explained and defended. Certain Prussian authorities who have proved
themselves promoters and patrons of Jahn’s efforts are mentioned; and
finally a gymnastic annual is promised, the first number to appear
the following year at Eastertide. Part I, The Gymnastic Exercises (pp.
3-166), is arranged in eighteen sections, devoted respectively to
walking, running, jumping, vaulting the horse, balancing, the horizontal
bar, the parallel bars, climbing, throwing, pulling, pushing, lifting,
carrying, holding the body outstretched horizontally, wrestling, jumping
with the hoop, and with the rope, and miscellaneous exercises. In each
case the necessary apparatus is described. Part II, Gymnastic Games
(pp. 169-183): Gymnastics and games are links in the same chain, and
a gymnasium without a playground is inconceivable; games prepare for
social life, and in them one comes to know his mates thoroughly; the
characteristics of a good game are given, and six selected games are
described—black man, prisoner’s base, knight and townsman, the hunt,
storming, and German ball. Part III (pp. 187-206) tells how to lay
out and fit up an outdoor gymnasium, and gives specifications for the
complete equipment of one which will accommodate four hundred persons
working in squads. Dimensions of each piece of apparatus, and of its
parts, are stated in detail, so that the cost in any given locality
can be figured out. Part IV (pp. 209-244) discusses the management of
the grounds and exercises, with sections on the art of gymnastics, the
gymnasium, the teacher, the exercises, the exercise period, costume,
meeting place (the _Tie_), and spectators; and gives the general and
special rules to be observed by the turners. Part V (pp. 247-288)
contains a classified bibliography of gymnastics, with about 170 titles;
and explains the plan of an outdoor gymnasium shown on the first of two
large folding plates. A portion of the first plate and all of the second
illustrate various forms of apparatus.
After the appearance of the book work was continued at the Hasenheide
throughout the seasons of 1816-18 with little change, from early spring
until the exercises of October 18, the anniversary of the Battle of
Leipsic. Gymnastics must still hibernate during the winter, from lack
of suitable accommodations indoors. On October 22, 1816, Jahn reported
that the number of turners in Berlin had passed the thousand mark. The
next year it increased to 1074, and life on the Turnplatz reached its
culmination. Hans Ferdinand Massmann had returned to Berlin at Easter,
after a year at Jena, and from July 15 until September 2 he took the
place of Eiselen at the grounds, while the latter was absent at Kiel in
the interest of his health. More trees were planted, seats were provided
around the _Tie_, and other improvements and additions were made. The
turners began the afternoon with whatever form of exercise each preferred
for himself (_Kürturnen_); then followed a period of rest, after which
all took part in the orderly exercises (_Turnschule_), grouped in squads
and divisions according to age. Each squad had its leader (_Vorturner_),
who also kept a record of the attendance and proficiency of its members.
Massmann had prepared a set of instructions for the guidance of these
leaders, and there were written lists of exercises in tabular form
(_Turntafeln_) to show the steps of progression in each group.
Whole days were often given up to games, which were still popular, and
almost every Saturday they were played all night long. Excursions, with
older turners especially, and enlivened by Jahn’s talk and by many a
song, were continued during this and the following summer. The nights
were passed in haylofts or on the straw in some shed, and at sunrise they
started on, first singing together a selection more or less devotional.
For Jahn was an earnest Christian; his knapsack always contained a
Bible, and he frequently read aloud from it to his companions, showing
a preference for prophetic passages from the Old Testament. At the
celebration of October 18 thousands were present. Jahn first gave a
review of the year’s progress; following this all joined in a song,
and then came competitive exercises, a torchlight procession to the
Rollberge, more speechmaking and singing, and the lighting of huge
bonfires. On the 31st of the same month the universities of Jena and
Kiel each conferred on Jahn the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
in recognition of his services to the fatherland in time of need, his
stimulating influence on the young, his power as a public speaker, and
his efforts in behalf of the German language.
The number of turners dropped to 815 in the season of 1818, but there
seems to have been no weakening in Jahn’s hold upon the love of his
followers. We hear again of the close friendships formed among them, the
manly qualities encouraged, the earnest effort to be purely German in
speech, custom, and dress, and the underlying seriousness of their joyous
life together. After the day’s exercise they used to return to the city
in groups, each with some favorite leader as its center. Singing and
conversation alternated until the Kottbus gate was reached; there they
halted until all had come up, joined in a final song, and then scattered
to their homes.
The next spring (1819) the Turnplatz did not open at the usual time. The
Prussian Ministry had in mind a union of gymnastics with the whole scheme
of instruction in the schools. Summer and winter exercises alike were to
be under its supervision. Additional grounds were to be opened, and one
site had already been secured near Berlin. The plan was nearly ready, and
Jahn was informed that for the present, until it should be perfected, the
authorities desired that the Hasenheide Turnplatz should remain closed.
The years 1814-18 had witnessed a rapid and remarkable spread of the
Jahn _Turnen_ far beyond the narrow bounds of its first home, throughout
the length and breadth of the Prussian provinces, and into other German
states as well. Outdoor gymnasia had been opened, for example, at
Königsberg, Elbing, Marienwerder, and at least four other cities in
East and West Prussia; at a score of places in Silesia, beginning with
Breslau and Liegnitz, and including Bunzlau, Frankenstein, Waldenburg,
Strehlen, Hirschberg, Neisse, Leobschütz, Gleiwitz, Brieg, and Kreuzburg;
at Friedland, Neubrandenburg, Neustrelitz, and Malchin in Mecklenburg;
Potsdam, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and Prenzlau in Brandenburg; the free
cities of Hamburg and Lübeck; in central Germany at Leipsic, Halle,
Jena, Erfurt, Gotha, Eisenach, Rudolstadt, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, and
Heiligenstadt; at Frankfort, Hanau, and Offenbach on the Main, and
along the Rhine at Mainz, Bonn, Cologne, and Düsseldorf; at Darmstadt
and Giessen in Hesse, Heidelberg in Baden, Stuttgart and Tübingen in
Württemberg, and Erlangen and Hof in Bavaria.
In general the early history of these Turnplätze resembles that of
the parent organization in Berlin. A majority of them were started in
connection with higher schools for boys, but they often included in
their membership teachers and university students, clerks and young
mechanics,—all classes of society. Usually the prime mover was some
teacher, impelled, like Jahn, by a motive which was patriotic rather than
pedagogical; and afterwards local, provincial, or state authorities not
infrequently added their support. Sometimes it was the public officials
themselves who inaugurated the movement. The common incentive was the
great tidal wave of love for the fatherland which swept over Germany
at the time of the War of Liberation. Many a teacher who had fought in
Lützow’s or some other volunteer corps and joined in the stirring songs
of Karl Theodor Körner about the campfire or on the march went back to
his classroom filled with a desire to see developed in his young charges
a stronger patriotism, a simpler, more vigorous, and more manly type
of life, less regard for distinctions of rank and wealth, a spirit of
mutual helpfulness and a willingness to unite with others for the common
welfare. Jahn’s _Turnen_ had already shown its fitness for these ends.
In many cases assistance was received directly from Berlin. Thus in
September of 1814 Jahn sent Eduard Dürre,[46] one of his Vorturners, to
Friedland in Mecklenburg, where two teachers were trying to introduce
the exercises in the Gelehrtenschule; and the same year Massmann started
a Turnplatz at Schwerinsburg. At the request of the _Oberpräsident_
of the Rhine Province Jahn recommended in 1816 a teacher of gymnastics
for Cologne, and a similar request from two Jena professors was met
by persuading Massmann and Dürre to continue their studies in that
university for a time. When the _Deutsche Turnkunst_ appeared in 1816
it became at once the authority on all Turnplätze and the guide in
opening new ones. A glance at the contents will show how admirably and
completely it meets the requirements of such a manual. Minister von
Schuckmann ordered fifty copies sent to the West Prussian authorities in
Marienwerder, at their request, and two hundred more for distribution
among other provincial officials. In Westphalia, for example, twenty-four
higher classical schools for boys were thus supplied. Numerous visitors,
too, came to Berlin for a longer or shorter time to be trained as
teachers of gymnastics. Some did this at their own motion and expense,
and others received state support. In 1816 there were, among others,
three normal school students from Weissenfels, and teachers from Neumark,
Neustadt a. d. Dosse, Wusterhausen, and Neurippen. Jahn made them all
welcome, charged no fees, gave his time and personal interest freely in
regular hours and out, and saw that each one obtained the best possible
preparation.
His own brief trips and longer excursions should also be mentioned in
this connection. A short visit which he paid to Frankfort-on-the-Main
in 1815 led a band of school boys there to fit up a private Turnplatz.
In September of the next year he was very cordially received by a
congress of seventy school inspectors, clergymen, and teachers at
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and delivered an address on gymnastics which made
a deep impression. A month’s excursion with eighteen older turners in
July and August of 1817 took him through Mecklenburg and Pomerania to
the Island of Rügen, in the Baltic. The party was hospitably greeted and
entertained by the turners in Neustrelitz, Neubrandenburg, and Friedland,
joining with them in exercises on the Turnplatz, or matching strength at
tug-of-war and wrestling. They met other turners from Prenzlau, and at
Puttbus, before a large audience, gave a sort of gymnastic exhibition
with an accompaniment of national songs. Again the next summer he set
out with thirteen school boys, intending to be absent four weeks. They
journeyed southeast through Hirschberg and Waldenburg to Breslau, spent
several days with turners in the Silesian capital, and on the way back
visited Liegnitz, Züllichau, and Frankfort-on-the-Oder.[47]
Still another agency in the spread of Jahn _Turnen_ is found in the
_Burschenschaften_, or general student unions, organized in the German
universities as one result of the War of Liberation. Students who had
served in Lützow’s Free Corps, the most national of the volunteer
regiments, took the lead in forming the first of these at Jena, where it
was publicly announced on the 12th of June, 1815. The new association was
intended to correct the abuses of the _Landsmannschaften_ or sectional
clubs, to promote the physical and moral vigor of its members, and to
awaken love for the common German fatherland and a desire to see it free
and united. Gymnastics was at once introduced and practised after the
Berlin fashion. Jahn watched the inception and spread of the movement
with the keenest interest, if he did not himself have a hand in sketching
the plan of organization; and he sent to Jena two of his most trusted
pupils, Dürre and Massmann, whose activity there was not confined to the
Turnplatz. Other Burschenschaften were soon formed in the universities at
Halle, Leipsic, Giessen, Heidelberg, Bonn, Erlangen, and elsewhere, and
with them wandering students from Berlin, Breslau, and Jena carried the
art of the Hasenheide _Turnvater_. Thus Karl Völker, one of the directors
of the Jena Burschenschaft, after completing his studies there went to
Tübingen in 1818 to accept an invitation from students in that university
to help them organize a Burschenschaft and start a Turnplatz. The city
offered a site, upon condition that the boys in its _Bürgerschule_ and
_Gymnasium_ should be allowed a share in the exercises.[48]
The key to the history of the Hasenheide Turnplatz and the scores of
others patterned after it in the years 1814-18 we have found in the
spirit of the German War of Liberation. To this also are to be traced the
repressive measures which suddenly checked the growth of the seemingly
lusty organization before the completion of its first decade, and for
more than twenty years banished it as a factor in the popular life.
When the common people rose in arms against Napoleon it was with the
hope that war would result, not only in freedom from the foreign yoke,
but in closer union between the semi-independent German states, and the
substitution of constitutional liberty for the absolutism of personal
rule. They secured promises of ample concession to these cravings, but
found, after peace was declared, that their rulers had no intention of
meeting engagements made under duress. The Germanic Confederation of 1815
was a sorry substitute for the vigorous empire anticipated, and under
the lead of Prince Metternich, Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the
Holy Alliance at once adopted a reactionary policy which was hostile
to the free movement of ideas and sought to allay the agitation of the
popular mind. The turners represented a political tendency, and therefore
incurred suspicion.
Beginning January 17, 1817, Jahn had delivered in Berlin a series of
twenty-one semi-weekly public lectures on his favorite subject, German
Nationality. Among the great number of persons from all classes who
heard him some were offended by his blunt speech, and various extreme,
unguarded, and misunderstood statements gave a handle to opponents who
accused him of revolutionary principles. He was eccentric and independent
always, and with his followers on the Turnplatz took exception to much
that was customary in dress, speech, and manners. Disquieting rumors were
in circulation regarding his conduct on the Rügen and Breslau excursions,
and it was suggested that the large gatherings at the anniversary
celebrations of the Battle of Leipsic were dangerous to public order
and afforded a chance for demagogues. In the summer of 1817 Jahn was
unfavorably criticized by two writers in the Berlin press, who attributed
to his work in the Hasenheide injurious physical, mental, and moral
effects; and the discussion did not cease when reports from the directors
of three higher schools and a special investigation made by Medical
Councilor Dr. von Könen, at the request of Minister von Schuckmann, had
failed to sustain the objections raised, and on the contrary brought
complete vindication.
Under the auspices of the Burschenschaften hundreds of students from
many German universities met in Eisenach October 18, 1817, to celebrate
the anniversary of the Battle of Leipsic and the tercentenary of the
Protestant Reformation. There were appropriate exercises in the town and
in the Hall of the Minnesingers at the Wartburg Castle, and when evening
came all gathered about a huge bonfire for more speeches and singing.
Suddenly Massmann appeared with friends carrying bundles of waste-paper
done up and labeled to represent books. After recalling Luther’s burning
of the papal bull he read off from a prepared list the titles of certain
reactionary writings hostile to German unity, constitutional government,
and free institutions; and as each item was reached the corresponding
bundle was pitchforked into the fire with suitable comments. Common
opinion credited Jahn with being the real originator of this student
prank. It naturally aroused the anger of the authors concerned, among
whom Kotzebue and Kamptz deserve mention here since their names appear
again in the next paragraph. Metternich saw in the performance the
indication of a widespread conspiracy.[49]
A conference of monarchs at Aix-la-Chapelle in the fall of 1818 did
much to confirm Frederick-William III of Prussia in his suspicions
of intrigue. Metternich also laid before Prince Wittgenstein, the
Prussian Minister of State, a memorial in which he declared that the
_Burschenschaften_ were nurseries of revolution and the _Turnplätze_
preparatory schools for university disorders; both must be suppressed,
for no palliative measures would suffice. A more forcible argument was
the assassination of the German dramatist Kotzebue by Karl Ludwig Sand at
Mannheim, on the 23d of March, 1819. Kotzebue was a paid spy of Russia
and a reactionary writer who had attacked with especial bitterness the
student unions and the turners. Sand was a turner, and had visited
Jahn and others in Berlin the year before; he was a member of the Jena
_Burschenschaft_, and had been present at the Wartburgfest. Without any
proof of the fact, it was assumed that he had carried out the decision of
an organization. On the night of July 13-14 Jahn was arrested and taken
to the fortress of Spandau, on suspicion of “secret and most treasonable
associations.” Meanwhile Kamptz had been made Prussian Minister of
Police and clothed with extraordinary powers, and a special commission
had been charged with the prosecution of demagogues. A little later a
conference of German ministers adopted the oppressive Carlsbad Decrees,
which were ratified by the Frankfort Diet September 20. These provided
for censorship of the press, police supervision of the universities, and
a central commission of seven to search out “the origin and ramification
of revolutionary conspiracies and demagogic associations.” The
_Burschenschaft_ was dissolved, and January 2, 1820, Frederick-William
III decreed that _Turnen_ should absolutely cease throughout Prussia.
Jahn was kept at Spandau for a few days, transferred to Küstrin July 17,
brought back to Berlin for trial early in October, and by an official
report of February 15, 1820, the chief charges against him were declared
null and void. A cabinet order of May 31 released him from arrest, but
stipulated that he should reside, until further notice, in the fortress
of Kolberg, on the Baltic, and placed him under the oversight of the
commanding officer there. The 1000 thalers which he had been receiving
from the state—800 as teacher of gymnastics and 200 from the Ministry of
War—was to be continued. After prolonged investigation the supreme court
at Breslau, by its decision of January 13, 1824, absolved him from all
suspicion of complicity in the murder of Kotzebue, but sentenced him to
two years additional confinement in a fortress on account of “repeated
irreverent and insolent utterances regarding existing conditions and
regulations in the state.” From this decision Jahn appealed, and sent in
his “self-defence” (_Selbstvertheidigung_, finished October 9, 1824) to
the supreme court at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, by which body he was entirely
acquitted March 15, 1825.
But a cabinet order of May 3 forbade his living in Berlin or within
a radius of ten miles from the capital, or in any city containing
a university or higher school for boys; and wherever he settled he
was to remain under police surveillance. The thousand-thaler pension
remained unchanged. Jahn selected for his home the Thuringian town of
Freyburg-on-the-Unstrut, about thirty miles west and south of Leipsic.
The accession of Frederick-William IV to the throne of Prussia in 1840
was followed by the final removal of all police restrictions, and brought
him also the long-expected decoration of the Iron Cross. By a cabinet
order of June 6, 1842, gymnastics was “formally recognized as a necessary
and indispensable part of male education and received into the circle
of means for popular education.” _Turnen_ began to revive with this,
but though Jahn followed its development with interest and received
hospitably the turners who visited his home, he took no active part in
the movement. In 1844 he attended the centennial exercises of his first
school, the _Gymnasium_ at Salzwedel. Four years later he was present as
a delegate in the German national assembly at Frankfort-on-the-Main, but
returned to his home bitterly disappointed. He died at Freyburg, after a
brief illness, October 15, 1852.[50]
Although Prussia’s example in suppressing public _Turnen_ was followed
by other German states, the procedure was by no means universal. Thus
the reaction did not directly affect the Kingdom of Württemberg, the
Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg and Oldenburg, the Duchy of Brunswick, and
the Free Cities of Hamburg and Lübeck; and it was not of long duration
in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Between 1820 and 1840 the old organizations
continued without interruption, therefore, in scattered cities, and new
societies of older boys or young men who met regularly for exercise were
formed in Hanover (1831), Frankfort-on-the-Main (1833), Plauen in Saxony
(1834), and Pforzheim in Baden (1835). Even in Berlin Ernst Eiselen
(1793-1846), Jahn’s faithful assistant, was allowed to open a private
indoor and outdoor gymnasium in 1828. The venture prospered, and he added
a gymnasium for girls in 1832, and four years later opened a branch
institution in another part of the city. The latter was transferred to
his helper Wilhelm Lübeck (1809-1879) in 1839. Both men trained many
teachers of gymnastics, and wrote valuable manuals,[51] bridging over in
this way the gap between the older and the newer _Turnen_.
With the accession of Frederick-William IV to the Prussian throne in
1840 the hopes of his people were kindled afresh, and during the next
decade all Germany was stirred by an agitation for reform which steadily
gathered force until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1848
brought it to a climax. One sign of this quickened national and political
life was a general revival of the Jahn gymnastics. The incorporation of
physical training in school programs led to the formation of separate
societies (_Männerturnvereine_) for adults, in which the bond of union
was at first merely an agreement to meet for exercise at certain fixed
hours; but this was soon followed by the adoption of by-laws, the
appointment of boards of directors, and the fixing of definite dues.
Partly as a result of excursions and exhibitions new societies sprang
up everywhere, until at the close of the decade they numbered nearly
three hundred. The desire for union which early showed itself was
met by holding district conventions (_Turntage_) and gatherings for
gymnastic exercises (_Turnfeste_). So we find turners from Frankfort,
Hanau, and Mainz coming together in Frankfort-on-the-Main September 5,
1841, for the first of several annual _Turnfeste_, and on the Feldberg
in 1844 inaugurating the important series of _Feldbergfeste_; and in
Saxony, where progress had been especially active and orderly, the
first _Turntag_ at Dresden, October 31, 1846, attended by delegates
from fifty-four societies. Periodicals devoted to the interests of the
turners also began to make their appearance—Karl Euler’s “Jahrbücher
der deutschen Turnkunst” (1843 and 1844) and “Turn-Zeitung” (1846
and 1847),[52] “Der Turner” (1846-52),[53] the “Mainzer Turnzeitung”
(1846),[54] and Ravenstein’s “Nachrichtsblatt für Deutschlands
Turnanstalten und Turngemeinden” (1846 and 1847).[55] But a second
period of reaction set in with the revolutionary movements of 1849, in
which many of the turners, the Saxon and South German ones especially,
took an active part. In carrying out their policy of repression the
various governments again disbanded or put under careful supervision
the gymnastic societies, and not only those directly concerned in
disturbances, but others which had been well-disposed and preferred to
keep _Turnen_ free from partisan politics. Of the three hundred societies
in existence in 1849 hardly a third survived the next ten years. A few,
however, continued vigorous and active, and this number included some of
the largest and best Turnvereine in Saxony and Württemberg. Here Theodor
Georgii started his “Turnblatt für und aus Schwaben” (1850-1853),[56]
followed by the “Esslinger Turnzeitung” (1854-1856),[57] and this in
turn was succeeded by the “Deutsche Turnzeitung” (since 1856),[58] the
present organ of the German Turnerschaft. In Dresden Moritz Kloss began
to publish the “Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst” (1855-1894).[59]
Toward the close of the fifties signs of life began to multiply. The
war of France and Sardinia with Austria (1859) and uncertainty as to
future relations between France and the German states helped to rouse the
slumbering societies and fill abandoned _Turnplätze_ once more. A summons
printed in the Deutsche Turnzeitung in March of 1860 and signed by
Theodor Georgii and Karl Kallenberg resulted in the first general German
convention and _Turnfest_, held at Coburg June 16-19 of that year—the
anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. More than a thousand adult
turners were present, representing one hundred and thirty-nine cities
and villages. Formal organization into a national body was impossible
as yet, but notwithstanding this a feeling of union was established and
a great impulse was given to further growth. The next year the fiftieth
anniversary of the opening of the Hasenheide _Turnplatz_ was celebrated
by a second convention and _Turnfest_ at Berlin, August 10-12. The
attendance rose to 2812 adult turners, 1659 of them from outside the
capital. Two hundred and sixty-two places were represented. This time a
standing “Committee of the German _Turnvereine_,” composed of 15 members,
was appointed to look after matters of general interest. The committee,
at its meeting in Gotha the following December, organized by electing
Theodor Georgii chairman and Dr. Ferdinand Goetz business manager; it
decided that _Turnvereine_ as such must hold themselves unconditionally
aloof from all political partisanship, took action which put a damper on
those who wished to have military exercises introduced in all societies,
and charged Georg Hirth with an investigation which led to the first
“Statistical Annual of German Turnvereine” (Leipsic, 1863).[60] According
to this there were on July 1, 1862, in 1153 towns and cities, 1284
societies, not less than 1050 of them organized since 1860. In 1863,
the semi-centennial of the Battle of Leipsic, more than 20,000 turners
gathered in that city for the third convention and _Turnfest_. Another
statistical annual issued two years later[61] showed an increase of 650
societies and more than 33,000 members over the numbers recorded in the
first volume (July 1, 1862 to November 1, 1864).
Enthusiasm had reached such a pitch that a reaction was inevitable, and
the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, by diverting attention and draining
the resources of the people, interfered with further expansion and
threatened to paralyze the existing _Turnvereine_. In the five years
between November 1, 1864, and August 1, 1869, there had been a falling
off of nearly 400 societies and 40,000 members, according to the
statistical annual of 1871.[62] A Turnfest planned for July 22-24, 1866,
in Nuremberg, had to be given up; but two years later 168 delegates
assembled for the fourth general convention in Weimar (July 20 and
21, 1868), and there formally organized the _Deutsche Turnerschaft_, a
firm union of all German gymnastic societies, including the Austrian
Germans. A constitution was adopted, the old committee was increased to
22 members, and Georgii and Goetz were continued in their positions as
chairman and business manager. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71
15,000 turners followed the colors to the field and many gymnasia were
converted into hospitals. But in spite of this temporary check the war
brought what Jahn and his followers had looked forward to for sixty years
and more—the unification of Germany. Experiences of march, battlefield,
and camp had driven home to the minds of all the need and value of
physical efficiency, as nothing else could do it; and after the formation
of the new Empire popular _Turnen_ began, at first slowly and then
more rapidly, to flourish as never before, and this time with the full
approval of the state.
The following table shows the development that has taken place since
the first statistical investigation was made, in 1862. The second
column gives the number of German towns and cities in which there were
popular gymnastic societies (_Turnvereine_), and the third column the
total number of these societies irrespective of membership in the
_Turnerschaft_. “Active” turners are those who actually take part in the
gymnastic exercises.
----------------+-------+------------+----------------------------------
| | |Belonging to Deutsche Turnerschaft
| | | (Since 1869.)
Date. |Places.|Turnvereine.+----------+-----------+-----------
| | |Societies.| Members. | Active
| | | | | Turners.
----------------+-------+------------+----------+-----------+-----------
1862, July 1 | 1153 | 1279 | | 134,507 | 96,272
1864, November 1| 1769 | 1934 | | 167,942 | 105,676
1869, August 1 | 1415 | 1546 | | 128,491 | 80,327
1876, November 1| 1532 | 1788 | 1547 | 156,590 | 69,872
1880, January 1 | 1741 | 2226 | 1971 | 170,315 | 86,159
1885, January 1 | 2413 | 3208 | 2878 | 267,854 | 144,134
1890, January 1 | 3340 | 4434 | 3992 | 388,513 | 195,375
1895, January 1 | 4536 | 6061 | 5312 | 529,925 | 270,528
1900, January 1 | 5509 | 7238 | 6483 | 647,548 | 310,374
1905, January 1 | 6063 | | 7264 | 766,347 | 357,849
| | | [63] | [63] | [63]
1910, January 1 | 7621 | | 9101 | 946,115 | 435,511
1915, January 1 | 9851 | | 11,769 |1,072,274 |
1920, January 1 | 8518 | | 10,010 |1,008,375 |
----------------+-------+------------+----------+-----------+-----------
General German _Turnfeste_ and conventions (_Turntage_) of the Deutsche
Turnerschaft (since 1868) have been held as follows:
-----+----------------------------+-------------------------------
| Turnfeste. | Turntage.
No. +---------+------------------+--------------+----------------
| Place. | Date. | Place. | Date.
-----+---------+------------------+--------------+----------------
I Coburg |1860, June 17-18 |Coburg |1860, June
II Berlin |1861, August 10-12|Berlin |1861, August
III Leipsic |1863, August 2-5 |Leipsic |1863, August
IV Bonn |1872, August 3-6 |Weimar |1868, July 20-21
V Frankfurt|1880, July 25-28 |Bonn |1872, August 3
VI Dresden |1885, July 19-21 |Dresden |1875, July 25-26
VII Munich |1889, July 28-31 |Berlin |1879, July 27-28
VIII Breslau |1894, July 22-24 |Eisenach |1883, July 24-25
IX Hamburg |1898, July 23-27 |Coburg |1887, July 19-20
X Nuremberg|1903, July 18-22 |Hannover |1891, July 21-22
XI Frankfurt|1908, July 18-22 |Esslingen |1895, July 22-23
XII Leipsic |1913, July 12-15 |Naumburg a. S.|1899, July 30-31
XIII | |Berlin |1904, April 4-5
XIV | |Worms |1907, July 28-29
XV | |Dresden |1911, July 27-28
XVI | |Erfurt |1919, Oct. 15-16
---------------+------------------+--------------+----------------
The Bonn _Turnfest_ fell in the period of decline, and one planned for
Breslau in 1878 was given up because disturbed political conditions
threatened its success; but beginning at Frankfort-on-the-Main two years
later these great national gatherings have brought together not less
than 10,000 turners, and at Hamburg and Nuremberg between 25,000 and
30,000 were present. Successive conventions have left the outward form
of the German Turnerschaft almost unchanged, although various details
have been modified. The Esslingen _Turntag_ defined its object to be “the
promotion of German gymnastics as a means to physical and moral vigor,
and the fostering of patriotic sentiment and a spirit of racial unity
among Germans.” In 1887 Georgii gave up his position as chairman of the
committee and was succeeded by Alfred Maul, of Karlsruhe, who resigned in
1894. The next year Dr. Ferdinand Goetz was appointed to that office, and
his place as business manager was given to Dr. Hugo Rühl, of Stettin. Dr.
Goetz died October 13, 1915. Dr. Theodor Toeplitz then became chairman,
but died June 2, 1919, and the position passed to Dr. Oskar Berger, of
Aschersleben.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.—District Display at the 11th German _Turnfest_,
Frankfurt, 1908.]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.—A Competitor on the Horizontal Bar at the 11th
German _Turnfest_, Frankfurt, 1908.]
[Illustration: FIG. 20.—Mass Exercises (17,000), at the 12th German
_Turnfest_, Leipsic, 1913.]
Turnvater Jahn is still held in loyal and grateful remembrance, as the
apostle of German unity and the man who gave to the German people a love
for gymnastics. The one hundredth anniversary of his birth (1878) and
the fiftieth anniversary of his death (1902) were celebrated throughout
the entire _Turnerschaft_. That body has erected monuments in his honor
at the Berlin _Turnplatz_, and in Lanz, Freyburg, and other places; has
built a memorial gymnasium (_Turnhalle_) over his grave in Freyburg; and
has brought together there, in the “Jahn Museum,” numerous relics of
the man and his work. In 1903 a separate building was provided for this
collection.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Dr. Carl Euler’s “Encyklopädisches Handbuch des gesamten Turnwesens”
and “Geschichte des Turnunterrichts,” and files of the _Neue Jahrbücher
für die Turnkunst_, _Deutsche Turnzeitung_, and _Monatsschrift für das
Turnwesen_ (see page 82).
Das gesammte Turnwesen. Ein Lesebuch für deutsche Turner. 133
abgeschlossene Muster-Darstellungen von den vorzüglichsten älteren und
neueren Turnschriftstellern. Herausgegeben von Georg Hirth. Mit den
Bildnissen von GutsMuths, Vieth, Jahn, Eiselen, Harnisch, Passow, Spiess,
Martens. Leipzig, Ernst Keil, 1865.
Das Gesamte Turnwesen. Ein Lesebuch für deutsche Turner. In erster
Auflage herausgegeben von Georg Hirth. Aufsätze turnerischen Inhaltes
von älteren und neueren Schriftstellern. Zweite erweiterte Auflage in 4
Abteilungen. Besorgt von Dr. F. Rudolf Gasch. Hof, Rud. Lion, 1893. Three
volumes. A “Geschichtliche Einleitung (Ergänzungsband)” was added in 1895.
Moritz Zettler, “Bausteine zur Geschichte des deutschen Turnens.” In
_Deutsche Turnzeitung_ 1885-1900. A long series of articles, based on the
study of original documents.
Handbuch der Deutschen Turnerschaft. Im Auftrage des Ausschusses
derselben herausgegeben von Dr. med. Ferdinand Goetz, Geschäftsführer
des Ausschusses der Deutschen Turnerschaft. Leipzig-Lindenau, Verlag
des Ausschusses der Deutschen Turnerschaft, 1879. The second to sixth
editions of the Handbuch were published in Hof, by Rud. Lion, in 1884,
1888, 1892, 1896, and 1899; and the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth in
Leipzig, by Paul Eberhardt, in 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920. The editor,
since 1899, has been Dr. Hugo Rühl.
Jahrbuch der Turnkunst: Jahrbuch der Deutschen Turnerschaft. Edited
by Dr. Rudolf Gasch, and published in Leipzig-Zwickau by Emil Stock,
annually since 1907. The volumes are illustrated and range from eighty or
a hundred up to nearly three hundred pages.
FOOTNOTES:
[42] Über die Beförderung des Patriotismus im Preussischen Reiche. Allen
Preussen gewidmet von O. C. C. Höpffner. Halle, 1800.
[43] In his own opposition to everything foreign Jahn had applied the
name _Turnen_ to his exercises, believing that it was a term of German
origin, and from this root he built up many new compounds—_Turner_
(gymnast), _Turnkunst_ (the gymnastic art), _Turnplatz_ (the grounds
where the exercises were practised), _Turntag_ (gathering of gymnasts),
etc.
[44] Lehrbuch der von Friedrich Ludwig Jahn unter dem Namen der Turnkunst
wiedererweckten Gymnastik. Mit Kupfertafeln, darstellend die Geräthe,
Gerüste und Uebungen auf dem Turnplatz in der Hasenheide bei Berlin. Zur
allgemeinern Verbreitung jugendlicher Leibesübungen herausgegeben von
(Johann Jakob Wilhelm) Bornemann. Berlin, W. Dieterici, 1814. See also
his “Der Turnplatz in der Hasenheide,” published in 1812.
[45] Die Deutsche Turnkunst zur Einrichtung der Turnplätze dargestellt
von Friedrich Ludwig Jahn und Ernst Eiselen. Mit zwei Kupferplatten.
Berlin, auf Kosten der Herausgeber, 1816. The volume, without the plates,
has been issued in _Reclams Universal-Bibliothek_ (Leipzig, Philipp
Reclam jun.), with an introduction by Hugo Rühl dated 1905.
[46] Dr. Christian Eduard Leopold Dürre. Aufzeichnungen, Tagebücher und
Briefe aus einem deutschen Turner- und Lehrerleben. Herausgegeben von Dr.
Ernst Friedrich Dürre. Leipzig, Eduard Strauch, 1881.
[47] Des Berliner Turners Franz Lieber’s “Die Fahrt nach Schlesien im
Jahre 1818, um vom Tie vorzulesen beschrieben.” Eine Turn-Reliquie aus
dem Jahre 1818 (with introduction and notes by Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff).
In _Deutsche Turnzeitung_ 1895: 637-642, 686-690.
[48] See Eduard Dürre’s “Rückblicke und Träume eines alten Turners,” in
_Deutsche Turnzeitung_ 1872: 103-107, 127-129, 136 and 137.
[49] Moritz Zedtler (Zettler), “Das Wartburgfest am 18. October 1817,”
in _Deutsche Turnzeitung_ 1877: 309-312, 331-333, 343-346, 351 and 352.
See also his “Ein geckenhafter Gegner des Turnens,” in 1880: 9-11, 25-28,
41-45. Other articles published in the _Deutsche Turnzeitung_ are Dr.
Th. Bach’s “Aus Metternich’s nachgelassenen Schriften” (1881: 409-411,
422-424, 429 and 430), Karl Wassmannsdorff’s “Das burschenschaftliche
Schauturnen bei Gelegenheit des Wartburgfestes am 18. Oct. 1817”
(1882: 461), and Hans Brendicke’s “Die Wartburgfeier der Deutschen
Burschenschaft und ihre ältere Literatur” (1887: 624 and 625).
[50] Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s Leben. Nebst Mittheilungen aus seinem
literarischen Nachlasse. Von Dr. Heinrich Pröhle. Berlin, Franz Duncker,
1855. A second edition, unchanged, was published in 1872.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, Sein Leben und Wirken. Von Dr. Carl Euler,
Professor, Unterrichts-Dirigent der K. Turnlehrer-Bildungsanstalt in
Berlin. Stuttgart, Carl Krabbe, 1881.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahns Werke. Neu herausgegeben, mit einer Einleitung und
mit erklärenden Anmerkungen versehen von Dr. Carl Euler. Hof, G. A. Grau
& Cie. (Rud. Lion), 1884-1887. Three volumes.
[51] Turntafeln. Das ist: Sämmtliche Turn-Uebungen auf einzelnen Blättern
zur Richtschnur bei der Turnschule und zur Erinnerung des Gelernten
für alle Turner herausgegeben von Ernst Wilh. Bernh. Eiselen. Berlin,
gedruckt und verlegt bei G. Reimer, 1837. The 46 printed pages contain
numbered lists of exercises.
Über Anlegung von Turnplätzen und Leitung von Turnübungen. Als Vorläufer
einer neuen Auflage der _Deutschen Turnkunst_ herausgegeben von E. W. B.
Eiselen. Berlin, G. Reimer, 1844.
Abbildungen von Turn-Uebungen gezeichnet von H. Robolsky und A. Töppe.
Durchgesehen, vervollständigt und geordnet herausgegeben von E. W. B.
Eiselen. Berlin, G. Reimer, 1845. A fifth edition, prepared by Karl
Wassmannsdorff, was published in 1889.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s Deutsche Turnkunst. Zum zweiten Male und sehr
vermehrt herausgegeben. (Erste Hälfte des Werkes). Berlin, G. Reimer,
1847. The preface is signed “Die vereinten Herausgeber” (Eiselen,
Massmann, Feddern, Ballot, Böttcher, and Wassmannsdorff).
Lehr- und Handbuch der deutschen Turnkunst, von W. Lübeck, Turn- und
Fechtlehrer am Königl. Kadetten-Hause zu Berlin und Vorsteher einer
Turnanstalt. Frankfurt a. O., Gustav Harnecker und Comp., 1843. A second
“ganz umgearbeitete, vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage” was published in
1860.
[52] Jahrbücher der deutschen Turnkunst. Herausgegeben von Karl Euler,
Turn- und Fechtlehrer in Königsberg in Preussen, Mitglied der deutschen
Gesellschaft zu Berlin. Erstes Heft. Danzig, S. Anhuth, 1843.
Jahrbücher der deutschen Turnkunst. Herausgegeben von Karl Euler, Turn-
und Fechtlehrer in Köln a. Rh., Mitglied der deutschen Gesellschaft zu
Berlin. Zweites Heft. Solingen, Albert Pfeiffer, 1844.
Turn-Zeitung, von K. Euler und Dr. Lamey. Karlsruhe, 1846.
Turn-Zeitung, von K. Euler und Prof. Schach. Karlsruhe, 1847.
[53] Der Turner. Zeitschrift gegen geistige und leibliche Verkrüppelung.
Dresden, H. M. Gottschalk, 1846-1852. Seven volumes.
[54] Mainzer Turn-Zeitung, herausgegeben von Eduard Müller. Mainz, 1846.
[55] Nachrichtsblatt für Deutschlands Turnanstalten und Turngemeinden.
Frankfurt a. M., 1846 and 1847. Two volumes.
[56] Turnblatt für und aus Schwaben. Von Theodor Georgii. Esslingen, four
volumes, 1850-1853.
[57] Turnzeitung. Zeitschrift für Turn- und Feuerlöschwesen. Von Theodor
Georgii. Esslingen, C. Weichardt. Three volumes, 1854-1856.
[58] Deutsche Turn-Zeitung. Leipzig, since 1856. The publishers have been
Ernst Keil (1856-1874), Eduard Strauch (1875-1899), and Paul Eberhardt
(since 1900).
[59] Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst (volumes 1-25). In 1880 the name
was changed to “Jahrbücher der deutschen Turnkunst” (volumes 26-40).
Published annually 1855-1881 in Dresden (volumes 1-27) and 1882-1894
in Leipzig (volumes 28-40). There were six numbers a year 1855-1881,
and twelve numbers 1882-1894. Beginning with volume 28 Woldemar Bier
succeeded Kloss as editor.
[60] Statistisches Jahrbuch der Turnvereine Deutschlands. Im Auftrage
des Ausschusses der Deutschen Turnvereine herausgegeben von Georg Hirth.
Leipzig, Ernst Keil, 1863.
[61] Zweites statistisches Jahrbuch der Turnvereine Deutschlands. Im
Auftrage des Ausschusses der Deutschen Turnvereine herausgegeben von
Georg Hirth. Leipzig, Ernst Keil, 1865.
[62] Drittes statistisches Jahrbuch der Deutschen Turnerschaft. Im
Auftrage des Ausschusses der Deutschen Turnerschaft herausgegeben von Dr.
Ferd. Goetz und A. F. Böhme. Leipzig, Ernst Keil, 1871.
[63] District (_Kreis_) XV (German Austria), which on January 1,
1904, contained 525 societies with 61,166 members and 25,316 active
turners, withdrew from the Deutsche Turnerschaft on September 25,
1904, and formed an independent association under the name “Turnkreis
Deutsch-Oesterreich.” It is therefore not included in the figures for
1905 and later.
CHAPTER XII.
ADOLF SPIESS, THE FATHER OF GERMAN SCHOOL GYMNASTICS.
By the Prussian cabinet order of June 6, 1842, already referred to (page
101), physical training was “formally recognized as a necessary and
indispensable part of male education.” Minister Eichhorn, who was charged
with putting this decree into effect, received that same summer a visitor
from Switzerland who for eight years had been teaching gymnastics to boys
and girls of all ages, as a regular branch of their school work, and
who therefore seemed to have solved successfully, on a small scale, the
problem of incorporating the subject into the school plan. He was asked
by the Minister to submit in writing a statement of the measures which in
his judgment would accomplish the same result in the Prussian state, and
the reply to this request, dated at Burgdorf on the 18th of the following
October, was contained in some “Thoughts on the method to be followed
in making gymnastics an integral element in popular education.”[64]
The steps therein advocated have since been taken, in part at least,
by almost every German state, and the author, Adolf Spiess, now enjoys
the undisputed title of “founder of school gymnastics in Germany and of
gymnastics for girls in particular.”
Spiess was a native of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and born February 3,
1810, in Lauterbach, a small town on the northeastern slope of the
Vogelsberg. His father, Johann Balthasar Spiess (1782-1841), himself the
son of a Thuringian farmer and master smith, had first prepared himself
for a position as teacher in the elementary schools, but after some
years of professional experience at Frankfort-on-the-Main decided upon
further study, and so completed a course in theology at the University
of Giessen, and immediately after passing his examination, in 1807,
became teacher and sub-rector at the Latin school in Lauterbach. Thither
he soon brought as bride Luise Werner, of Saarbrücken, first met in
Frankfurt, and Adolf was the oldest of their five children. In 1811 the
father accepted a pastoral position in the Evangelical Lutheran church
at Offenbach, across the Main from Frankfurt, and in addition to his
clerical duties opened a private school which prepared for the upper
classes of the _Gymnasium_ (higher classical school) or for a mercantile
career. Ten years before this he had observed the methods in use at
Schnepfenthal, and made the acquaintance of GutsMuths and other teachers
there, renewed by frequent later visits. It was therefore natural that
one feature of the daily program should be gymnastics, as described
and practised by GutsMuths—walking the balance beam, jumping, running,
climbing, throwing, skating, swimming, etc., and games of all sorts.
Every week throughout the year there were also excursions with teachers,
and dancing lessons were given in the winter months.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.—Adolf Spiess (1810-1858).]
Adolf entered this school at the age of six or less. A few years later,
in 1819, Fritz Hessemer, just back from the University of Giessen, made
the pupils acquainted with the new Jahn gymnastics, and parallel bars
and a horizontal bar were now added to the equipment. In 1824 some
of the boys organized a little society for the purpose of practising
gymnastics regularly outside of school hours. They met in the private
garden _Turnplatz_ of Hofrath A. André, using Jahn’s “Deutsche Turnkunst”
as a guide and inspiration, and soon afterwards entered into friendly
relations with other turners in Hanau, a few miles to the east, with whom
joint excursions on foot to the Taunus Range were made in 1826 and the
following year.
In the spring or summer of 1828 Spiess went to the University of Giessen
to pursue the study of theology. He at once joined the _Burschenschaft_,
which had been organized ten years previously and now concealed itself
under the name _Waffenverbindung_, and his active habits at once took the
form of assiduous practice in fencing, the favorite student exercise.[65]
Before the end of the year he had become proficient in the art. There
were also many excursions with friends to neighboring peaks and castles,
and an acquaintance has borne witness to the skill he displayed in all
forms of physical activity—riding, swimming, skating, dancing, and
gymnastics. Music and drawing, too, for which he possessed both taste and
talent, absorbed a portion of his leisure. With other students he left
Giessen at Easter of 1829 and journeyed on foot across the Vogelsberg
to Schnepfenthal, where as a schoolboy he had met GutsMuths nine years
before, and then on to Halle, there to continue his theological studies
in the university. An excursion through the Harz Mountains later in the
same season was made the occasion of a visit to Jahn. In Halle there
were opportunities for renewed practice on the horizontal bar, the
parallel bars, and the horse, and fencing, too, was not neglected; but
the greatest interest was excited by certain outdoor games. For these
they used to gather twice a week, and often to the number of a hundred or
more, in Passendorf, singing and playing together until nightfall. About
Christmas time of the same year Spiess went up to Berlin for some months.
This gave an opportunity to frequent Eiselen’s private gymnasium, and
though that master himself was confined to his home by illness the young
student saw and learned many new exercises from Philipp Feddern, his
assistant.
For a year or more following the spring of 1830 Spiess was again in
Giessen, and active in the life of its Burschenschaft.[66] He now began
to give regular instruction in gymnastics, first to a dozen boys on a
garden Turnplatz, and then, as interest grew, to nearly 150 in one of
the city parks; and already he was modifying the traditional method
by gathering the entire number into one band at the commencement of
each period for various simple exercises performed in rhythm as they
stood or marched, or for running and jumping under the leadership of
a single teacher. But the Hessian authorities were on the lookout for
agitation looking toward a united Germany, and had already given notice
to the University that no student who was affiliated with forbidden
organizations, like the _Burschenschaft_, would be admitted to the
regular examinations. The July revolution in France, however, exerted
a stimulating influence. Early in 1831 the local association allied
itself with the general German _Burschenschaft_, and members were openly
displaying signs of their sympathy with the radical element. Under such
circumstances any revival of the old _Turnen_ was certain to be viewed
with apprehension. In the spring of 1831 the former prohibition was
renewed, and there could be no more exercising by groups in public. After
some months of private study at Sprendlingen, his father’s new parish,
Spiess returned to Giessen and successfully passed his examinations in
theology, April 2, 1832. He then became private tutor in the family of
the Hessian Count Solms-Rödelheim, at Assenheim.
Before taking this position, or on one of his visits home, he received
a foretaste of what awaited him if he remained in his native state. A
friendly magistrate informed his father one evening that if the young man
was found in the house on the following morning he would be subject to
arrest. Spiess therefore left at once, and reached Assenheim in safety.
The next year (1833) a newspaper notice brought word to Sprendlingen that
the city of Burgdorf, in Switzerland, was in search of someone who could
take charge of physical training in its elementary school. The clergyman,
recognizing that a sojourn in a neutral country was the only safe course
for his son, in view of existing political conditions, at once wrote
to propose Adolf for the place. Word came in August that he had been
appointed teacher of gymnastics, singing, writing, and drawing.[67] On
October 5 he left home with his youngest brother, Hermann, and traveling
by way of Basel reached Burgdorf on the 21st, ready to begin work in the
alien state which was to be his fosterland for fifteen busy and fruitful
years (1833-1848).
The city authorities had erected a new, attractive, and roomy building
for the school, and now placed at its head Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852),
already widely known for his book “The Education of Man” (1826), and
Heinrich Langethal (1792-1879) and Wilhelm Middendorf (1793-1853), who
had been associated with Froebel for fourteen years in his school in
the Thuringian village of Keilhau and after the few years in Burgdorf
were again to be his helpers when the first kindergarten was opened at
Blankenburg, another Thuringian town. All three had been members of
Lützow’s Free Corps during the War of Liberation, and through residence
in Berlin had come under the influence of Jahn and his work on the
Hasenheide Turnplatz. Spiess found these colleagues ready to coöperate
with him at every step, and all worked together in perfect harmony to
give the broadest possible training to the children under their care.
The open-air gymnasium, originally laid out after the Jahn plan in
1824, and beautifully situated in a grove near the left bank of the
Emme, overlooked to the east by wooded sandstone cliffs beyond the
stream and on the west by an ancient castle, was now doubled in size and
entirely refitted in accordance with the wishes of the new teacher. In
the castle itself, where Pestalozzi had conducted his school for five
years (1799-1804) and written “How Gertrude Teaches Her Children” (1801),
a hall was equipped for winter use. In the spring of 1834 the boys of
the school, including even the youngest, began to receive systematic
instruction in gymnastics for two successive hours on three afternoons of
each week, and before long the interest of the girls, also, was awakened
and special classes were formed and suitable exercises devised to meet
their needs. There were frequent excursions on foot into the surrounding
country, and once a year, in the autumn, an exhibition or _Turnfest_ was
held. The new discipline, which reached pupils of both sexes and all
ages, was regarded as an essential part of their school training.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.—The original Spiess _Turnplatz_ at Burgdorf, in
the grove between the Emme and the Castle.]
It was not long before the attention of the cantonal school authorities
was attracted to the Burgdorf experiment, and as a result Spiess received
in 1835 the added appointment of teacher of gymnastics in the normal
school (_Landschullehrer-Seminar_) at Münchenbuchsee, ten miles to the
southwest, where in addition to eighty children in the model school he
found about a hundred pupils. He also undertook a similar task at various
other schools in the neighborhood, among them one for girls in Kirchberg,
and for his own pleasure and further training joined a small gymnastic
society of adults (_Männerturnverein_) in Burgdorf, visited the Turners
in Bern and Hofwyl, and attended the annual Swiss _Turnfeste_ held in
Bern (1839), Basel (1841), and Zurich (1842).
Experience with all grades of pupils had proved to Spiess that the
material and methods of Jahn’s “Deutsche Turnkunst” were not sufficient
for his needs. Little by little he began therefore to develop and
test new groups of exercises, and first of all what he called “Free
Exercises,” or those which require either no apparatus at all, or only
such as can be carried in the hands. They were intended to secure ready
control and graceful carriage of the body under ordinary conditions,
while the pupil was standing or walking on the usual supporting surface,
and differed in this particular from the forms commonly practised on the
old Turnplatz. The attempt to instruct large numbers of pupils at once in
these free exercises led to the elaboration of another group, the class
exercises in marching (_Ordnungsübungen_), by means of which the entire
mass was made to move as one individual, and in this way discipline and
order were improved, since each pupil learned to handle himself as part
of the whole, and any desired arrangement of the units could be promptly
secured. The next step was a review of all the gymnastic material in the
effort to devise a more satisfactory classification than the one adopted
in the books of GutsMuths, the “Deutsche Turnkunst,” and Eiselen’s
“Turntafeln” (1837). The result of this study was the publication in 1840
of the first part (Free Exercises) of his “System of Gymnastics” (_Lehre
der Turnkunst_),[68] followed by a second (Hanging Exercises) in 1842,
and a third (_Stemmübungen_ or supporting exercises, including balancing
and vaulting) in 1843.
In the summer of 1842 Spiess returned to Germany, drawn by the signs of
approaching gymnastic revival in Prussia and the desire to discuss his
own views with other men of like interests. He found Massmann,[69] at
Munich, too firmly wedded to the _Turnen_ of student days to receive
with any sympathy the proposed innovations; but Jahn, whose guest he was
for two days in Freyburg, and Eiselen, whom he saw at a watering-place
near Berlin, were more cordial in their attitude. The visit to Minister
Eichhorn (August 10), and the formal statement of his ideas regarding the
essential features of a state system of physical training for the schools
which followed it, have been mentioned already in the opening paragraph.
Two years before Spiess had married a former pupil, Marie Buri, and
the need of finding a larger and more remunerative field of usefulness
no doubt had much to do with the journey to Berlin; but the summons of
Massmann to the Prussian capital in 1843 put an end to all hopes in that
direction.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.—The Basel _Turnplatz_, from a plate in the
_Turnbuch_ of Spiess (1847).]
Attempts to secure a footing in Darmstadt and in Basel met at first with
no better success; but afterwards he received from the latter city a
call to the position of teacher of gymnastics and history in two higher
schools for boys—the _Gymnasium_ and the _Realschule_—and at the orphan
asylum, entering upon these duties in May of 1844. The following March he
was relieved of the work in history in order that he might have time for
instruction in gymnastics at the public girls’ school (_Töchterschule_),
and preparations were also made for progressive improvement in physical
training at all the city schools. Free at last to devote all his thought
to the one subject, he finished in 1846 the fourth and final part (Class
Exercises in Marching, _Gemein-_ or _Ordnungsübungen_) of his “System of
Gymnastics,” and the next year was able to publish the first volume of
a practical manual for teachers (_Turnbuch für Schulen_),[70] containing
graded series of exercises suitable for boys and girls between the ages
of six and ten. The second volume, covering the ages from ten to sixteen,
was completed in 1851, after he had left Basel and returned to his native
land.
In May of 1848 Spiess accepted an offer from Minister von Gagern of
Hesse, and moved to Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy, to
undertake the task of introducing gymnastics into the schools of that
state, beginning with the higher schools and the common schools of such
communities as were prepared to take the step at once. He was also
to train the requisite teaching force, and afterwards to superintend
their work. The salary of the new “_Oberstudien-Assessor_” was fixed
at two thousand gulden. Lessons were immediately begun with classes in
two secondary schools for boys (the _Gymnasium_ and the _Realschule_)
and in the higher school for girls (_Mädchen-_ or _Töchterschule_),
and in a large garden lying near the center of the city the hall of a
former public house was converted into a gymnasium by setting up along
one side rows of vertical poles and horizontal bars and ladders, and
adding to these a giant stride, parallel bars, bucks, jump stands and
jumping ropes, stilts, and poles for use in vaulting. A new gymnasium or
_Turnhaus_, surrounded by a double Turnplatz and containing a hall one
hundred by sixty feet which could be changed into two rooms by means of a
movable partition, was opened for use June 14, 1852, with classes of boys
and girls from various schools. It was the first building of the kind in
Germany. Public exhibitions the next year and again in 1855 acquainted
parents, teachers, the grand ducal family, and the state and city
authorities with the nature of his work, and increased their interest in
it.
A four weeks’ normal course was given in February of 1849 to about
thirty teachers in elementary and higher schools, most of them from
Darmstadt, but one from Dresden and ten from Mainz, Offenbach, Worms,
and other Hessian towns. Instruction was chiefly by means of model
classes, conducted by Spiess in their presence, and after observing these
the teachers themselves were given an opportunity to practice the same
exercises. No other formal courses were given in Hesse, but in response
to an invitation he took charge of a similar one in Oldenburg, capital of
the Grand Duchy of the same name, in the fall of 1851. He also visited
many places in Hesse in the interest of physical training, and teachers
from all parts of the state came to Darmstadt from time to time during
the next few years to become familiar with his method. To all these he
gladly rendered whatever assistance they desired. A list of foreign
visitors during the period 1852-1854 has been preserved, and on it are
found the names of educators from Sweden[71], Belgium (1), Switzerland
(3), Austria (4), Prussia (6), Saxony (2), Württemberg (2), Baden (5),
Oldenburg (4), Frankfort-on-the-Main (8), and others from the smaller
German states. More than half of the number remained long enough to
receive practical instruction under Spiess, and to this group belong
Nyblæus, Kawerau and Kluge from the Central Institute (Royal Normal
School of Gymnastics) in Berlin, and Moritz Kloss, Director of the Normal
School of Gymnastics in Dresden. Another list covering the same period
shows that the Spiess method had been, or was about to be, adopted in
more than thirty-five schools in ten cities outside of Hesse, including
Berlin, Neurippen, Breslau, Frankfort, Dresden, Oldenburg, Vienna, and
Bern, besides Basel and Burgdorf.
Failing health compelled Spiess to interrupt, in the summer of 1855,
his hitherto unceasing activity. Tuberculosis had developed in the lung
wounded during his student days, and attempts to stop its progress by
residence in the Taunus and for two years at Vevey, on Lake Geneva,
proved unavailing. He returned to Darmstadt, visiting the _Turnhaus_
there for the last time in the fall of 1857, and died the following year,
on the 9th of May.
The chief service which he rendered to physical training in Germany, and
wherever German influence has been felt, was the attempt to make it a
part of the school life. The _Turnplatz_ was not to exist side by side
with the school, as a counterpoise to the exclusively mental training
of the latter, and in charge of some independent individual or society;
but the school should concern itself with the whole life of the young,
physical as well as mental, and gymnastics, recognized by the state as
a means of education, should be thoroughly incorporated and treated on
an equality with other branches of instruction and discipline, enjoying
the same rights and conforming to the same pedagogic principles. It
should therefore be made a required exercise, from which nothing except a
physician’s certificate of defect or illness would excuse any pupil. In
addition to the open-air gymnasium and the playground the community or
the state would have to provide and equip closed halls, in or near the
school building, so that instruction need not be interrupted by season
or weather. Elementary classes require an hour each day for gymnastics
and games. Less time might suffice for the older children, but the
lesson periods, in either case, should be included within the school
hours, or stand in immediate proximity to them. Periodical examinations
in gymnastics coming at the same time with general examinations, and
annually recurring exhibitions or _Turnfeste_ were to be held. Those who
teach the subject must be educators by profession, and closely identified
with the life of the school, receiving their training in this branch, as
in all others, at the normal schools and the universities, or in part at
institutions intended for that purpose exclusively—the normal schools
of gymnastics. In elementary schools instruction would be in the hands
of the grade- or class-teacher, and in higher schools there should be
special teachers of gymnastics, just as in the case of mathematics,
or languages, or science. The exercise-material must be arranged in
progressive steps suitable for the different school grades, and a series
of manuals prepared to fit the different conditions and needs in country
and city schools, in common schools, higher schools for boys, and schools
for girls.
In preparation for the process of sorting out and distributing to each
sex and age appropriate forms of exercise Spiess thought it necessary
first of all to collect, analyze, and classify the whole mass of possible
positions and movements of the body. This he endeavored to do in his
“System of Gymnastics” (_Die Lehre der Turnkunst_), but without seeking
at the same time to separate the useful from that which is unessential
or undesirable. The book is not intended, therefore, as a practical
guide for the teacher. That function was reserved for his second work,
the _Turnbuch für Schulen_, which has been a mine of instruction and
suggestion for authors of later manuals. Here he leads gradually from the
simplest exercises to the most difficult combinations, pointing out what
material is to be used for each sex and age, and explaining the method
to be pursued during the lesson hour. He devised new forms of apparatus
on which the whole class, or a considerable fraction of it, could work
at once under the teacher’s eye and at his command. The “Free Exercises”
and the “Class Exercises in Marching” (_Ordnungs-_ or _Gemeinübungen_)
which he elaborated were a fresh contribution to the stock of German
gymnastics, and with his simpler exercises on apparatus supplied material
for girls and younger boys. His musical gifts[72] rendered possible that
rhythmical arrangement of the free exercises which has continued to be
so conspicuous a feature in the teaching of his followers ever since, and
enabled him also to combine artistically certain marching or dancing or
other rhythmical movements into a fixed series which could be executed
by pupils to the accompaniment of some familiar song, or other musical
composition, as in the case of the Miller-_Reigen_ and the whole group of
_Lieder-_ and _Tanz-Reigen_.[73]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Euler’s “Encyklopädisches Handbuch des gesamten Turnwesens” and
“Geschichte des Turnunterrichts” (see p. 82), and the following articles
in the _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_ (NJT), _Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_
(DTZ), and _Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_ (MT):
Wassmannsdorff in NJT 1855: 330-334 and 1858: 81-90; and in DTZ 1859:
22-23 and 1863: 137-140.
Lion in DTZ 1858: 91-93, 98-99, and 102-103.
Marx in NJT 1885: 57-66.
Schmeel in DTZ 1910: 82-85, 97-101, 117-120, and 133-136.
Schmuck in DTZ 1911: 453-457.
Neuendorff in MT 1910: 122-128.
The Spiess centenary in 1910 was the occasion of three important
publications: (1) Adolf Spiess: Sein Leben und seine Wirksamkeit.
Dargestellt nach Vorträgen, gehalten bei Anlass der Spiess-Feier im
Basler Turnlehrerverein von J. Bollinger-Auer, Lehrer an der Höhern
Töchterschule in Basel (Basel, Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1910.) (2) Adolf
Spiess. Ein Gedenkblatt zu seinem hundertjährigen Geburtstage. Von
Prof. Dr. Karl Roller, Oberlehrer in Darmstadt (Berlin, Weidmannsche
Buchhandlung, 1910); and (3) Adolf Spiess, der Begründer des deutschen
Schulturnens. Ein Lebensbild von H. Schmeel, Stadtschulinspektor in Worms
(Giessen, Emil Roth, 1910).
FOOTNOTES:
[64] Gedanken über die Einordnung des Turnwesens in das Ganze der
Volkserziehung, von Adolf Spiess. Basel, Schweighauser’sche Buchhandlung,
1842. Reprinted on pages 15-41 of “Kleine Schriften über Turnen von
Adolf Spiess. Nebst Beiträgen zu seiner Lebensgeschichte. Gesammelt und
herausgegeben von J. C. Lion.” Hof, G. A. Grau & Cie. (Rud. Lion), 1872.
Second edition, 1877.
[65] See Herman Haupt’s “Adolf Spiess, der Begründer des deutschen
Schulturnens, als Giessener und Hallischer Burschenschafter 1828-1831,”
on pp. 306-330 of “Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte der
Burschenschaft und der deutschen Einheitsbewegung,” Band II, Heft 3-4
(Heidelberg, Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1911).
[66] To a sword-thrust in the lung received as second in a student duel
at this period (November, 1830) his family traced the disease which in
middle life brought his career to an untimely end.
[67] Upon his reappointment, for a term of six years, on October 13,
1835, instruction in geography and history was substituted for the
writing and drawing.
[68] Die Lehre der Turnkunst von Adolf Spiess. Basel, Schweighauser’sche
Buchhandlung. Four volumes, as follows:
I. Theil: Das Turnen in den Freiübungen für beide Geschlechter, 1840. II.
Theil: Das Turnen in den Hangübungen für beide Geschlechter, 1842; second
edition in 1871. III. Theil: Das Turnen in den Stemmübungen für beide
Geschlechter. Mit einem Anhang der Liegeübungen, 1843; second edition
in 1874. IV. Theil: Das Turnen in den Gemeinübungen, in einer Lehre von
den Ordnungsverhältnissen bei den Gliederungen einer Mehrzahl für beide
Geschlechter, 1846; second edition (Basel, Benno Schwabe) in 1885.
[69] Hans Ferdinand Massmann (1797-1874), pupil and friend of Jahn in
Berlin, member of the Jena _Burschenschaft_ and present at the Wartburg
episode in 1817, was summoned to Munich in 1827 to take charge of
gymnastics, first in the royal _Kadettenkorps_ and then in a public
outdoor _Turnanstalt_ which was to serve all the schools of the city. In
1841 he was called to Berlin to confer with Minister Eichhorn regarding
the revival of physical training in Prussia. Two years later he was
entrusted with the carrying out of the plan, but proved unequal to the
task, and retired from the position in 1851.
[70] Turnbuch für Schulen als Anleitung für den Turnunterricht durch
die Lehrer der Schulen, von Adolf Spiess. Basel, Schweighauser’sche
Buchhandlung. Two volumes, as follows: I. Theil: Die Uebungen für die
Altersstufe vom sechsten bis zehnten Jahre bei Knaben und Mädchen, 1847;
second, “vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage, besorgt von J. C. Lion,”
in 1880. II. Theil: Die Uebungen für die Altersstufe vom zehnten bis
sechszehnten Jahre bei Knaben und Mädchen 1851; second edition, as above
(Basel, Benno Schwabe), in 1889.
[71] Gustav Nyblæus, then teacher of gymnastics at the University of
Lund, but afterwards Director of the Central Institute (Royal Normal
School of Gymnastics) in Stockholm.
[72] The father of Spiess had begun to play the organ for church services
at the age of nine, and in his school at Offenbach paid particular
attention to instruction in singing. Adolf himself learned to play
the violin and the pianoforte, and his strong boyish voice developed
into a beautiful tenor. He was made an honorary member of the Swiss
_Musikverein_ in 1838, sang solo parts from the oratorios of Spohr
and Neuhaus in the presence of the composers at a musical festival in
Lucerne, and the tenor solos in Mendelssohn’s “St. Paul” at Zurich, and
took the title role in Handel’s “Samson” at the national musical festival
in Basel in the summer of 1840. It was at his suggestion that Max
Schneckenburger wrote “Die Wacht am Rhein” that same year, and when it
was read to a little company gathered in the Burgdorf “Stadthaus” Spiess
was the first to sing it, to an accompaniment which he improvised on the
pianoforte.
[73] Spiess committed to Karl Wassmannsdorff, his friend and associate
for two years in Basel, the preparation of his material on _Reigen_ for
publication. See “Reigen und Liederreigen für das Schulturnen aus dem
Nachlasse von Adolf Spiess. Mit einer Einleitung, erklärenden Anmerkungen
und einer Anzahl von Liedern herausgegeben von Dr. K. Wassmannsdorff.”
Frankfurt a. M., J. D. Sauerländer’s Verlag, 1869. A second “verbesserte
und mit einem Anhange ‘Gang- und Hüpfarten für das Mädchenturnen’
vermehrte Auflage” was published in 1885.
CHAPTER XIII.
PHYSICAL TRAINING IN THE PRUSSIAN SCHOOLS.
The astonishing development of popular interest in gymnastics which
has taken place in Germany and other European countries can be traced
directly to Jahn’s work at the Hasenheide, near Berlin, in the years
1810-1818; and between 1833 and 1858, in Switzerland and Hesse, Spiess
laid the foundation of German school gymnastics. But although the first
definite step looking toward physical training in the Prussian schools
was the cabinet order of 1842 (p. 101), it was not until after the
accession of William I to the throne, in 1861, that conditions became at
all propitious. During the latter half of the reign of Frederick-William
III, from 1819 to 1840, the one man who with his pupils and assistants
kept alive the tradition of _Turnen_ in Berlin, adding to and further
systematizing its content, and won for it gradually increasing
recognition, was Ernst Eiselen, among Jahn’s earliest followers and his
most faithful fellow-worker. Under Frederick-William IV (1840-1861) there
were at first encouraging signs of revival, but the unfortunate choice
of Massmann to direct the carrying out of the new plans (1843-1850),
followed by Rothstein’s untactful and somewhat bigoted attempt to
substitute the gymnastics of Ling for that of Jahn in the Royal Central
Institute of Gymnastics at Berlin (1851-1863), made the whole period a
disappointing one of storm and stress, without much evidence of real
progress. Each of these early phases deserves a few words of explanation.
Ernst Wilhelm Bernhard Eiselen (1793-1846), after the closing of the
Hasenheide _Turnplatz_ in the spring of 1819, became a teacher in the
Plamann school for boys. In April of 1825, using rented quarters,
he began to give courses in foil- and sabre-fencing and vaulting to
students in the University of Berlin, and two years later succeeded in
obtaining permission to offer private instruction in gymnastics. May 1,
1828, he opened his own gymnasium, with indoor and outdoor equipment,
at Dorotheenstrasse 31d (now 60). Courses for the training of teachers
were added in 1831, and the next year corrective exercises for girls,
for whose accommodation a special room was provided. By 1836 the number
of his pupils had increased to such an extent that a second gymnasium
was built in another part of the city (Blumenstrasse 3, now 63a),
and placed under the management of Wilhelm Lübeck (1809-1879), who
afterwards (1839) became its independent director. Arsenical poisoning
in his youth had permanently impaired Eiselen’s health, and this fact
and his retiring disposition may have led the Prussian authorities to
prefer Massmann as their agent in 1843. Eiselen was put in charge of a
great public _Turnplatz_ in the suburb of Moabit in 1846, but died a few
months later at Misdroy, a sea-bathing resort on the Island of Wollin.
Attention has already been called to his writings (p. 102). Among his
pupils and assistants who afterwards filled important teaching positions
were Wilhelm Ballot, Moritz Böttcher, Philipp August Feddern, and Wilhelm
Lübeck.
In 1836 Dr. Karl Ignaz Lorinser (1796-1853), state medical counsellor
at Oppeln, in Prussian Silesia, published a striking article on
“Safeguarding Health in the Schools,”[74] in which he urged that too
exclusive training of the mind in the higher schools was threatening
national vigor. His paper and the widespread discussion which followed
called the attention of the ministry of education anew to the need
of reform, and led to various orders looking toward more or less
systematic introduction of bodily exercises under the supervision of
teachers. Participation, however, depended upon parental consent and
the inclination of pupils. The cabinet order of June 6, 1842, and the
summons of Massmann to Berlin in the spring of 1843 to organize a system
of statewide physical training aroused expectations which were slow
in being realized. Instead of the Spiess plan of separate facilities
at each school and a graded scheme of exercises incorporated in the
school program, Massmann clung tenaciously to the idea of great central
exercising grounds (_Turnplätze_), preferably a single one even for the
larger cities, and a gathering here of all ages and classes for free
activity, especially on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons—a system of
public playgrounds, rather than one of orderly physical training.
But his endeavor to revive the Jahn gymnastics on a new _Turnplatz_
laid out in the neighborhood of the old Hasenheide site met with
little success, and the numbers in attendance dwindled rapidly. The
times had changed, and there was no one to supply Jahn’s inspiring
leadership. Teachers were needed, but Eiselen’s death had cut short
a plan to have him give two courses a year, of six weeks each, in
his private gymnasium. A “Central Training School for Teachers of
Gymnastics” (_Zentral-Bildungsanstalt für Turnlehrer_), under Massmann’s
direction, was therefore organized instead. It was to give annually two
three-months’ courses, beginning April 1 and August 1, to a maximum
of thirty pupils in each. The opening took place May 1, 1848, in the
Eiselen gymnasium; but the courses were discontinued before the end
of the following year. The attendance had been disappointingly small,
and those who came manifested little interest in their work. Massmann,
already a discredited leader with whose projects the school authorities
themselves had shown little sympathy, was retired in 1850. The government
attitude toward the Jahn _Turnen_ was still one of suspicion and
antagonism, and meanwhile attention had been drawn to the claims of a new
system of gymnastics, built up on foreign soil.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.—Hugo Rothstein (1810-1865).]
Hugo Rothstein (1810-1865), second lieutenant in the Prussian artillery
and teacher in the artillery school at Berlin, paid a visit to Sweden in
1843, and upon his return published in _Der Staat_ (September, 1844) an
article on “Gymnastics in Sweden and Ling’s System of Gymnastics.” It
attracted favorable notice in military circles, and Minister of War von
Boyen commissioned him to revisit the country in order to become better
acquainted with the subject. Accordingly in June of 1845, now first
lieutenant and accompanied by another officer, he went to Stockholm for a
full course at the Central Institute of Gymnastics (_Kongl. Gymnastiska
Centralinstitutet_), adding three months in Copenhagen to observe the
fencing and other instruction at the Danish Royal Institute of Military
Gymnastics (_Det Kongelige Militære Gymnastiske Institut_). During his
second sojourn in the Swedish capital he saw much of Director Branting
and Head Teacher Georgii, and was also a frequent guest at the palace of
King Oscar I. In the autumn of 1846 both officers were back in Berlin.
The following year Massmann published a translation of Ling’s writings
on gymnastics,[75] and Rothstein had begun work at once on a series of
volumes on the Ling system which appeared at intervals between 1847 and
1859.[76]
A direct result of the reports by Rothstein and Techow (the infantry
lieutenant who had been his companion) was the founding in Berlin
of a “Central Institute for Gymnastic Instruction in the Army”
(_Zentralinstitut für gymnastischen Unterricht in der Armee_), with
the two officers as teachers. Lübeck’s gymnasium on Blumenstrasse was
used for the practical exercises, and the first course there was begun
October 1, 1847; but the rioting which broke out in Berlin the next
spring, following the February revolution in Paris, brought it to a
sudden close. Two years later, however, the foundations of a new building
were laid in Scharnhorststrasse, and now it was decided to train both
military and civilian teachers in a single school, rechristened “Royal
Central Institute of Gymnastics” (_Königliche Zentral-Turnanstalt_)
and opened to pupils October 1, 1851. Rothstein was made director of
instruction (_Unterrichtsdirigent_). In his own teaching he employed
the Ling apparatus and exercises, making light of Jahn’s _Turnen_,
and for anatomical and physiological reasons rejecting the parallel
bars unconditionally. This action gave rise to repeated protests from
_Turnvereine_ in Berlin and other German cities, who regarded it as
a part of the government’s reactionary policy, and led to a violent
controversy (the _Barrenstreit_) in the years 1861 and 1862. Dr. Carl
Philipp Euler (1828-1901), who became civilian teacher in 1860, had
proposed that the banished apparatus be restored. Petitions, memorials,
and opinions for and against its use multiplied, and the discussion
was widened to include the whole subject of the comparative merits
of the Ling-Rothstein gymnastics and the Jahn _Turnen_. Emil Du
Bois-Reymond (1818-1896), professor of physiology in the University
of Berlin, entered the lists as a powerful champion on the side of
the Turners.[77] On the last day of 1862 appeared an opinion from the
highest medical authority in Prussia, the Royal Scientific Deputation
for Medical Affairs, to the effect that exercises on the parallel bars
“are justifiable and not to be rejected.”[78] It was therefore ordered
that both parallel bars and horizontal bar should be used with civilian
pupils. Rothstein withdrew from the school in 1863, left Berlin for
Erfurt, his birthplace and early home, and died there March 23, 1865.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.—Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818-1896).]
The later history of the Central Institute may be briefly outlined here.
A second civilian teacher, Gebhard Eckler (1832-1907), was added in
October of 1864. In 1877 the military and civilian sections, which had
existed side by side, were permanently separated, the former retaining
the old site on Scharnhorststrasse and hereafter called the Royal
Military Institute of Gymnastics (_Königliche Militär-Turnanstalt_),[79]
and the latter, under the name “Royal Training School for Teachers of
Gymnastics” (_Königliche Turnlehrer-Bildungsanstalt_), opening its doors
in temporary quarters on October 8, but after two years occupying its
own new home at 229 Friedrichstrasse (October 15, 1879). As early as
1866 Euler had begun to conduct private classes for women who desired
to become teachers of gymnastics, and in 1880 regular state courses
were added to meet their special needs. The first of these began
April 19 and closed July 6. Euler became “director of instruction”
(_Unterrichtsdirigent_) in 1877, and Dr. Ignaz Küppers (1840-) was added
as second director in 1891. Following Euler’s death, September 15, 1901,
Eckler was given the same title (1902), but retired in 1905, followed by
Küppers in October of the next year. A new office, that of director of
the school, was now created, and its first incumbent (May, 1905) was Dr.
Paul Diebow (1861-1920). In the autumn of 1911, after a further change of
name (to _Landesturnanstalt_, April 1, 1908), the institution was moved
to its present home in Spandau, eight miles northwest of Berlin, where
it enjoys ample facilities for indoor and outdoor training of all sorts.
The full course for men, at the outbreak of the Great War, covered seven
months (April-November), and that for women six months (January-June).
[Illustration: FIG. 26.—Carl Philipp Euler (1828-1901).]
To meet the great demand for teachers, examinations for persons trained
in city or private courses outside the Central Institute had been
given under its auspices after 1866. Beginning in 1889, arrangements
for similar state examinations for both men and women have been made
in Bonn, Breslau, Halle, and Königsberg, and in the case of women at
Bielefeld, Cassel, Danzig, Hannover, Kiel, Magdeburg, Stettin, and a few
other cities. The next noteworthy step was the introduction of teachers’
training courses in the Prussian universities, in each of which (Berlin,
Bonn, Breslau, Göttingen, Greifswald, Halle, Kiel, Königsberg, Marburg,
and Münster) a student could in 1914 take work in the theory and practice
of physical education, in preparation for a teacher’s certificate in
that subject, and could take the examination itself at the university
where he was studying.[80] In general such courses are governed by
regulations contained in the Prussian ministerial order of July 9, 1892,
originally intended for the University of Halle, and a supplemental order
of February 20, 1909, which relates to training in outdoor exercises.
The former provides for courses under the immediate oversight of the
University _Kurator_, to begin in the middle of October and continue
until the close of the winter semester—something less than five months.
They are open to candidates who have already qualified as teachers in the
schools, and to university students who have completed four semesters
of work. There is no charge for tuition. Each course embraces both
theoretical instruction and practical exercises, and occupies about
eighteen hours a week. As a rule one-third of the time is devoted to
lectures on the history of physical education, methods, the forms and
construction of apparatus (_Gerätkunde_), the structure and functions
of the human body, hygiene as related to exercise, and first aid in
accidents; and the remaining two-thirds to the attainment of personal
dexterity in the field of school gymnastics, and the actual teaching
of others, and direction of games, etc. Four hundred and ninety-eight
students attended these winter courses in the Prussian universities in
the year 1910-1911.
The later order, directed to the _Kuratoren_ of Prussian universities,
requires that as soon as possible the above courses be supplemented by
summer ones, lasting about four weeks and devoted solely to the subject
of games and athletic sports (_Volks- und Jugendspiele und volkstümliche
Übungen_). It was recommended that they cover from fifty to sixty hours
altogether, including from four to six lectures on the value of games and
athletic sports, about eight on theory and method, eight hours devoted to
practice in teaching or directing, and the rest to practical exercises.
The courses may be compressed within four weeks, or made to occupy two
or three hours each on two afternoons a week and spread over an entire
summer semester, thus interfering less with the student’s other work.
In many cases admission has been granted to students in the departments
of medicine, theology, and law, as well as to those enrolled in the
department of philosophy and preparing directly for the examination for
a state certificate as teacher of physical education. Hereafter the full
certificate is to be granted only to those who have completed both winter
and summer courses.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.—The Prussian _Landesturnanstalt_ at Spandau.]
[Illustration: FIG. 28.—Gymnasium of the _Realschule_ at
Gross-Lichterfelde, near Berlin.]
In spite of all this progress, there was at the beginning of 1913 no
professorship of physical education in any German university, although
the establishment of such a chair had been proposed at the University of
Giessen.
The Prussian cabinet order of June 6, 1842, had “formally recognized
bodily exercises as a necessary and indispensable part of male
education.” A ministerial circular of February 4, 1844, sent out to the
provincial school authorities, directed that in towns and cities indoor
and outdoor space should be provided for gymnastics at all higher schools
(_Gymnasien, höhere Stadtschulen_) and training-colleges for teachers
(_Schullehrer-Seminaren_), in order that the exercises might be practised
uninterruptedly throughout the year. Instruction was to be in the hands
of some regular member of the teaching staff who gave only part of his
time to this branch, rather than one who taught no other subject. The
exercises were to come as a rule on the half-holiday afternoons of
Wednesday and Saturday, or under certain conditions they might be given
daily during the hour following the afternoon session. It was left to his
parent or guardian to decide whether or not any pupil should participate.
Certificates of graduation from the schools were to note whether and with
what success use had been made of the instruction in gymnastics. A later
order (November 27, 1866) extended this last provision to cover semester
reports as well.
An order of September 10, 1860, reveals the intention of the ministry to
introduce gymnastics into _all_ schools for boys and young men, from the
elementary or folkschool to the university.[81] Special short courses
at training colleges for teachers, to reach those already in service,
are recommended as a means of filling the immediate need of competent
instruction, which will later be cared for by the regular graduates. The
indifference of many members of the teaching body in higher schools is
rebuked, together with the excessive number of excuses from attendance,
but attention is also called to praiseworthy progress made at other
institutions where the new movement receives earnest and sympathetic
support. University authorities are advised to furnish their students
with facilities for continuing habits of bodily activity, and reminded
of the advantage to the state if those who are to be leaders in church
and school affairs are given an opportunity here to become familiar with
a branch of education which they may later be called upon to oversee or
inspect.
Early in 1862 an official “Manual for Instruction in Gymnastics in the
Prussian Elementary Schools” was published, replaced by a “New Manual”
in the summer of 1868. This latter was again revised in 1895.[82] By
ministerial order of June 4, 1862, such instruction is declared to
be an integral part of the course for males in schools of this grade
(_Volksschule_), and attendance at the exercises is made compulsory.
Suitable grounds and the equipment called for by the Manual must be
provided. Teachers are prepared in training colleges (_Seminare_),
where special attention is given to actual handling of classes in model
schools, choosing and arranging suitable material for the different
grades from the official manual, and in the senior class to instruction
in methods, the installation of apparatus, the recent history of physical
education, the hygiene of exercise, and first aid.
The apparatus mentioned in the official manual of 1895 includes wooden
and iron wands, long jumping rope, jump stands and jumping board, balance
beam, climbing ropes and poles, ladders, adjustable horizontal bar, and
parallel bars. It recommends enough fixed apparatus so that four pupils
can exercise at a time. In its one hundred and fifty pages are described
a variety of marching and free exercises, and exercises with the
different forms of apparatus just mentioned, and in conclusion sixteen
selected running games and seven ball games. Beyond outlining the general
plan of each lesson, calling attention to the need of orderly progression
throughout the year, and indicating which of the exercises are intended
for the upper grades, the manual offers no direct assistance to the
teacher in laying out his course, _i.e._, it contains no tables showing
sample lessons and no series of exercises arranged in order of increasing
difficulty.
A third hour of exercise a week was added to the curriculum in higher
schools in 1892, and in elementary schools by order of June 13, 1910,
which was intended especially to encourage the use of games and other
activities in the open air. This same order made compulsory for all
schools the ten-minute periods of exercise for the promotion of good
carriage, deep breathing, and quickened blood-flow recommended in 1907
for days on which there was no regular lesson in gymnastics. The “Guide
for Use with Boys in Elementary Schools without Indoor Gymnasia,”
published in 1909,[83] lays down principles which are binding for boys’
schools of every sort. In it the class exercises in marching introduced
by Spiess are omitted. Free exercises and exercises on apparatus are
selected with the specific needs of the pupil in mind, and show the
influence of Swedish teaching and practice. They are supplemented
by running exercises, games, dry-land-swimming, and other forms of
activity, and attention is called to the value of _Spielstunden_
or play-afternoons. A recent development in higher schools is the
organization and rapid spread of voluntary gymnastic, running, tramping,
and athletic clubs of all sorts, conducted under the oversight of
teachers.
It was not until the ministerial order of May 31, 1894, that instruction
in gymnastics became a required subject in higher schools for _girls_.
Two lessons a week were to be given, and by women teachers. An order
of March 30, 1905, extended the requirement to elementary (_Volks_-)
and intermediate (_Mittel_-) schools in cities and large towns, and
recommended that teachers encourage also the playing of games after
school hours. The manual of 1895 was to form the basis of instruction.
A further step was taken on July 11, 1911, when the time allotted to
gymnastics was increased to three hours a week for the upper grades, and
all elementary schools not covered by former orders were urged to add
the subject to their curriculum. An official “Manual for the Physical
Training of Girls in Prussian Schools” was published in 1913.[84]
To an American the German universities and technical schools seem
singularly backward in the matter of physical education. At none of
them is there a full professorship devoted to the subject, and at
least a third have not even an instructor in gymnastics (_Turnlehrer_)
on the teaching staff. There are two student associations which may
be considered the survivors of the _Burschenschaften_ of Jahn’s day,
so far as the practice of gymnastics is concerned. One of them, the
_Akademischer Turnbund_, or “A. T. B.” (_Verband nichtfarbentragender
akademischer Turnvereine und -Verbindungen auf deutschen Hochschulen_),
organized June 27, 1883, on the Schweizerhöhe near Jena, included 39
societies and about 1900 student members in 1919, and belongs to the
German _Turnerschaft_. Its first competitive meet (_Turnbundfest_) was
held at Arnstadt, August 5 and 6, 1893, and the 6th at Coblenz July
28-31, 1912.[85] The other, the _Verband farbentragender Turnerschaften_,
or “V. C.” (_Vertreter-Convent_), to which 55 societies with about 1800
student members belonged in 1919, was given its present name and form
at a convention held in Berlin, June 11 and 12, 1885. Only a small
proportion of its societies have affiliated themselves with the German
_Turnerschaft_. The first general competitive meet (_Turnfest_) was held
at Sangerhausen May 26-29, 1882, and the sixteenth in Gotha May 13-16,
1913.[86] In 1911 an _Akademischer Bund für Leibesübungen_ was formed,
including the two associations mentioned, the _Akademischer Ruderbund_,
the _Kartelverband akademischer Rudervereine_, the _Akademischer
Sportbund_, and other similar organizations. This union held a “German
Academic Olympia” in Breslau, August 1-3, 1911, and another at Leipzig,
October 17-19, 1913. There had already been gatherings of this sort at
Leipzig, July 11, 1909, and Berlin, July 2 and 3, 1910.
There have been two attempts at a statistical survey of school gymnastics
covering all of the German states, the first by J. C. Lion in 1873,
and the second by Carl Rossow in 1908.[87] A general convention of
German teachers of gymnastics was held in Berlin, August 9-11, 1861, in
connection with the second general German _Turnfest_. Others have been
held at intervals ever since, and at the twelfth (Hof a. Saale, July 17
and 18, 1893), a _Deutscher Turnlehrerverein_ (German Society of Teachers
of Gymnastics) was formally organized. The eighteenth convention met in
Breslau May 29 and 30, 1914.[88]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Euler’s “Geschichte des Turnunterrichts” and “Encyklopädisches Handbuch
des gesamten Turnwesens” (see pp. 81 and 82).
Handbuch des gesamten Turnwesens und der verwandten Leibesübungen. In
Verbindung mit zahlreichen Fachmännern herausgegeben von Studienrat Prof.
Dr. Rudolf Gasch, Dresden. Mit 44 Tafeln (teils in Farbendruck), mit 394
Einzelabbildungen und 566 Abbildungen im Texte. Wien und Leipzig, A.
Pichlers Witwe & Sohn, 1920.
Verordnungen und amtliche Bekanntmachungen das Turnwesen in Preussen
betreffend. Gesammelt von Schulrat Prof. Dr. C. Euler und Prof. Gebh.
Eckler. (First edition 1869, second edition 1884) Dritte neubearbeitete
Auflage herausgegeben von Prof. Gebh. Eckler. Berlin, R. Gaertner, 1902.
Verordnungen und amtliche Bekanntmachungen das Turnwesen in Preussen
betreffend. Mit einem Anhang: Die wichtigsten Turnverordnungen anderer
Bundesstaaten im Auszuge. Unter Benutzung der Sammlung von Euler und
Eckler neu gesammelt und herausgegeben von Dr. E. Neuendorff und H.
Schröer. Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1912.
The _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_, _Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_, and
_Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_ (see p. 82).
The _Jahrbuch der Turnkunst_ (see p. 108).
FOOTNOTES:
[74] “Zum Schutz der Gesundheit in den Schulen.” In _Medizinische Zeitung
des Vereins für Heilkunde in Preussen_, 1836, No. 1. Reprinted by T. C.
F. Enslin, Berlin, in 1861. Quoted at some length in Euler-Rossow 1907,
pp. 115-117.
[75] P. H. Ling’s Schriften über Leibesübungen. Aus dem Schwedischen
übersetzt von H. F. Massmann, Dr. Professor &c. Magdeburg,
Heinrichshofen’sche Buchhandlung, 1847.
[76] Die Gymnastik, nach dem Systeme des Schwedischen Gymnasiarchen P.
H. Ling, dargestellt von Hg. Rothstein. Berlin, E. H. Schroeder. In five
parts as follows: I. Allgemeine Einleitung (with life of Ling). Das
Wesen der Gymnastik, Grundlegung und Gliederung ihres Systems, u. s. w.
1848 and 1849. II. Die Pädagogische Gymnastik, 1847; second edition in
1857. III. Die Heilgymnastik, 1847. IV. Die Wehrgymnastik, 1851. V. Die
Aesthetische Gymnastik, 1854-1859.
With Dr. A. C. Neumann, Rothstein also published four volumes of an
“Athenaeum für rationelle Gymnastik.” Berlin, E. H. Schroeder, 1854-1857.
(Rothstein’s name appears alone on the title page of volumes III and IV.)
Other books by Rothstein were “Die gymnastischen Freiübungen nach dem
System P. H. Lings” (Berlin, E. H. Schroeder, 1853; fifth edition in
1861), and “Die gymnastischen Rüstübungen nach P. H. Lings System”
(Berlin, E. H. Schroeder, 1855; second edition in 1861).
[77] “Ueber das Barrenturnen und über die sogenannte rationelle
Gymnastik” (Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1862), and “Herr Rothstein und der
Barren” (Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1863).
[78] The report is reprinted in Georg Hirth’s “Das Gesamte Turnwesen,”
second edition, =3=, pp. 492-506 (Hof, Rud. Lion, 1893).
[79] It was moved to Zossen, about twenty-five miles south of Berlin, in
1919.
[80] Similar provision was also made in at least three other German
universities, Heidelberg, Jena, and Leipzig. Students at the last named
took their examination in Dresden, after a final eight weeks at the state
_Turnlehrerbildungsanstalt_ there.
[81] As generally in Europe, there are two distinct kinds of schools in
Germany, the elementary or common schools, and the secondary or higher
schools. The former (_Volksschule_) does not lead up to the latter, but
is designed to furnish that kind and degree of education which the State
requires of every citizen irrespective of class or calling. Its course
of eight years covers the period of “school age” (six to fourteen).
The higher school (_Gymnasium_, _Realgymnasium_, _Realschule_) gives a
broader training intended to prepare for later study at the university
and the professional and higher technical schools, or to meet the
conditions for admission to any but the lowest grades of government
employ. In order to enter one must be at least nine years old, having
obtained his earlier education in special preparatory classes or in the
ordinary _Volksschule_, and the average age of those who complete the
full nine years’ course is between eighteen and twenty.
[82] Leitfaden für den Turn-Unterricht in den Preussischen Volksschulen.
Mit 29 in den Text gedruckten Figuren in Holzschnitt. Berlin, Wilhelm
Hertz, 1862.
Neuer Leitfaden für den Turn-Unterricht in den Preussischen Volksschulen.
Zweite erweiterte Auflage des “Leitfadens für den Turn-Unterricht” 1862.
Mit 53 in den Text gedruckten Figuren in Holzschnitt. Berlin, Wilhelm
Hertz, 1868.
Leitfaden für den Turnunterricht in den Preussischen Volksschulen, 1895.
Berlin, Wilhelm Hertz, 1895.
[83] Anleitung für das Knabenturnen in Volksschulen ohne Turnhalle.
Berlin, J. G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1909.
[84] Leitfaden für das Mädchenturnen in den preussischen Schulen, 1913.
Berlin, J. G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1913.
[85] See the Handbuch für den Akademischen Turnbund. Im Auftrage
des Bundes herausgegeben von Dr. rer. pol. Kurt Blaum (A. H.
Burgund-Strassburg). 1908. Strassburg i. E., Selbstverlag des A. T. B.,
Universitätsplatz 7.
[86] See Der Turnerschafter. Handbuch des deutschen V.-C.-Studenten.
Zehnte Auflage. Bearbeitet von Herbert Meyer. Leipzig-Reudnitz, August
Hoffman, 1908.
[87] Statistik des Schulturnens in Deutschland. Im Auftrage des
Ausschusses der Deutschen Turnerschaft herausgegeben von J. C. Lion.
Leipzig, E. Keil, 1873.
Zweite Statistik des Schulturnens in Deutschland. Mit Unterstützung der
Ministerien der deutschen Bundesstaaten, der Deutschen Turnerschaft
und des Zentralausschusses zur Förderung der Volks- und Jugendspiele
unter Mitarbeit vieler Schulmänner im Auftrage und unter Mitwirkung des
Deutschen Turnlehrer-Vereins herausgegeben von Carl Rossow. Gotha, E. F.
Thienemann, 1908. The contents of this second survey are summarized in
_Jahrbuch der Turnkunst_ 1907 (Leipzig, Emil Stock, 1907), pp. 145-157.
[88] See Euler-Rossow, Geschichte des Turnunterrichts (Gotha, E. F.
Thienemann, 1907), pp. 415-423.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT IN GERMANY.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.—Konrad Koch (1846-1911).]
The beginnings of the playground movement in Germany can be traced back
to a time when the Franco-Prussian war was a very recent memory, and
its pioneers were men moved by the same spirit and motives which led
Jahn to the Hasenheide sixty years before. In the summer of 1872 Konrad
Koch[89] (1846-1911), a teacher in the Gymnasium (higher classical
school) Martino-Katharineum in Brunswick, with his colleague, Hermann
Corvinus, having in mind their own participation as schoolboys in the
outdoor exercises of a Jahn club, began to take pupils on free Wednesday
afternoons to St. Leonhardplatz, on the outskirts of the city, to
practise a variety of running and ball games. Three years of experience
with German games such as _Barlaufen_ (prisoners’ base), _Kaiserball_,
etc., revealed to them the need of something more highly organized, and
of a sport which might be practised in the winter months. The teacher
of gymnastics (_Turnlehrer_) at the _Gymnasium_ was August Hermann
(1835-1906), whose wife’s sister conducted a flourishing private boarding
school for girls in Brunswick and in its interest spent several months
a year in England. Hermann’s own house was a _pension_ which usually
contained a number of English boys, and Koch’s father-in-law, Dr. med.
Friedrich Reck, had observed with interest in his travels abroad the
widespread popularity of active games in Great Britain.[90] At Dr. Reck’s
suggestion Hermann therefore procured from England a football, and one
day in October, 1874, threw it among the boys on the playground. The
history of the Rugby game in Germany dates from this moment. American
baseball was introduced in 1875, and English cricket in 1876, as summer
games, and the steady increase in the number of players demonstrated the
wisdom of the changed program.
Saturday afternoon had now been added to Wednesday’s. In the summer of
1878 the games were made an integral factor of the school life. Certain
classes were freed from other work on two afternoons a week (Thursday
and Friday) in order that the pupils might engage regularly, the two
teachers whose time had hitherto been given voluntarily to the task were
now relieved from a part of their school duties and formally delegated to
this one, Mk. 200 a year was appropriated toward the cost of equipment,
and in the spring of 1879 participation in the games was made obligatory
for pupils in the lower and middle classes. The rule was extended to
cover the upper classes also in 1882. The Gymnasium Martino-Katharineum
thus became the first school in Germany to give to active games
a place in the curriculum. In 1885 the Realgymnasium and the new
Wilhelm-Gymnasium took the same step. Other higher schools in the Duchy
followed, and the movement reached the intermediate _Bürgerschulen_ of
the city in 1905, and the lower ones in 1908.
Skating competed with football for winter popularity, but cricket was
still the favorite summer game. Koch, who later became the recognized
psychologist and philosopher of the entire games movement in Germany, was
impressed from the start with its fundamental educational value. Like
Thomas Arnold, he attached great value to the influence of games on the
emotions and the will, and was not satisfied with the too exclusively
intellectual training of the schools. His “Die Erziehung zum Mute durch
Turnen, Spiel und Sport,”[91] a book devoted to the psychical aspects of
bodily exercise, deservedly ranks as a classic, and stands almost alone
in its field.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.—August Hermann (1835-1906).]
The German _Turnlehrer_ held their eighth general convention at Brunswick
July 27-30, 1876.[92] August Hermann opened the morning session on
the 28th with an address in which he urged the necessity of arousing
an interest in competitive exercises and games if bodily exercise was
ever to become a truly national custom in Germany, calling attention
particularly to English experience, and in conclusion referring to
what had already been accomplished in Brunswick with English football
and cricket. Dr. Reck described at length how he had himself seen all
England at play, and not merely those of one class or age or sex. He
also spoke of the value of such habits as a means of training the will
and developing initiative. Others who took part in the debate (Kloss of
Dresden and Jäger of Stuttgart) had been witnesses of the athletic sports
of English residents in German cities. On Saturday, the 29th, pupils
from the intermediate classes of the _Gymnasium_ gave the visitors an
impressive exhibition of their skill and interest in football and cricket
on St. Leonhardplatz, under the direction of Hermann and Koch.
Five years later (November, 1881) the movement in favor of games and
other outdoor sports, which had been slowly gaining headway among
German teachers of gymnastics and educators in general, received a
sudden impetus and gained a powerful champion, when Emil Hartwich
(1843-1886), judge in the Prussian district court at Düsseldorf, issued
his pamphlet “Woran wir leiden. Freie Betrachtungen und practische
Vorschläge über unsere moderne Geistes- und Körperpflege in Volk und
Schule.”[93] Hartwich was the son of a leading pioneer in German railroad
construction, and educated at the Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtische Gymnasium
at Cologne (1856-1862) and the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin
(1862-1865). After completing the required year of military service in
a regiment of dragoons at Berlin he began to practise his profession of
public magistrate, and became judge in the Düsseldorf court in 1873. By
enthusiastic application in his leisure moments he had acquired skill in
gymnastics, music, and painting. Deeply impressed with the importance
of the problems which modern education is called upon to solve, and
convinced that the physical point of view, though fundamental, was too
much neglected, he determined to undertake the task of agitation for
reform.[94]
The pamphlet of 1881 was the first result of the decision. A second
edition, enlarged, was published the following year, and later a third
made its appearance. “Next to untarnished honor, health is the greatest
good on earth.” This is the motto with which he begins. While in England,
the home of open-air sports, many an old man has a youthful look, the
German schoolboy too often shows a pale, precocious face. What has become
of the games which freshen body and soul alike, and the school excursions
and long walks? Our modern pedagogy, he complains, has forgotten the
great outdoors. With thirty hours or more a week given to mental training
in stuffy classrooms, and only a pitiful two hours to gymnastics as the
sole counterpoise, the harmonious balance between body and mind cannot
fail to be disturbed. A sound body and good spirits must be recognized
as of equal value with a well-trained mind. Give the morning to the mind,
he says, and the afternoon to body and spirit, to what brings enjoyment
and strengthens the will to withstand the trials of everyday life. This
quality of courage and good spirits is vastly more important than the
training of the intellect now so excessively emphasized.
To coördinate and direct all efforts for improvement and reform Hartwich
proposed the organization of a _Zentralverein für Körperpflege in Volk
und Schule_—a permanent national body which should hold itself aloof
from all political, sectarian, and other factional discussions, should
unite all classes of society for the common end, and should allow
complete independence in the sections which it was to comprise and
entire freedom of organization in the different cities. The separate
sections established in town and country were to be bound together by the
common purpose to promote care of the body and its active exercise. The
following divisions were suggested: (1) For gymnastics, (2) for skating,
(3) for school interests, (4) for bathing, swimming, and rowing, (5)
for games and festivals suited to both old and young, (6) a section to
serve as a propaganda working through the public press, and (7) a medical
section.
The appearance of “Woran wir leiden,” which was widely read and quoted
throughout Germany, led at once to a lively discussion of the claims of
the body and the value of open-air exercise, and to a great accession
of popular interest in these subjects. Men of letters, government
officials, and others in high position rallied to the support of
Hartwich, and Gustav von Gossler, Prussian minister of public worship and
instruction, invited him to an interview (November 4, 1882). Meanwhile
the _Zentralverein_ became a reality—it was formed in Düsseldorf, March
6, 1882—and in this and the following year local societies (_Vereine für
Körperpflege_) were organized in Witten, Bonn, Barmen, and Hagen, in each
case with an address from Hartwich as part of the program at the initial
gathering.[95] Playgrounds were secured and equipped in Düsseldorf,[96]
Bonn, Witten, Berlin (Park bei Treptow) and other cities; much continued
to be written on school conditions in general and on brain forcing in
particular; and a number of handbooks of games made their appearance.
Bremen and Chemnitz opened playgrounds in 1884, and public games were
introduced in Dresden, Salzburg, Darmstadt, and Frankfort-on-the-Main. At
the sixth national _Turnfest_ of the German _Turnerschaft_, in Dresden,
July 19-21, 1885, there was an exhibition of games by schoolboys and
girls.
To keep members of the _Zentralverein_ in touch with the movement and
furnish newspapers with reports and items of information Hartwich had
started a periodical, _Körper und Geist_, to be issued at irregular
intervals. Only five numbers were actually published, the first in the
spring of 1883 and the last in April of 1886. In his address at the
organization of the society he had referred to the educational value
which the English attribute to their games, and to the obligatory school
games in Brunswick. He wrote to Koch at Brunswick, requesting a few lines
from him on the subject of English games for German playgrounds, having
in mind already as part of the program for his _Volks-_ and _Kinderfeste_
competitions in running, swimming, throwing the spear and the discus,
wrestling, football, cricket, etc. Koch replied under date of November 1,
1883, with a recital of his own experience.[97]
The _Vereine für Körperpflege_ were largely confined to Rhenish Prussia
and Westphalia, a fact explained by the support which newspapers in these
provinces, and notably the _Kölnische Zeitung_, gave to the movement. The
membership, in both size and character, and the sums contributed fell
short of what had been expected, and proved that a considerable portion
of the public remained to be won over. Some teachers of gymnastics were
hearty and loyal in their coöperation, but not a few _Turnvereine_ and
leaders in the national _Turnerschaft_ adopted an attitude of apathy, or
of positive opposition. “Into the open” was the cry of Hartwich, and he
seemed to them to ignore, or not to appreciate, the solid achievements
of the followers of Jahn and Spiess. There were many, too, who protested
against the importation of English games and athletic sports in seeming
disparagement of German _Turnen_ and native games. The early and tragic
death of Hartwich—he was shot in a duel and died December 1, 1886—brought
with it the collapse of the _Zentralverein_, for no other leader
possessed of equal skill and courage came forward to take his place.
Elsewhere in Germany, however, new adherents were at work, and the
movement which had begun in Brunswick and been greatly extended by the
Düsseldorf judge was soon to become national in its scope. One state, and
that the leading one, had already given its official sanction. Gustav von
Gossler (1838-1902), Prussian minister of public worship and instruction
in the years 1881-1891, himself trained in gymnastics as a schoolboy in
Potsdam and Königsberg, an expert fencer in his university days, a good
oarsman and a strong swimmer and skater, had been an interested listener
at the sessions of the ninth national convention of German teachers
of gymnastics, held in Berlin, June 7-9, 1881, while he was still
under-secretary. There the first morning was taken up by two papers which
urged the necessity of systematic use of games and school excursions on
foot as a supplement to formal gymnastics, and by a discussion which led
to the adoption of recommendations to that effect.[98] In the following
November Hartwich’s pamphlet appeared, and a year later von Gossler, as
we have seen, invited him to an interview; but before this took place
the minister had already issued (October 27, 1882) his momentous “Order
relating to the provision of playgrounds for the promotion of gymnastics
in the open air and to stimulate participation in active games.”[99]
He begins by saying that when gymnastics was first made an integral part
of the instruction in higher and lower schools, effort was naturally
directed toward securing room indoors where the exercises might be
carried on without regard to season and weather. But the playground is
not less valuable, and he sums up impressively the beneficial influence
it may exert on the entire life of the pupil, concluding with these
words: “The school must foster play as an expression of youthful life
salutary for body and mind, for heart and soul alike, along with the
increase in physical strength and skill and the ethical effects which
attend it, and this must be done not merely now and then, but as a matter
of course and in a systematic way.” Attempts in this direction have been
few and scattered hitherto. He then refers to the books of GutsMuths and
Jahn and to some recent works, mentions a number of suitable games, calls
attention to certain articles which contain useful hints, and among them
one of Koch’s on the history and organization of the Brunswick school
games, and suggests at some length practical ways of carrying out the
purpose of the order. School excursions, swimming, and skating are also
recommended. Other ministerial orders and announcements which followed
within the next few years touch upon every phase of gymnastics and games,
and for girls as well as for boys and young men.
While the von Gossler _Spielerlass_ of 1882 met with general approval and
exerted a stimulating influence felt beyond the bounds of his own state,
the immediate and visible results were disappointing. One experiment
which it inspired was, however, momentous in its consequences. The scene
was Görlitz, in Prussian Silesia, and the prime mover, soon to become a
national figure, was Emil von Schenckendorff (1837-1915), formerly member
of the city council and now member of the Prussian chamber of deputies.
He had spent ten years in the army (1855-1865) and nine in the telegraph
service (1867-1876), resigning from each on account of impaired health,
and having made his home in Görlitz occupied himself altogether, for the
balance of his life, with public affairs in city, state, and nation.[100]
[Illustration: FIG. 31.—Emil Theodor Gustav von Schenckendorff
(1837-1915).]
In Sweden, in 1872, August Abrahamson (1817-1898) had opened a sloyd
school for boys on his estate at Nääs, about eighteen miles from
Gothenburg, under the direction of his nephew, Otto Salomon (1849-1907),
and in the autumn of 1874 a training school for teachers of that branch
of education was added. Adolph Clauson-Kaas (1826-1906) had made
societies for home industry popular in Denmark. Von Schenckendorff
was familiar with both movements, and in his desire to provide some
counteragent to the one-sided mental exertion of the schools organized
in 1881 the Görlitz Manual Training Society (Verein für Handfertigkeit)
and opened a workshop for boys. He was also, that same year, one of
the founders of the German Central Committee for Manual Training and
Home Industry (in 1886 the name was changed to _Deutscher Verein für
Knabenhandarbeit_). As early as 1882 he was in communication with
Hartwich at Düsseldorf, approving his efforts and asking advice with
regard to the introduction of games among the young people of Görlitz.
In 1883 he persuaded the Görlitz Manual Training Society to add this
new form of activity to its program. With the hearty coöperation of
his friend Gustav Ernst Eitner (1835-1905), director of the city
_Gymnasium_, a beginning was made with boys from the lower classes of
that school, who met for the purpose on Wednesday afternoons. Soon
the pupils of the intermediate classes became interested, and in the
spring of the following year the older boys, who viewed the innovation
with indifference at the start, were gradually drawn into the ranks
of players. _Oberturnlehrer_ Friedrich Wilhelm Jordan (1842-1896) and
several younger teachers in the _Gymnasium_ assumed the direct oversight
of the games. The next step was to make provision for the elementary
schools, and thus the movement spread from year to year, and methods
of organization and administration were perfected, until not only the
school children, but older boys and young men and even adults had been
reached by the efforts of the society. Annual _Spielfeste_ helped to make
the playing of games more and more a matter of habit among the entire
populace.[101]
An opportunity to bring the results of all this experience to the
attention of German teachers generally was afforded by the fortieth
national convention of philologists, held in Görlitz, October 1-5, 1889.
Eitner realized that in spite of widespread desire for a revival of
games in the schools few teachers were familiar with them, or knew how
to set about introducing them among the children, and these in turn had
forgotten how to play. He thought it would be of service to show the
Görlitz plan in actual operation, and so arranged for an exhibition of
games as a part of the program for the second afternoon. The applause
which greeted the spectacle was gratifying. One of the visitors deplored
the fact that in his home there was no one capable of introducing and
directing a similar plan, and he therefore proposed that there should be
started in Görlitz a teachers’ course in games for such persons as were
interested in the subject, in order to diffuse a knowledge of it more
widely. Von Schenckendorff took up the idea with enthusiasm, readily
secured the approval and support of Minister von Gossler, and it was
arranged that Eitner should undertake the direction of such a course with
the assistance of _Oberturnlehrer_ Jordan.
After careful preparation on the part of these two men the first course
was given during the week of June 9-14, 1890, and a second September
1-6. In the following year there were two more, June 22-27 and August
31-September 5. The total attendance for the four weeks, not counting
about 30 who remained for a few days only, was 120 teachers, of whom 82
were from various parts of Prussia (Silesia 48, Posen 11, Pomerania 2,
East Prussia 4, Brandenburg 3, Hannover 4, the province of Saxony 2,
Westphalia 1, Hesse-Nassau 3, and the Rhine province 4), 2 from Baden,
1 each from Saxony, Oldenburg, Lauenburg, Thuringia, and Anhalt, 30
from Austria (13 of these from Vienna), and 1 from Russia. There was
no tuition fee. Each morning of the week Eitner lectured for an hour
on the theory of games in general and discussed individual ones in
some detail, with demonstrations of the apparatus used, until about 60
had been covered, including 34 ball games. Then followed two hours of
practice under Jordan, and in the afternoons between four and six o’clock
there was a demonstration of the methods employed in the different
city schools. A much wider audience was reached by Eitner’s manual
of games,[102] six editions of which were called for in the year of
publication (1890), a seventh in 1891, and an eighth in 1893.
Meanwhile other measures looking toward nationwide agitation and
instruction were being taken. As a preliminary step it was desirable to
ascertain the exact present status of the games movement in Germany, and
for the collection and tabulation of such statistical information von
Schenckendorff was able to secure the services of a man who had already
made an important contribution in the realm of physical education.
Hermann Raydt (1851-1914), born in the Prussian province of Hannover,
educated in the Lingen _Gymnasium_ of which his father was rector and in
the Universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Göttingen, was from 1878 till
1892 teacher (_Oberlehrer_) in the _Gelehrtenschule_ at Ratzeburg, a town
twelve miles southeast of Lübeck. In 1886, as the first appointee under
the terms of the Bismarck-Schönhausen foundation for the advancement of
teaching, he travelled in England and Scotland, studying especially the
methods of education and manner of life in the English public schools.
The results of his observations were embodied in an interesting and
stimulating volume[103] published three years later, in which he proposes
an adaptation of the English playground to German school conditions. The
book appeared at an opportune moment and met with a favorable reception
everywhere. The Prussian ministry of instruction warmly recommended it
to the attention of all higher schools and teachers’ colleges. It also
brought Raydt into communication with von Schenckendorff, who persuaded
him to undertake the task already mentioned. The Görlitz Society for
the Promotion of Manual Training and School Games bore the expense of
the investigation, and in April of 1890 circulars were sent out to
all German cities with a population of 8000 or more asking what had
already been done in the way of games and playgrounds, and whether the
authorities were inclined to welcome their introduction. Two hundred and
seventy-three replies were received. Raydt studied these carefully and
made them the basis of another volume[104] which appeared early in the
following year.
The time for organized endeavor on a large scale had evidently arrived.
Von Schenckendorff therefore invited a number of prominent men—leaders
in the German _Turnerschaft_, pioneers in the games movement, and
persons of influence—to meet in Berlin on May 21, 1891, and then and
there the “Central Committee for the Promotion of Games in Germany”
(_Der Zentral-Ausschuss zur Förderung der Volks- und Jugendspiele
in Deutschland_) was formed. The thirteen in actual attendance
included Director Bier of the Dresden _Turnlehrer-Bildungsanstalt_,
_Unterrichtsdirigent_ Euler of the Berlin _Turnlehrer-Bildungsanstalt_,
Goetz and F. A. Schmidt of the Committee of the _Deutsche Turnerschaft_,
Koch and Hermann from Brunswick, Raydt from Ratzeburg, von
Schenckendorff, and teachers or public officials from Hamburg, Hannover,
Magdeburg, Rendsburg, and Stralsund. After an opening address by von
Schenckendorff, and a general exchange of views it was agreed that
the committee type of organization, with great freedom of action, was
preferable to an association bound by a constitution and a fixed program.
Three sub-committees of seven members each were decided upon, and the
chairmen of these together with the officers of the Central Committee
were to constitute a board of directors. Von Schenckendorff was the
unanimous choice for chairman of the Central Committee, Schmidt of Bonn
was elected vice-chairman, Raydt corresponding secretary or business
manager, Koch treasurer, Eitner of Görlitz chairman of the sub-committee
on games for boys, Hermann of Brunswick chairman of the sub-committee on
games for girls, and Schmidt of Bonn chairman of the sub-committee on
games for older persons (_Volksspiele_). The Central Committee itself,
in its original form, was composed of thirty-five men, whose names
are attached to the formal summons to the German people (“_Aufruf zur
Förderung der Jugend- und Volksspiele in Deutschland_”) prepared at the
Berlin meeting.[105]
A good idea of the methods adopted by the Central Committee, and the
results of its work during the twenty years 1891-1911, can be gained
from a review of that period which von Schenckendorff, still chairman,
prepared and published in 1912.[106] The Committee has endeavored from
the start to supplement and support the work of individuals or local
organizations and to prepare the way for the actual introduction of games
into any community. Its membership is limited to one hundred, selected
from men and women in all parts of the empire who have had experience
and met with success in the field of physical education. Besides games
in the narrower sense, it aims to foster all forms of active exercise
in the open air, such as excursions on foot, swimming, rowing, skating,
skeeing, bob-sledding, etc. There were the following sub-committees in
1912: (1) Technical, (2) on public exhibitions of games (_Jugend- und
Volksfeste_), (3) on the German universities, (4) on continuation and
professional schools, (5) on promotion of national defense (_Wehrkraft_)
through education, (6) on country children and youth, (7) on excursions
(_Wandern_) and winter exercises in the open air, and (8) on measures for
increasing the physical fitness of girls and women. The activities of the
Central Committee may be classified in three main groups, as follows:
information, constructive work proper, and indirect measures.
_Information._ To bring its work to the attention of the public at
large the Committee has made use of the organs which mould and give
expression to public opinion, _i.e._, about three hundred newspapers and
other periodicals—political, social, pedagogical, and medical, as well
as those published in the interest of physical education and athletic
sports. It possesses also two organs of its own, the semi-monthly _Körper
und Geist_, started in 1892 (April 1) under the title _Zeitschrift für
Turnen und Jugendspiel_,[107] and a year-book[108] averaging more than
three hundred pages. In addition to these a long list of pamphlets
and small volumes have been issued. The first of a series of national
congresses in the interest of games was held in Berlin, February 3 and
4, 1894, and others have followed, in different parts of the empire, at
intervals of one or two years.[109] Persons whose official position
gave them an influence which might be of great value in furthering the
objects of the Committee were approached directly. In this way permanent
relations have been established with about five thousand town and city
authorities, district magistrates and school inspectors, provincial
school commissioners, heads of institutions for the training of teachers,
and members of state ministries of instruction.
_Constructive Work Proper._ Here belongs first of all the arranging of
courses for men and women teachers who wish to prepare themselves as
playground leaders. By the end of 1904, _i.e._, in fifteen years if we
include the Görlitz courses of 1890 and 1891, a total of 175 courses
for men had been held in 54 different places, with 5805 participants,
and 74 for women in 20 places, with 2814 participants. For the entire
period 1890-1911 the totals were 409 courses to 14,269 men, and 206
courses to 6287 women.[110] In general the Görlitz pattern, as already
described, was followed. There were no fees for instruction, and the
persons in charge of the work gave their services in every case. Since
1905 the Prussian school authorities have also offered playground courses
(about 60,000 teachers had been trained in them up to the time when von
Schenckendorff wrote his review), and others have been given at the
various state normal schools of gymnastics. Next in importance to the
demand for competent leaders was that for authoritative descriptions
of the most important games, with the rules which govern them. The
technical committee met this need by issuing and frequently revising a
series of pocket-size booklets, in board covers, which sell for about
five cents each and have become the standard guides on nearly all the
German playgrounds. By 1912 there were twelve of these little volumes,
covering sixteen games. The Central Committee has also published ten
booklets (“Kleine Schriften”) containing information and suggestions on
such subjects as how to set about introducing games into a community, the
management of competitive and other exercises for public exhibitions,
active games for girls, games at the German universities, winter sports,
excursions on foot, _Geländespiele_, games for use in the army, etc.
_Indirect Measures._ For a number of years the Committee worked
energetically to bring about the inauguration of periodical German
_Nationalfeste_, which should serve as an inspiration and pattern
for smaller public exhibitions (_Jugend- und Volksfeste_) all over
the country, and at the same time stimulate national spirit. Growing
opposition on the part of the German _Turnerschaft_, which saw in such
occasions a menace to the success of its own quadrennial _Turnfeste_,
together with other difficulties, finally led to the abandonment of the
plan. The Committee now seeks to work from the bottom up, by encouraging
regular exhibitions with competitive sports in separate localities. The
conviction that national efficiency (_Volkskraft_) and national defense
(_Wehrkraft_) are merely different expressions of the same thing, and
that whatever promotes or disturbs the one affects the other similarly,
has led to careful study of the latter question. A volume of some size
(“Wehrkraft durch Erziehung”), published in 1904, in place of the usual
year-book, sets forth educational measures which foster _Wehrkraft_ by
increasing _Volkskraft_, and a special “Committee of Defense” (Ausschuss
zur Förderung der Wehrkraft durch Erziehung) has met repeatedly to
discuss the subject, with representatives of the Prussian war ministry
and the head of the general staff present on one occasion (March 12,
1911). Games were incorporated in the course of military gymnastics
by imperial order of May, 1910, and the Committee’s special manual
(“Militärisches Spielbuch”) is now in use everywhere.
Looking back over twenty years of effort along these varied lines of
activity, von Schenckendorff is forced to admit that much remains to
be accomplished. In the schools, while play-afternoons with voluntary
attendance have spread widely, the obligatory play-afternoon on a par
with required instruction in gymnastics has been introduced only here
and there. Brunswick, Württemberg, Baden, and Saxony are farthest
advanced in this respect. The continuation schools have taken only the
first step looking toward physical development. At the universities
there is increased interest in gymnastics and athletic sports, but
facilities for their practise are still inadequate. The state has not
met its responsibility in the matter of building gymnasia, fitting up
playgrounds, and providing the means for swimming, rowing, and the like.
Von Schenckendorff, the foremost figure in the German playground
movement, died March 1, 1915, and was succeeded as chairman of the
Central Committee by Dr. F. A. Schmidt of Bonn, the former vice-chairman.
Of the other members of the original board of directors Raydt died
December 6, 1914, Koch April 13, 1911, Eitner September 4, 1905, and
Hermann February 20, 1906. The board in 1915 was constituted as follows:
Chairman, Schmidt; corresponding secretary, Kohlrausch of Hannover (since
Raydt’s death); treasurer, Dominicus of Berlin-Schöneberg (following
Koch); and Hagen of Schmalkalden, Sickinger of Mannheim, and Neuendorff
of Mühlheim-on-the-Ruhr.
FOOTNOTES:
[89] Born in Brunswick, attended for eight years the Gymnasium
Martino-Katharineum, where his father was one of the teachers, studied
classical and German philology at the universities of Göttingen, Berlin,
and Leipzig, 1864-1867, and for the rest of his life taught Greek, Latin,
middle high German, and history at the Gymnasium Martino-Katharineum,
becoming _Oberlehrer_ in 1874 and Professor in 1886. Consult _Jahrbuch
für Volks- und Jugendspiele_ 1912, pp. 238-245; _Monatsschrift für
das Turnwesen_, =1=, 97-104; =30=, 241-245. For Hermann consult
_Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_, =6=, 321-329; =25=, 130-137; _Körper
und Geist_, =14=, 421-427.
[90] When Thomas Arnold’s fourteen years as head master at Rugby
Public School were ended by his death in June of 1842, cricket was the
recognized summer sport at the English public schools and at Oxford and
Cambridge universities; rowing was firmly established as a fall and
spring exercise at Eton College, and the Oxford-Cambridge boat race was
an annual affair; football was regularly played at Rugby and others of
the public schools; and continuous records of the “big-side runs” of
the Rugby School Hare and Hounds—forerunners of the later track and
field athletics—were already five years old. By the time Thomas Hughes
published his “Tom Brown’s School Days,” fifteen years later (April,
1857), all of the public schools had adopted football as the chief winter
game, and the first steps looking toward organized track and field
athletics as a recognized branch of public school and university sports
had been taken. The annual track meets between Oxford and Cambridge
date from 1864. The first of the annual Cambridge-Oxford contests in
Rugby football was held in 1872, and two years later a similar series
in the Association game began. (“Association football” dates from the
publication of rules by the London Football Association, December 1,
1863. The Rugby Football Union was organized in London, January 26, 1871).
[91] Berlin, R. Gaertner, 1900.
[92] Consult the _Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_, 1876, pp. 305-310 and 313-319;
and _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_, 1876, pp. 94-95, 145-150,
163-186, 241-247.
[93] Düsseldorf, L. Voss & Co. Second edition, enlarged, 1882.
[94] Consult _Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_, 1887, pp. 29 and 30, and
_Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_, 1887, pp. 14-24.
[95] Hartwich’s addresses were collected and published by M. Eichelsheim,
city _Turnlehrer_ in Düsseldorf, in 1883 under the title “Reden über die
vernachlässigte leibliche Ausbildung unserer Jugend von Emil Hartwich”
(Düsseldorf, L. Schwann). A second edition, enlarged, was published in
1884.
[96] Opened June 21, 1882. See _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_, 1882,
pp. 248-249, and _Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_, 1882, p. 206.
[97] The letter is published in _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_,
1888, pp. 242-252.
[98] For reports of the convention consult _Neue Jahrbücher für
die Turnkunst_, 1881, pp. 97-105, 208-212, 273-276; and _Deutsche
Turn-Zeitung_, 1881, pp. 190, 257-260, 281-284, 301-304, 325-330.
[99] Printed in full in _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_, 1882, pp.
409-412; _Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_, 1882, pp. 321-325; Neuendorff
and Schröer, “Verordnungen und amtliche Bekanntmachungen das Turnwesen in
Preussen betreffend” (Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1912), pp. 56-61.
[100] Consult _Jahrbuch für Volks- und Jugendspiele_, 1915, pp. 1-26;
_Körper und Geist_ =16=, 33-41, and =24=, 4-16; and _Monatsschrift für
das Turnwesen_, 1912, pp. 201-208, and 1915, pp. 129-137, 193-200.
[101] Consult Eitner’s own account in _Jahrbuch für Volks- und
Jugendspiele_, 1892, pp. 59-61 and 79-82.
[102] “Die Jugendspiele. Ein Leitfaden bei der Einführung und Übung von
Turn- und Jugendspielen, verfasst von Dr. Eitner, Gymnasialdirektor in
Görlitz.” Kreuznach und Leipzig, R. Voigtländer, 1890.
[103] “Ein gesunder Geist in einem gesunden Kröper. Englische Schulbilder
in deutschem Rahmen nach einer Studienreise aus der Bismarck-Schönhausen
Stiftung geschildert von H. Raydt, Subrektor in Ratzeburg.” Hannover,
Carl Meyer, 1889.
[104] “Die deutschen Städte und das Jugendspiel. Nach den amtlichen
Berichten der Städte bearbeitet von Konrektor H. Raydt in Ratzeburg.”
Hannover-Linden, Karl Manz, 1891.
[105] This summons, and von Schenckendorff’s account of the formation
and plan of organization of the Central Committee, are contained in
the first year-book of the Committee (“Über Jugend- und Volksspiele,”
Hannover-Linden, 1892), pp. 103-111. The minutes of the Berlin meeting
were printed in _Körper und Geist_, =16=, 41-47 (May 21, 1907).
[106] _Jahrbuch für Volks- und Jugendspiele_, 1912, pp. 1-11. Printed
also in _Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen_, 1912, pp. 201-208.
[107] Ten volumes appeared under the latter title, and volume =11=,
beginning April 1, 1902, bears the new name.
[108] _Jahrbuch für Volks- und Jugendspiele._ The first number is that
for 1892. Both organs are published by B. G. Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin.
[109] (2) Munich, July 10-13, 1896; (3) Bonn, July 2 and 3, 1898; (4)
Königsberg, June 25 and 26, 1899; (5) Nuremberg, July 7 and 8, 1901;
(6) Dresden, July 5-7, 1903; (7) Frankfurt, September 15-18, 1905; (8)
Strasburg, July 6 and 7, 1907; (9) Kiel, July 19-21, 1908; (10) Gleiwitz,
July 2-5, 1909; (11) Barmen, July 1-4, 1910; (12) Dresden, July 1 and 2,
1911; (13) Heidelberg, June 28-July 1, 1912; (14) Stettin, June 28-30,
1913; (15) Altona, June 19-22, 1914.
[110] These are the official figures. Dr. F. A. Schmidt, in a review
of “Zwanzig Jahre Spielkurse” on pp. 143-152 of the 1911 _Jahrbuch für
Volks- und Jugendspiele_, gives the totals as 14,301 men and 6233 women.
CHAPTER XV.
PER HENRIK LING, FATHER OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN SWEDEN.
For more than a century gymnastics in Sweden has been undergoing
development along three more or less distinct lines, educational,
military, and medical, _i.e._, as an integral factor in school life,
as an agent in the training of men for the army and navy, and as a
therapeutic measure. The Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics at
Stockholm, where teachers of these various branches receive their
preparation, was opened in 1814, and its originator and first director
(1814-1839) was Per Henrik Ling. He was born November 15, 1776, in
Småland, one of the southern provinces, where his ancestors had lived for
seven generations or more. Up to the time of his grandfather, Mathias
Månsson (1687-1748), they had belonged to the peasant class; but this
man, taking the name Ling, prepared himself for the ministry and married
a clergyman’s daughter. His son, Lars Peter Ling (1723-1780), who
followed the same calling, was settled in the country parish of Ljunga,
in Kronoberg county, and died there when Per Henrik, the youngest of
six children, was only four years of age. A year and a half later the
mother, a great granddaughter of the famous Swedish author Olof Rudbeck
and herself a woman of superior intelligence, married the new pastor, but
died in 1789.[111]
[Illustration: FIG. 32.—Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839).]
These early bereavements, acting on the serious, sensitive, and
affectionate nature of the boy, and in spite of his stepfather’s watchful
care, gave a touch of sadness to the whole period of his childhood, to
which he rarely referred in later years, and then only in the fewest
possible words. The romantic scenery about his home must have heightened
this effect, besides producing others of its own. The church and
parsonage stood near the border of a lake encircled by forests, and all
around stretched desolate heath, a strange jumble of hills and broken
rocks, swamps and reedy lakes, and forests of pine and deciduous trees
with here and there a cleared space in their midst. In 1784 he left these
scenes to attend the _läroverk_ (higher classical school) in Vexiö,
capital of the same district, where the botanist Linnæus had studied
sixty years before. Here he gave evidence of rich mental gifts, a strong
will, and a fondness for independent and original thinking and acting;
but in November of 1792, taking part in certain boyish pranks, he broke
a pane of glass in the rector’s house one Sunday morning, and left the
school rather than accept the harsh terms imposed as the condition of his
reinstatement. In February of the next year, however, upon furnishing
proof of repentance, continued progress in his studies, and good conduct
meanwhile, he received from the rector a certificate admitting to the
university in Lund.[112]
The young Ling was registered as a student in the Småland _nation_ at
Lund—the “nations” are provincial clubs at the Swedish universities, and
each student is expected to enroll himself in one of them, according to
his birthplace—on April 19, 1793, and remained there during the spring
and fall semesters. In September of 1796 he wrote to Lund from Stockholm
requesting a university certificate, and on the 22nd of the following
November applied for a clerkship in one of the city offices at the
capital, where an older brother, Carl, was already installed in a similar
position. Two days later he received the appointment. April 9, 1797, in
a letter to his stepfather, he refers to “these years” in Stockholm,
and tells of private lessons in French and German which he is giving to
bookkeepers outside of office hours. Although he registered with the
Småland nation at Upsala December 21, 1797, and took out his certificate
there on June 5, 1799, he seems never to have attended that university
through an entire semester, and there is no record of the theological
examination which he is reported to have passed on the former date.[113]
It will be seen that not much is definitely known, then, regarding
his life in the years 1794-1799. It was plainly a time of poverty and
struggle, and it is not strange that even the members of his own family
and his nearest friends learned little or nothing of its secrets from
his lips. By the time he left Stockholm for Copenhagen, in the summer
of 1799, he was able to speak French, German, and English,—the first
of the three with especial ease—and this fact alone may explain the
legend of extensive wanderings on the Continent and in England. He
possessed, however, a quick mind and undoubted talent for language, and
was a diligent and enthusiastic student of any subject that aroused his
interest. Moreover, it was not necessary to leave Sweden in order to find
natives of those countries with whom he might converse, and it now seems
probable that he resided at first near Stockholm as private tutor and
later in that city itself as clerk during most or all of the period in
question. Although there is nothing impossible in the frequently repeated
story of travel and military service in foreign parts, but very little
direct evidence has been urged in its support.[114]
In July of 1799 Ling arrived at Copenhagen, and remained in the Danish
capital for more than five years, until September or October of 1804.
According to his own statement he entered the university there March 27,
1801. Although he was voluntarily enrolled on the side of the Danes when
Nelson and his English fleet, by the battle fought in Copenhagen harbor
April 2, 1801, broke up the Northern Alliance, the company to which he
belonged was not brought into action on that occasion. Linguistic studies
continued to engross his mind at first. He worked diligently in the Royal
Library, took every opportunity to extend his knowledge by conversation
with foreigners, and acquired complete mastery of the Danish language,
both written and spoken. Afterwards his attention became transferred from
language to literature. Schelling, the distinguished Jena professor and
the favorite philosopher of the Romantic school of writers in Germany,
was then at the height of his fame. Among his enthusiastic auditors had
been a young Norwegian, Henrik Steffens, who appeared in Copenhagen in
1802, full of the new doctrines, and began to lecture there on philosophy
and on Goethe. Through him Oehlenschläger, soon to be hailed as Denmark’s
foremost poet, caught the spirit of the Romantic movement and began to
breathe new life into the old Norse mythology, rousing in the breasts
of his countrymen a feeling of Scandinavian nationality. These men
introduced Ling to the treasure-house of the Eddas and the Northern
sagas, whose gods and heroes were thenceforth never absent from his
thought. After composing short poems in French, German, and Danish, and
translating into Swedish the “Balders Död” (Balder’s Death) of Johannes
Evald, the chief lyric poet of Denmark, he wrote himself, in Danish,
a three-act comedy, _Den Misundelige_ (The Envious Man), which was
published in Copenhagen in 1804. Here also he conceived the plan of his
later dramatic works, designed to set forth momentous epochs in Swedish
history. “Eylif the Goth,” printed in Stockholm in 1814, was written at
this period, and reveals his desire to revive in the rising generation
the old Norse vigor.
Perhaps it was the opportunity afforded for practice in a foreign
language that first attracted Ling to the fencing school in Copenhagen
conducted by two French _émigrés_, Beuernier and the Chevalier de
Montrichard. For three years he continued to frequent the place, and
made such progress that Montrichard gave him a paper which certified to
his great skill with the foil and his ability to give instruction in the
art. There is a story that Ling had suffered from gout in the arm, as
one result of the privations to which he was constantly subjected, and
finding the case much relieved by his fencing, was thus led to study
the effects of exercise in general. At any rate, he visited the private
gymnasium which Nachtegall had started in Copenhagen in the fall of 1799
(see page 179). GutsMuths’s “Gymnastics for the Young” appeared in 1793
and Hjort’s translation into Danish six years later, and two volumes of
Vieth’s “Encyclopedia of Bodily Exercises” were published at this time;
but how much Ling was indebted to these German sources for inspiration
and suggestion is purely a matter of conjecture.[115]
In the fall of 1804 he returned to Sweden, to act as substitute for the
aged fencing-master at the University of Lund. The latter died shortly
after his arrival, and Ling, who had applied for the position December 8,
was appointed his successor, at a small salary. Writing to a Copenhagen
friend December 28th he says that the fencing-master at a Swedish
university must be able to give instruction in vaulting the horse, and he
wishes therefore to have a good vaulting buck sent him. A riding-school,
also, is about to be opened, and his assistance is wanted there. Though
he has almost entirely lost his skill in that art he is confident that
practice will to some extent restore it. At that time gymnastics proper
was unknown in Sweden, but Ling soon arranged apparatus for general
exercise, and some years later, when a new university building had been
completed, he was allowed to use an older one for this purpose and as
a fencing hall.[116] In 1806 he began to apply himself to the study
of anatomy and physiology. A year later he had worked out a system of
bayonet fencing and was practising it with his pupils. He seems to have
won the respect and esteem of teachers and students alike. The new
exercises became very popular, and it was not long before interest in his
fencing method, a simplification of the French, and in his gymnastics
as well, spread beyond the bounds of Lund. Invitations to introduce the
double art were received from Gothenburg, Malmö, and Christianstad, and
in the first and second of these cities, at least, he gave instruction
repeatedly during the course of the long summer vacations. Thus
Gothenburg papers of July 9 and 10, 1807, announce his presence there
for six weeks to give instruction “in all parts of the art of fencing
and in gymnastics;” another of July 25, 1809, informs the public that
he will remain three months to teach fencing, gymnastics, and swimming;
and again July 5, 1811, he gives notice that until the middle of August
he will receive pupils in sabre and foil fencing and gymnastics. On the
occasion of this last visit arrangements were also made to have him give
instruction in “the art of swimming and other gymnastic exercises” to
certain poor children of the city.
Ling remained eight years in Lund. In 1809 he married Sofia Maria
Rosenqvist, and a daughter, Jetta, was born April 8th of the following
year. “Agne,” a tragedy in five acts, his most successful dramatic work,
was printed there in 1812, and a year after his death was presented on
the stage in Stockholm at the opening of the new theater. The condition
of Sweden just at this time was a desperate one. Gustavus IV had allowed
intense hatred of Napoleon to draw him into the great coalition of 1805
(the third, formed by England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden), and as a
consequence French troops had occupied Swedish Pomerania and in 1807 had
taken Stralsund and Rügen, the last of the Swedish possessions south
of the Baltic. By opening his ports to English vessels the King next
incurred the enmity of Russia, whose troops invaded and conquered the
whole of Finland in 1808, and so deprived the Swedes of territory which
had been theirs for centuries. Gustavus was meanwhile deserted by his
English allies, his armies were driven back from Norway, and the Danes
invaded the southern provinces. In 1809 he was dethroned, and succeeded
by his uncle, Charles XIII. One of Ling’s poems, “Gylfe” (1810, 1812,
1816), deals with this loss of Finland, which the Swedes bitterly
deplored, and shows how intense was his patriotism and his hatred of
Russia. We have here the reason for his desire to see his countrymen
strong in body and soul, and hence prepared to meet the enemy. This was
the inspiring motive of his poems and his gymnastics alike, though in the
latter he saw a means of restoring health, as well as developing the
race and defending the fatherland. One who visited him in Lund in 1812
refers to his enthusiasm and to the system introduced into his methods
of instruction. During these eight years he had been thinking out the
principles upon which his later work was based, seeking first of all to
understand the human body and discover its needs, and then to select and
apply his exercises intelligently, with these needs in view. Nachtegall,
in Copenhagen, had already begun to train teachers of gymnastics for
the army and the schools of Denmark, and now Ling conceived the idea of
opening in Stockholm a central training school from which all Sweden
should be supplied with teachers of the new art.
With this plan in mind he went up to the capital early in 1813, applying
first for the position of fencing-master in the Royal Military Academy at
Karlberg, just outside the city to the northwest, and then, on January
29th, handing in to the recently appointed Committee on Education a
written proposal of the new institution. He refers to what he has already
accomplished in Lund, Malmö, and Gothenburg, explains his purpose in
seeking to make Stockholm a center of influence for the physical training
of the young, and asks government approval and support for the project.
To the secretary of the Committee, Jakob Adlerbeth, he brought a letter
of introduction (dated January 15, 1813) from Esaias Tegnér, at that
time a teacher in the University at Lund, who had roused the Swedes in
1808 by his “War Song for the Militia of Scania,” three years later won
for himself national fame and the great prize of the Swedish Academy by
his patriotic poem “Svea,” and was soon to receive worldwide recognition
as the author of “Frithiofs Saga” (1825). Ling was already favorably
known for his own literary labors, and appears to have been fortunate in
his Stockholm quest from the start. He was given the Karlberg position,
at a salary of 250 rix-dollars and lodging; the Committee received his
proposal February 1st, and the same day reported the matter to the King
with its strong recommendation; and a royal letter of May 5th formally
approved the plan. Ling was to receive a salary of 500 rix-dollars as
director of the school, an annual allowance of 100 more to cover the rent
of a room for his exercises, and a single grant of 400 rix-dollars for
the purchase of equipment. The salary was doubled in 1830, and before
his death was raised again to 2000 rix-dollars. The school was opened
in 1814, and at the Committee’s suggestion the King gave it some time
later the name it still bears—The Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics
(_Kongl. Gymnastiska Central-Institutet_).[117]
In the northern suburb Norrmalm, at what is now the corner of Hamn-Gatan
and Beridarebans-Gatan and on the site ever since occupied, Ling equipped
the necessary rooms—a gymnasium, a fencing hall, and others—in some old
buildings which had once belonged to a cannon-foundry. Soon considerable
improvements were possible, for in a letter dated December 13, 1815, the
King informed the Committee that a further grant of 9800 rix-dollars had
been made, in order to provide for the better housing of the Institute
and its director. The next fall means were furnished for an assistant,
and others were added from time to time until in 1830 the personnel
included, besides the director, a head teacher and two ordinary teachers.
Lars Gabriel Branting, who had already been his assistant for a year
at Karlberg, became second teacher at the Institute in 1818, and head
teacher in 1830; Carl August Georgii was made extra teacher in 1829 and
regular teacher six years later; and Gustav Nyblæus joined the staff as
assistant teacher in 1838.
Ling believed that gymnastics had a rightful place in education,
medicine, and national defence, and almost from the start instruction
was accordingly given in the three corresponding branches, educational,
medical, and military gymnastics. He continued to teach fencing to the
cadets at Karlberg until 1825, and on the 4th of December, 1821, was also
appointed instructor in gymnastics and fencing at the Artillery School
in Marieberg, about equally distant to the southwest, in the latter
capacity receiving a salary of 300 rix-dollars. In 1810 the Swedish
Diet had elected Bernadotte, one of Napoleon’s marshals, to succeed the
childless King Charles XIII. He assumed the title Crown Prince at once,
and from 1818 to 1844 reigned as Charles XIV. Quick to see the importance
of Ling’s work for the army, he had officers detailed to complete the
course at the Institute and afterwards employed to teach gymnastics and
bayonet fencing to the rank and file. Soldiers from cavalry and artillery
regiments in the city were also sent to the school to receive practical
instruction in the same arts, and Branting and Ling were allowed to
introduce them among the troops assembled in the various training camps.
The later order giving these exercises a place in all Swedish regiments
did not meet with a cordial reception at the start; but afterwards, when
it was learned that French and Prussian soldiers were being drilled
in bayonet fencing, investigation and comparison led to the choice
of Ling’s method in preference to either of the others, and thus won
for it a somewhat tardy recognition. In 1836 he published a manual of
gymnastics (_Reglemente för Gymnastik_) and another of bayonet fencing
(_Reglemente för Bajonettfäktning_) for use in the army, and in 1838 a
small handbook covering both subjects (_Soldat-Undervisning i Gymnastik
och Bajonettfäktning_). In view of the general absence of well-equipped
gymnasia and teachers thoroughly trained in the system he found it
necessary to limit the exercises to simple forms, and to such as require
little or no apparatus.
Medical gymnastics he had begun to develop after the first year in
Stockholm. The new ideas not unnaturally aroused much bitter opposition
on the part of conservative physicians, but he went his way nevertheless,
and was content to let the future determine the value of his method of
treatment. His school gymnastics comprised only a few strong movements,
in which the pupil himself and his fellows constituted the most important
apparatus. Swedish educational gymnastics in its present form is a
comparatively recent growth, and its introduction in the elementary
schools of the state and in schools for girls was not brought about until
long after Ling’s death. The first law requiring physical training in the
secondary schools for boys was published in 1820.
In spite of his regular duties as director and teacher, Ling’s literary
activity was unceasing. For some years he belonged to the Gothic
Society, organized by Tegnér in 1811, and the moral support of its
distinguished members was of no slight assistance in the long struggle
to win recognition for his work at the Institute and to see it firmly
established in spite of small beginnings and scant resources. In 1816
he delivered public lectures on the Northern Myths. Three years later
appeared his “Symbolism of the Eddas, for the Unlearned,” a prose work;
and his “Asarne” (the Aesir, or Northern gods), including the entire
mythology and ancient legendary history of the Scandinavian race, first
published in 1816, was reissued in revised and more complete form in
1833, winning for him the great prize of the Swedish Academy. This august
body of eighteen scholars, created by Gustavus III in 1786 after the
pattern of the French Academy, paid him the further tribute of election
to a seat in its midst, and he was accordingly made a member by the King
in 1835. He was also given the title Professor, and decorated with the
Order of the North Star. A long series of dramatic and other poetical
works was added to those already mentioned, so that his collected
writings[118] fill three large volumes, of whose more than 2500 pages
only about 350 have to do with gymnastics.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.—Ling’s grave at Annelund, near Stockholm.]
Ling’s first wife died in 1817, and he had previously lost two sons,
leaving him only the daughter Jetta. About two years later he married
Charlotta Catharina Nettelbladt (1798-1889). Of their seven children
only five survived him, and three of these became teachers of
gymnastics—Hjalmar (1820-1886) and Hildur (1825-1884) at the Institute,
and Wendla (1834-1911) both there and at two normal schools for women.
After some years of impaired health, his own death occurred in 1839, on
the 3d of May. He was buried at Annelund, a few miles north of the city,
where he owned some property, and the grave, on a high bank overlooking
Brunnsviken, a bay of Lake Mälaren, is now marked by a memorial stone
erected by friends in 1848. Branting and Georgii were the men he
considered best fitted to carry on his work. The task of arranging his
literary remains he laid upon the latter of the two in company with
Dr. P. J. Liedbeck (1802-1876), who had been one of his pupils and
afterwards taught anatomy at the Institute and had married his daughter
Jetta in 1833. The year after his death they accordingly published,
in the incomplete and often fragmentary form in which he had left it,
his “General Principles of Gymnastics,”[119] a treatise begun as far
back as 1831. After an opening section devoted to the laws of the human
organism, the book takes up, in order, the principles of educational,
military, medical, and aesthetic gymnastics, and closes with a few pages
of miscellaneous suggestions and comment. It is a small volume of less
than 250 pages, and like the rest of Ling’s writings possesses little
of present interest to any but the student of history. As one of his
successors at the Institute has said, his greatest service to gymnastics
was the attempt to give it a scientific basis, and it must therefore
change and develop with every advance in the sciences upon which it rests.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
All the earlier sketches of Ling’s life must now be viewed in the
light of recent critical studies by Carl August Westerblad, of Upsala,
and particularly his “Pehr Henrik Ling: en lefnadsteckning och några
synpunkter” (Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & Söner, 1904). His later
discussion of “The Ling Gymnastics in the Days of Its Founder” (1913)
has just been mentioned in a footnote. To other articles referred to in
footnotes should be added one by Jetta Ling Liedbeck in _Tidskrift i
Gymnastik_ =3=, 870-891 (1893), originally published in _Aftonbladet_
(Stockholm) in 1852.
Massmann’s translation of Ling’s writings, and Rothstein’s version of the
Ling gymnastics, were spoken of on p. 123.
FOOTNOTES:
[111] E. Wrangel in _Lunds Universitets Årsskrift_, =9= (1913), Nr. 6;
and Richard J. Cyriax in _Svenska Gymnastiken i In- och Utlandet_, =9=,
92-94 (1913).
[112] Westerblad 1904, p. 6.
[113] Ibid., p. 7.
[114] The story appears, along with other statements unsupported or
flatly contradicted by later investigations, in Atterbom’s address before
the Swedish Academy May 29, 1840 (Proceedings =20=, 82-202), von Beskow’s
memoir of 1859 (pp. vi and vii), and Georgii’s “Biographical Sketch” of
1854 (p. 2). On the contrary see Törngren in _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_,
=4=, 415 (1896), Westerblad 1904 pp. 7-12, and Norlander in _Lunds
Universitets Årsskrift_, =9= (1913).
[115] The chief authority for this Copenhagen period is E. C. Werlauff’s
“Bidrag til P. H. Lings Biographie,” in _Frey: Tidskrift för Vetenskap
och Kunst_ (Upsala), 1848, pp. 92-105. Werlauff (1781-1871), later well
known as historian and teacher in the University, was employed in the
Royal Library at the time of Ling’s sojourn in Denmark and became his
close friend. See also Westerblad 1904, pp. 13-21.
[116] See Carl Norlander, “Per Henrik Lings första Gymnastik- och Fäktsal
med dithörande redskap” (Lund, Ph. Lindstedts Univ. Bokhandel, 1908).
[117] Kungl. Gymnastiska Centralinstitutets Historia 1813-1913. Med
Anledning av Institutets Hundraårsdag utgiven af dess Lärarekollegium.
Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & Söner, 1913.
[118] Samlade Arbeten af P. H. Ling. Utgifne under ledning af Bernhard
von Beskow. Stockholm, Adolf Bonnier, 1859-1866. Pp. 433-786 of vol. =3=
were also published separately, under the title “P. H. Lings Gymnastiska
Skrifter. Aftryck ur Lings Samlade Arbeten” (Stockholm, Adolf Bonnier,
1866).
[119] Gymnastikens allmänna Grunder af Ling, dels af Författaren,
dels enligt dess yttersta vilja, efter dess död, redigerade och på
trycket utgifna. Upsala, Leffler & Sebell, 1840. On Ling’s writings
see Kåre Teilnann, “Lings Gymnastik og dens udvikling,” in _Gymnastisk
Selskabs Aarsskrift_ 1912 (Copenhagen, H. Hagerup, 1913), pp. 65-134;
C. A. Westerblad, “Den Lingska Gymnastiken i dess upphofsmans dagar”
(Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & Söner, 1913); and also Dr. E. M. Hartwell
in the _American Physical Education Review_ =1= (1896), 1-13 (Reprinted
in Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for the year
1898-99, =1=, pp. 539-546).
CHAPTER XVI.
LING’S SUCCESSORS AT THE CENTRAL INSTITUTE IN STOCKHOLM.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.—Lars Gabriel Branting (1799-1881).]
Immediately after Ling’s death, and in accordance with his wishes,
_Branting_ was appointed Director in his stead, and retained the position
for twenty-three years (1839-1862). Born July 16, 1799, he had grown
up a weak and sickly boy, and in the very first year of the Institute
had been sent to Ling for treatment by means of medical gymnastics.
Improvement was rapid, and the master was so impressed with the evident
talent of his young patient that he offered to train him as a teacher
of the art. Thenceforth the relation between the two resembled that
of father and son. For several years Branting was a student at the
Karolinska Mediko-Kirurgiska Institut (the largest medical college in
Sweden) and attended clinics in the Serafimer-Lazarett (hospital),
receiving instruction in chemistry under Berzelius, and showing such a
fondness for anatomy and physiology that A. A. Retzius bore witness to
his skill in the former subject. He learned to speak German, French,
and English fluently, and travelled repeatedly in Germany and Austria.
For more than twenty years he had been a member of the teaching staff
at the Institute, under Ling, assisting the latter with his fencing at
Karlberg and Marieberg, successfully introducing gymnastics among the
girls at the large Hillska School, just outside the city, where he became
teacher of gymnastics and music in 1831, and applying himself with marked
enthusiasm to medical gymnastics. Ling gave him the first place among
all his pupils, and turned over to him gradually a large share of the
responsibility for both theoretical and practical instruction.
As director, Branting devoted himself chiefly to the development of
medical gymnastics in accordance with the theories of his predecessor,
and brought that branch to a high degree of perfection. He insisted that
the beneficial effects are due not alone to changes produced in the
muscular system, but mainly to the influence exerted upon the nerves
and bloodvessels—a novel view at that time. He also elaborated a rich
store of gymnastic material, and worked out a terminology which with
a few changes is still generally employed in Sweden. It was at this
period, too, that the work of the Institute began to awaken interest
in other countries. As we have seen (pp. 122 and 123), two Prussian
army officers, Lieutenants Rothstein and Techow, were sent to Stockholm
to take the regular course of instruction in 1845-1846, and Rothstein
afterwards wrote extensively on the Ling gymnastics and in 1851 became
the first director of the Berlin “Central-Institute,” founded on the
pattern of the Swedish school but without its department of medical
gymnastics. Many other foreigners came for visits of varying duration,
and physicians, especially, were attracted by the new system, among them
Drs. Eulenburg and Neumann of Prussia, Melichor of Vienna, and Mathias
Roth of London. Branting was made a knight of the orders of the North
Star and the Red Eagle (Prussian) in 1847 and of St. Olaf and Dannebrog
(Danish) in 1855, and in 1873 Commander of the Order of Vasa. After
retiring from the position of Director in 1862 he was still actively
engaged in the practice of his profession until his death, March 27,
1881.[120] During his term of office the staff of instruction was
enlarged, provision having been made for one additional teacher in 1841,
and for two more, a man and a woman, in 1848. Some of these teachers
deserve particular mention. _Carl August Georgii_ (1808-1881), trained at
the Karlberg Military Academy and made lieutenant in the army in 1836,
had entered upon his service at the Institute ten years before Ling’s
death, was chosen by the latter to edit and publish, with Dr. Liedbeck,
his “General Principles of Gymnastics,” and in 1859 married the oldest
daughter of Liedbeck and Jetta Ling. He became head teacher in 1839,
giving instruction in anatomy and in the three branches of practical
gymnastics. In 1846 he went to Paris to introduce the Swedish system,
and the next year published in French a treatise on the Ling method
of kinesitherapy and physical education. Two years later, in 1849, he
withdrew from his Stockholm position and removed to London, where for
twenty-eight years he presided over a private institution, giving lessons
in fencing and conducting school gymnastics in addition to his medical
work. His published writings in England include “Kinesipathy” (1850), a
biographical sketch of Ling (1854), a lecture on “Rational Gymnastics”
(1873), and “Kinetic Jottings” (1881). The last four years of his life
were spent in Stockholm.[121] The first woman to be regularly appointed
as teacher at the Institute was _Gustafra Lindskog_ (1790-1851), in 1848,
and at her death she was succeeded by Ling’s daughter Hildur (1825-1884).
Besides assisting in medical gymnastics they both devoted a portion of
their time to the physical training of school girls. Two other teachers,
Hjalmar Ling and T. J. Hartelius, who began their activity during this
period, will be referred to again at some length farther on.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.—Gustaf Nyblæus (1816-1902).]
Branting’s successor was Col. _Gustav Nyblæus_ (1816-1902), who filled
the position of director for twenty-five years, from 1862 until 1887. He
was trained as an officer in the army, and had been added to the staff
of instruction at the Institute during the last year of Ling’s life.
The school, which had hitherto been under the control of the Stockholm
educational authorities, was now given its own board of directors,
appointed by the King; the length of the course was increased from
one year to two years of six months each (October 1 to April 1), and a
regular course for women was opened; and the royal statutes of January 8,
1864, reorganized it into three sections, the pedagogical or educational,
the military, and the medical, each with a head teacher and a second
teacher. Provision was also made for extra teachers, both men and women,
and a sum of over 167,000 rix-dollars was granted in 1863 for remodelling
and adding to the buildings. Nyblæus himself became the head teacher
in the section of military gymnastics, and the corresponding positions
in the other sections were given to Ling’s son Hjalmar, in school
gymnastics, and to Hartelius in medical gymnastics. Nyblæus visited at
various times other European countries to study the systems of physical
training employed in their schools[122] and armies, and published several
manuals of fencing for use at the Institute and in the Swedish army, and
others of gymnastics and military exercises to meet the needs of teachers
in elementary schools.[123]
_Truls Johan Hartelius_ (1818-1896) had taken the course at the Institute
in the year 1851-1852, and began to give instruction there immediately
after his graduation. He afterwards completed a course in medicine,
became a regularly qualified physician, and held the position of head
teacher in medical gymnastics from 1864 until 1887. Finding no text-books
suitable for his classes, he prepared small manuals of anatomy,
physiology and histology, and hygiene, and wrote a larger work on medical
gymnastics which was translated into German, French, and English. When
the corps of teachers decided to start a semi-annual periodical devoted
to gymnastics in all its phases and therefore began the publication
of the _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_[124] in 1874, Hartelius undertook the
editorship, and for fifteen years served in this capacity, contributing
many articles on his own and related subjects and important biographical
sketches of fellow workers along similar lines.[125]
To _Hjalmar Fredrik Ling_ (1820-1886) Swedish educational gymnastics is
largely indebted for its present form, and the school gymnasium for the
nature and arrangement of the equipment now in common use. He also made
it possible to introduce physical training generally in the elementary
schools and in schools for girls. The only surviving son of Per Henrik
Ling, he was born in Stockholm, April 14, 1820, received an education
equivalent to that given in the Swedish secondary schools, completed
the course at the Institute (1842), and was installed as teacher there
in 1843, devoting himself to educational and medical gymnastics under
Branting’s direction, and studying anatomy with Dr. Liedbeck. In 1854
at Georgii’s suggestion he went to Paris to spend the better part of
a year in study there, paying particular attention to anatomy, both
human and comparative, but attending also Claude Bernard’s lectures on
experimental physiology and the clinics at the Hôtel Dieu, and meanwhile
acquiring a thorough knowledge of the French language and literature.
During this same period he also paid two long visits to Berlin, to
assist in introducing the Swedish method of medical gymnastics at the
institutions of Drs. Eulenburg and Neumann, and took advantage of the
opportunity to familiarize himself with the German language. From Paris
he returned to Stockholm, became head teacher under Branting in 1858, and
upon the reorganization of the course in 1864 was placed at the head of
the section of school gymnastics. This position he continued to fill for
eighteen years, until his retirement on a pension in September of 1882.
For some years he was also in charge of the physical training in one of
the city’s higher schools for boys (the Nya Elementarskola).
[Illustration: FIG. 36.—Hjalmar Fredrik Ling (1820-1886).]
Following closely the ideas of his father, and with the sole thought of
completing the latter’s work, he devised new forms of apparatus adapted
to the needs of the school and so arranged them that large numbers could
exercise at the same time, in this way greatly increasing the number
of useful exercises and bringing them all within the reach of every
pupil. Then collecting a mass of gymnastic material he selected the most
suitable exercises and arranged them in groups according to the effects
produced upon the individual, providing further an orderly progression
in each group, and combining these into a complete lesson-scheme—the
original “day’s order.” It was now possible to assign to different ages
and degrees of ability, and to the two sexes, the appropriate material
from the graded series of exercises, so that the benefits of gymnastics
could be extended to girls and younger boys.
Hjalmar Ling published two pamphlets[126] intended primarily as guides
for his students at the Central Institute, and in 1866 a work on
kinesiology (_Rörelselära_) or the science of bodily movements. He also
assisted Hartelius with the _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_ and for ten years
(1874-1883) was one of its associate editors and a frequent contributor.
Although not a clear writer, he was a deep thinker and an industrious
compiler, familiar with the whole range of gymnastic literature,—German,
French, and English—as a glance at the pamphlets just mentioned will
show. He left behind a carefully arranged collection of nearly two
thousand pen-drawings of positions and movements used in gymnastics, made
by himself. These are preserved in the library of the school, and about
a quarter of the entire number appear in a book[127] since published
with the help of a gift from Mrs. Mary Hemenway, the founder of the
Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. The younger Ling died March 9, 1886,
and was buried near his father at Annelund.[128] He sought first of all
to analyze the conditions of school life and the needs of the growing
child, and then to devise forms of exercise, to select, invent, and
arrange apparatus, and to elaborate a lesson plan which should meet these
conditions and needs efficiently and with the greatest economy of time
and effort. Opinions may differ as to the merits of particular details
in the system he helped to perfect, but his method of approach to the
problem deserves ungrudging commendation.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.—Lars Mauritz Törngren (1839-1912).]
The head teachership in school gymnastics left vacant in 1882 was filled
by the promotion of Captain _Lars Mauritz Törngren_ (1839-1912), at that
time second teacher in the same section and an officer in the navy; and
he was further advanced to the position of director upon the retirement
of Nyblæus in 1887. A third year (medical gymnastics only) was now added
to the course, the school year was lengthened, and other minor changes
were made. In 1894 a grant of 80,000 kronor made possible improved
facilities for instruction and practice. Among Professor Törngren’s
earlier writings had been a book on school games (_Fria Lekar_,
Stockholm, 1879; 2d ed., 1880), the fruit of a visit to England in 1877,
and an official manual of gymnastics for the Swedish navy (1878; 2d ed.,
1879). _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_ for 1890 (=3=: 145-195) contains further
observations on physical education in English public schools, based on a
second visit in 1889. In the spring of 1893 he came to the United States,
and was present at the department Congress of Physical Education and the
eighth annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement
of Physical Education held in Chicago in July of that year. He was on
the editorial staff of the _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_ from its beginning in
1874, assuming more direct responsibility after Hartelius withdrew in
1888, and revised and reissued the pamphlets (_Tabeller_ and _Tillägg_)
prepared by Hjalmar Ling. His last and most important book was a manual
of gymnastics[129] for use in institutions which train teachers for the
elementary schools. Major _Carl Silow_ (1846-), second teacher in the
section of school gymnastics 1883-1906, was very active and successful
in the work of his department and made further improvements in the
construction and arrangement of apparatus. The official handbook of
gymnastics for the Swedish army and navy published in 1902[130] is
largely his work. For careful arrangement of material, detailed treatment
of the different exercises, and clearness and beauty of the illustrations
it is probably the most satisfactory manual of gymnastics yet issued
anywhere.
Törngren was succeeded as director by Col. _Viktor Gustav Balck_ (1844-)
in 1907, and two years later retired from his position as head teacher
in the section of school gymnastics. Balck, who in turn gave place to
Major _Nils Fredrik Sellén_ in 1909, had been head teacher of military
gymnastics since 1887, following Nyblæus. He has been an ardent advocate
of outdoor and other sports for young and old, organizing societies
for their promotion, editing a series of a dozen volumes devoted to
the various forms,[131] and founding in 1881 the _Tidning för Idrott_
(Sporting Times). He has also done much to promote the formation and
spread of popular gymnastic societies, and to make Swedish gymnastics
known in other countries. With this object in view he accompanied squads
of fellow countrymen to _Turnfeste_ at Brussels in 1877 and 1880, and
in Paris in 1889 and 1900. Exhibitions were also given in London,
Copenhagen, and Berlin, in connection with these trips. Together with
Major Silow and other teachers he was a member of the committee which
prepared the new handbook of gymnastics for the Swedish army and navy.
THE CENTRAL INSTITUTE IN 1900
The influence of the system of school gymnastics perfected by Hjalmar
Ling and his associates and successors in the Central Institute at
Stockholm began to be felt abroad, in Europe and America, in the years
just preceding and following the appointment of Törngren as director.
For this reason, as well as its age and intrinsic merits, a description
of the institution as it was in the fall of 1900, based on first-hand
studies[132] deserves a place here.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.—The Stockholm Central Institute of Gymnastics.]
Leaving behind him the cluster of rocky islands which once held all
there was of Stockholm, and passing north on the mainland through one
of the linden-bordered promenades of the “King’s Garden,” the visitor
soon reaches Hamn-Gatan, its farther limit. If he turn to the left
along this busy thoroughfare his eye will be caught by a steep hill
just ahead, and at its summit a slight bend of the street to the right
reveals on the south side a low and very plain two-story building
constructed, like most of its neighbors, of large bricks coated with
plaster over the entire free surface, and painted a weather-worn buff.
From the crest of this hill the ground is seen to fall away rapidly on
the other side, so that the building gains an additional story at its
corner on Beridarebans-Gatan. The north front stretches for about two
hundred feet along Hamn-Gatan. Beridarebans-Gatan crosses this street
obliquely, the two forming an acute angle in which the property of the
Institute lies. This explains its unsymmetrical arrangement; for half
way down the Beridarebans-Gatan side, which measures about 240 feet, a
building forty feet wide has been carried in at right angles to that
street. Near the center of the Hamn-Gatan front is a large archway,
and over this in raised gilt letters are the words “_Kongl. Gymnastika
Central-Institutet_.” It leads into a triangular paved court (A)
surrounded by plain structures of plastered brick, and a second archway,
bisecting the opposite side of this court, communicates with a gravelled
yard (B) at the rear. The director and some of the other teachers make
their homes in the three-story sections C and D, which also contain
servants’ quarters and on the ground floor a few dressing-rooms. The
lower story of E is devoted to medical gymnastics for free patients,
and overhead are the library (remarkably rich in the older literature
of physical training) and a reading room, two lecture rooms, and others
for student use and for the storage of anatomical collections and the
like. A hallway starting from the east angle of the court opens into
the men’s dressing room (F), with shower baths adjoining. G and H, two
stories in height, contain on the ground floor large halls equipped for
school gymnastics and fencing, and above these two other halls intended
for patients who pay for treatment by medical gymnastics, and employed
also for school gymnastics and as classrooms. There is a small one-story
building (I) for practical exercises in anatomy, and opposite this in the
yard is a low shed (J) about 80 by 30 feet, with corrugated iron roof and
smooth concrete floor, supplied with a variety of gymnastic apparatus.
It is open except on the street side. In the narrow rooms marked KK the
schoolboys who receive their physical training at the Institute store
their slippers and hang up coats and caps.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.—The Stockholm Central Institute of Gymnastics.
(Diagram showing arrangement of rooms).]
The general control is vested in a Board appointed by the King and
composed of a president and three other members, of whom one must
belong to the army or navy, one must be a teacher (_skolman_), and
one a physician. The corps of instruction includes a head teacher and
a second teacher in each of the three departments, the hygienic or
educational, the military, and the medical; two women teachers, one of
them in hygienic and the other in medical gymnastics; and extra teachers,
both men and women, as these are required—a total of fifteen persons
in 1900-1901. The royal statutes provide that all who give instruction
at the school must be graduates from its courses. From among the head
teachers the King selects one to act as director of the Institute, in
immediate charge of the buildings and their contents and of the work that
goes on in the halls and classrooms. This appointment is for five years,
and is renewable.
The school year, divided into a fall and a spring semester, begins on the
15th of September and closes on the 25th of May, with an intermission of
two weeks at Christmas time. For male pupils three courses are offered.
The “Instructor’s Course,” extending through a single school year, gives
the one who completes it the right to teach gymnastics in the elementary
schools (_folkskolor_) or in one of the lower (five-year) secondary
schools (_lägre allmänna läroverk_). In the “Gymnastic Teacher’s Course”
a second year is added, and the graduate is eligible to a position as
teacher of gymnastics in any public educational institution, civil or
military, in the country. The course in medical gymnastics, leading to
the title “Gymnastic Director,” requires still another year of study
and practice, although for students of medicine the prescribed work may
be shortened. No person, unless he is himself a physician, is allowed
to give treatment by means of medical gymnastics in Sweden except in
cases where a duly authorized physician has prescribed it in writing.
Young women can complete both the gymnastic teacher’s course and that
in medical gymnastics in two years, on account of the smaller range of
practical exercises to be covered.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.—Students (men) at the Stockholm Central Institute
in 1900-1901.]
The men in attendance are for the most part young army and navy officers
who have received orders to take the course. The balance consists of
non-commissioned officers in the army and of young men in civil life. All
must have passed such an examination as would entitle them to admission
into one of the national universities; they must also possess a sound
constitution and some aptitude for gymnastic exercises, and for all
but physicians the age limit is thirty years. Young women must present
certificates which would allow them to enter the national Higher Normal
School for Women. There are no charges for tuition in any of the courses,
and foreigners are admitted to them within certain limits. The total
number of men present at any one time is commonly about sixty, and the
women, formerly not half so numerous, are now rapidly approaching the
same figure. During the autumn of 1900 there were in the student body
two men from Greece and one each from Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the
United States, while Russia, Holland, and England were represented among
the women.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.—Class of Women Students at the Stockholm Central
Institute.]
[Illustration: FIG. 42.—Class of Schoolboys at the Stockholm Central
Institute.]
Work begins on Monday morning and continues through Saturday afternoon,
as in other Swedish schools, for Sunday is the only holiday. The
theoretical courses come at nine and at one o’clock, and the practical
courses at seven, eleven, and two. At ten o’clock three hundred boys
from the New Elementary School (it is a higher school, in spite of the
name) visit the Institute to receive their gymnastic lesson in three
of the large halls, affording material for practice in teaching, and
further opportunity is given at three, when two hundred more arrive
from the Jakobs Secondary School. The hours from eight to nine and
twelve to one are free, and there are no exercises after four o’clock.
The theoretical courses of the first-year men include: (1) Lectures and
recitations on the anatomy of the bones, ligaments, and muscles (three
times a week through the year); (2) the physiology of the circulation and
of the organs of nutrition, including respiration (twice a week during
the second semester); (3) the theory of school gymnastics, covering the
discussion of the various positions and movements, the commands employed
and the common faults observed, the arrangement of exercises in a lesson,
and progression in each lesson and from day to day (twice a week through
the year); (4) military gymnastics (twice a week during the first
semester), and (5) the theory of fencing (twice a week through the year).
There is one hour of practical instruction each day in school gymnastics,
another in fencing with foils, and a third in fencing with saber and
bayonet, together with daily practice in teaching under the supervision
of the director and members of his staff. The five hundred boys who come
to the Institute meet in the various halls according to school grade, and
the hundred or so in each room are subdivided into a half-dozen squads,
which exercise separately under the direction of first-year students
during part of the lesson and are watched and corrected by them when the
whole roomful is receiving commands from a single leader.
The theoretical courses of the second year include (1) the study of
anatomy three hours a week in the lecture room, and in addition two
exercises a week in the dissecting room during a large part of the year;
(2) two lectures a week on the physiology of the blood, the circulation,
respiration, digestion, and excretion; (3) lectures on kinesiology or
the theory of bodily movements (twice a week); (4) the theory of school
gymnastics (twice a week); and (5) instruction and practice in the
forms of treatment employed in medical gymnastics, followed by special
study of the class of cases likely to be met with in the schools. The
practical work, besides that just mentioned, again covers the branches
of school gymnastics, fencing with foils, fencing with saber and
bayonet, and actual teaching, the students in the two years meeting in
each case at the same hour and in the same rooms. In the hour devoted
to school or hygienic gymnastics, however, the division of the class
into two sections for exercises in hanging and climbing and in jumping
and vaulting allows some difference to be made in the work of the two
years; and in the fencing, where the men are grouped in squads, the work
of each corresponds with the stage of progress reached by its members,
and the second-year students also meet twice a week by themselves, in
the presence of their instructors, for practise in free fencing. Each
man is now required to take his turn at directing one of the classes of
a hundred or more schoolboys for a week at a time, making out his own
“day’s order” for the opening exercises, in which the entire class work
as a unit, then supervising the exercises of the different squads, and
handling the whole number again during the marching and running. One
of the instructors at the Institute is always present, but the student
assumes all the responsibility of leadership for the time being. The
second-year man is also called upon to give individual instruction in
foil fencing twice a week to men of the lower class, as assistant to
the regular instructor, and a somewhat similar plan is followed in the
courses in saber and bayonet fencing. Though swimming is not included
in the curriculum, no one can receive a certificate as graduate from
the “Gymnastic Teacher’s Course” without furnishing evidence that he
possesses a satisfactory degree of skill in that art.
Third-year pupils attend lectures six times a week in anatomy, the
physiology of the muscles and the nervous system, and pathology, are
further instructed in the theory and practice of medical gymnastics, and
assist in giving treatment to patients who visit the Institute. Women in
both courses receive separate instruction throughout, for there is no
such thing as coeducation at the school. Their theoretical work includes
anatomy, physiology, the theory of bodily movements and of pedagogical
gymnastics, medical gymnastics, and pathology; and there is practise in
pedagogical and medical gymnastics, and opportunity to teach gymnastics
daily, under supervision, at one or the other of two private schools.
PROPOSED REORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL INSTITUTE (1912).
On April 8, 1910, the King of Sweden appointed a special committee to
consider plans for the reorganization of the Royal Central Institute
of Gymnastics, and the provision of a new site and buildings. Their
report,[133] dated March 7, 1912, recommends numerous radical and
far-reaching changes in the venerable institution, and would substitute
civilian for military teachers of gymnastics in the great majority of
Swedish secondary schools. As was to be expected, it has called out much
discussion on either side. Whatever the outcome may be, the document
remains a memorable study of every public aspect of physical education,
and the committee has rendered a service of the very highest value, not
only to the Swedes, but to all who are confronted by the problem of
training teachers for the physical education of the people.[134]
FOOTNOTES:
[120] _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_ =1=, 931-941 (1881).
[121] _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_, =1=, 989-999 (1881).
[122] See page 117 for his visit to Adolf Spiess at the Darmstadt
_Turnanstalt_.
[123] _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_, =5=, 680-687 (1904).
[124] Tidskrift i Gymnastik. Utgiven af Svenska
Gymnastikläraresällskapet. Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & Söner. Two numbers
a year through 1904, and four numbers a year since 1905. Organ of the
Swedish Association of Teachers of Gymnastics.
[125] _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_, =4=, 449-455 (1896).
[126] Tabeller för Gymnastiska Central-Institutets Lärokurs (och för
“friskrotar” af vuxne). The first (1866), second (——), third (1869), and
fourth (1876) editions are by Hjalmar Ling. A fifth (1888) and sixth
(1897) were edited by L. M. Törngren.
Tillägg vid användningen af de Tabeller hvilka varit begagnade för
Gymnastiska Centralinstitutets pedagogiska lärokurs. The first (1869),
second (1871), and third (1880) editions are by Hjalmar Ling. The fourth
(1894) was edited by L. M. Törngren.
[127] En Samling Gymnastiska Ställningar och Rörelseformer, utgifven
af Kungl. Gymnastiska Centralinstitutet i Stockholm. Stockholm, P. A.
Norstedt & Söner, 1893. An English edition bears the title-page: “A
Collection of Gymnastic Positions. Issued by the Royal Gymnastic Central
Institute, Stockholm. Stockholm: Royal Print, P. A. Norstedt & Sons,
1893.”
[128] _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_, =3=, 365-367; =6=, 891-903, 950-952.
_Gymnastik Selskabs Aarsskrift_ (Copenhagen) 1912, pp. 93-134.
[129] Lärobok i Gymnastik för Folksskollärare- och
Folksskollärarinneseminarier. Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & Söner, 1905.
A German translation (“Lehrbuch der schwedischen Gymnastik”) by G. A.
Schairer was published in 1908 (Esslingen a. N., Wilh. Langguth).
[130] Handbok i Gymnastik för Arméen och Flottan, utgifven på nådigste
befallning. Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & Söner, 1902. Two volumes.
[131] Illustreradt Bibliotek för Idrott. Stockholm, C. E. Fritze.
[132] During three months, from September 17 to December 15, 1900, the
writer was a student at the Central Institute, in almost daily attendance
at some of its classes and a frequent visitor at others. A more detailed
description was published in the _American Physical Education Review_
(=5=, 301-311) for December, 1900.
[133] Underdånigt Utlåtande och Förslag angående Omorganisation af
Gymnastiska Centralinstitutet äfvensom rörande anskaffande af nya lokaler
för detsamma. Stockholm, Ivar Hæggström, 1912.
[134] A brief summary of the report is contained in the _American
Physical Education Review_ (=19=, 192-199) for March, 1914.
CHAPTER XVII.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS OF SWEDEN.
In Sweden, as in Germany,[135] there are two types of public schools,
the elementary, common, or _folkskola_ (people’s school), and the
secondary, or _allmänna läroverk_, corresponding in general to the German
_Gymnasium_ and _Realschule_ and the French _lycée_. An American college
student at the end of his sophomore year has received an education
roughly equivalent to that of the graduate from a Swedish _allmänna
läroverk_. In the matter of equipment, organization, and method there
is such uniformity throughout Sweden that if allowance is made for less
favorable conditions in smaller cities and in country regions a fairly
accurate, and more definite conception of physical training in the
schools will be obtained by confining attention to Stockholm, the capital
and largest city.[136] It will be convenient to consider, in order, the
_folkskola_, the _allmänna läroverk_, the higher schools for girls, and
private schools.
Of the more than 35,000 children of school age in Stockholm over
three-fourths attend the thirty _folkskolor_. These are grouped in eight
school systems, corresponding to the parishes or districts into which
the city is divided, and at the head of every such system is placed a
“first teacher.” The different grades in a single building are cut up
into parallel sections, so that the average number of children under one
teacher does not exceed 35. The great Kungsholms _folkskola_, intended
to accommodate 3,500-4,000 children, and one of the largest school
buildings in the world, is in many ways typical of them all, in spite
of its greater size. It consists of two L-shaped portions, each four
stories high with a basement, their long arms forming the opposite ends
of a rectangular gravelled yard and separating this from the street, and
their short arms turned toward each other on one side of the yard. At the
center of this third side is an archway, flanked by one-story structures
which contain offices and the janitor’s quarters. Next to these the
loftier gymnastic halls complete the front by joining on to the ells. The
area of the yard is not far from one and a half acres. The classrooms,
ninety-four in number, occupy the entire street side of the building, and
open into long corridors which look out upon the central yard and lead
down into it. On every floor drinking fountains and stationary washbowls
supplied with hot and cold water are distributed at frequent intervals
along these passage-ways. Besides the recitation rooms there are eight
larger halls for pasteboard, wood, and metal sloyd and the sewing
classes; three rooms for the use of cooking schools; two gymnasia; two
bathing outfits, which include dressing-rooms, a hot-air chamber, shower
baths, and a pool seven by fourteen feet; steam disinfection apparatus,
laundry and drying rooms; dining rooms, and counters where milk and bread
are sold to the children; the living apartments of the First Teacher, and
a room for the use of other teachers; offices, and janitor’s quarters.
The old wing is heated by steam and the newer one by hot air. The total
cost, exclusive of the site, was over $200,000.
In the classrooms of this building the single desks are arranged one
behind the other so as to leave aisles between adjacent rows and next
to the wall at the sides and rear. Space is thus afforded for simple
marching exercises and for others which either require no apparatus or
may be practised with the help of desks and seats. The two halls set
apart for gymnastics measure about 55 by 25 feet, and have a height
considerable greater than that of the other rooms. Their side walls are
lined with stallbars, and the floor space is divided crosswise into
three nearly equal parts by two pairs of Swedish horizontal bars, when
these are set up; but the bars and central post of each pair can be
dropped below the floor and concealed from view by trapdoors when not
in use, and then the entire area from wall to wall is left free. The
remaining equipment includes Swedish ladders, climbing poles, ropes
and rope-ladders hanging from the ceiling, long benches for use at the
stallbars, and bucks for vaulting exercises. Each of the other school
districts has also its special room or rooms for gymnastic instruction.
The three lower classes of the various _folkskolor_ have marching and
other exercises without apparatus daily, in the schoolroom, the work
alternating with other instruction and directed by the same teacher. In
the case of higher classes special periods, three a week as a rule, are
set apart for the gymnastic lesson, and this is given sometimes in the
schoolroom, utilizing the desks and seats as apparatus, but at least once
a week in the gymnasium, where its duration is commonly about half an
hour. Little or no change of costume is attempted, beyond the laying off
of coats by the boys. The school report for 1898 relates that “since many
of the children wear wooden shoes, unsuitable for the gymnastic lesson,
four hundred pairs of special shoes were bought and distributed among the
districts for use in the gymnasia.”
As regards teachers in the _folkskolor_, the women outnumber the men
five to one. All must have completed a four-years’ course at one of
the twelve Swedish training colleges for this grade of instructors,
and of that course gymnastics everywhere forms a part, directed by a
graduate of the Central Institute at Stockholm and occupying three
hours a week throughout the entire four years. There is always a model
school attached, which affords the future teacher an opportunity to test
his skill and to acquire experience in this as well as other branches
of instruction. In Stockholm teachers receive additional counsel and
direction from a special instructor in gymnastics, who divides his time
among all the _folkskolor_ in the different districts; but the general
guide followed is C. H. Liedbeck’s Manual of Gymnastics.[137] Besides the
formal exercises this book contains a large number of games. These are
introduced occasionally as part of the gymnastic lesson, and are also
encouraged in the schoolyards during recess. Of the twenty-eight tables
of exercises contained in the manual only six call for no apparatus of
any sort, six can be given with nothing more than desks and seats, and
the balance require a hall supplied with stallbars, Swedish horizontal
bars, poles, ropes, ladders, benches, mats, etc.
Instruction in military tactics and target shooting is given to the older
boys in the spring and early fall, under the general direction of an army
officer who is assigned to this service in all the elementary schools of
the city. There is drill by squads in exercises for the recruit, together
with occasional company drill, a few longer marches in battalion, and
training as subalterns for the most advanced. During the summer months
pupils may also receive instruction in swimming, at a large swimming
school in Lake Mälaren, near one of the city bridges. Over 3000 boys and
2500 girls availed themselves of this privilege in 1899, and a total of
6000 in 1900. The number of these who could swim increased in the former
year from 602 at the beginning of the season to 1510 at its close.
There are seven _higher schools_ for boys at Stockholm. At two of these
the gymnasium is a separate building of brick, located at one side of a
gravelled yard at least an acre and a half in extent. Each cost about
$17,000 and consists of a lofty main hall, eighty by forty or forty-five
feet, with a wing containing dressing-rooms, the teacher’s office, and
a few shower baths. At a third school the gymnasium occupies a spacious
two-story wing which projects from the rear of the main building; in two
other cases a hall in the main building is fitted up for gymnastics,
and pupils in the remaining two schools go for their exercises to the
halls of the Central Institute. The following list of apparatus noticed
in the gymnasium of the Realläroverk (a non-classical higher school
for boys) is fairly representative: Sixty sections of stallbars, seven
Swedish horizontal bars, two vertical Swedish ladders and two horizontal
ones, eight rope ladders, twenty-four climbing ropes and eight poles,
two double inclined ropes, a few sections of stallbars continued to
the ceiling as ladders, storming boards and short benches for use with
stallbars, bar saddles, two Swedish horses, two vaulting boxes, two
bucks, jump stands with cord and pins, some thin mats about four feet
by three, and a number of cheap fencing foils. The horizontal bars are
arranged to drop beneath the floor. The inclined ropes are attached to
the ceiling at either end, and to a hook beneath the floor, when in use,
by means of a tackle block at the center. Near the ends they are crossed
by vertical ropes, used by the pupils in reaching or leaving the inclined
ropes. All of these ropes can be hoisted out of the way readily, and a
small trap door conceals the hook.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.—Rear View of a Higher School for Boys (_Norra
Latinläroverket_) in Stockholm. (The gymnasium occupies the lower half of
the projection in the foreground).]
The royal statutes require that in every public secondary school in
Sweden there shall be at least three hours a week of pedagogical
gymnastics, arranged in daily half-hour periods when possible. In
Stockholm the division into half-hour lessons is the most common one.
Less frequently there are three periods of an hour each, and in a few
cases a class meets twice for a half-hour and twice for an hour, or
fifty minutes four times a week, or forty minutes six times, or in four
one-hour periods. In a majority of cases the time chosen for exercise
lies between ten and one o’clock, though the hours from two to four in
the afternoon are used not infrequently. Military exercises take the
place of gymnastics for boys of the sixth to ninth years in the early
part of every fall semester, occupying three hours daily for twenty days
as a rule, and during this period their usual school duties are cut down
by a corresponding amount. Each of the seven schools has its special
teacher of gymnastics, and no one is eligible to such a position until he
has completed a two-years’ professional course at the Central Institute
of Gymnastics. In the fall of 1900 these teachers and their assistants
were all officers in the army, and five of the nine were on the staff of
instruction at the Institute. One had the rank of major, and the rest
were captains and lieutenants.
Occasionally a “weak section” is formed of boys selected from the whole
or part of the school, but in general the division into classes is based
upon school grade, the boys of the sixth to ninth years exercising
together as a rule, and the rest variously subdivided according to their
numbers. The size of some of these classes is noteworthy. They rarely
contain fewer than 60 or 70, while 100-125 is not an unusual number, and
150-200 are sometimes seen together under a single teacher. To facilitate
the handling of so many it is usual to separate them into squads of from
12 to 20, on the basis of physical fitness, and to place at the head
of each squad one of the best pupils, who sees that his portion of the
lines is correctly formed at the beginning of the hour, reports upon
attendance, and directs the work of his division when the teacher is not
giving commands for the whole class. Before exercising it is the practice
to remove coats, collars, cuffs, and suspenders, and the dickey, or
detachable shirt-front, if a boy has arrived at the dignity of wearing
that common article of clothing. Shoes are exchanged for rubber-soled
canvas slippers, of the sort so often seen in American gymnasia.
The ease and quickness with which apparatus is made ready or put out of
the way by pupils must strike every observer. It is this which allows
such frequent changes during a single lesson, and the great variety of
forms given to the “day’s order.” As a rule the teaching which one sees
is remarkably well done. Perfect discipline and prompt and accurate
execution of commands are secured, and yet there is no oppressive
military strictness, nor anything but the pleasantest relation between
teacher and pupils. Opportunities for relaxed attention and brief
outbreaks of high spirits are frequent, the boys take hold with a vigor
which proves their interest, and many squad leaders, even the youngest,
show uncommon earnestness and ability to direct. In a few cases it will
be found that the control over a class is less perfect and listless,
slovenly work is tolerated. Where pupils are sent to the Central
Institute for their instruction, and receive it largely from students
at that school, the frequent change of leaders and the great variety
of personality among them produce a natural mingling of good and bad
teaching.
So far as the fencing instruction given to boys of the four higher grades
was observed it formed a portion of the gymnastic lesson, and included
brief practice in the fundamental positions and movements by the whole
class, and an exchange of thrusts and parries between two opposing lines.
The military exercises of the same boys in the fall semester cover target
practice with the rifle, besides squad and company drill and the manual
of arms. The school yard serves not only for these evolutions and for
games, but part or all of the gymnastic lesson is often given outdoors
when the weather is favorable.
[Illustration: FIG. 44.—The Gymnasium of a Mixed School in Trelleborg,
Sweden.]
In all Sweden there are only two _higher schools for girls_ under state
control. These are the Royal Higher Normal School for Women (_Kungl.
högre lärarinneseminarium_), in Stockholm, and the model school
associated with it. One of the halls in the school building used by the
two in common is fitted up as a gymnasium, and except in the lowest
classes at the model school a half-hour of gymnastic instruction is
given daily throughout the entire course of study at both institutions.
In the case of _private schools_, the great majority of which are for
girls only, or admit boys to none but the lowest classes, there is no law
prescribing the amount of physical training to be given, and the practice
varies accordingly. Thus in 1899 there were 46 such schools, with a
total of 5157 pupils, and out of this number 2909, in 33 schools, were
reported as receiving instructions in gymnastics. The oldest institution
of them all, with 240 pupils, has (1900) nothing but a small room some 40
by 25 feet and 9 feet high, supplied with a Swedish horizontal bar, six
climbing ropes, three long benches with balance beams on the under side,
a vaulting box, jump stands, and a rubber ball. Most of the lower classes
exercise here for half an hour every other day, and the higher ones twice
a week, under a special teacher. Another school for girls provides for
nearly the same number of pupils a room 60 by 20 feet and of good height,
situated on the ground floor, and for its size as well equipped with
apparatus as any of the _allmänna läroverk_. Its gymnastic instruction
is in the hands of Major Silow, of the Central Institute, assisted by
students in the course for women at that school. His capacity as an
organizer and his rare talent as a teacher render the quality of work
done by these girls quite as good as the best to be seen in the boys’
schools of the city.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Dr. F. A. Schmidt of Bonn and Captain C. J. J. Lefebure of Brussels,
who visited Stockholm in 1899, have recorded their observations and
impressions in the following:
Dr. Schmidt—“Die Gymnastik an den schwedischen Volksschulen nebst einem
Anhang: Die Militärischen Übungen an den höheren Schulen in Stockholm.”
Berlin, R. Gaertner, 1900 (Reprinted from the _Monatsschrift für das
Turnwesen_ for 1900). Second edition 1909. Third edition, revised and
enlarged, under the title “Die schwedische Schulgymnastik,” in 1912
(Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung).
Captain Lefebure—“L’Éducation Physique en Suède.” Brussels, H. Lamertin;
Paris, A. Maloine, 1903. Second edition 1908 (Paris, Felix Alcan).
The Swedish Department of Church Affairs and Education (_Kungl.
Ecklesiastik-Departmentet_) publishes statistical reports covering the
work of the common schools (_Berättelse om folkskolorna_) and the higher
schools for boys (_Berättelse om Statens Allmänna läroverk för gossar_).
The board of directors of the common schools and the rectors of the
various higher schools for boys in Stockholm also prepare elaborate
annual reports which contain information regarding the physical training
of pupils.
FOOTNOTES:
[135] See footnote page 128.
[136] A description based primarily on extensive personal observation,
supplemented by interviews and the study of official documents, has so
many advantages over a compilation made at a distance that this chapter
has been left substantially in the form given to it soon after the period
of residence in Stockholm referred to on page 163. It therefore applies
to conditions as they existed in 1900. A second, briefer visit in the
spring of 1913 revealed minor changes, but the general impression given
by the article as it first appeared in the _American Physical Education
Review_ (=6=, 1-13) for March, 1901, and in condensed form in _Mind and
Body_ (=11=, 105-111) for July, 1904, remains essentially correct.
[137] Gymnastiska Dagöfningar för Folkskolan. Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt &
Söner, 1881. Second edition in 1891. A German translation by J. A. Selter
and J. H. Jarisch, under the title “Das schwedische Schulturnen,” was
published in 1907 (Marburg, N. G. Elwert).
This book has now been superseded by Törngren’s manual of 1905 (see
footnote on p. 162). Special attention should also be called to Elin
Falk’s three-volume “Dagövningar i Gymnastik för Stockholms Folkskolor”
(Stockholm, P. Palmquist, 1915 and 1916).
CHAPTER XVIII.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN DENMARK.[138]
[Illustration: FIG. 45.—Franz Nachtegall (1777-1847).]
Denmark was the first European state to introduce physical training
into its schools as an essential part of the course, and to prepare
teachers of that subject by offering systematic instruction in theory
and method of gymnastics. The leader in this movement, and its director
for more than forty years, was Franz Nachtegall (1777-1847), the son
of a Copenhagen tailor. His early education was received in a private
school, and he had begun the study of theology in the university; but
the death of his father prevented him from taking the final examination
for his degree and threw upon him the support of an invalid mother. For
a time he gave private lessons in Latin, history, and geography, but the
small pay necessitated such long hours that his health began to suffer.
From boyhood he had been interested in forms of physical activity, and
as a university student gained considerable proficiency in fencing
and vaulting. Inclination, therefore, and the reading of GutsMuths’s
“_Gymnastik für die Jugend_”[139] started him upon what was to become
a life-work. He began to teach gymnastics, first to some students at
his own home, and then, early in 1798, to a club of university students
and tradesmen which he organized and directed. This brought him, a
year later, an invitation to give lessons in the private school which
Court Chaplain Christiani had opened in May of 1795, in accordance with
the philanthropinistic ideals of Basedow and his followers. A rival
institution, the Schouboe school which Nachtegall had himself attended
as a boy, soon secured a share of his time for the same purpose. Other
schools in the city, public as well as private, followed the example of
these two, so that by 1805 at least nine were furnishing instruction in
gymnastics to their pupils.
On November 5, 1799, having definitely decided to give himself wholly
to the new calling, Nachtegall opened a private outdoor gymnasium in
the yard of number 45 Østergade, the first institution in modern times
devoted exclusively to physical training. The 5 pupils with whom he began
had increased to 25 by the end of the year, and in the winter of 1803-04
the number reached 150, both children and adults, under six teachers whom
he had himself trained. When in 1804 the King appointed him professor
of gymnastics in the university he had already given, for two years,
lectures on the history and method of physical training, with the help
of a former pupil, to an audience made up of students there and in a
college for teachers, with an admixture of military men. Meanwhile the
training of military and naval cadets and the instruction in gymnastics
given in schools for non-commissioned officers had also been entrusted
to him, and when the King established a Training School for Teachers of
Gymnastics in the Army (_det militære gymnastiske Institut_), by decree
of August 25, 1804, Nachtegall became its first director. From this as
a center the new teaching was to be spread throughout the entire army
and navy, including the Norwegian regiments. Four years later civilians
were also admitted to the courses, the institution now attempting to do
for the schools and the people at large what it had already accomplished
for the army, and to prepare instructors for teachers’ colleges and the
elementary schools especially. The usual length of the course was fifteen
to eighteen months, though the first pupil was graduated in August of
1809. By 1814 the civilian training school, caught in the stress of hard
times, had ceased to exist. Meanwhile a total of only 31 students had
completed its course, but 10 of these went out to occupy positions at
_Seminarier_ (teachers’ colleges), and so became in turn the instructors
of other teachers-to-be.
The disastrous results of collisions between Denmark and Great Britain
during the Napoleonic wars (1801-1814) and the economic distress
which followed the loss of Norway (1814) made the period 1809-1825 an
unfavorable one for educational reforms, and yet the efforts of the
Danish government to introduce gymnastics into the curriculum of the
schools did not stop altogether with provision for the training of
teachers. An ordinance of November 7, 1809, stated in general that
grammar or secondary schools (“_de lærde Skoler_”) should furnish
instruction in gymnastics “when and where it was possible” to do so.
In the school code of 1814 gymnastics was made an integral part of the
course for boys in all elementary schools (_Folkeskoler_)—nearly three
decades before any other European country took such action. Wherever
the teacher possessed the requisite ability he was to give his pupils a
daily lesson in gymnastics, outside of school hours proper, and for this
purpose every school must have the necessary apparatus and an outdoor
space of 800-1200 _Alen_ (3200-4800 square feet). At the _Seminarier_
gymnastics became a required subject under the regulations of 1818,
and in 1821 Nachtegall was appointed _Gymnastikdirektør_ (Director
of Gymnastics), with oversight of both civil and military gymnastics
throughout the state. But with here and there a notable exception, the
result of so much favorable legislation left much to be desired. Teachers
were most of them without training, hard times interfered with the
purchase of grounds and apparatus, and appreciation of the importance of
school gymnastics as a pedagogical measure was by no means general.
Beginning with the middle twenties and lasting till the death of King
Frederick VI (December 3, 1839) there was some improvement. In Copenhagen
itself gymnastics was now introduced in many public and private schools,
and some of the village schools in Copenhagen county took similar action,
assisted by the government (1826), which desired to see all the schools
in a single county reached before further statewide measures were
attempted. Within a few years this had been accomplished. November 25,
1826, a circular was sent out to the school authorities all over Denmark
urging them to do what they could to favor instruction in gymnastics.
In the summer of the next year a considerable number of teachers from
Copenhagen county came to the city for a course in gymnastics. They felt
the need of some opportunity for practice with children along with the
instruction they themselves received. At Nachtegall’s suggestion the
King therefore ordered (August 21, 1827) that 40 to 50 children from one
of the public schools should be received at _det militære gymnastiske
Institut_, for instruction in gymnastics, and that this public school
should establish such relations with the Institute that both together
would constitute a teachers’ college which might serve as a normal school
of gymnastics (_Normalskole for Gymnastikken_), where not only the
military and civil pupils at the Institute but also teachers in public
and private schools could have an opportunity to conduct classes under
supervision. The Normal School, under this new arrangement, was opened on
January 28, 1828 (at the same time a new building, at Solvgaden barracks,
was ready for use), and during that year more than 200 teachers were in
attendance, 160 boys from the garrison school coming to the Institute to
serve as a model school. In summer their place was taken by pupils from
charity schools.
June 25, 1828, the King approved the _manual of gymnastics_[140] for use
in the middle and common schools (_Folkeskolerne_) on which Nachtegall
and four other members of a commission appointed for the purpose had been
at work for a year. This was the first book of the sort to be authorized
by any European government. Copies were sent (4000 of them) at the King’s
expense to all Danish schools and school authorities. On the same day,
June 25, was issued an order which required the immediate introduction
of instruction in gymnastics in all schools throughout the state. A
city inspector of gymnastics was appointed in Copenhagen, where every
child received three lessons a week and the teachers were most of them
non-commissioned officers. It was estimated that by the end of 1830 2000
elementary schools (_Almueskoler_) were already complying with the order,
and that by the time of the King’s death 2500 out of the (approximately)
2600 public schools in Denmark were making at least some provision for
systematic bodily exercise.
The secondary schools were at first slow to take adequate measures, but
a special order of September 20, 1831, directed that this be done just
as soon as circumstances permitted. An administrative order of February
14, 1832, made the introduction of instruction in gymnastics a necessary
condition of permission to open any private school for boys. September
14, 1833, Nachtegall’s manual and regulations for secondary schools[141]
received the King’s approval, and it was published the following year.
In 1836 he was sent on a tour of inspection among the _Seminarier_, to
see what was being done in them and to give any needful counsel and
suggestions. He found the interest in gymnastics general, but lack of
sufficient apparatus in some places and in others faulty methods, and
therefore arranged to have the teachers of gymnastics at three of the
_Seminarier_ take a summer course at the Normal School in 1837. In
obedience to an order of March 7, 1838, he made a second tour, primarily
to inspect the Latin schools, but took advantage of the opportunity to
visit the _Seminarier_ again.
Hitherto it had been boys and young men alone who were reached by
gymnastics in the schools, but an order of March 28, 1838, given in
response to Nachtegall’s proposal, established an experimental school
for girls. Thirty pupils, ranging in age from six to fifteen years, were
selected from among the girls at the garrison school, and beginning in
the spring of the same year these received three lessons a week from
five teachers (three sergeants and two women) at the Military Gymnastic
Institute, under the general direction of Nachtegall and a physician.
The success of this experiment suggested a normal school of gymnastics
for women (_Normalskole for Kvindegymnastik_). An order of February 20,
1839, approved the plan, and prescribed that women teachers, and others
who wished it, should receive an opportunity at the Institute to become
acquainted with methods of teaching and that the exercises practised
there and the mode of progression adopted should serve as a model for the
schools for girls which introduced gymnastics. These latter were also put
under Nachtegall’s supervision. The number of pupils at the Normal School
now increased. In the summer of 1839 lessons in the new subject were
begun with girls in the royal navy schools (_Søetatens Skoler_), and many
other Copenhagen schools took a similar step.
After the death of Frederick VI, December 3, 1839, Nachtegall’s own
efforts (he was now sixty-two years old) began to slacken. In 1840 and
1843 he made new tours of inspection among the _Seminarier_. In 1842
he turned over to la Cour the headship of _det militære gymnastiske
Institut_, but continued to discharge the duties of _Gymnastikdirektør_
until his death, which occurred May 12, 1847. He was not the inventor of
a system of his own, but borrowed his types of exercise from Dessau and
Schnepfenthal, and used the manuals of GutsMuths as a guide. He was a
good teacher and organizer, tactfully winning the goodwill and support
of leading men, skilful in accommodating himself to actual conditions,
and indefatigable in his efforts to advance the work to which he had
committed himself with so much devotion. Denmark owes it to him that
during the first third of the nineteenth century she held the leading
place among European nations in the realm of physical education.[142]
Captain Niels Georg la Cour (1797-1876), who succeeded Nachtegall
as Director of Gymnastics in Denmark (1847-1870), met with little
success in his endeavor to improve conditions. As head of the Military
Institute he published a new manual for the army, upon which was based
his later manual for the elementary schools.[143] But interest was now
at low ebb. Beginning in 1859 it came to be the practice to supply the
need of teachers of gymnastics in the _Seminarier_ by “loaning” them
non-commissioned officers for a term of three years. (This continued
to be the rule until 1901!) In the schools of Copenhagen, also, and in
garrison towns, such instruction was in the hands of military men. But in
the army the broad educational aims of gymnastics had been subordinated
to mere attainment of skill, so that the soldier too often regarded it
with dread as a means of discipline and punishment. These officers,
too, held themselves aloof from the general school life and from the
other teachers. When la Cour, who possessed more energy than tact and
lacked Nachtegall’s conciliatory manner, called attention to neglect
or defective equipment revealed by his tours of inspection, and when
official circulars directed the school authorities to exercise a keener
and more vigorous oversight, the result in many cases was to arouse a
feeling of irritation and indignation.
Upon la Cour’s retirement from the position of _Gymnastikdirektør_
in 1870 this office was abolished, and a new one was created—that of
inspector of gymnastics (_Gymnastikinspektør_) for civil schools only.
But there was no actual separation from military control, for until 1904
it was the army which supplied candidates for the place. The first man to
fill it (1870-1886) was Col. Johann Theodor Wegener (1810-1886). He chose
for his assistant Captain (later Lieut.-Col.) Julius Amsinck (1833-1902),
director of the Military Institute[144] 1867-1885, who later became his
successor (1886-1899). Amsinck published in 1883 a manual for school use,
based on that of la Cour.
After the war of 1864 with Prussia and Austria, in which the Danes lost
Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg, there was a period of great depression,
soon followed, however, by a variety of measures looking toward national
regeneration. In two institutions which date from this time, the rifle
clubs (_Skytteforeninger_) and the people’s or folk high schools
(_Folkehøjskolerne_), gymnastics was among the means employed, as it had
been in Germany by Jahn and his followers a half-century before. For
some years before the outbreak of the war the attitude of Germany in the
Schleswig-Holstein dispute had been growing more and more threatening,
and in January, 1861, an artillery captain, Valdemar Mønster, proposed
in the columns of the Danish paper _Fædrelandet_ the organization of
voluntary clubs on the plan of the English National Rifle Association, in
order that young men subject to military service might have opportunity
to become familiar with the use of weapons and fit themselves to defend
the country’s right by force of arms. The suggestion met with general
approval, and a few months later a Central Committee, with Captain
Mønster as its secretary, was formed to guide and assist the rifle clubs
which were being started all over Denmark.[145] By the close of 1863
there were over a hundred of them in existence.
At first the _Skytteforeninger_ confined their attention to rifle
shooting and military drill, but after the war had given great headway
to the whole movement gymnastics began to be introduced as a related
activity, and gradually won for itself a more and more prominent place. A
firmer organization had now been effected, for the smaller clubs, whose
number had increased to several hundred, united into county rifle clubs
(_Amts-Skytteforeninger_). Denmark is divided for administrative purposes
into eighteen counties or _Amter_, and in 1871 the original Central
Committee was succeeded by a Board of Directors (_Overbestyrelse_)
chosen by representatives of the various units. According to information
gathered by the new _Overbestyrelse_, eleven clubs practised gymnastics
in 1872, and nine of these had 2100 members actively engaged, of whom 763
belonged in Svendborg county alone, where the efficient leadership and
persevering efforts of Captain Edvard Nielsen had contributed largely
toward such a favorable showing and had made that club a model for others.
The exercises were necessarily limited at the start to what could be
done in the open air and with little or no apparatus, or use was made of
barns or rooms for public gatherings. In 1871, at Ryslinge (island of
Fünen), the first special _Øvelseshus_ (house for exercise, gymnasium)
was erected. Other places were quick to follow the example, so that
by 1897 there were nearly 300 such buildings, provided by the club
members themselves, and in them 10,000 young countrymen were practising
gymnastics. Trained instructors could be borrowed from the army in
garrison towns and the regions adjacent to them, or school teachers were
employed or men who had returned from military service. Many clubs, in
order to secure better qualified squad leaders, organized brief teachers’
courses (_Instruktionsmøder_) in charge of army instructors. When
various people’s high schools, notably those at Askov and Vallekilde,
opened their doors for such leaders’ courses (_Delingsførerkursus_) in
gymnastics they became an important source of supply. The first course
of this kind at Vallekilde was given in 1878. A handbook of gymnastics
(“Vejledning i Gymnastik”) prepared for the rifle clubs by _Hærens
Gymnastikskole_ in 1882, at the instance of the _Overbestyrelse_, does
not appear to have been widely used, but Captain Amsinck’s manual of 1883
was made the basis of instruction.
At the general _Skyttefest_ (gathering of rifle clubs for competitive
shooting) in 1869 at Horsens the Svendborg county club, the university
club from Copenhagen, and others gave exhibitions of gymnastics which
must have contributed toward its spread, and this was still more true
of the general _Gymnastikfest_ at Svendborg in 1878 and the general
_Skytte- og Gymnastikfest_ at Nyborg in 1881, both of them arranged
by the Svendborg county rifle club. At the former there were nearly
1100 participants, who came from 16 towns and 110 country parishes.
Six hundred were from Svendborg county alone. County and lesser
_Skyttefester_ exerted a similar influence. Advantage was taken of the
interest thus aroused to seek state aid for the purchase of apparatus.
Captain Edvard Nielsen proposed such a measure at the meeting of
delegates in 1879, and a motion requesting the _Overbestyrelse_ to take
suitable steps led to an initial annual grant of 2000 Kr. from the
government, increased to 5000 Kr. in 1882 and to 6000 Kr. the following
year. Attempts to obtain similar grants to assist in the erection of
_Øvelseshuse_ and the giving of courses of instruction for squad leaders
(_Delingsførere_) met with no success at this time.
The people’s or folk high schools (_Folkehøjskoler_),[146] like the
rifle clubs, date from before the Schleswig-Holstein war of 1864; but
their great popularity and rapid spread began with the period of reform
which succeeded it. They are not public institutions, though nearly
all now receive a certain amount of government aid, but are privately
owned in most cases, or belong to a self-perpetuating corporation, and
depend for their success upon the personality of the director and his
associates. The total number opened in the years 1844-1911 was 143, and
80 of these were in existence at the close of the period. The great
majority of the students are young countrymen eighteen to twenty-five
years of age, who after completing the required course at free rural
elementary schools have been engaged in practical agriculture and
household duties, either at home or on some model farm. The attendance
in the years 1864-1884 averaged about 3000 annually, but doubled in the
following decade, and in the school year 1898-1899 reached a total of
3491 young men and 2646 young women. In 1906 the numbers at the different
high schools ranged from 10 to 400; 53 per cent of the pupils were
males, and it was estimated that a third of the young people among the
rural population passed through these schools, although attendance is
altogether voluntary. A few are coeducational, but the usual plan is to
offer a winter course of five to six months (November-May) to young men,
and a summer one of three months or more to young women. An hour a day is
allotted to gymnastics as a rule.
The people’s high schools and the rifle clubs have stood in close
relation with each other, some of the former organizing clubs of their
own, or supplying leaders for neighboring clubs, and others, like
the ones at Askov and Vallekilde, arranging for teachers’ courses in
gymnastics and rifle-shooting under professional instructors from the
army. The aims of the two institutions are similar in many ways.
Although the people’s high schools all give instruction in handwork and
household economics for women and many offer courses in agriculture,
horticulture, masonry, carpentry, etc., their chief purpose is
cultural—to mold character and ideals, inspire patriotism, train the
students to think for themselves, reveal the dignity and possibilities of
country life, and lay the foundation for later work in local agricultural
schools and schools of household economics. The lecture method prevails
in the classroom. Courses in history and literature may be considered
the backbone of the curriculum, with frequent discussion periods and
much singing of folk and patriotic songs and hymns. Students room in
the school dormitories, and are thus brought into close and sympathetic
association with each other and with their teachers,—the foundation of
that spirit of coöperation which is so characteristic of rural life in
Denmark today.
The revival of general interest in physical education in Denmark had its
origin thus among young adults, and not in the schools. At first it was
the GutsMuths gymnastics as developed by Nachtegall which they practised
in the rifle clubs and the people’s high schools, with the gradual
addition of exercises borrowed from the Jahn _Turnen_; but beginning in
1884 the Ling or Swedish system was introduced, and made rapid headway
until by the close of the century it had been generally adopted in the
people’s high schools, had outstripped its Danish-German rival in the
rifle clubs, and formed the basis of a new official manual for the
schools.[147]
It was not to be expected that the friends of the GutsMuths-Nachtegall
gymnastics would watch the encroachments of the foreign system without
a vigorous protest. The struggle began as early as 1885, with army
officers almost without exception opposed to the innovation, and a few
years later was at its height. The attention of school authorities was
drawn to the subject by conflicting claims put forward in the press and
by what the followers of Ling were already accomplishing in Denmark, and
some of them recognized that with the help of the new exercises school
gymnastics might perhaps be resuscitated, especially in the country,
where conditions were quite unsatisfactory.
The most important result of all this agitation was the appointment
(April 5, 1887) of a commission of three by the ministry of church and
school affairs (_Ministeriet for Kirke- og Undervisningsvæsenet_), to
recommend improvements in gymnastics as taught in the schools and to
present plans for the founding and organizing of an institution in
which men and women should be trained as teachers of gymnastics. Its
members were Lieutenant-Colonel Amsinck, the new state inspector of
gymnastics, chairman, communal physician (_Kommunelæge_) Axel Hertel,
and Professor K. Kroman. They spent several weeks in Stockholm, at the
_Centralinstitut_ and in the schools, and then went to Berlin for a
similar purpose. Upon their return they submitted a report (April, 1888)
containing a number of definite suggestions for the better organization
of physical education, the training of teachers, and the grouping of
exercises in a lesson plan. They also proposed the appointment of a
second and larger commission which should prepare a new manual of school
gymnastics along the lines indicated. This body was accordingly named
November 30, 1889. It included the former members, with the addition of
_Kommunelæge_ Chr. Fenger, regimental surgeon (_Korpslæge_) Johan Kier,
Cand. polyt. N. H. Rasmussen, and the head of _Hærens Gymnastikskole_,
Captain L. V. Schleppegrell. The result of their labors was the “Handbook
of Gymnastics” (_Haandbog i Gymnastik_) published in 1899[148] and at
once authorized by the government for use in all schools under its
control. The new manual follows the general principles of the Ling
gymnastics and adopts practically all of the Swedish exercises, but
uses also many of the forms already current in Denmark, and introduces
exercises on the horizontal and parallel bars, flying rings, and trapeze
along with others which require the apparatus commonly found in gymnasia
in Sweden.
The commission of 1887 had proposed that the government should start an
institution for the training of men and women as teachers of gymnastics
(_Gymnastik Læreranstalt_), with a two-years course of study and
practice. But in view of the unsettled condition of the whole question
the authorities were unwilling to take such action. Professor Hans Olrik,
director of the State Teachers’ Course (_Statens etaarige Lærerkursus_,
later known as the _Lærerhøjskole_) then suggested, in 1897, that
instruction in gymnastics be included as a separate division in that
course. The government gave its approval to the plan, the _Rigsdag_ voted
the necessary funds, 13,500 Kr., and on March 30, 1898, an official
announcement of the organization and character of the new course (_det
etaarige Gymnastikkursus_) was published. It was opened September 1 of
that year in N. H. Rasmussen’s _Gymnastikhus_ on Vodroffs Vej, under
the direction of Cand. theol. K. A. Knudsen.[149] The next year (1899)
Amsinck retired from his position as state inspector of gymnastics. His
successor, Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsing (1837-1904), already over sixty
years old when he was appointed to the office, died August 18, 1904, and
now, for the first time in the history of the inspectorship, it was given
(September 2) to a non-military man, K. A. Knudsen, the director of the
one-year teachers’ course.[150]
[Illustration: FIG. 46.—Knud Anton Knudsen (1864-).]
The training school for civilian teachers of gymnastics (_det civile
gymnastiske Lærerinstitut_) founded in 1808, and the normal school
of gymnastics (_Normalskole for Gymnastikken_) opened twenty years
later were both short-lived and both had been appendages of _det
militære gymnastiske Institut_; since 1859 the teachers of gymnastics
in the _Seminarier_ had been non-commissioned officers in the army,
assigned to this duty for three-year periods only; and though the
non-military schools were given a state inspector of their own in 1870,
this position had always been held by an army officer. But with _det
etaarige Gymnastikkursus_ of 1898-1899, the _Haandbog_ of 1899, and the
appointment of Knudsen to the state inspectorship in 1904 gymnastics in
the Danish schools entered upon an independent career. This fact was
made plain by a new school law (1899) which prescribed, among other
things, that no one should be regularly employed as teacher in the public
schools unless he had received professional training in a _Seminarium_.
The _nur-Turnlehrer_ was thus to give place to the _auch-Turnlehrer_,
an integral part of the teaching staff, and payment for instruction in
gymnastics was to be at the same rate as for any other subject in the
curriculum. It was therefore chiefly _Seminarium_-trained teachers, both
men and women, who attended the one-year course, and from 1901 onward
examinations based on the _Haandbog_ of 1899 were given to all candidates
for graduation at the sixteen _Seminarier_.[151]
In the higher (secondary) schools also gymnastics was to be taken out
of the hands of special or professional teachers and entrusted to
instructors who give a part of their time to other subjects. University
graduates already occupying positions in such schools and university
students who looked forward to teaching as a profession were therefore
found among the pupils in the one-year course, and in 1905 the government
decided to permit the work of that course to be spread over three or four
years in the case of students who wished to complete it at the same time
they were carrying on their studies in the university. April 1, 1911,
the one-year course ceased to be a part of _Statens Lærerhøjskole_, and
September 1, 1911, under a new name and as an independent institution
(_Statens Gymnastik Institut_), it moved into a building of its
own.[152] Two years before this (November 1, 1909) the authorities of the
University at Copenhagen had added to the faculty of that institution,
on a six-year appointment, a _Docent_ in anatomy, physiology, and theory
of gymnastics (Johannes Lindhard, a physician), under whose direction
students who desired to add instruction in gymnastics to other teaching
after graduation were allowed to take one of their minor courses in
preparation for the final examination (_Skoleembedseksamen_) leading to
a degree, and so qualifying them to become candidates for positions in
higher schools. The instruction in practical gymnastics and games was
to be given at _Statens Gymnastik-Institut_, or under the oversight of
its director, and was to be at least equal to that given in the one-year
course.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.—Interior of the Danish Central Institute of
Gymnastics, at Copenhagen.]
The demand for teachers trained in the _Haandbog_ of 1899 could not
be met by graduates from these more extended and thorough courses of
preparation, however. For men and women already employed in the schools
who could not afford to leave their regular duties the state therefore
arranged short vacation courses of four weeks each. Thirty-four attended
the first one of these, given in Copenhagen in 1899. The next year it
was decided to move them out into the country, to _Seminarier_ and
_Folkehøjskoler_, and the numbers rose at once to 200. Between 1900 and
1911 the work thus offered was completed by 1027 men and 1680 women—an
average attendance of 225. In 1913 it reached 349. Still briefer courses,
of a single week’s duration (_Instruktionskursus_), brought a measure
of preparation to older teachers who were unable to leave their homes,
and these were often attended by the same persons for several years
in succession. Two thousand five hundred and twenty-six men and 519
women were enrolled in them in the years 1901-1911. The total number of
teachers trained in the newer gymnastics, in the state one-year course,
the university, the sixteen _Seminarier_, and the longer and shorter
vacation courses reaches therefore well into the thousands, and to these
should be added the other thousands who have attended the month-long
leaders’ courses (_Delingsførerkursus_) arranged by the rifle clubs or
their _Overbestyrelse_ since 1889.
The Danes have not been the only ones to profit by the agencies just
enumerated. Up to 1911 the one-year course had been taken by 15
foreigners (4 men and 11 women), from Norway, Finland, Poland, Germany,
Switzerland, Holland, England, and America; and 49 foreigners (25 men
and 24 women) had completed vacation courses. At the invitation of
Yorkshire school authorities _Gymnastikinspektør_ Knudsen conducted a
special vacation course for English teachers at Scarborough in 1905, and
two graduates of the one-year course, H. G. Junker and H. P. Langkilde,
were afterwards employed to train teachers in the schools of West Riding,
Yorkshire. Langkilde was engaged by the British ministry of war in 1906
to introduce the Ling gymnastics in the army gymnasium at Aldershot.
Two other graduates of the one-year course, Braae-Hansen (in 1908, as
director) and Frøken P. Brandt (in 1909), were installed as instructors
in state-supported training schools for men and women teachers of
gymnastics, organized at the Southwestern Polytechnic Institute in
London. In 1908 Junker began to give one-month courses for English
teachers at Silkeborg, in Denmark, which have been largely attended by
both men and women (more than 80 in each of the years 1910 and 1911), and
in 1910 he opened in the same place a one-year course for Englishmen.
Danish women have also served as teachers of gymnastics at various
English teachers’ colleges and in the schools of that country.
The school code of 1814 had made practice in gymnastics obligatory, in
the case of boys, at all elementary schools (_Folkeskoler_), whether
town or country. A law of 1904 extended its provisions to include girls,
as well; and within six years of that date more than 95 per cent of the
girls in town and city elementary schools and nearly 50 per cent of those
in the country were receiving such instruction. Lack of suitable rooms
was the greatest difficulty which confronted the country schools. To
meet this condition the _Rigsdag_ voted that beginning with April 1,
1907, the state should bear one-half of the expense (up to 15,000 Kr.)
incurred by any community in building a gymnasium (_Gymnastikhus_) for
its schools. Two years later the grant was increased, so as to include
town schools, and made to cover the cost of providing playgrounds also.
It became necessary to withhold state aid after April 1, 1911, on account
of financial stringency, but up to that time nearly 300 gymnasia had been
erected in the country regions, at an average cost of about 5000 Kr. By
the following year (1912) 488 country schools had gymnasia of their own,
and 559 others were using rented gymnasia, usually those which belonged
to rifle clubs. The other two-thirds of the 3500 or more country schools
were obliged to content themselves with exercise out of doors on the
playgrounds, which are gradually being equipped with such gymnastic
apparatus as stall bars, Swedish horizontal bars, bucks, vaulting boxes,
etc.
Not content with merely providing facilities for physical education, the
_Rigsdag_ also appropriated funds sufficient for the appointment of 17
_Gymnastikkonsulenter_ (14 men and 3 women, most of them trained in the
one-year course) or assistants to the state inspector of gymnastics,
who are able to visit nearly 900 schools a year, arousing interest in
teachers, pupils, and parents, demonstrating the proper handling of
a class, meeting the teachers for conference and suggestions, and in
general working for a better understanding of the object and means of
physical education and greater uniformity in methods. A step which has
done much to improve the standing of gymnastics in higher schools was the
decision to grade pupils on their work in this subject, in connection
with two of their public examinations (the _Mellemskoleeksamen_, since
1907, and _Realeksamen_, since 1908, but not yet in the final or
_Studentereksamen_), and to give to such a grade (_Aarskarakter_) equal
value with those secured in any other branch of study or practice.
Starting thus among young adults in the people’s high schools and
rifle clubs, the newer gymnastics has made its way into the elementary
schools and the _Seminarier_ and thence into the higher schools and the
university. In contrast with what one sees in Sweden, the instruction is
almost wholly in the hands of civilians, regular members of the teaching
staff who give only a portion of their time to this branch; the average
number of pupils in a class is only about 30, instead of the 150 or even
200 sometimes led by a single teacher across the Sound; and the rooms
provided for exercise are smaller and more numerous—so frequently two
for a single school that this may be considered the rule. On the other
hand the Danish teacher receives at most a ten-months’ course of special
training, in contrast with the two years usually spent at the Stockholm
_Centralinstitut_.
It is now more than a hundred years since Denmark made gymnastics an
essential part of the curriculum of its public schools, antedating
Prussia in the step by over a quarter of a century; but her German
neighbor, on the other hand, takes precedence in the matter of
systematic efforts to foster games among school children. Minister
von Gossler’s playground order was issued in 1882, fourteen years
before its Danish counterpart, and the German “Central Committee for
the Promotion of Games,” formed in Berlin in 1891, was six years old
before a corresponding body was organized in Copenhagen. The beginnings
of the movement, in each country, reveal the influence of English
customs, and the ball games of the English schoolboy were among the
first forms introduced. In certain of the higher schools of Denmark,
particularly in boarding schools located in the country, open-air games
were already firmly established when in 1891 the Copenhagen Playground
Association (_Legepladsforening_) first undertook to bring them within
the reach of children in public elementary schools (_Folkeskoler_), by
opening playgrounds in various sections of the city and organizing the
play-life there. This attempt suddenly took on national proportions when
Wilhelm Bardenfleth, Minister of Church and School Affairs, on August
31, 1896, sent out his “Circular to all school authorities regarding
the introduction and regular use of games for children in the public
schools.”[153]
Games which require agility and strength, the Minister said, deserve a
place side by side with formal gymnastics, not only as healthful forms of
recreation, but because they train the players to make decisions promptly
and carry them out energetically, rouse a feeling of responsibility,
require subordination and coöperation, and play a large part in the
development of personality. Hitherto this valuable educational agency,
which supplements, but should not replace, gymnastics, has been left
too much to the initiative of the young themselves and the results
have been largely a matter of chance. School authorities should make
it their business to provide playgrounds of sufficient size and
conveniently located. Teachers must interest themselves in the matter,
joining the pupils in their sports, preserving order, and supplying the
necessary supervision and direction, and a place ought to be found in
the curriculum for such activities, in addition to voluntary practice
outside of school hours. The Minister announces his readiness to render
assistance in furthering the movement, by including the subject of
organized play in the annual vacation courses for teachers. Attention is
called to a list of books containing directions for a variety of games.
The Commission of 1889, appointed to work out a new manual of gymnastics,
was also preparing a brief guide to the use of appropriate games,[154]
and this, it was hoped, could be sent out to all public and private
schools.
On December 1, 1896, three months after the appearance of the Bardenfleth
circular, the Copenhagen Playground Association proposed to the ministry
an annual grant from state funds to be used in making it effective,
and offered to form a committee which should undertake to manage the
practical details of the project. The suggestion was approved, the
_Rigsdag_ voted an appropriation of 5000 Kr. a year for three years,
and the expenditure of the fund was entrusted to a group of men and
women from all parts of the country who met in Copenhagen April 11,
1897, at the invitation of the Playground Association, and constituted
themselves a National Committee for Promoting Group Games among School
Children.[155] The original membership included Fru Rigmor Bendix,
Copenhagen, chairman; school principal Emil Slomann, Frederiksberg,
vice-chairman; wholesale merchant Carl H. Melchior, Copenhagen,
treasurer; Dr. med. H. Forchhammer, Copenhagen, secretary; district
physician Axel Hertel, Copenhagen, and school director Joakim Larsen,
Frederiksberg, additional members of the executive committee; and fifteen
other persons residing in various parts of Denmark, among them Professor
Poul la Cour of the Askov people’s high school, and Cand. theol. K. A.
Knudsen, then living in Frederiksberg.
The regulations adopted at the time of organization have governed the
operations of the Committee ever since. They define its object as the
furtherance of group games in the open air. Among the means employed are
lectures and the distribution of pamphlets explaining its work, guidance
in the use of games, the training of teachers, grants of money to help
in procuring apparatus and hiring teachers, and assistance in securing
and equipping playgrounds. As a rule it is expected that in each case
the community concerned, or private individuals, will provide an amount
equal to that furnished by the Committee from the funds placed at its
disposal. The Committee also reserves the right to supervise activities
toward which it contributes, and to require annual reports regarding
them; but local organizations are independent in matters of detail. It
does not solicit contributions outside of the state grant, although it
has a small income from other sources. Effort has been largely centered,
from the start, on two lines of work, the preparation of teachers to act
as play leaders in the schools, and the furnishing of expert advice and
direct assistance in particular cases where these are requested.
Minister Bardenfleth, in his circular of 1896, had offered to include
instruction and practice in group games in the annual vacation courses
for teachers conducted by the state. Special courses of this sort, under
the direction of the secretary of the National Committee, were therefore
provided for men in the summers of 1897-1900, and for women in 1898
and 1899, and the subject of games was added to the vacation course in
gymnastics for women in 1897 and 1898. Since the fall of 1898 group games
have been taken up as a regular part of the state’s one-year course in
gymnastics. In the spring of 1897 and again in 1898 the Committee offered
short courses of its own for women teachers, especially those in the
Copenhagen schools. With its help group games were made a part of various
teachers’ courses organized primarily for other purposes, and later it
arranged a long series of special courses, beginning and repetition,
term-time and vacation, for men, for women, and for both sexes.
The usual length of these special courses has been three weeks. Men have
devoted four or five hours daily to the work, or a total of eighty to
ninety hours, and most of it has been practical, with chief emphasis on
the more complicated games, such as _Langbold_ (a Danish-Norwegian ball
game), cricket, football, and hockey. The aim has been to give a complete
understanding of the theory of each game, and enough practice in it to
make the teacher a capable guide for his pupils. Not much time has been
allotted to the simpler games. In the early courses for women instruction
was more elementary, and limited at first to a total of eighteen to
twenty-four hours, since most of the participants were quite unused to
strenuous bodily exercise. _Langbold_ was the favorite game, but later
football was found to be excellent for young girls up to the age of
puberty, and hockey after that period. The amount of time given to daily
practice was also increased, until it reached three or four hours, and
the total advanced from between thirty and thirty-five hours to between
fifty and sixty. Hockey steadily gained in popularity, but children’s
games received relatively more attention than was the case in courses
for men. Fr. Knudsen, secretary of the National Committee, has published
a handbook of games, a guide to hockey, and with Ahrent Otterstrøm a
football manual.
The demands upon the National Committee in its other field of effort,
the giving of expert advice and direct assistance in particular cases,
have been numerous and constant from the start. In 1897 help was given
to 43 schools or communities; 64 others were added to the list the
following year, and 120 in the period 1890-1901, and since that time the
additions have averaged about 25 a year, so that by the end of 1913 a
total of 532 had received aid. The needs of public elementary schools
(_Folkeskoler_) have naturally been the first to receive attention, but
a few _Realskoler_ and _Højskoler_ in the provinces are included in the
number. Experience demonstrated the importance of competent oversight,
and since April 1, 1901, assistance has been granted in new cases only
when a professionally trained teacher of gymnastics is employed, or a
graduate of one of the state or Committee courses in group games. Tours
of inspection are made by the secretary of the National Committee, who
visited 387 schools or communities in the years 1900-1913. Other trips
were made to give advice or help in the laying out of playgrounds.
Commonly the Committee first suggests the games which seem most
appropriate in the locality concerned, and then sends on the necessary
apparatus (for _ball_ games, exclusively), except such as can be bought
on the spot without much expense. A sum of money to be used in procuring
or improving playgrounds is sometimes added; but the original idea of
providing compensation for teachers has not been carried out.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The chief sources of information have already been given in the
footnotes. Others will be found in the chapter as originally published in
1918 (see page 178).
FOOTNOTES:
[138] This chapter is condensed from one of two “Studies in the History
of Physical Education” published for the author by the Society of
Directors of Physical Education in Colleges, in 1918.
[139] See page 77. An abridged translation of this book, by V. K. Hjort,
curate at Holmens Kirke, was published in Copenhagen in 1799 (see page
79).
[140] “Lærebog i Gymnastik for Almue- og Borger-Skolerne i
Danmark. Kjøbenhavn 1828. Trykt hos Andreas Seidelin, Hof- og
Universitets-Bogtrykker.” A German translation was published: “Lehrbuch
der Gymnastik für Volks- und Bürgerschulen. Aus dem Dänischen übersetzt
von C. Kopp, Gymnastiklehrer am Königl. Schullehrer-Seminar in Tondern,
Dannebrogsmann. Mit vier Steindrücken. Tondern 1831. Gedruckt in der
Königl. privilegirten Buchdruckerey der Wittwe Forchhammer.” Tondern was
then a Danish town, but the German language was used in the _Seminarium_.
State aid was given toward the publication of the book.
[141] “Lærebog i Gymnastik til Brug for de lærde Skoler i Danmark.
Ved F. Nachtegall, Direkteur for og Professor i Gymnastikken; Ridder
af Dbr. og Dbm. Kjøbenhavn. Trykt i det Poppske Bogtrykkeri. 1834.”
Bound with the above: “Regulativ for den gymnastiske Underviisning ved
de lærde Skoler i Danmark.” Of this book also a German translation
appeared: “Lehrbuch der Gymnastik zum Gebrauch für die gelehrten Schulen
in Dänemark. Von F. Nachtegall, Directeur und Professor der Gymnastik,
Ritter von Dannebrog und Dannebrogsmann. Aus dem Dänischen übersetzt
von C. Kopp, Gymnastiklehrer am Königl. Schullehrer-Seminar in Tondern,
Dannebrogsmann. Tondern 1837. Gedruckt in der Königl. privilegirten
Buchdruckerei der Wittwe Forchhammer.” Bound with the above: “Regulativ
für den gymnastischen Unterricht bei den gelehrten Schulen in Dänemark.”
[142] Sources for Nachtegall and his time:
1. Joakim Larsen, “Gymnastikundervisningen i Danmark paa Nachtegalls
Tid (Foredrag ved Gymnastiklærermødet i Stockholm 1895; her meddelt i
en noget udvidet Skikkelse).” In _Vor Ungdom_ (periodical, Copenhagen),
1895, pp. 465-512.
2. Joakim Larsen, article “Nachtegall” in C. F. Bricka’s “Dansk
Biografisk Lexikon,” =12= (Copenhagen, 1898).
3. Joakim Larsen, “Gymnastikundervisningens Indførelse i vore Folkeskoler
for 100 Aar siden.” In Gymnastisk Selskabs Aarsskrift 1913-1914
(Copenhagen, 1914), pp. 5-28.
4. K. A. Knudsen, article “Gymnastik” in “Salmonsens store illustrerede
Konversationsleksikon,” =8= (Copenhagen, 1898).
5. K. A. Knudsen, “Gymnastikken i Danmark i hundrede Aar 1814-1914.”
Foredrag ved de baltiske Lege i Malmö 1914. Copenhagen, 1914.
6. Jens Bergmann, “Hærens Gymnastikskole og Skolegymnastikken.” In
Gymnastisk Selskabs Aarsskrift 1904.
7. Illeris og Trap, “Grundtræk af Gymnastikkens Historie” (Copenhagen,
1909), pp. 72-79.
[143] “Lærebog i Gymnastik for Borger- og Almueskoler.” Copenhagen, 1856
(1855?). Second edition 1860. There was also a “Tillæg til Lærebog i
Gymnastik for Borger- og Almueskolerne.” Copenhagen, 1869.
[144] Now known as the “Army School of Gymnastics” (_Hærens
Gymnastikskole_).
[145] For the history of the Rifle Clubs consult Lieut.-Col. Peter
Ramsing’s “Gymnastiken i de danske Skytteforeninger,” published in the
“Beretning om det skandinaviske Gymnastiklærerselskabs femte almindelige
Møde i København den 12-14. August 1899” (Copenhagen, 1902), pp. 48-73;
and Kristen A. Lange’s “Den Lingske Gymnastik i Danmark 1884-1909”
(Copenhagen, 1909), pp. 60-87.
[146] Sources: “Le Danemark. État actuel de sa civilisation et de son
organisation sociale. Ouvrage publié à l’occasion de l’exposition
universelle de Paris 1900 par J. Carlsen, H. Olrik, C.-N. Starcke”
(Copenhagen, 1900), pp. 180-190; Harold W. Foght, “The Educational System
of Rural Denmark” (U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin 1913, No. 53.
Washington, 1914); L. L. Friend, “The Folk High School of Denmark” (U. S.
Bureau of Education Bulletin 1914, No. 5. Washington, 1914); and Kristen
A. Lange’s “Den Lingske Gymnastik i Danmark 1884-1909” (Copenhagen,
1909), pp. 14 and following.
[147] For the history of the Ling gymnastics in Denmark consult: Ramsing
1899 (as above, under rifle clubs); Knudsen 1914 (as above, under
Nachtegall), pp. 12-30; Kristen A. Lange’s “Den Lingske Gymnastik i
Danmark 1884-1909” (Copenhagen, 1909); Kåre Teilmann’s “Den Lingske
Gymnastik i Danmark,” in _Gymnastisk Selskabs Aarsskrift 1913-1914_
(Copenhagen, 1914), pp. 94-142; “Haandbog i Gymnastik” (Copenhagen,
1899); Prof. K. Kroman, “Den nye danske Skolegymnastik,” in “Beretning
om det skandinaviske Gymnastiklærerselskabs femte almindelige Møde i
København den 12.-14. August 1899” (Copenhagen, 1902), pp. 20-30 (see
also pp. 31-40); “Die Leibespflege in Dänemark: Bericht über eine
einjährige Studienreise von Turnlehrer Otto Plaumann (Beilage zu dem
Jahresbericht des Reform-Realgymnasium zu Kiel.” Kiel, 1910. 48 pages);
“Leibesübungen in Dänemark: Bericht über eine einjährige Studien-Reise
von J. B. Masüger, Turnlehrer an der Kantonsschule in Chur” (Chur, 1912.
104 pages).
[148] Copenhagen, J. Frimodt.
[149] Born at Orte, Island of Fünen, August 21, 1864, and graduated from
the Latin school in Odense in 1883. He had completed his theological
studies in Copenhagen in 1889, and the two-years course at the Stockholm
_Centralinstitut_ in 1891, taught in the Ryslinge (Fünen) people’s high
school 1891-1895 (and during this time was active in spreading the Ling
gymnastics in the Svendborg and Odense county rifle clubs), and besides
practising medical gymnastics had been connected with Frøken Natalie
Zahle’s school and the Rasmussen gymnasium in Copenhagen 1895-1898.
[150] Inspector Knudsen has written the following, all of them published
in Copenhagen, “i Hovedkommission hos J. Frimodt”:
1. “Grundsætninger for Gymnastikundervisning.” 1897. Fourth edition, 1908.
2. “Øvelselære. Forklaring af typiske gymnastiske Øvelser.” 1900. Fourth
revised edition 1911. A German translation (_Turnerische Übungslehre_) by
Ana Iversen, was published by B. G. Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin, in 1915.
3. “Timesedler til Brug ved Gymnastikundervisning for mandlige Elever.”
1900. Fourth edition, 1912.
4. “Timesedler til Brug ved Gymnastikundervisning for kvindelige Elever.”
1900. Fifth edition, 1912.
5. With Sigrid Nutzhorn, “Legemsøvelser for Pigeskolen, ordnede efter
Skoleaar.” Udgivet med Understøttelse fra Ministeriet for Kirke- og
Undervisningsvæsenet. 1913.
6. “Lærebog i Gymnastik for Seminarierne.” 1916. An English translation
(“A Text-book of Gymnastics”) by Ruth Herbert and H. G. Junker was
published in 1920 (London, William Heinemann; Philadelphia, J. B.
Lippincott Co.).
[151] For the later history of physical education in the Danish schools
consult Knudsen in “Salmonsens store illustrerede Konversationsleksikon,”
=19= (Copenhagen, 1911), pp. 631-634; his “Gymnastikken i Danmark
i hundrede Aar 1814-1914” (Copenhagen, 1914), and “Beretning om
Statens Kursus i Gymnastik og om Gymnastikkens Tilstand i de danske
Skoler i 1911” (Copenhagen, 1912); Docent J. Lindhard, “Akademiske
Gymnastiklærere,” in _Gymnastisk Selskabs Aarsskrift_ 1912, pp. 169-177;
and Kristen A. Lange, “Den Lingske Gymnastik i Danmark 1884-1909”
(Copenhagen, 1909).
[152] Temporary quarters, on rented land in a corner of the University
Ball Club’s grounds (_Akademisk Boldklubs Bane_), out Tagensvej near
the corner of Jagtvej. On April 1, 1921, the _Rigsdag_ voted the sum of
500,000 Kr. for new buildings.
[153] “Circulære til samtlige Skoledirektioner om Indførelse af ordnede
Lege for Folkeskolens Børn.” The circular is given in full in the
appendix to the first report (Første Beretning, 1897-1899) of _Udvalget
for danske Skolebørns Fælleslege_ (Copenhagen, 1899).
[154] “Lege, Boldspil og anden Idræt. Kort Vejledning til Brug for
Skoler udarbejdet af Gymnastikkommission.” Copenhagen, 1897. The same
material, somewhat modified, is contained on pp. 275-404 of the “Haandbog
i Gymnastik” of 1899.
[155] _Udvalget for danske Skolebørns Fælleslege._ The Committee, whose
headquarters are in Copenhagen, at Holsteinsgade 11², has issued six
reports, covering respectively the years 1897-1899, 1899-1902, 1902-1905,
1905-1908, 1908-1911, and 1911-1914.
CHAPTER XIX.
GREAT BRITAIN.
While the _Turnverein_, or popular gymnastic society, was spreading
over Germany, and systems of school gymnastics were being developed in
that country and in Sweden, a variety of sports and organized games had
become an established feature of life in the English public schools and
universities.[156] As might be expected, these different types or phases
of physical training have later begun to react upon each other, and
each has been copied in more or less modified form in other countries.
Most European states now have societies modelled after the German
_Turnverein_, and the gymnastics of Spiess won friends among educational
authorities far beyond the bounds of Switzerland and Hesse. We have found
the playground movement making headway in Germany and Denmark, but shall
also see the Swedish system of school gymnastics gain a foothold in
England, as it had already done in Denmark.
In the first chapter of his “Athletics and Football” (The Badminton
Library of Sports and Pastimes) Montague Shearman has reviewed the
history of athletic sports in England. He attempts to show “that
competitions in running, jumping, and hurling of heavy weights are
not only indigenous to the land, but have been one of the chief
characteristics of both town and country life in England as far back as
chronicles will reach; and that athletic sports, though they have had
their days of waxing and waning, have always been a feature of life in
‘Merrie England.’” Young Londoners in the reign of Henry II (1154-1189)
practised “leaping, wrestling, casting of the stone, and playing with the
ball,” together with other exercises, in open spaces set apart for their
use near the city. We have seen (p. 55) that Sir Thomas Elyot, in _The
Boke_ published in 1531, refers to lifting or throwing the heavy stone or
bar, wrestling, running, swimming, handling the sword and the battle-axe,
riding, vaulting, and shooting in a long bow. Some idea of the universal
prevalence of vigorous forms of recreation in the early part of the
seventeenth century we gain from a passage in Robert Burton’s _Anatomy
of Melancholy_. Writing of exercise as a cure (Partition 2, section 2,
member 4), he first considers hunting and fishing, and then goes on to
say that “many other sports and recreations there be, much in use, as
ringing, bowling, shooting (archery), which Ascham recommends in a just
volume (_Toxophilus_, 1545) ...; keelpins, tronks, quoits, pitching bars,
hurling, wrestling, leaping, running, fencing, mustering, swimming,
wasters (fencing with wooden swords), foils, football, balloon, quintain,
etc., and many such, which are the common recreations of the country
folks; riding of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments,
horse-races, wild-goose chases, which are the disports of greater
men....” The ordinary occasions for the pastimes of the common people
were Sundays and church festivals, and the numerous country fairs. Joseph
Strutt’s volume on “The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England,”
published in 1801, gives an entertaining description of town and country
recreations practised “from the earliest period to the present time,” and
it also reflects the general interest in such matters at the opening of
the nineteenth century.
[Illustration: FIG. 48.—Eton College: The Wall Game (From “Football, the
American Intercollegiate Game,” by Parke H. Davis).]
When we come to the particular forms of active sport or pastime which
have been popular in Great Britain at one time or another we are amazed
at their number and variety. Activities once practised as a necessary
part of daily life survive in the sports of hunting, shooting, falconry
or hawking, fishing with rod and line, and archery, and the same is true
of walking, mountaineering, rowing and sailing, swimming, skating, and
the like. The primeval joy of combat has been furnished by wrestling,
boxing, fencing with foil and sabre, single-stick and quarter-staff. Man
has matched himself against man in foot-races, broad and high jumping,
weight-throwing and putting the stone or shot, the hammer-throwing and
caber-tossing of the Scottish highlands, and the pole-vaulting which
probably had its origin in contests between messengers whose calling
required them to cross ditches and hedges with the help of jumping-poles.
The game of bowls has been traced back to the thirteenth century or
farther, and curling has been popular in Scotland for three centuries or
more. Skittles, quoits, and hockey or shinny (shinty) have been played
time out of mind. Golf was a formidable rival of archery in Scotland as
far back as the middle of the fifteenth century; but English interest
in the sport is comparatively recent. Polo was not introduced from the
East until about fifty years ago. Tennis and fives, racquets and squash
racquets have long had their devotees, and lawn tennis is now added to
the list. Cricket, while it existed in England as long ago as 1600, did
not become widely popular until towards the middle of the next century;
but football “is undoubtedly the oldest of all English national sports.
For at least six centuries the people have loved the rush and struggle of
the rude and manly game” (Shearman).
[Illustration: FIG. 49.—Football at Rugby School (From H. H. Hardy’s
“Rugby.”)]
Certain ones of these sports are common to several or many countries,
and no nation has a monopoly of games; but Great Britain has been
preëminently the home of such pastimes, and nowhere else have they won
such an enthusiastic following among all classes of society or affected
so large a part of the population. In variety of sports cultivated,
elaborate attention to details, and the perfection of play attained in
games like cricket and football she was long without a rival. Price
Collier, in the chapter on sports in his “England and the English from an
American Point of View” (New York, 1909), quotes some figures which “an
accepted authority upon all matters of sport in England has compiled as
to the investment and expenditures upon sport by the forty odd millions
of inhabitants of Great Britain. His estimates, when they have been
criticized, have been criticized mainly because they were too low.” From
these figures Collier concludes “that some $233,066,250 are invested
permanently, and $223,887,725 spent annually for sport.” He goes on to
say: “Travel by train or motor anywhere in England and you see games
being played—particularly if it be a Saturday—from one end of the country
to the other. The open spaces of England seem to be given over to men and
some women batting, kicking, or hitting a ball. The attendance at games
on a Saturday is very large.... Even at the beginning of the football
season the gate receipts show an attendance of more than 200,000 people.
When the big and final games take place, I have calculated that out
of the male adult population of England and Wales on a great football
Saturday one in every twenty-seven is in attendance at a game of some
sort, and this leans to the error of being too few rather than too many.”
[Illustration: FIG. 50.—Oxford University: The “Eights” on the Thames.]
Foreigners visiting England, and particularly men interested in education
and brought into contact with the athletic life of the great public
schools and Oxford and Cambridge Universities, could not fail to be
impressed by such facts as we have mentioned, and to report them in the
books which were the outcome of their travels. The influence of English
practices on Koch, Hermann, and Hartwich, pioneers of the playground
movement in Germany, and Raydt’s journey of 1886 and the volume embodying
the result of his observations (1889) have been already cited (Chapter
XIV). Professor Törngren, from the Central Institute of Gymnastics in
Stockholm, visited England in 1877 and published a volume on school games
shortly after (p. 162). The results of a later visit (1889) are reported
in the _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_ for 1890 (3: 145-195). English customs,
also, seem to have been partly responsible for starting the playground
movement in Denmark (p. 194). Paschal Grousset, the French journalist,
recorded his impressions in “La vie de collège en Angleterre” (Paris, J.
Hetzel, 1880), writing under the _nom de plume_ “André Laurie.” Pierre
de Coubertin, who began his visits to England in 1884, has done the same
in his “L’éducation en Angleterre: collèges et universités” (Paris,
Hachette, 1888). Chapters II-IV in the volume on Physical Education of
the Young by Professor Angelo Mosso, the Turin physiologist (German
translation, 1894; French translation, 1895) reveal his indebtedness to
English experiences. In the United States we have had Caspar Whitney’s
“A Sporting Pilgrimage” (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1894), and John
Corbin’s “School Boy Life in England” (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1898)
and “An American at Oxford” (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1902).
[Illustration: FIG. 51.—Oxford University: The “Eights” Passing the
College Barges.]
To an outsider, attempting to review the earlier history of physical
education in England, it seems that apart from her outdoor sports, in
the form they have assumed at the public schools and universities, her
greatest contribution has been made through the teaching and writings of
Archibald Maclaren, for many years proprietor of a gymnasium at Oxford.
He was born in 1819 or 1820[157] at Alloa, a seaport on the north bank of
the Forth, in Scotland. His daughter writes that she believes his father
was the minister of a neighboring kirk, and the boy was brought up a
Presbyterian. At the age of sixteen or a little older he went to Paris,
and for some years was a student of fencing and gymnastics there. He
also studied medicine; but was most interested in physical training, and
determined to reform gymnastics, make a real science of it, and put it on
a plane where it belonged as a part of education. He therefore settled in
Oxford, and opened a fencing school in Oriel Lane, afterwards converting
it into a gymnasium. In 1858 he erected a building of his own, the
University Gymnasium, on Alfred Street at the corner of Bear Lane.[158]
[Illustration: FIG. 52.—Archibald Maclaren (C. 1820-1884). Copied from a
portrait made about six years before his death.]
An interesting sidelight on Maclaren’s qualities of mind and heart is
afforded by certain events which belong to this period. William Morris
and Edward Burne-Jones, poet- and painter-to-be, entered Exeter College,
at Oxford, in January of 1853, and both young men soon began to frequent
the fencing rooms on Oriel Lane. J. W. Mackail[159] recalls how “between
them and Maclaren himself, a man in the prime of life, cultivated and
full of enthusiasm, a mutual intimacy and liking sprang up, and grew
into a warm friendship. Three or four times in the term they would go
and dine with him in Summertown....” And Lady Burne-Jones[160] speaks
of Maclaren as a “man of the highest character and with warmth and
tenderness underlying reserve of manner. His home at Summertown, then a
small village separated by a stretch of country road from Oxford, was a
sanctuary seldom opened to the outer world.”[161] She calls him one of
the truest friends her husband ever had, and one whose eyes discerned his
pupil’s genius from the first.[162]
[Illustration: FIG. 53.—Maclaren’s Oxford Gymnasium (From frontispiece to
his “A System of Physical Education,” 1869).]
About 1860 Maclaren was asked to work out a system of physical education
for the British army. The result was “A Military System of Gymnastic
Exercises for the Use of Instructors” (London, H. M. Stationery Office,
1862), “approved by the General Commanding in Chief and to be adopted
at all stations where the means of carrying it out may be provided,”
according to a general order issued in February, 1862. Already, in
1861, a gymnasium built on the plan of the Oxford one had been erected
at Aldershot, and Maclaren himself has described[163] the next step in
carrying out the plan of the military authorities. “Two detachments
of non-commissioned officers, under the command of the officer (Major
Hammersley) selected by the authorities to direct its introduction
(_i.e._, the Maclaren system) and conduct its future extension—an
officer specially selected for his high qualifications for the difficult
work of introducing into the Army a new and hitherto entirely untried
institution—were sent to Oxford to be qualified as instructors, and
thence removed to Aldershot to form a normal school for the preparation
of other teachers, and form the center of the military gymnastic system.
“The first detachment of non-commissioned officers, twelve in number,
sent to me to qualify as Instructors for the Army were selected from all
branches of the service. They ranged between nineteen and twenty-nine
years of age, between five feet five inches and six feet in height,
between nine stone two pounds and twelve stone six pounds in weight, and
had seen from two to twelve years’ service. I confess I felt greatly
discomfited at the appearance of this detachment, so different in
every physical attribute; I perceived the difficulty, the very great
difficulty, of working them in the same squad at the same exercises; and
the unfitness of some of them for a duty so special as the instruction
of beginners in a new system of bodily exercise.... But I also saw that
the detachment presented perhaps as fair a sample of the army as it was
possible to obtain in the same number of men, and that if I closely
observed the results of the system upon these men, the weak and the
strong, the short and the tall, the robust and the delicate, I should be
furnished with a fair idea of what would be the results of the system
upon the Army at large. I therefore received the detachment just as it
stood, and following my method of periodic measurements, I carefully
ascertained and registered the developments of each at the commencement
of his course of instruction, and at certain intervals throughout its
progress.”[164]
To this period belong Maclaren’s article on “National Systems of Bodily
Exercise,” published in _Macmillan’s Magazine_ for February, 1863
(VII: 277-286), and another on “Military Gymnasia” which appeared in
Volume VIII of the _Journal of the Royal United Service Institution_
(Oxford, 1864). He also compiled “A System of Fencing, for the Use of
Instructors in the Army” (London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1864). A
general order of July 31, 1864, states that this system, “having been
approved by the Field Marshal Commanding in Chief, is to be adopted in
the Military Gymnasia, and at other stations where the means of carrying
it out may be provided.”[165] The next volume, “Training in Theory and
Practice,”[166] reveals Maclaren at his best. He centers his remarks
about a single exercise, rowing, and “in a great measure the mode in
which that exercise is practised at our Universities and Public Schools.”
This selection is made because he believes rowing to be “the exercise
most susceptible of being influenced by a judicious system of bodily
preparation, being at once an art of considerable intricacy, demanding
long and assiduous practice, and an exercise of considerable difficulty,
involving the possession—although not in an equal degree—of both muscular
and respiratory power, to promote which is the object of all training.”
Exercise (pp. 2-59), diet (60-119), and sleep, air, bathing, clothing
(120-158) are discussed in turn in a clear, sane, and masterly fashion,
with frequent sharp and skilful thrusts at time-honored customs and
beliefs. Fourteen appendices contain diagrams and tables relating to
boats, diet, training systems, etc. It remains today one of the most
valuable books of its class. A second edition, in 1874,[167] is enlarged
by the addition of a practical course of training for the several kinds
of boat-races practised at the university (pp. 119-160), a review of J.
E. Morgan’s “University Oars” (161-192), reprinted from _Nature_,[168]
and an appendix on the subject of the sliding seat.
Outside of England, at least, Maclaren is best known through his latest
volume, “A System of Physical Education, Theoretical and Practical,”
published in 1869.[169] The book is arranged in three parts: (1) Growth
and Development (pp. 3-101), (2) Practical System of Gymnastic Exercises
(105-472), and (3) Appendices A-K (475-518). While the second part, which
makes up nearly three-quarters of the volume, is not without interest as
a manual of gymnastics embodying the author’s ideas and the results of
his long and varied experience,[170] it is the first hundred pages and
certain of the appendices which have raised it to the rank of a classic
in its field. After pointing out that “exercise alone of all the agents
of growth and development can be regarded in an _educational_ light—alone
is capable of being permanently systematized and administered as a
means of progressive bodily culture,” he proceeds to discuss its nature
and effects in terms of the physiological science of his day, much of
it now outgrown. Health, rather than strength, should be the aim, he
says. “Scholarships Junior and Senior, Examinations, open Fellowships,
speculations, promotions, excitements, stimulations, long hours of work,
late hours of rest, jaded frames, weary brains, jarring nerves—all
intensified and intensifying—seek in modern times for the antidote to be
found alone in physical action.” School-games, sports and pastimes he
finds, “from their very nature, are inadequate to produce the uniform and
harmonious development of the entire frame, because the employment which
they give is essentially partial.... Recreative exercise in sufficient
amount is usually in itself sufficient to maintain health and strength
after growth and development are completed, but it does not meet the many
wants of the rapidly-changing and plastic frames of youths spending a
large portion of their time in the constrained positions of study.”
He dwells at length upon conditions in the army, the attempt which he
had made to meet them with his military system, and the results secured
(pp. 64-94). “Now if all this arrangement and method were considered
necessary in the organization of the bodily exercise of full-grown
men—men of mature frame and hardy habit, and at the period of life when
all the physical energies are at their highest point of power, at least
as much precaution and forethought and method, it would be expected,
would be adopted on its administration with boys and lads at school,
whose frames are all incomplete and impressionable in the highest degree;
capable of being affected for good or evil by every surrounding agency.
But what are the facts? Except the two Military Colleges of Woolwich
and Sandhurst, and Radley College, not one of our large educational
establishments is provided with a regularly organized Gymnasium
with properly qualified teachers.... In our day if gymnastics mean
anything,—that is, anything worth the serious thought of parent, teacher,
or pupil,—they mean a gradual, progressive system of physical exercise,
so conceived, so arranged, and so administered, that it will naturally
and uniformly call forth and cultivate the latent powers and capacities
of the body, even as the mental faculties are developed and strengthened
by mental culture and mental exercise.”
In the appendix Maclaren illustrates certain forms of growth and
development, regular and irregular, at different ages (A. Figs. 1-14);
gives tables showing the state of growth and development between the ages
of ten and eighteen years (B), and of men on arriving at the University
(C); one which shows the influence of systematized exercise, extending
over periods of several years, on boys of different conditions of growth
and development, and on men of different degrees of physical power (D);
and others containing measurements of non-commissioned officers before
and after their course of training under him (E), and corresponding
figures for youths at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (F), and for
two pupils of his own (G); explains his system of measurements (H), goes
into some detail regarding the construction and requirements of gymnasia
(I), and closes with tables of best performances at certain athletic
meetings (K). It is this practical demonstration of what regular exercise
will accomplish, as well as his impressive setting forth of the need for
it, that has caused his book to be so often quoted and makes it one of
permanent value.
The first trace of the Ling system of medical gymnastics in England we
find in 1838, when Lieutenant Govert Indebetou (the name is also written
_In de Betou_), after completing the course at the Central Institute of
Gymnastics in Stockholm, moved over to England and began the practice
of that art in London. His work was continued for a time by an English
physician, John W. F. Blundell. Another Swede, Lieutenant C. Ehrenhoff,
settled in London for the same purpose in the early forties. Much more
significant was the arrival of Carl August Georgii from Stockholm,
where he had been a teacher at the Central Institute since 1829 and head
teacher after 1840. He opened a private institute in London in 1850,
and continued in active practice and teaching there until 1877. One of
his pupils was the English physician M. J. Chapman, and another was Dr.
Mathias Roth.[171] All of these men published pamphlets or more elaborate
treatises on the subject. Of the Swedish system of school gymnastics,
originated by P. H. Ling, but given its present form by his son Hjalmar
in the years 1864-1882, we hear first in 1878. Dr. Roth had interested
Mrs. Alice Westlake, a member of the London School Board, in this form
of physical education, and in that year she persuaded the Board to
engage Miss Concordia Löfving, a graduate of the Central Institute in
Stockholm in 1870, to give a course in the theory and practice of Swedish
gymnastics to women teachers under the Board, leading to a special
certificate.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.—Martina Bergman Österberg (1849-1915).]
In 1881, at the end of the summer term, Miss Löfving withdrew from the
service of the Board, and Miss Martina Bergman (later Mme. Bergman
Österberg)[172] was appointed superintendent of physical exercise in
girls’ and infants’ schools. Within the next six years, under her
direction, the system was introduced into 300 schools, and 1000 teachers
were trained. September 23, 1885, Miss Bergman opened a Training College
for (women) Teachers of Physical Education at Reremonde, Broadhurst
Gardens, Hampstead, N. W. (a borough of London), removing it ten years
later to Kingsfield, Dartford Heath, Kent, and in her thirty years at
the head of this school she built it up into an institution of more than
national influence and importance. In 1893 she was present at the eighth
annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of
Physical Education and the Congress of Physical Education in Chicago, and
in 1900 she attended the International Congress of Physical Education
in Paris and gave a demonstration there with her pupils.[173] Captain
J. D. Haasum, graduated at the Stockholm Central Institute in 1872 and
teacher there since 1873, spent six months in London in 1884 and gave the
first training course in Swedish gymnastics to a number of men teachers
under the School Board, with the help of a gymnasium fitted up at the
Crampton Street schools, Walworth. This work was continued by Allan
Broman (Stockholm Central Institute of Gymnastics 1883), who at a later
period (October, 1911) opened in London a “Central Institute for Swedish
Gymnastics, for Men Students of Physical Training.”
How the Swedish system was introduced into the British Navy and
substituted, in large part, for the Maclaren gymnastics in the Army,
may be told in a few words. Commander N. C. Palmer of the Navy spent
some weeks in Stockholm in the autumn of 1902, in order to study the
organization and management of instruction in gymnastics there, and upon
his return set in motion plans for the training of instructors from
among officers and non-commissioned officers. In the summer of 1903
Allan Broman was put in charge of the first course at Portsmouth, given
to sixty officers in the British Navy. That same year a _Handbook of
Physical Training_, published by authority of the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty, was issued.[174] Part I (pp. 4-73) is evidently based
upon the Swedish Army and Navy Manual of 1902 (see p. 163), in both
text and illustrations. A new Handbook, much enlarged and altogether
Swedish, was published in 1910, the work of Lieutenant Lockhart Leith,
who during a winter in Stockholm had taken part in the exercises at the
Central Institute of Gymnastics. In 1906 the Army authorities decided
to introduce the same system, but instead of going to Sweden they
applied to the Danish government for a man capable of teaching it at the
Aldershot training school for instructors. H. P. Langkilde (p. 192) was
selected for the task. He began a course with the sixteen teachers at
the school in August, and the next month a regular four-months’ course
with non-commissioned officers. By the first of the next year (1907)
the transition to the new system was complete. A _Manual of Physical
Training_, worked out by Major Moore in collaboration with Langkilde on
the basis of the Danish _Haandbog_ of 1899, the Army and Navy Manual
(Danish) of 1905, and the books of Knudsen was published in 1908.[175]
March 31, 1902, King Edward VII appointed a commission of nine “to
enquire into the opportunities for physical training now available in
the State-aided schools and other educational institutions of Scotland;
and to suggest means by which such training may be made to conduce to
the welfare of the pupils; and further, how such opportunities may be
increased by continuation classes and otherwise, so as to develop, in
their practical application to the requirements of life, the faculties
of those who have left the day schools, and thus to contribute towards
the sources of national strength.” This commission reported under date
of March 14, 1903,[176] and perusal of the second volume shows the
Swedish system still in use in elementary schools for girls under the
London School Board, and in two Merchant Company’s higher schools for
girls in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Ladies’ College and George Watson’s
Ladies’ College. Having regard to the findings of this Royal Commission
an “Interdepartmental (_i.e._, English and Scotch) Committee on the
Model Course of Physical Exercises,” under date of March 10, 1904,
presented to both Houses of Parliament a report directed to “the Right
Honorable the Lord President of the (English) Board of Education and
the Right Honorable the Vice-President of the Committee of the Privy
Council on Education in Scotland.”[177] On pp. 10-49 is the proposed
Syllabus of Physical Exercises, based in general on the Swedish system.
In consequence of this report the English Board of Education published
its first official “Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Use in Public
Elementary Schools” in 1904.[178] The next year it was reprinted, with
slight alterations; but the third edition,[179] four years later,
contains “further amendments and extensive revisions, which are based
upon experience.... Speaking generally the new Syllabus, like its
predecessor, is based on the Swedish system of educational gymnastics
which has been adopted in several European countries, and is now the
basis of physical training in the Army and Navy in this country” (p. vi).
The part played by Denmark in this transplantation of an alien system to
British soil has been already indicated (p. 192). Even in the endowed
Public Schools, the very strongholds of athletic sports, we find it
introduced as a general requirement, to supplement the effects of
outdoor recreation. Lieutenant F. H. Grenfell, who had taken work at the
Stockholm Central Institute of Gymnastics, brought it to Eton College in
1907, and Captain E. C. Brierly, of the Army, undertook a similar task
at Rugby in September of 1911. Harrow and Winchester, at least, among
the other public schools, also possess gymnasia in addition to their
extensive playgrounds.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.—Eton College: The Gymnasium (1913).]
[Illustration: FIG. 56.—Rugby School: The Gymnasium (From H. H. Hardy’s
“Rugby”).]
[Illustration: FIG. 57.—Dunfermline College of Hygiene and Physical
Education: The New College and Clinics Building.]
To this fragmentary review of certain phases of physical education
in Great Britain a paragraph on the Dunfermline College of Hygiene
and Physical Training should be added. The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust
was formed in August of 1903, and in the hands of its Trustees Andrew
Carnegie placed a princely fund to be used for the benefit of the town
of his birth. A gymnasium was opened October 21, 1904, and the New Baths
March 31, 1905. Physical training was introduced into the schools soon
after the Trustees came into office, and medical inspection of school
children was begun in 1906. October 4, 1905, a College of Hygiene and
Physical Training (for women) was opened, offering a two-year course and
housed at first in the Gymnasium and Swimming Pool, on Pilmur Street.
Three years later a men’s department was added, and the two departments
were united in 1911. By the next fall 75 students had received diplomas
for the full course. Meanwhile, in July of 1909, the Trustees learned
that the College had been recognized by the Scotch Education Department
as a Central Institution for the purpose of the Education (Scotland) Act
of 1908, _i.e._, for the training of teachers for the schools of that
country; and by an arrangement approved in 1912 the services of certain
teachers on the college staff are available for the work of inspecting
the teaching of physical exercises in schools throughout Scotland.
Venturefair Park, seven acres in extent, was leased for the games of the
College students and opened July 27, 1909, and in September of 1914 a new
building, the foundation stone of which had been laid by Mr. Carnegie two
years before, was occupied by the College and the School Clinics. Early
in 1911 the original gift to the Trust had been increased by one half,
raising the fund to $3,750,000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes (London: Longmans, Green &
Co.; Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 28 volumes, 1885-1896) is unique in its
field. Robert Scott Fittis, in “Sports and Pastimes of Scotland” (Paisley
and London, Alexander Gardner, 1891), offers some material of historical
interest. Other sources have been mentioned or suggested in the text.
FOOTNOTES:
[156] See footnote, page 133.
[157] He died February 20, 1884, at the age of sixty-four.
[158] Described in the _Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_ for January, 1860 (V: 8).
[159] In “The Life of William Morris” (London and New York: Longmans,
Green & Co., 1899).
[160] In “Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones” (New York, The Macmillan Co.,
1904).
[161] “Mrs. Maclaren was the daughter of D. A. Talboys, the Oxford
printer, and under her father had been trained as a first-rate classical
scholar” (Charles L. Graves, in “Life and Letters of Alexander
Macmillan,” London, Macmillan & Co., 1910).
[162] The first step in the artistic life of Burne-Jones, she says, “was
a series of pen-and-ink designs made at the suggestion of his friend Mr.
Maclaren. These drawings were intended for illustrations to a volume of
Ballads upon the Fairy Mythology of Europe, which Maclaren had written
with the intention of publishing immediately.... The scheme included a
frontispiece, title-page, illustrations and ornamental letters. They were
begun early in 1854 and carried on for about two years and a half, and in
the series may be traced his development from the time that he first went
into the Wytham woods to draw leaves and branches until the day when he
discovered that the human form was the alphabet of the language which he
was henceforth to use.” The frontispiece, title-page, and a tail-piece on
page 279 are all that appear in “The Fairy Family: a Series of Ballads
and Metrical Tales Illustrating the Fairy Mythology of Europe,” which
Maclaren published anonymously in 1857 (London: Longman, Brown, Green,
Longmans, and Roberts). A second edition, published in 1873, bears
Maclaren’s name on the title-page and is dedicated “To my daughter Mabel”
(London, Macmillan & Co.).
[163] In his “System of Physical Education,” 1869, pp. 72, 73 and 93.
[164] Maclaren’s “system of measurements to determine the rate of growth
and development” is given in Appendix H of the volume just quoted.
Appendix E contains a “table of measurements of first detachment of
non-commissioned officers selected to be qualified as military gymnastic
instructors,” showing increases for the seven and a half months between
September 11 and April 30; and a similar table of measurements of the
second detachment, with increases for the period extending from October
27, 1862, to July 12, 1863.
[165] In September of 1864 Mrs. Maclaren opened at Summertown a private
school intended to prepare boys for the (endowed) public schools. The
venture proved a very successful one from the start, and was continued
by her son-in-law. Alexander Macmillan, one of the founders of the
publishing house which bears that name, had made the acquaintance of the
Maclarens in the summer of 1864, and by his efforts did much to enlist
the interest of influential patrons, in addition to sending his own son
George and two nephews. See pp. 225-227 in the “Life and Letters of
Alexander Macmillan,” by Charles L. Graves (London, Macmillan & Co.,
1910).
[166] London, Macmillan & Co., 1866.
[167] London, Macmillan & Co.
[168] Vol. =7=, 397-399, 418-421, and 458-460 (March 27, April 3 and 17,
1873).
[169] Oxford, Clarendon Press. A second edition, unchanged, was issued
the year after the author’s death (Oxford, 1885), and a third, reëdited
and enlarged by his son, Wallace Maclaren, appeared ten years later
(Oxford, 1895).
[170] “The system which I advocate is the result of my professional
life—developed and matured by every means which I could bring to bear
upon it by physiological theory or practical test. The period of its
preparation extends over nearly a quarter of a century, for during that
period I have been, as it were, standing in the midst of a living stream
of men and boys flowing in from every school, public and private, in the
kingdom; youths possessing every degree of physical power—presenting
every phase of physical weakness. On these, _by_ these, every exercise
in the system has been tested; its nature, its character defined and its
results ascertained, its place in the progressive courses slowly and
carefully determined” (pp. 89 and 90).
[171] Born in Kassa (Kaschau), Hungary, in 1818; studied in Vienna and
Pavia, and won his medical degree at the latter university in 1839; took
part in the Hungarian War of Independence (1849), and afterwards made his
way to England as a political refugee. See _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_ =2=,
225-235 and =9=, 293-297.
[172] Born in Skåne, south Sweden, October 7, 1849; graduated from the
Central Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm in 1881; died July 29, 1915.
[173] See _Tidskrift i Gymnastik_, =6=, 687-694 (1908).
[174] London, H. M. Stationery Office.
[175] London, H. M. Stationery Office.
[176] Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland),
presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty.
Edinburgh, H. M. Stationery.
[177] London, H. M. Stationery Office.
[178] Ibid.
[179] The Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Schools. 1909. London, as
above.
CHAPTER XX.
INTERNATIONAL GATHERINGS.
The types or systems of physical training found in Europe can all be
reduced to three elemental forms, illustrated by the _Turnverein_ or
popular gymnastic society of Germany, the athletic sports and active
games of the English public schools and universities, and the school
gymnastics of Germany and Sweden. Corresponding to each of these, in
a way, there have been international gatherings of three sorts in
recent years, _i.e._, conventions and competitive meets of the European
gymnastic federations, “games” and congresses held under the auspices of
the International Olympic Committee, and a series of congresses organized
with a view to better understanding of the principles and methods of
physical education.
In 1881 Nicolas Jan Cupérus of Antwerp, president of the _Fédération
belge de Gymnastique (Belgische Turnbund)_, proposed an association
of the various national organizations of popular gymnastic societies
in Europe. Preliminary conventions were held at Liège on July 23d
of that year and again on August 14-16, 1896, and arrangements were
completed in Brussels, July 3-5, 1897. A permanent committee (_Bureau_)
was appointed, with Cupérus as president. The articles of agreement
provided for an exchange of publications and official documents,
established rules governing invitations to national meets and conditions
of participation in them, recognized only such national organizations
as held themselves aloof from political and religious controversies,
and stated the attitude of the union towards professionalism and in
regard to the sort of prizes which should be awarded in competitions.
The following federations subscribed to these articles: the Belgian,
Czech, French, British (the National Physical Recreation Society, Amateur
Gymnastic and Fencing Association, Irish Amateur Gymnastic Association,
Scottish Amateur Gymnastic Association, and later the Welsh Amateur
Gymnastic Association), Italian, Luxemburg (Grand Duchy), Hungarian,
Netherlandish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The Danish federation was added
later, but the German _Turnerschaft_ and the Swiss _Eidgenössischer
Turnverein_, together with smaller organizations in Austria, the Balkan
States, Russia, Finland, and Portugal have never become affiliated. Seven
statistical “Annuals”[180] have been published under the editorship of
Cupérus. Since 1897 conventions have been held at Antwerp (August 14,
1903), Berne (July 14, 1906), Prague (July 1, 1907), Paris (November 21,
1908), and Luxemburg (July 21, 1909); and there have been international
meets for competition at Antwerp (1903), Bordeaux (1905), Prague (1907),
Luxemburg (1909), Turin (1911), and Paris (1913).
[Illustration: FIG. 58.—Pierre de Coubertin (1863-).]
The story of the modern Olympic Games, and the events which led up to
them may best be told in the words of Dr. Albert Shaw[181] and Professor
William Milligan Sloane.[182] Its central figure in the early years is
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, scion of an old French family, born January 1,
1863, and educated in the schools of Paris. “It was in 1884, when only
twenty-one years of age,” says Dr. Shaw, “that M. de Coubertin began
his visits to England, with the prime object of acquainting himself
intimately with the life of the great public schools,—Rugby, Eton,
Harrow, and the others of that type. He had become strongly convinced
that there was an element in English education that was sadly lacking in
the French schools. Obviously and conspicuously, the English training in
athletics, and the English devotion to outdoor sports and exercises, were
almost totally unknown in the French lyceums and collegiate institutes.
But Coubertin clearly perceived that something even more serious was
concerned than the mere question of physical culture. He understood that
in the rowing, football, and cricket of the English schools, and all
their other games, contests, and field-day exercises, there was involved
an element of moral discipline and strength that supplied in some sense
a key to the secret of England’s power. Not merely a manliness expressed
in muscular force and physical bearing was developed in the English
arena of school sports or neighborhood contests and pastimes, but also
a fine spirit of fair play, a hatred of meanness, lying, and all forms
of deceit, and that fundamental kind of honor and integrity of character
that causes Englishmen to be trusted and respected, even if not greatly
beloved, by all races, in all lands. Furthermore, this love of hardy
games and contests seemed to Coubertin the best sort of protection to the
young men of our times from the temptation to unworthy indulgences that
tend to undermine personal vigor and thereby to diminish the vitality of
the nation.
“The drift in France among young men of education was towards softness
and overrefinement, and the vices that are somewhat dangerously akin to
certain phases of aesthetic development. The ideals of youth in England
seemed, as compared with those of France, to make for the clear eye,
the steady hand, the firm will,—in short, for self-control and the
conservation of energy. It was, therefore, with no mere boyish fondness
for the excitement of athletic contest, considered as a thing desirable
in itself, that M. de Coubertin devoted himself to the development or
the revival of a high type of manhood among French students.... He was
ready at length in 1888, at the age of twenty-five, to publish his book
_L’Éducation en Angleterre_ (see p. 202), an account of school life in
England, which, while valuable on any account, was of particular use
in the advancement of the cause to which all his efforts were really
devoted. The book attracted very favorable attention in France, and its
success gave the young author and reformer prestige enough for the public
launching of his practical movement, this taking the form of a ‘committee
for the propagation of sports and physical exercises in education,’ with
that eminent statesman, scholar, and educational authority, Jules Simon,
as president of the committee.”
In 1889, in connection with the Paris Exposition, he organized a congress
on physical education, and that autumn visited the United States, under
commission from the National Department of Public Instruction, to study
the organization, work, and life of American colleges. “Meanwhile,”
continues Shaw, “all this work for the encouragement of the athletic
spirit in the French institutions had begun to tell strongly; and
in the season of 1891-1892 it was possible under M. de Coubertin’s
leadership to organize what is now the well-known _Union des Sociétés des
Sports Athlétiques_. This central body is a confederation of about two
hundred French athletic clubs and societies, half of which are in the
universities and colleges. With a view to keeping the French student’s
interest from flagging, M. de Coubertin endeavored to make some plans for
English and American competitions. Thus, in 1892, international football
matches were begun between French and English teams, Lord Dufferin
himself presiding over the first one held at Paris. M. de Coubertin
also succeeded in securing the recognition of the French Union by the
Henley Regatta Committee, and the admission of French rowing crews to the
university contests on the Thames. Again, in that same season, he secured
the visit to Paris of a team of American university athletes, as the
result of the efforts of an American committee which he had organized and
in which his friend Professor Sloane, then of Princeton University, was
especially active....
“To crown the work of the year, M. de Coubertin, at the end of November
(1892), gave a lecture in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne, in which
he disclosed his plan for the reëstablishment of the Olympic games.
The enlistment of American interest in this ambitious project for a
modern quadrennial tournament of games and sports that should be open to
amateurs—particularly those of the student class—from all nations, was
much facilitated by M. de Coubertin’s second visit to the United States,
which occurred in 1893.... Before leaving this country in the autumn of
1893 he had aroused a very general interest, especially in the college
world, in his plan for the Olympic games. A little later, in the early
weeks of 1894, he was actively at work in England holding conferences and
forming his committee for the promotion of the idea of the quadrennial
athletic tournament. In June of that year the subject was taken up by a
great conference or congress, held at the Sorbonne in Paris (June 16-24),
a dozen or more nations being represented. King George of the Hellenes
sent his best wishes; and the eight-day conference, with its accompanying
fêtes and sports in the Bois du Boulogne, was fairly successful,
resulting in the formation of an international committee to carry the
Olympic plan into effect.”
[Illustration: FIG. 59.—The Stadium at Athens (1906).]
So far Dr. Shaw. Professor Sloane quotes from a preliminary circular of
January 15, 1894, the final sentence of which reads as follows: “The
reëstablishment of the Olympic Games on a basis and under conditions
conformable to the needs of modern life would bring together every
four years representatives of all nations, and it is permissible to
suppose that these peaceful and courteous contests would supply the
best of internationalisms.” “To this circular,” he says, “came a very
irregular and scattering response. The German federations took no notice
whatever, the gymnastic element in France was hostile, the British were
lukewarm, the Belgians frankly and actively embattled. They had always
held and still were of the opinion that gymnastics and sports were two
inimical things and would always combat the latter as opposed to the
former. Italy, Spain, Greece and above all Sweden sent regular delegates.
Somehow or another seventy-nine persons representing something or another
appeared at the congress. The many sessions were well attended, the
accompanying festivities were dignified and inspiring. No one present
can ever forget the great assemblage at the Sorbonne, the inspiring
address of Courvel, the superb poem of Sicard, the wonderful execution
of the hymn to Apollo, recently discovered at Delphi, nor the enthusiasm
of the closing banquet. These were but a few of the notable events of
the week. The climax of the proceedings was a unanimous vote for the
reëstablishment of the Olympiads with the opening of the new century; but
second thoughts were even more enthusiastic than first and it was finally
determined to hold the first one at Athens in 1896.
“Greek royalty was already enrolled among the patrons of the scheme,
Greek patriotism might be relied upon for material and effective
support. Such at least was the opinion of M. Bikelas, the Greek member,
the greatest modern Greek man of letters, exerting by the charm of his
manner, the weight of his character and the gifts of his liberal hand,
such an influence on the evolution of modern Greece as no other single
man has been able to deploy. The event showed the correctness of his
judgment and the weight of his personal influence. The president of the
International Committee was received in Athens with enthusiasm, a wealthy
Greek merchant of Alexandria, M. Averoff, caused the ancient Stadium to
be restored and newly lined with Pentelic marble at his personal cost. A
princely gift of a million drachmæ, other lavish personal contributions,
and what amounted to a subsidy from the Greek Government completed the
necessary fund. A very considerable legacy to the state from the brothers
Zappas, designated for the furtherance of physical culture, was through
the untiring persistency of M. de Coubertin, aided by two devoted Greek
friends, M. Antonopoulo and Alexander Mercati, appropriated by government
consent for Olympic purposes. The enterprise was therefore brilliantly
launched.
“The succession of Olympic Games is well known: after Athens in 1896,
Paris in 1900, St. Louis in 1904, London in 1908, Stockholm in 1912,
Berlin (designated for 1916 and actually prepared but lapsed owing
to war) and Antwerp in 1920. Each has been more amazing than its
predecessor: in the number of nations represented, in the number and
quality of competitors, in the greater perfection of preparation for each
sport, in the number of sports clustered around the Olympic week of field
and track events, in the social arrangements for better acquaintance
among competitors and the ever-growing throng of visitors, and above all
in the passionate interest of all peoples in all lands.... While track
and field sports are the nucleus of the sport-plexus, they are not the
whole of it. Nor is sport in the narrow sense the whole of it. All kinds
of outdoor exercises and games have attached themselves to the Olympic
week of track and field athletics—central and focal in modern as in
ancient Olympiads—to such an extent that no national Olympic council
can provide for all in the arrangements for the Olympiad to be held.
Instead of an Olympic week we already have Olympic months and a very
powerful movement was started some years ago to include winter sports of
every kind, and expand into an Olympic year. It has become absolutely
necessary, if there are to be Olympiads, that contraction should be
substituted for expansion in the number of admitted sports or games
represented by federations, national or international.
“Furthermore, the Olympic idea comprehends something, yes much, quite
aside from contests of foremost experts in sport and play. For the
Antwerp Olympiad arrangements included lectures, preliminary in the not
too distant future to contests in belles lettres and the fine arts. Such
competition is already in evidence as actually existent though still
inchoate. In particular, however, and poignantly the Olympic idea as
represented by its carriers proposes ‘all sports for all’ in the literal
sense of the words. The Committee hopes that the day is not far distant
when through its moral influence, orient as well as occident may be
nationally organized for competition and that the benefits of ‘play for
country’ as well as for self may by such organizations be alluringly
offered to youths and adults of both sexes in every walk of life. To
this end its plans are already laid, and already great portions of the
globe hitherto inert athletically are girding themselves for Olympic
organization. The field therefore of the Olympic idea is not merely
sportive and social, it is educational and sociological as well. The
intercourse of athletes and their friends makes for reciprocal goodwill
and international peace; but in its largest aspect the idea makes for
the general uplift and personal purity of untold millions....”
[Illustration: FIG. 60.—The Stockholm Stadium (1912).]
[Illustration: FIG. 61.—Stockholm, 1912: The Swedish Gymnasts Marching
into the Stadium.]
[Illustration: FIG. 62.—Stockholm, 1912: Swedish Women on the Long
Horizontal Bar (_Bom_).]
[Illustration: FIG. 63.—Stockholm, 1912: The Danish Gymnasts.]
[Illustration: FIG. 64.—Stockholm, 1912: The Finnish Gymnasts.]
[Illustration: FIG. 65.—Stockholm, 1912: Finnish Women on the Ladders.]
The first international congress for the promotion of physical education
was held at Paris, June 8-15, 1889, in connection with the Universal
Exposition. Its organizer and general secretary was Pierre de Coubertin,
and the presiding officer was Jules Simon. At the same time came the
fifteenth annual fête (_Turnfest_) of the _Union des Sociétés de
gymnastique de France_, attended also by representatives from gymnastic
societies in Belgium, Holland, the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, the three
Scandinavian countries, Bohemia, and Switzerland. The Scandinavians
did not take part in competition, but the delegations from each of the
three countries went through their exercises separately in front of the
tribune. In addition the group of Stockholm gymnasts, under the direction
of Captain Viktor Balck of the Central Institute, appeared before the
international congress on the 14th, at the Nouveau Cirque, rue St.
Honore, in another exhibition of the Swedish system. A second _Congrès
international de l’Éducation physique_ met in Paris August 30-September
6, 1900, during the progress of the _Exposition universelle_ of that
year, with M. Georges Demeny (1850-1917) as general secretary.[183]
[Illustration: FIG. 66.—Georges Demeny (1850-1917).]
Demeny, at first won over to the Swedish system by what he saw and heard
at Paris in 1889 and during a mission to Sweden with Dr. Fernand Lagrange
(1845-1909) in the autumn of 1890, afterwards withdrew from association
with men like Dr. Philippe Tissié who advocated the Ling gymnastics for
French schools, and sought to build up an eclectic (“French”) system
of his own. Both parties were represented at the _Congrès Olympique
international de Sport et d’Éducation physique_ in Brussels June 9-14,
1905, and the _Deuxième Congrès international de l’Éducation physique de
la jeunesse_ at Liège, August 28-September 1 of that year,[184] and there
were preliminary skirmishes at the latter; but the first real battle
was fought a few weeks later, at the _Congrès international d’Expansion
économique mondiale_, in Mons (September 24-27). Five years later each
group organized its own congress, the friends of the Swedish system a
_Congrès international de Gymnastique pédagogique, militaire, médicale
et esthétique_, which met in Brussels, August 4-6, 1910,[185] and Demeny
and his followers a (third) _Congrès international d’Éducation physique_
in the same city a week later (August 10-13).[186] A Danish committee
representing friends of the Ling system organized another international
congress, which held its sessions in Odense, Denmark, July 7-10,
1911.[187] The last congress to be called together before the outbreak
of the Great War met in Paris under the auspices of the _Faculté de
Médecine_, March 17-20, 1913.[188]
FOOTNOTES:
[180] Annuaires des Fédérations Européennes de Gymnastique, 1898 (14
pages), 1899 (16), 1900 (21), 1901 (47), 1902 (32 pages of text and
17 plates containing portraits), 1906 (49), and 1913 (? Not seen, but
reviewed in _Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_ 1913, pages 138 and 141).
[181] In “The Evolution of France under the Third Republic,” by Baron
Pierre de Coubertin. Translated from the French by Isabel F. Hapgood.
Authorized edition with special Preface and Additions and Introduction by
Dr. Albert Shaw, Editor of _The Review of Reviews_. New York and Boston,
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1897. See Introduction, pages iii-xxiii.
[182] First American member of the International Olympic Committee.
Quoted from his chapter (pages 71-83) in “Report of the American Olympic
Committee, Seventh Olympic Games, Antwerp, Belgium, 1920.”
[183] See his “Procès-verbaux sommaires,” Paris, Imprimerie Nationale,
1900.
[184] See the _Règlement et rapports préliminaires_ and the _Compte
rendu_ of the second congress (Nivelles, Lanneau & Despret).
[185] See the _Rapport-général_, Brussels, 1910.
[186] There is a report by the delegates from the United States in the
Bureau of Education Report for 1910 (I: 598-601).
[187] See “Procès-verbal du Congrès international de l’Éducation physique
à Odense (Danmark)” (Copenhagen, J. H. Schultz, 1911).
[188] “Congrès international de l’Éducation physique (programme and
announcement), Paris, Faculté de Médecine, 17-20 Mars 1913.”
PART II.
UNITED STATES.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF THE JAHN GYMNASTICS INTO AMERICA.
The different systems or sorts of physical training which were brought
forward for trial and the agencies which promoted its spread in the
United States during the nineteenth century fall into three groups,
centered about 1830, 1860, and the decade from 1880 to 1890. The first
group includes Captain Alden Partridge and his military academies;[189]
the introduction of the Jahn gymnastics and the opening of school,
college, and city or public outdoor gymnasia under the direction of the
German refugees Beck, Follen, and Lieber; the attempt to provide manual
labor as a system of exercise in educational institutions;[190] and the
use of “calisthenics” for girls and women, by Catharine Beecher in her
schools in Hartford and Cincinnati.[191] Space limits have prevented the
discussion of any but the second member of this group in the present
volume.
The first school, college, and public gymnasia in the United States—all
of them outdoor ones of the early Jahn type—were opened in the years 1825
and 1826 in Massachusetts, at Northampton, Cambridge, and Boston. All
three were laid out and directed by university trained Germans, who had
been active participants in the Jahn gymnastics in their student days
and had left their native land for the United States in order to escape
arrest or constant persecution under the reactionary policy adopted by
the Holy Alliance.
One of these men was Charles Theodore Christian Follen (German, _Karl
Follenius_ or _Follen_), born September 4, 1796, in Romrod, a market-town
north of the Vogelsberg. His father was counsellor at law and judge
at Giessen, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and he received his own early
training at the classical secondary school and the university in that
city. When the German War of Liberation broke out, in 1813, like most of
the Giessen students he joined the army, with his brothers August (later
called Adolf Ludwig) and Paul, but was taken sick with typhus fever
within a few weeks, and though he returned to his regiment afterwards
he was never under fire. When peace was concluded (1814) he resumed the
study of jurisprudence at Giessen, and in March of 1818 received his
diploma from the university as doctor of the civil and ecclesiastical law.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.—Charles Follen (1796-1840).]
Like many another German student, Follen had come back from the war
filled with ideas of moral and social reform. In place of the provincial
clubs (_Landsmannschaften_), with their carousing and the duel as their
only arbiter of quarrels, he desired to see the entire student body
united in one Christian brotherhood, with no distinctions of class or
rank, ruled by the will of the majority determined in open assembly after
free discussion, and settling all disputes according to the principles
of right and justice. The purity of his own life and the moral greatness
of his character, the eloquence with which he urged his views, and his
confident enthusiasm soon won a following of like-minded friends, in
whose eyes he took on the dignity of a very prophet. The first motion
toward union was taken in the late summer of 1816. A few days after
the following Christmas, at a general gathering of students, a formal
“code of honor” (_Ehrenspiegel_), Follen’s work in great part, was
proposed. A majority of those present evinced their hostility to the
project by withdrawing at once; but about sixty who remained organized
themselves into an association, under Follen’s leadership. Looked upon
with suspicion by the authorities on account of their liberal tendencies,
hated and proscribed by a majority of the students, who nicknamed
them “Blacks” (_Schwarzen_) from the dark clothing they affected and
their somber demeanor, the reformers became only more extreme and
uncompromising in their attitude. Reaching far beyond the bounds of
the university, their plans already contemplated a great Christian
republic formed of freed and united Germany. Tyranny was to be met with
resistance, and Follen now taught that armed insurrection, and even
perjury and assassination, were justified when other measures failed in
the struggle for popular freedom. Some of the Blacks drew back at this,
but others, known as “Unconditionals” in contrast with the “Moderates,”
were undismayed at the radical doctrines of their revered leader.
Development of the physical powers formed an essential part of
the program of the Giessen “Blacks,” just as in the case of the
_Burschenschaften_ at other universities. In the summer of 1816 a
gymnastic society was formed, enrolling boys in the secondary school,
young merchants and others, as well as university students. Here
again the leadership fell to Follen, who is described as an excellent
gymnast, a skilful hand with the broadsword, and a powerful swimmer. The
“Deutsche Turnkunst” of 1816 was the guide in Giessen, as elsewhere, and
Jahn’s rules formed the basis of order during the exercises. National
anniversaries were celebrated, a _Turnfest_ was held at the end of July,
1818, excursions were organized, and trips were taken with companions
from Darmstadt, Heidelberg, and other places. Upon leaving Giessen
students transferred their membership to _Turnvereine_ in the new home,
or sought to form such societies where they did not already exist. The
efforts of Karl Völker at Tübingen have already been mentioned (p. 98) in
describing Jahn’s life and work.
Upon completing his courses in jurisprudence Follen remained at the
University as _Privat-docent_, studying at the same time the practice of
law in his father’s court. Early in the fall of 1818 he undertook the
cause of several hundred communities in the province of Upper Hesse which
desired to remonstrate against a government measure directed against the
last remnant of their political independence, and drew up a petition to
the Grand Duke in their behalf. It was printed and widely circulated, and
aroused public opinion to such a pitch that the obnoxious measure was
repealed; but it also brought upon its author such unrelenting hatred on
the part of the influential men whose selfish plans were thereby thwarted
that any thought of a further career in his home city became impossible.
He therefore accepted an invitation from Professor Fries to lecture
on the Pandects as _Privat-docent_ in the University of Jena, and left
Giessen in October of 1818.[192]
An attempt to force upon the Jena Burschenschaft his radical views
regarding moral and political reform excited the opposition of all but a
small minority. Friends, even, were alienated by his stern, intolerant
attitude, and by the charge of weakness or cowardice with which he met
dissent from the extremities to which he pushed his principles; so that
the number of “Unconditionals” at Jena was never more than a small
handful. One of these, however, was Karl Sand, whose murder of Kotzebue
on March 23, 1819, was the logical outcome of Follen’s teaching, acting
upon a mind unbalanced by fanatical zeal in the cause of popular liberty.
To the authorities all student associations became objects of suspicion,
and under the reactionary measures that followed the Giessen “Blacks” and
the _Burschenschaften_ at Jena and other universities suffered alike.
Follen was forbidden to lecture any longer at Jena, and he therefore
returned to his home in Giessen.[193] Here, however, he found himself
a proscribed man. Learning that the government intended to send him to
prison, he left Giessen for Strasburg in the winter of 1819-20, visited
for a time in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Lafayette and,
through him, of other distinguished men, and in the summer of 1821
settled in Basel, as public lecturer on jurisprudence and metaphysics in
the recently organized University.
[Illustration: FIG. 68.—Charles Beck (1798-1866). (From a Portrait in the
Library of Harvard University).]
Among the German refugees whose friendship Follen enjoyed during his
three years at Basel were the distinguished theologian De Wette, and
his stepson Charles (German, _Karl_) Beck. Beck was born in Heidelberg
August 19, 1798. His father, a merchant, died when the boy was still
young, and his mother afterwards became the wife of Wilhelm De Wette,
professor in the university of Heidelberg. In 1810 the family removed to
Berlin, whither De Wette had been called to fill the chair of theology
in the new Prussian university. There, as a student in the Werder’sche
_Gymnasium_, Beck soon came under Jahn’s influence, began to frequent
the Hasenheide Turnplatz, and owing to his natural robustness of body,
and the enthusiasm with which he applied himself to the exercises,
developed more than usual proficiency in all the arts of the _Turner_.
After the assassination of Kotzebue in 1819, De Wette, who had long been
a friend of the Sand family, wrote a letter to the mother, in which he
endeavored to console her with the thought that her son’s act, though
wicked, arose from a mistaken notion of duty. The Prussian authorities,
upon learning of this letter, accused the eminent teacher of seeking to
excuse the crime, and in token of their displeasure deprived him of his
chair and even banished him from the kingdom. After several years in
retirement he accepted, in 1822, the professorship of theology in the
University of Basel, and passed the remainder of his life in that city.
Beck, meanwhile, had become an accomplished classical scholar at the
University of Berlin. He afterwards studied theology, was ordained to the
Lutheran ministry at Heidelberg, July 7, 1822, and the next year obtained
his doctor’s degree in theology from the University of Tübingen. He had
been active in the movement for a true Christian _Burschenschaft_, and
finding that his republican sentiments stood in the way of a successful
career in Germany, he, too, removed to Switzerland and joined the rest
of the family at Basel, where he found an opportunity to teach the Latin
language and literature.
Meanwhile the allied sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia had
requested repeatedly that Follen be surrendered to them for trial on
the ground of complicity in revolutionary movements, and acting on the
advice of friends he left the city for a few months, seeking concealment
in Baden at first, and in the spring of 1824 revisiting Paris. Here he
again saw much of Lafayette, who introduced him to the American Minister
(James Brown) and sought his company on an approaching visit to the
United States. Although longer residence in Basel appeared unsafe, he
returned to his duties in the university; but on October 27, 1824 he
again left the city, and three days later, travelling by mail-coach and
provided with a false passport, he reached Paris. Here he found Beck, who
had already left Switzerland a few days in advance, convinced that even
this asylum was no longer free from danger for Germans known to cherish
liberal opinions. The two men went at once to Havre, engaged passage
on the vessel “Cadmus,” and sailed for the United States on the 5th of
November.
They reached New York December 19. Three days later Follen wrote to
General Lafayette, who was then revisiting this country at the invitation
of Congress and receiving everywhere a welcome which gave to his
movements the character of a triumphal procession. Acting at once on his
suggestion that they go first of all to Philadelphia, they reached that
city on January 12, and were soon busily engaged in the study of English.
Letters from Lafayette secured them a kind reception and introduction to
agreeable and influential men, among others to Duponceau, a prominent
lawyer of French descent, who had been his friend for more than half a
century. George Ticknor, professor of the French and Spanish languages
and literature and of belles-lettres at Harvard University 1819-1835,
was then visiting in Washington. Lafayette sought to interest him in
the two German refugees, and on his return through Philadelphia, early
in February, Ticknor accordingly hunted them up, and found in Follen’s
possession a letter from Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker, a friend of the
Follen family and one of the son’s favorite teachers in Giessen, and
afterwards professor in the University of Göttingen, where Ticknor, a
student there in the years 1815-1817, had made his acquaintance.[194]
Ticknor’s letter to George Bancroft, to whom De Wette had already
directed a letter recommending his stepson, secured for Beck an
immediate appointment as instructor in Latin and gymnastics at the Round
Hill School, Northampton, Massachusetts, and by the middle of the month
(February, 1825) he had left Philadelphia to take up his new duties.
Except for a visit to Beck at Northampton the next summer, Follen
continued to reside in or near Philadelphia, applying himself with
diligence and success to his English studies, and preparing a course of
lectures on the civil law, which he hoped to deliver in the following
fall and winter. He had also enrolled himself with Duponceau as a law
student and was reading Blackstone. But in November, owing to the efforts
of Professor Ticknor, Duponceau, and others, Harvard University offered
him the position of Instructor in German, at a salary of $500—the first
time that subject had been included in its curriculum. Expecting to add
to his income by lectures on the Roman law, to be delivered in Boston,
he at once accepted the offer, visiting Beck once more on the way, and
before Christmas was settled in Cambridge.
One of the most important and successful educational innovations of its
time was the Round Hill School, opened on the first of October, 1823,
by Joseph Green Cogswell (1786-1871) and George Bancroft (1800-1891). A
descriptive circular issued a year after Beck’s appointment—it is dated
March 25, 1826[195]—reveals the serious purpose with which they undertook
the introduction of gymnastics and other forms of physical training.
“It may be impossible,” they say, “to engraft on any modern nation a
system of education corresponding to that which prevailed in ancient
Greece. But something must be done. Food, sleep, and exercise must be
regulated, purity protected, life guaranteed against casualties, and
temperance and exercise be set, even in the dawn of existence, to keep
watch over health. Games and healthful sports, promoting hilarity and
securing a just degree of exercise, are to be encouraged. Various means
of motion are to be devised and applied; and where these are regularly
used everything is done to assist nature in strengthening the youthful
constitution. If in addition to regularity in the use of exercise,
the kinds of it are so arranged that the several powers of the body
may successively be brought into action and gradually led to greater
exertions, it will not be long before the physical being assumes a new
appearance, and in addition to the acquisition of a control of the body,
beneficial results will be visible in general industry, deportment,
and morals. The attempt, therefore, to provide the various means for
gymnastic exercises merits to be encouraged; and whether the methods are
by turns strange or common, complicated or simple, the best that are
known should be employed. We are deeply impressed with the necessity
of uniting physical with moral education; and are particularly favored
in executing our plans of connecting them by the assistance of a pupil
and friend of Jahn, the greatest modern advocate of gymnastics. We have
proceeded slowly in our attempts, for the undertaking was a new one; but
now we see ourselves near the accomplishment of our views. The whole
subject of the union of moral and physical education is a great deal
simpler than it may at first appear. And here, too, we may say, that we
were the first in the new continent to connect gymnastics with a purely
literary establishment.”
Of the nature of this “first gymnasium on this side of the Atlantic,”
and the work done in it, not much direct evidence has come down to
us. One former pupil (Thomas G. Appleton)[196] writes: “‘Pitching the
bar’ was generally done near the schoolhouse; but the regular exercise
of gymnastics was upon a plateau just below the hill, where gymnastic
appliances, then freshly introduced from Germany, were in abundance.”
Dr. George C. Shattuck, another “Round Hiller,” is quoted by Dr. E. M.
Hartwell[197] as follows: “Dr. Beck, the teacher of Latin, afterward the
professor of Latin in Harvard University, was the teacher of gymnastics.
A large piece of ground was devoted to the purpose and furnished with
all the apparatus used in the German gymnasia. The whole school was
divided into classes, and each class had an hour three times a week for
instruction by Dr. Beck.” A newspaper article copied in the _American
Journal of Education_ for July, 1826, states that classes begin at 5:30,
others at 6:15, and breakfast comes at 7; from 7:30 till 9 the only
exercises are in declamation and dancing, 9 till 12 other classes, 12
until 1 rest, dinner at 1, 2 until 5 more classes, 5 until 7 “exercise
and amusement. At this time the classes in gymnastics have their
instruction, when the weather permits.” The evening meal follows, and
devotional exercises are held at 8, after which the smaller boys go to
bed, and the rest study for an hour longer.
Indirect proof that the Round Hill “gymnasium” was only a miniature
Hasenheide _Turnplatz_ is abundantly furnished by the “Treatise on
Gymnasticks, taken chiefly from the German of F. L. Jahn,” a translation
of the “_Deutsche Turnkunst_” of 1816, which Beck completed and turned
over to the publisher in January, 1828.[198] In the preface he tells us
that “The same causes which occasioned the publication of the original,
in Germany, about twelve years ago, render a translation desirable
in this country.... The school of Messrs. Cogswell and Bancroft, in
Northampton, Mass., was the first institution in this country that
introduced gymnastick exercises as a part of the regular instruction,
in the spring of 1825. Since that time, the interest for this branch
of education has been rapidly increasing, and frequent inquiries have
been made respecting a subject much esteemed for its expected salutary
effects, but little known as to its particulars.... Wishes were expressed
to me, by several of the most zealous and able friends and advocates
of physical education, to translate a work which would be suitable ...
or compile one.... I did not doubt to which of the two ways proposed
to give the preference. I fixed upon the treatise of Jahn, for reasons
contained in the preceding lines.” Jahn’s preface and Part V (containing
the bibliography) are omitted altogether by the translator; Parts III and
IV have been transposed, a chapter on dumb-bell exercises is introduced
in Part I, and there are a few other omissions and additions suggested by
recent experience. Plates VII and VIII are reproductions of the two in
the original, but the sixty-three figures in the remaining six plates are
new.
Leaving Beck at work in the first school gymnasium established in the
United States, we have now to return to Charles Follen, waiting in
Cambridge, in late December of 1825, to begin his duties as first teacher
of the German language in Harvard University. Within a year he also was
introducing the Jahn gymnastics in his new field, and had opened the
first college gymnasium this country had seen, at Harvard University, and
the first public gymnasium, in Boston. He had visited Beck at Northampton
in July of 1825 and again early in December, and on March 5 of the next
year, only a little more than two months after his arrival in Cambridge,
used these words in a letter to his friend: “I expect our University
will particularly apply to you on the subject of gymnastics. I have
commenced gymnastic exercises with the students. The College furnishes
the implements, and will give us a place. At present I use one of the
dining-halls. All show much zeal. In Boston a gymnasium is soon to be
established.”[199]
The third instalment of “Reminiscences of Harvard, 1822-26,” by Rev.
Cazneau Palfrey, printed in _The Harvard Register_ of October, 1880,
contains this passage: “The first movement in the direction of gymnastics
made in college was made in my senior year.... The medical professors of
the College published an appeal to the students, strongly recommending
to them the practice of gymnastic exercises; and a meeting of all the
classes was held in the College chapel (such a meeting as I do not
remember hearing of on any other occasion), at which a response was
made to this appeal, and resolutions passed expressing our readiness to
follow the suggestions made in it. One of the unoccupied commons halls
(on the first floor of University Hall) was fitted up with various
gymnastic appliances; and other fixtures were erected on the Delta, the
enclosure now occupied by Memorial Hall. But Dr. Follen did not confine
his operations to these two localities. One day he was to be seen issuing
from the College yard at a dogtrot, with all college (the total number of
undergraduates at that period was not more than two hundred) at his heels
in single file, and arms akimbo, making a train a mile long, bound for
the top of Prospect Hill. Great was the amazement and amusement of all
passersby. I was one of the bobs of that living kite; but, as I dropped
prematurely, I cannot speak confidently of the end....”
Anyone familiar with the appearance of a German _Turnplatz_ of the Jahn
type will readily understand the allusions made by Thomas Wentworth
Higginson in his chapter on “The Gymnasium, and Gymnastics in Harvard
College,” in the second volume of “The Harvard Book” (Cambridge, 1875).
“One of my most impressive early reminiscences,” he says, “is of a
certain moment when I looked out timidly from my father’s gateway, on
what is now Kirkland Street, in Cambridge, and saw the forms of young men
climbing, swinging, and twirling aloft in the open playground opposite.
It was the triangular field then called the ‘Delta,’ where the great
Memorial Hall now stands. The apparatus on which these youths were
exercising was, to my childish eyes, as inexplicable as if it had been a
pillory or a gallows, which indeed it somewhat resembled. It consisted
of high uprights and crossbars, with ladders and swinging ropes, and
complications of wood and cordage, whose details are vanished from my
memory. Beneath some parts of the apparatus there were pits sunk in the
earth, and so well constructed that they remained long after the woodwork
had been removed. This early recollection must date as far back as 1830.”
In the “Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the University in
Cambridge,” October, 1825, appears the name “Charles Follen, J.U.D.,
Instructor in German, and Lecturer on the Civil Law.” The next catalogue
(September, 1826) retains the name and title unchanged, but in that
“for the Academical year 1827-1828” (published in 1827) he is called
“Instructor in German, and Superintendent of the Gymnasium;” and in both
these catalogues the following paragraph occurs: “The regular Gymnastick
exercises, when the Superintendent of the Gymnasium is present, are on
Wednesday and Friday, from 12 to 1 o’clock; or when the length of the
day admits, after evening Commons. On Monday, the Monitors and Vice
Monitors meet separately with the Superintendent, to prepare for the
general exercises.” The catalogues for 1828-1829 (published in 1828) and
1829-1830 (published in 1829) make no mention of “Gymnastick exercises,”
and give Follen the title “Instructor in the German Language, in Ethics,
and in Civil and Ecclesiastical History.” From 1826 through 1829 this
further paragraph is included: “Military exercises are allowed on Tuesday
and Thursday, from 12 to 1 o’clock, or after evening Commons; with
music not oftener than every other time, and liberty of a parade on the
afternoons of Exhibition days.”
In a letter to Beck dated March 5, 1826, Follen had written: “In Boston
a gymnasium is soon to be established.” The gentlemen interested in
the project offered him a liberal salary if he would “superintend the
erection of the proper apparatus and become the principal instructor,”
and authorized him to engage a suitable assistant. September 26 he again
wrote to Beck: “The day after tomorrow my rope-dancing begins in Boston.
The gallows stand, in significant majesty, on the spot. There is no lack
of gallows-birds, large and small, genteel and vulgar....” A petition had
been presented to the Board of Aldermen of Boston on March 13, asking
for the use of a certain piece of land “for the purpose of establishing
a school of gymnastic instruction and exercise.” April 17 the city
authorities granted this request. Following a call which appeared in the
Boston _Daily Advertiser_ of June 12, a meeting of citizens was held June
15, at the Exchange Coffee House, to take steps to carry out the plan for
a public gymnasium. The official report is published in the _American
Journal of Education_ for July, 1826, (Vol. I, p. 243). The meeting
unanimously resolved “that it is expedient to attempt the establishment
of a Gymnastic School in the city of Boston,” and appointed William
Sullivan, Dr. John C. Warren, Prof. George Ticknor, Dr. John G. Coffin,
and John S. Foster, with others to be selected by them, a committee to
carry the resolution into effect, by securing and applying contributions
from the citizens of Boston. Others mentioned as especially interested in
the project are Judge Prescott, Josiah Quincy, Daniel Webster, Peter O.
Thacher, John A. Lowell, Thomas Motley, and John B. Davis. Two hundred
and fifty shares, at twenty dollars each, were offered by the committee,
and according to Dr. Warren the contributions were “very liberal,”
permitting the opening of the establishment “on a large scale.”
The open-air gymnasium or _Turnplatz_ was ready for the public on
September 28, not on the site originally selected, but in Washington
Gardens, at the corner of West and Tremont Streets, opposite the Common.
A notice in the _American Journal of Education_ for October mentions “the
large number of pupils of various ages, and the high gratification it
seems to afford;” and the November number of the same Journal uses these
words, in the course of a more extended reference: “A month’s opportunity
of observing its progress and participating in its exercises enables us
now to say that thus far it gives the utmost satisfaction to those who
have made the experiment of taking a course of lessons. The physical
effects of the gymnastic exercise, on pupils of very different ages—from
ten to fifty—are surprising. Many have doubled their vigor.... Pupils
belong to great diversity of situations in life—physicians, lawyers, and
clergymen are intermixed with young men from the counter and the counting
house, and with boys from the public schools.” Follen was assisted by
George F. Turner, a Harvard student. Mrs. Follen, then Miss Eliza Lee
Cabot, first met her future husband in the autumn of 1826. She says: “He
accompanied us and some other ladies to his gymnasium, to see his class
of boys go through their exercises. He took us, when we first entered the
place, to look at a very amusing caricature of his school, particularly
of his elder pupils and himself, in the act of performing some of their
most difficult exercises.”[200]
In June of the following year (1827) Follen resigned his position at
the Boston Gymnasium. To a committee of pupils there, who sent him a
letter[201] expressing their appreciation of his services and their
regret at losing him, he replied under date of July 3, referring to “the
patriotic views to which the Boston Gymnasium owes its existence, and
the efficient zeal with which these exercises have been carried on.”
Meanwhile an attempt had been made to secure the services of no less a
person than Friedrich Ludwig Jahn himself. Dr. Warren tells us[202] that
he “addressed a letter to the distinguished philosopher and gymnasiarch,
Professor Jahn, through my friend, William Amory, Esq., who was at that
time residing in Germany. Mr. Jahn was so situated that we could not,
without obtaining more means than were at our disposition, lead him to
abandon his own country and establish himself for life in ours. The
idea of obtaining his aid was therefore relinquished; and I afterwards
addressed Dr. Lieber....”
[Illustration: FIG. 69.—Francis Lieber (1800-1872). (From Harley’s
“Francis Lieber”).]
This latter gentleman, who succeeded Follen at the Boston gymnasium
late in June or early in July of 1827, was Francis (German, _Franz_)
Lieber, born in Berlin on March 18, 1800. In 1811 he became acquainted
with Jahn, at the Hasenheide _Turnplatz_. Although too young to join
his older brothers in the first campaign of the War of Liberation,
upon Napoleon’s return from Elba he entered (May 26, 1815) a volunteer
regiment, the Pomeranian Rifles or Kolberg Regiment, took part in the
battle of Ligny, was severely wounded at Namur, and later suffered from
a prolonged siege of typhus fever in the hospitals at Aix-la-Chapelle
and Cologne. After his return home he attended for a time the _Gymnasium
zum grauen Kloster_, and now became one of the most ardent and tireless
of Jahn’s turners, accompanying him on the month-long excursions to the
Island of Rügen in 1817 and to Breslau the following year.[203] In July
of 1819, a few days after Jahn’s arrest, Lieber was also seized as an
enemy of the state. After four months in prison he was allowed to go
free, but forbidden to study in any Prussian university. The universities
of Heidelberg and Tübingen also refused him admission, but he met with
better success at Jena, where he received his doctor’s degree (Ph.D.)
in 1820, studying afterwards for brief periods in Halle and Dresden
(1821). In December of that year Lieber joined at Marseilles a band of
Philhellenes, who sailed from that port to give their services in the
cause of freedom to a foreign race, since the reaction at home left
no opportunity there for patriotic endeavor; but disgusted with the
cowardice, incapacity, and lying met at every step in Greece, he returned
in a small vessel to Ancona, on the eastern coast of Italy, reached Rome
about the first of June, and spent the next year as private tutor in the
family of Barthold Georg Niebuhr, the celebrated German historian, at
that time Prussian ambassador at the Papal Court.
The Prussian King, and later Kamptz, the Minister of Police, had assured
Lieber that no further persecution need be feared in his own country,
and for some months after his return to Berlin, which he reached August
10, 1823, it seemed as though all was well. But in time it appeared
that every movement was watched by the police. Foreseeing the fate that
awaited him if he remained longer in Germany, he now took steps looking
toward a career in some foreign land. Lessons in English were begun in
February of 1826, and among other things he secured from Major-General
von Pfuel, in charge of a swimming school in Berlin, a testimonial as to
his skill in that art and his ability to conduct a similar institution
with success. When all was ready he left Berlin, May 17, 1826, and ten
days later reached London, travelling by way of Hamburg and Gravesend.
Although he passed a year in the English metropolis, supporting himself
by private instruction in German and Italian at six shillings a lesson,
Lieber’s thoughts were soon turned from this uncertain means of
livelihood to the possibility of a career in the United States. As early
as August his diary contains this entry: “Mrs. Austin, the authoress,
introduced me to Mr. Bentham, and to Mr. Neal” (p. 248). The _American
Journal of Education_ for November of that year (Vol. I, pp. 699-701)
quotes as follows from “a recent letter of our literary countryman Mr.
Neal, who has taken a very active part in aiding the interests of Prof.
Voelker’s establishment in London, and to whose attention we have been
repeatedly indebted for intelligence on gymnastics”: ‘You know my zeal
about gymnastics. I have been heartily engaged for above a year in the
study and practice of them in every variety; and under a hope that I
may be of use to my countrymen. I have found three men who I am told
are qualified, almost beyond example, for teachers. I enclose you the
proposals and the certificate of one, who was a chief personage with
professor Jahn himself.’
The certificate of Professor Jahn: “Francis Lieber, Doctor in Philosophy,
has during several successive years, both in summer and winter, gone
through the whole course of gymnastic exercises in the gymnasium over
which I, the undersigned, presided; he has also accompanied me in several
pedestrian excursions, among others in 1817 to the Island of Rügen,
and in 1818 to the Riesen mountains, on which travels we visited many
Prussian gymnasiums. Having found him of good moral behavior, ingenious
and clever, and being a good leader and teacher of gymnastics, I thought
it right as early as the year 1817 to propose him to the government of
the Rhenish Provinces at Aix la Chapelle for the situation of a teacher
of gymnastic exercises. Beloved by the young scholars, esteemed and
respected by those of the same or a more advanced age than himself, he
was elected a member of the committee which was intended to represent
the society of ‘Turners’ and to promote the art generally, with a view
as well to the art itself as to morals and science. At the time when Dr.
Lieber was daily with me he zealously adhered to those eternal maxims
of truth, duty, and liberty which form the only basis of the progress
of human kind. The journeys which he has performed through Germany,
Switzerland, to France, Italy, and Greece, have no doubt still farther
formed his understanding and enlarged his mind; but on this point I
cannot judge from my own knowledge, having since lost sight of him
although he lives in my recollection. At the request of Dr. Lieber I
have given this testimonial, stamped according to law, written with my
own hand, with my seal affixed and certified by the municipality of my
present abode. Freiburg on the Unstrut, in the Prussian Duchy of Saxony.
August 1, 1826. (Signed) Frederick Lewis Jahn, Doctor in Philosophy.”
“In addition to the above,” the Editor of the _Journal_ concludes, “Dr.
Lieber has a very satisfactory certificate from Major General Pfuel, who
invented the new method of teaching to swim and established the Prussian
Military Swimming Schools. It may be proper to add that Dr. Lieber is
known and approved by Dr. Follen, Professor (!) of civil law in Harvard
University and Superintendent of the gymnasium in Boston.”
April 13, 1827, in response to an invitation just received, Lieber wrote
accepting a position as Follen’s successor at the Boston Gymnasium, and
agreeing to establish a swimming school in that city. June 20 of the
same year he landed in New York City, and proceeded at once to the scene
of his new duties. The _Boston Medical Intelligencer_ of July 3 (Vol.
V, p. 118) announces his arrival “to take charge of the gymnasium in
Washington Garden and to open a swimming school;” and an advertisement in
the same journal, dated July 14, gives notice that “Dr. Lieber’s Swimming
School, situate on the north side of the Mill Dam, will be opened for the
reception of pupils on Wednesday next, 18th inst....” The swimming school
seems to have proved a successful venture from the start, and was still
in existence at least as late as the season of 1832. The popularity of
the gymnasium, on the other hand, soon waned. From a sketch of the life
of William Bentley Fowle contained in Barnard’s _American Journal of
Education_ for 1861 (Vol. X, p. 607) we learn that “about four hundred
gentlemen attended at the opening term. Mr. Fowle was chosen treasurer,
and was in fact the chief executive officer. When Dr. Follen resigned
Dr. Lieber was invited over from London; but no talent could keep the
gymnasium alive after the novelty had ceased, and some of the gymnasts
had been caricatured in the print shops. The institution lingered about
two years, when, only about four gymnasts remaining, Mr. Fowle closed its
accounts.”[204]
Beck left the Round Hill School in 1830, to take part in establishing
another boys’ school, in Phillipstown, on the Hudson River opposite West
Point. Two years later he was elected “University Professor of Latin,
and Permanent Tutor,” in Harvard University, and for eighteen years
discharged the duties of that position in a manner which won the respect
and affectionate regard of pupils and colleagues. Upon resigning his
chair, and until his death, which occurred suddenly on March 19, 1866, he
was occupied with literary pursuits and classical studies, and also held
various offices of public trust, representing Cambridge for two years
in the State Legislature.[205] Bancroft, too, had withdrawn from the
school at Northampton in 1830.[206] For some years longer, in the face
of financial losses and in spite of failing health, Cogswell struggled
to maintain its efficiency. In the spring of 1834 he finally gave up the
attempt, and after two years at the head of a boys’ school near Raleigh,
North Carolina, turned his back forever on a profession in which he had
been in many ways singularly successful.
Follen, as we have seen, resigned his position at the Boston gymnasium
early in the summer of 1827; the title “Superintendent of the Gymnasium”
at Harvard is given him only in the catalogue for 1827-1828, which also
contains the last reference to “gymnastick exercises.” August 21, 1828,
the Corporation of Harvard College appointed him “Instructor in Ethics
and in Civil and Ecclesiastical History” in the Theological School,
in addition to his work in the College. Two years later he received a
five-year appointment as Professor of the German Language and Literature,
three friends having guaranteed a portion of his salary for that period.
The professorship was not renewed in 1835, and his connection with the
University came to an end. In the summer of 1833 he became interested
in the Anti-slavery Society which had been formed the year previous
in Boston, and soon joined it, assisting later in the formation of a
similar society in Cambridge, and at one time serving as a manager of
the Massachusetts Society. As early as the winter of 1826-1827 he formed
the acquaintance of Dr. William Ellery Channing, and decided to prepare
himself for the ministry with the assistance of that distinguished
Unitarian clergyman. On January 13, 1840, three days after completing
a well-attended course of six lectures on German literature under the
auspices of the Merchants’ Library Association of New York, he left that
city for Boston on the steamboat “Lexington.” About fifty miles out, on
the Sound, the vessel caught fire, and Follen, together with all but
four of the crew and passengers, met his death. Charles Sumner, who had
been his pupil, wrote to a friend “Dr. Follen is gone; able, virtuous,
learned, good, with a heart throbbing to all that is honest and humane;”
and Dr. Channing “said of him that he was, on the whole, the best man he
had ever known.”[207]
The career of Francis Lieber in the United States was more notable than
those of either of his compatriots. A testimonial from Niebuhr, and his
own force of intellect and character, secured him at once a very cordial
reception on this side of the Atlantic, and upon the recommendation of
the same distinguished patron a half-dozen leading periodicals in Germany
appointed him American correspondent. At the close of his first season
at the swimming school he turned with great energy to literary labors,
and soon made up his mind to edit an encyclopedia, modelled after the
seventh edition of the Brockhaus _Conversations-Lexicon_ and in part a
translation of that famous German work, but adapted to English readers
and supplied with numerous additional articles by distinguished American
contributors. The first volume of the new “Encyclopædia Americana”
appeared in 1829, and the thirteenth and last in 1833. It proved a
successful venture financially and brought him also the acquaintance of
prominent men in all parts of the country. In September of 1833 he moved
his family from Boston to Philadelphia, and by October 19 had finished
the draft of a constitution for Girard College. June 5, 1835, he was
unanimously elected Professor of History and Political Economy in South
Carolina College, at Columbia. May 18, 1857, he was elected Professor of
History and Political Science in Columbia College, New York City, but
later, in July of 1865, was transferred by the trustees to the chair
of Constitutional History and Public Law in the Law School. Here he
continued in active service until his sudden death, October 2, 1872.[208]
The outdoor gymnasia at Northampton, Cambridge, and Boston, although for
the historian they possess the greatest interest, were not the only ones
established during the period (1825-1830) under consideration. Each had
its imitators, and there were other attempts of a similar nature which
seem to have been more or less independent, or inspired by direct contact
with European models. The following information deserves a place as a
contribution to this study of beginnings, and it is offered in the hope
of arousing a curiosity which will result in additions to our present
knowledge of the subject.
No school of the period attracted more attention or enjoyed greater
prosperity than did the New York High School, a private institution
for boys, which the son of its founder[209] calls, at the time of
its organization, “the first and the only pay school in this country
established on the professed principle of cheap and efficient instruction
based on ... the adoption and employment of the monitorial system, by
which one teacher can communicate his knowledge to a large number of
pupils.” It was located in New York City, on Crosby Street, above Grand,
and opened March 1, 1825, with about 250 boys; but the numbers rapidly
increased to more than 600, and there were still about 400 at the time
of its discontinuance, near the close of 1831. The founder was John
Griscom (1774-1852), who during a year of foreign travel had examined
many famous European schools, and refers in the published account of
his observations[210] to the gymnastic exercises which he saw in Paris,
at the school of Amoros[211] (August 27, 1818), and in Switzerland
at the schools of Fellenberg, in Hofwyl (October 2 and 3, 1818), and
Pestalozzi, in Yverdon (October 8 and 9, 1818). In writing of the visit
to Amoros he remarks: “A systematic course of instruction, with proper
exercises, on the right use of their limbs, I have long thought would
be very advantageous to boys;” and his opening address at the New York
High School[212] contains the following: “I shall refrain from dwelling
longer on the literary pursuits of this seminary; but I cannot dismiss
my subject without adverting to one branch of instruction which it is
equally the wish, I believe, of the trustees and principals to establish
as a constituent part of our general plan, from a conviction of its
advantages to the bodily vigor and of course to the intellectual strength
and activity of our pupils. I allude to _gymnastics_.” The second annual
report of the Trustees[213] informs the public that “Gymnastic exercises
have been introduced, under the superintendence of an experienced and
careful teacher, and they have been attended with evident advantage to
the spirits and health of the pupils.”
Other schools which introduced gymnastic exercises, or planned to do so,
during the period under review, were the New Haven Gymnasium, conducted
by two sons of President Timothy Dwight of Yale; the Berkshire High
School, at Pittsfield, Mass.; the Mount Pleasant Classical Institution,
at Amherst, Mass.; the Livingston County High School, near Geneseo,
New York; the Buffalo High School; Gideon F. Thayer’s private school
for boys, in Harvard Place, Boston; the Noyes School, at Andover, New
Hampshire; Walnut Grove School, at Troy, New York; a High School in
Utica, New York; the Brookline (Mass.) Gymnasium; Mount Hope Literary and
Scientific Institution, near Baltimore, Maryland; and the Classical and
Scientific Seminary at Ballston, New York.[214]
After Harvard, Yale College seems to have been the first to introduce
gymnastics among its students. A letter received from the University
Library states “that the idea was taken from the gymnasium recently
established at Harvard; that Tutor William M. Holland was sent to
Cambridge in the summer of 1826 to procure the apparatus, and that he
superintended the exercises, which was begun with the opening of the
fall term of 1826.” At a meeting of the Corporation held September 12,
1826, it was “Voted that a sum not exceeding three hundred dollars, to
be expended under the direction of the faculty, be appropriated to the
clearing and preparation of grounds for a Gymnasium and to the erection
of apparatus for Gymnastic exercises, with a view to the promotion of the
health and improvement of the Students.”
A book entitled “Student Life at Amherst College,” compiled by George R.
Cutting and published at Amherst in 1871, contains the following account
of a similar movement at that institution: “In the summer of 1826 the
students of the college petitioned the Faculty for a holiday in which
to clear up the college grove. The petition was granted, and a second
day was given for further completion of the work. Thus logs, stumps, and
rubbish were removed, and the students had a fine grove at their command
for outdoor exercise. Several months afterward a Gymnastic Society was
formed, whose chief object was the erection and support of gymnastic
apparatus in this grove. The first president of the society was Joseph
Howard, M.D., of ’27. The Faculty concurred in the plans of the society,
and as a result of their efforts a variety of useful apparatus was placed
here, which was eminently serviceable to the students and contributed
not a little to their health and happiness. By the enthusiasm and public
spirit of the society a bathing house (10 × 12 feet) was also erected, in
the southwest corner of the grove. Here shower-baths were provided for
the members. This was afterwards burned down. In 1827-1828 the society
contemplated the erection of bowling alleys, but the Faculty would not
suffer the innovation.... Addresses were occasionally pronounced before
the society, in the chapel, upon ‘physical culture.’ The society did
not really cease to exist until 1859-1860, when the present (Barrett)
gymnasium was erected. Its apparatus, ever and anon increased and
repaired by the liberality of the students, was not removed from the
grove until after that time.” Dr. E. M. Hartwell, in his “Physical
Training in American Colleges and Universities” (Washington, 1886),
tells us that “One who entered Amherst as a student in 1829 describes a
gymnasium which consisted of ‘a few horses and parallel bars, with one or
two swings in the grove, but even these belonged to a society of students
who guarded their property with jealous care.’”
May 9, 1827, the Trustees of Williams College voted “That a sum not
exceeding one hundred dollars be appropriated to the procuring and
erection of apparatus necessary to the practice of the gymnastic
exercises, if the Faculty should think proper to introduce the same at
this College.” At a meeting of the Faculty held June 15 “The President
and Tutor (Mark) Hopkins,[215] a committee who had been appointed for
this purpose at a former meeting, reported a plan of a gymnasium, and
recommended a site for its location. The same committee were authorized
to prepare the ground according to the plan reported.” The Trustees,
again, on September 5, of the same year, voted “to appropriate a sum not
exceeding $50, in addition to the $100 granted at the last meeting, to
be expended on the Gymnasium.” The _Boston Medical Intelligencer_ for
September 25, 1827 (Vol. V, p. 311) contains this note: “A traveller
observes, ‘On a portion of the College grounds, in Williamstown, I
perceived one day a large number of students at work, headed by their
venerable President, and on examination found that they were preparing a
Gymnasium. Here is a fine spot for exercise, and we may hope that our
students will no longer, as in former years, leave college with emaciated
frames and pallid countenances, through want of proper exercise.’”
The following extracts are taken from a long letter[216] to the editor
of the _Boston Medical Intelligencer_ by a correspondent who signs
himself “G. F.” and writes under date of September, 1827. “Having lately
been in Providence, Rhode Island, I have had the best opportunity of
informing myself with respect to the success of the Gymnastic Exercises
in Brown University, and knowing the interest you take in this subject
I submit to your disposal some remarks on it. On the 11th of June
last, near the commencement of the present term, the exercises opened
under the most auspicious and flattering circumstances. Nearly all the
students, with the exception of the senior class, to the number of about
seventy, presented themselves on the exercise ground. The exercises
were countenanced, and consequently enlivened, by the presence of the
president, professors, and tutors of the university.... The officers,
as I stated, appeared with the students, and under the direction of the
teacher of gymnastics performed the exercises.... The students have taken
a great interest in the exercises throughout the term, though not so much
at the latter part of it as at first....” Late in July of 1827 Charles
Follen spent a day in Providence on his way to Newport, and refers to
the visit as follows in a letter to Beck: “I was for the most part with
Dr. Wayland,[217] and my ex-assistant Haskins, and held in the evening
a strict Gymnastic review. I spoke much with Dr. Wayland on education.
He stated many fine views and seemed to be respected and beloved by the
teachers. He exercises with all.” The University catalogue of 1827-1828
announces that “a very complete Gymnasium, with every variety of
apparatus for exercise, has lately been erected on the college grounds;”
and the Treasurer’s Reports contain these items:
1827—June 28, Cash paid for digging, etc., for gymnasium $ 26.06
July 27, Materials and labor for gymnasium 231.81
” 31, Lumber for gymnasium 24.14
Aug. 17, Dynamometer for gymnasium 27.00
” 27, Lumber, etc. 3.00
” 27, George F. Haskins, on account of services as
teacher in gymnasium 15.00
Sept. 4, George F. Haskins services in full 135.00
1828—Jan. 5, Spar for gymnasium 10.00
Feb. 4, Work on gymnasium 10.22
President Jasper Adams, D.D., of Charleston College, Charleston, S. C.,
is thus quoted in the _Quarterly Review and Journal of the American
Education Society_ for May, 1830 (Vol. II, p. 244): “A system of bodily
exercise was adopted three or four years ago, and suitable apparatus
was constructed; but it was not found useful, and the apparatus has been
destroyed.”
In speaking of Lieber’s year in England reference has already been
made (p. 240) to an American, John Neal,[218] who was at that time
residing in London. Neal had spent his early life in New England, in
1815 established himself in business in Baltimore, studied law in that
city and was admitted to the bar in 1819, and meanwhile, in order to
support himself, had been writing articles for the _Portico_ and had
followed these with a two-volume novel and a book of poems. A whole
series of novels was produced within the next few years, and some of
these were reprinted in London. Late in 1823 he left America to try his
fortune as a pioneer of American letters in the British metropolis, and
during his residence in London, from January of 1824 until April of
1827, became a frequent contributor to the most important magazines and
reviews, residing much of the time at the house of Jeremy Bentham, by
invitation of that distinguished jurist and philosopher. While still in
Baltimore he had been moved by signs of mental overwork to take lessons
in boxing, fencing, and riding; in London these were continued, and
when Carl Voelker[219] (German, _Karl Völker_), like Beck, Follen, and
Lieber, a German refugee, opened there his gymnasia patterned after the
Jahn _Turnplatz_ Neal became one of his most enthusiastic pupils and
supporters. Returning to America in the summer of 1827 he opened a law
office in Portland, Maine, where the remainder of his life was passed.
The following words from his autobiography (pp. 333-335) evidently refer
to the first year (1827-1828) of this residence:
“The late Governor Enoch Lincoln was my mother’s nextdoor neighbor.
Having understood that I was familiar with gymnastics, which he wanted
to have introduced here, he proposed a lecture. A lecture! I had never
been guilty of such a thing, in all my life; but as soon as my mind was
made up about staying here I determined to establish a gymnasium, take
charge of it myself, and refusing all compensation see what could be done
for the people in that way. Our first gathering was in the upper story
of the old town-hall, which I asked of the authorities; and succeeded in
obtaining for certain purposes, though vehemently opposed by such young
men as the late Colonel John D. Kinsman, then exceedingly popular with
the militia power.... From the old town-hall we went to Silver Street,
where we succeeded in obtaining a large hay magazine. There we set up
our ladders, and ropes, and masts, parallel bars, wooden horses, etc.,
with such success that before a month had gone over I had under my charge
at least fifteen or twenty full classes. Among these were many capital
gymnasts. After this, when the spring opened, we took the old fort on the
top of Munjoy Hill, and established another gymnasium there, with ditches
and leaping-poles; and then, having got into other and better business,
with my law and literature, and fencing and sparring classes, at my
office, I threw up these gymnasia; being, to say the truth, heartily sick
of them after I found how little the members were inclined to do for
themselves; not one of the whole being disposed to let me off, although
I had trained forty or fifty for class-leaders, and they understood that
I had my own living to get in other ways. Meanwhile I had established
a gymnasium at Brunswick,[220] which has continued to this day (he is
writing late in December, 1868), with two or three long interruptions,
and another at Saco; and all this without asking or receiving a
penny for my time and trouble; nay, more, at considerable expense to
myself....”[221]
Dr. John Collins Warren, who had helped to start the gymnasia at Harvard
University and in Boston, bore reluctant testimony to the brevity of
the period now under review in a lecture “On the Importance of Physical
Education,” delivered at Boston in August of 1830 before the convention
which organized the American Institute of Instruction. After urging
the importance of suitable bodily exercise, for young women as well as
young men, he adds: “The establishment of gymnasia through the country
promised at one time the opening of a new era in physical education.
The exercises were pursued with ardor, so long as their novelty lasted;
but owing to not understanding their importance, or some defect in the
institutions which adopted them, they have gradually been neglected and
forgotten, at least in our vicinity. The benefits which resulted from
these institutions, within my personal knowledge and experience, far
transcended the most sanguine expectations.” And he still believes that
“the diversions of the gymnasium should constitute a regular part of the
duties of all our colleges and seminaries of learning.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
In addition to the references given in the text and footnotes consult
Dr. E. M. Hartwell, Report of the Director of Physical Training,
December, 1891 (Boston, School Document No. 22—1891), pp. 12-23; and B.
A. Hinsdale, “Notes on the History of Foreign Influence upon Education
in the United States,” Chapter XIII in the Report of the Commissioner of
Education for the year 1897-1898 (Vol. I, pp. 591-629).
FOOTNOTES:
[189] See _Mind and Body_ for November, 1906 (=13=, 257).
[190] See _Mind and Body_ for May-July, 1906 (=13=, 65, 97, 129).
[191] See _Mind and Body_ for December, 1906 (=13=, 289).
[192] For the Giessen period consult:
Robert Wesselhöft, “Deutsche Jugend in weiland Burschenschaften und
Turngemeinden.” Magdeburg, W. Heinrichshofen, 1828.
Friedrich Münch, “Erinnerungen aus Deutschlands trübster Zeit.” St.
Louis, Conrad Witter, 1873.
Ferdinand Marx, “Die Giessener sogenannten _Schwarzen_ als Verbreiter
des Turnwesens,” in _Neue Jahrbücher der Turnkunst_ =27= (1881): 23-30,
66-73, and 106-113.
Moritz Zettler, in _Deutsche Turnzeitung_ 1882, pp. 9, 25, 45.
Karl Wassmannsdorff, in _Deutsche Turnzeitung_ 1882, pp. 269, 295, 319,
333, 345, and 355.
Kuno Francke, “Karl Follen and the German Liberal Movement,” in Papers of
the American Historical Association, =5=, parts 1-2 (January and April
1891).
Herman Haupt, “Karl Follen und die Giessener Schwarzen.” Giessen, Alfred
Töpelmann, 1907.
Herman Haupt, “Zur Geschichte des Giessener Ehrenspiegels.” Pp. 202-214
in “Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte der Burschenschaft und der
deutschen Einheitsbewegung,” Band II, Heft 1-2. Heidelberg, Carl Winter’s
Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1911.
[193] For the Sand episode, and Follen’s relation to it, consult J.
Sauerbrey in _Neue Jahrbücher der Turnkunst_ =35= (1889): 98, 149, 196,
253, 301, 341, and 405; and Hermann and Münch in _Deutsche Turnzeitung_
1880, pp. 185 and 403.
[194] See “Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor” (Boston, 1876),
Vol. =1=, p. 351.
[195] Same Account of the School for the Liberal Education of Boys,
established on Round Hill, Northampton, Massachusetts, by Joseph G.
Cogswell and George Bancroft. 19 pages.
[196] “Some Souvenirs of Round Hill School.” In _Old and New_ (Boston)
=6=, 27-41 (July, 1872).
[197] In his “Physical Training in American Colleges and Universities.”
Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education, No. 5, 1885.
Washington, 1886. See page 22.
[198] A Treatise on Gymnasticks, taken chiefly from the German of F. L.
Jahn. Northampton, Mass., Simeon Butler, 1828.
[199] Pages 104 and 105 in “The Life of Charles Follen,” by (his wife)
E. L. Follen, Boston, Thomas H. Webb & Co., 1844. This “Life” also forms
Vol. I of “The Works of Charles Follen, with a Memoir of His Life.” In
five volumes, Boston, Hilliard, Gray & Co., 1842.
[200] Page 107 in her “Life of Charles Follen.”
[201] July 2. Quoted in part in the _Boston Medical Intelligencer_, =5=,
p. 133, (July 10, 1827).
[202] The Life of John Collins Warren, M.D. (Boston, Ticknor and Fields,
1860).
[203] A manuscript account of the latter trip, written by Lieber,
was found among Massmann’s papers, and published in the _Deutsche
Turnzeitung_ for 1895 (pp. 637-642 and 686-690), with introduction and
notes by Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff.
[204] Lieber’s own ideas regarding the nature and means of physical
training are preserved for us in two articles contributed by him to the
_American Journal of Education_ of August, 1827 (=2=, pp. 487-491), and
the _American Quarterly Review_ of March, 1828 (=3=, pp. 126-150).
[205] The main facts regarding Beck’s life are given in “The Christian
Citizen. A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of Charles Beck.” Delivered
March 25, 1866, before the First Parish in Cambridge, by William Newell.
Cambridge, Sever and Francis, 1866. See also pp. 124-126 in Andrew P.
Peabody’s “Harvard Reminiscences” (Boston, Ticknor & Co., 1888).
[206] The first volume of his “History of the United States” was
published four years later.
[207] See also pp. 116-123 in Andrew P. Peabody’s “Harvard Reminiscences”
(Boston, Ticknor and Co., 1888).
[208] Sources: Thomas S. Perry, “The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber”
(Boston, James R. Osgood & Co., 1882); and Lewis R. Harley, “Francis
Lieber: His Life and Political Philosophy” (New York, The Columbia
University Press, 1899). See also Eduard Dürre’s “Erinnerungen” in
_Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_ 1872, pp. 286 and 293; and Karl Ulrich in
_Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_ 1874, pp. 227 and 228.
[209] “Memoir of John Griscom, LL.D.,” by his son, John H. Griscom, M.D.
(New York, Robert Carter & Bros., 1859). An article based on this volume
was published in Barnard’s _American Journal of Education_ for June, 1860
(=8=, pp. 325-347).
[210] “A Year in Europe, Comprising a Journal of Observations in England,
Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, the North of Italy, and Holland,
in 1818 and 1819.” Two volumes. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, 1823.
[211] The word is spelled _Amonton_ in Griscom’s book!
[212] See the _American Journal of Education_ for January, 1826 (=1=, pp.
50-52).
[213] See the _American Journal of Education_ for January, 1827 (=2=, pp.
58-60).
[214] See an article in _Mind and Body_ =12=, 313-319, based on an
examination of volumes =1-3= of the American _Journal of Education_
(1826-1828).
[215] Dr. Hartwell (Report to the Boston School Committee, December,
1891, page 20) says that Tutor Hopkins “had been sent on a mission to
Round Hill to investigate the construction and working of its gymnasium.”
[216] It was published in the _Intelligencer_ for September 18, 1827
(=5=, pp. 291-294).
[217] Francis Wayland, appointed President of Brown University in
February, 1827.
[218] Born in Portland, Maine, in 1793; died there in 1876. The chief
source of information concerning Neal is his “Wandering Recollections
of a Somewhat Busy Life. An Autobiography” (Boston, Roberts Brothers,
1869). His letters from England are quoted in the _American Journal of
Education_, =1= (1826), pp. 375 and 699-700; and =2= (1827), pp. 55 and
56. Consult also _The_ (New York) _Continental Monthly_ for September,
1862 (=2=, pp. 275-281), and _The New American Cyclopædia_, =12=, pp. 150
and 151 (New York, 1861).
[219] Voelker, born about 1796, was according to his own story a pupil of
Jahn’s and had served among the volunteers in the War of Liberation. As
a student at the University of Jena he assisted in organizing the first
_Burschenschaft_, became one of its directors, and exercised on the Jena
_Turnplatz_. In September of 1818 he went to Tübingen, at the request
of a delegation of students from its university, to help them start a
_Burschenschaft_ and open a _Turnplatz_ (see p. 98). In the course of the
investigation that followed the murder of Kotzebue by Sand the government
of Württemberg was asked to surrender Voelker for arrest as a suspected
accomplice. This was refused, but so much pressure was at length brought
to bear that in order to save the ministry further embarrassment he
crossed into Switzerland. Some years later he arrived in London, bearing
letters of recommendation to Jeremy Bentham and Henry Brougham (later
Lord Chancellor). Apparently in the spring or early summer of 1825,
after three months’ study of the English language, he opened with
Bentham’s help a garden _Turnplatz_ at No. 1 Union Place, New Road,
near Regent’s Park, at the same time receiving pupils in German. Later
in the same season he rented Mr. Fontaine’s riding-school on Worship
Street, Finsbury Square, using this also as a gymnasium. He afterwards
returned to Switzerland, and lived there until his death at Kappel, in
St. Gall, October 2, 1884. The fullest account of Voelker’s life is that
by Eduard Dürre (“Rückblicke und Träume eines alten Turners”) in the
_Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_ for 1872 (=17=, pp. 103-107, 127-129, 136 and
137). See also _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_ for 1881, p. 72, and
1885, p. 43. On the London gymnasium consult the _American Journal of
Education_, =1= (1826), pp. 375, 430-432, 502-506, 625 and 626; and =2=
(1827), pp. 55 and 56. Volume =1= of “The Every-Day Book” by William Hone
(London, 1826) contains under date of September 25 (1825) some additional
particulars, and a drawing made for this article “by Mr. George
Cruikshank, after his personal observation of Mr. Voelker’s gymnasium in
the New-road.”
[220] In the pines back of the present site of Sargent Gymnasium. A
report of the Visiting Committee to the Board of Trustees and Overseers
of Bowdoin College, dated September 2, 1828, contains the following:
“The committee would introduce to the favorable notice of the Trustees
and Overseers the Gymnasium which has been recently established. We have
had some opportunity of witnessing its exercises and are convinced that
its effects are highly salutary.... These exercises are voluntary, few
however decline them. Those who have associated as Gymnics have presented
a request that a shed may be erected for their accommodation. But highly
as we approve of the association we think that this request cannot now be
acceded to. Other and more pressing wants of the college demand all its
funds.” This outdoor gymnasium was in existence until the early sixties,
when the college fitted up for similar uses a building formerly occupied
as a college common.
[221] For references to private gymnasia opened in New York and
Philadelphia at this period see _Mind and Body_, =12=, 350 and 351
(February, 1906).
CHAPTER XXII.
THE “NEW GYMNASTICS” OF DIO LEWIS.
In the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century four different
systems of physical training had been brought forward for trial in the
United States—the drill and discipline of the military academy, the Jahn
gymnastics, manual labor on the farm or in the shop, and “calisthenics”
for girls and women. The claims of each were pressed by enthusiastic
advocates, and there was no lack of imitators of the educational
institutions in which each had first become incorporated; but for various
reasons not one of the four was generally adopted or won for itself more
than temporary foothold. From 1835 until 1860, though educators were
increasingly alive to the importance of physical training,[222] no one
appeared with anything that seemed more likely to meet the conditions
and needs of the time. Then came Dio Lewis, with his “new gymnastics
for men, women, and children,” something definite and practical. His
contagious enthusiasm created a wave of popular interest that spread
to all parts of the country, and the “Normal Institute of Physical
Education” which he opened in Boston in the summer of 1861 was the first
attempt in America to prepare teachers of a subject whose right to a
place in the school curriculum had long been conceded.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.—Dio Lewis (1823-1886).]
Dioclesian, or, as he called himself in after life, Dio Lewis, came of
vigorous Welsh stock and was born March 3, 1823, on a farm in Cayuga
County, New York, within a few miles of Auburn. Loran L. Lewis, born two
years later, who served two terms in the Senate of his native state,
and from 1882 until 1896 was Justice of the New York Supreme Court, has
written as follows regarding the early life of his elder brother:
“At the age of twelve Dio was as large and mature as ordinary boys of
fifteen. His mind was remarkably active; so were his movements. He could
do anything he desired to do with more rapidity than any person I ever
knew. When accustomed to committing to memory he could read a page in a
book once, close the book, and repeat it all. He had an investigating,
inquisitive mind. He liked miscellaneous reading, but did not relish
digging into study. He learned a great many facts, but did not read
many books thoroughly. He was enthusiastic in everything in which he
engaged. He developed as a child a talent for declaiming, even before
he could read much, and as a youth he engaged in debates and talked on
temperance.... He was cheerful and full of fun.... At the age of twelve
Dio left school and went into a cotton factory in Clarksville, near
Auburn, where he remained perhaps six months, working some sixteen hours
a day and receiving from $1.25 to $2.50 a week in orders on stores in
Auburn. After this he worked in Wadsworth’s hoe, axe, and scythe factory
for about two years, attending school at intervals....
“At about the age of fifteen he began teaching school in our district.
He surprised the patrons with novel ways of teaching and managing the
school. Heretofore the masters had moved around the room with ferule in
hand, always ready to deal a blow as occasion might offer. The young
teacher discarded the whip and went to singing, and for a change he would
march with the children into a piece of woods near the schoolhouse, and
sometimes, after the children got tired, he would allow them to play
hide-and-seek. Dio continued teaching near home for a year or two, and
when eighteen years of age he went to what was then Lower Sandusky, now
Fremont, Ohio, and organized a select school. Here he began the study of
Latin and Greek, and the classes which he soon formed in them, as well
as in algebra and geometry, kept him hard at work with his own studies
in order to keep well ahead of his pupils. The school was patronized by
most of the leading citizens, and gave so great satisfaction that in a
few months some of them volunteered to erect a handsome school building.
They obtained an act of incorporation, naming it, in compliment to Mr.
Lewis, ‘The Dioclesian Institute,’ and the new quarters were occupied
just before the close of the school year.”
A severe and prolonged attack of ague compelled the young teacher to give
up his work in Fremont at the end of a year, and he did not return to it.
Having made up his mind to study medicine, he now entered the office of
the physician at the Auburn State Prison, Dr. Lansing Briggs, with whom
he remained for three years, with the exception of one winter devoted to
teaching. In 1845 he went to Boston and spent some time in the Medical
Department of Harvard University, but seems to have been prevented from
completing the course by lack of means, and therefore came back to Port
Byron, not far from his home, to enter at once upon the practice of his
profession. By his partner, Dr. Lewis McCarthy, he was won over to the
new system of homeopathy, and a little later, after establishing himself
in Buffalo in 1848, began to edit a monthly publication called _The
Homœopathist_. The honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred
upon him in 1851 by the Homœopathic Hospital College of Cleveland, Ohio,
then only two years old.
A year after his removal to Buffalo Dr. Lewis married Miss Helen Cecelia
Clarke, daughter of a physician whose country residence was in the
neighborhood of Port Byron. Three of her sisters had died of consumption,
and in the fall of 1851 she herself began to exhibit unmistakable
symptoms of the same disease. Her husband, who was already urging in
his medical journal the importance of _preventive_ measures, at once
undertook the treatment of her case by hygienic means. These appeared to
be successful for a time; but in the fall of 1852 her cough reappeared,
and Dr. Lewis thereupon determined to give up his practice and go South
with her for the winter. Early in January they reached Fredericksburg,
Virginia. It was not in the man’s nature to remain idle, and he was soon
talking on health subjects to pupils in the schools. To identify himself
with a cause which had excited his interest ever since boyhood he now
joined “The Sons of Temperance,” but with a protest, his biographer[223]
tells us, “against the exclusion of women from membership. He urged
upon the leaders that in failing to enlist woman in the work they were
leaving out the element most essential and indispensable to success....
Meeting only indifference to his appeal for the admission of women to
the organized temperance work, he wrote a paper on ‘The Influence of
Christian Women in the Cause of Temperance,’ and read it in a hall in
the old town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the same year (1853). This
was his first appearance on the public platform. Directly afterward he
gave lectures on this subject and on health topics in Fredericksburg,
Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, and Portsmouth, Virginia.” The two
succeeding winters were also spent with his wife in the South, where
among other places he lectured in Paris, Lexington, and Georgetown,
Kentucky. The same occupation was continued in New York State in the
intervening summers. At the end of this time, after renewed and more
careful attention to the matter of dress and exercise, Mrs. Lewis found
herself fully restored to health.
The next five years, until the summer of 1860, were devoted almost
entirely to platform work in “the Middle and Northern United States and
Canada.... It was his custom to speak on six evenings in the week on the
laws of health, laying special stress on his favorite axiom, adapted to
suit himself, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.’ On Sunday
evenings he presented in the churches, or, by preference, in a large
hall, when such could be obtained, his favorite subject, ‘The Duty of
Christian Women in the Temperance Work.’” In 1856 he made a short visit
to Paris, chiefly to secure material suitable for demonstration in his
popular lectures on physiology, although he also improved the opportunity
to attend clinics at some of the city hospitals. Referring to this period
he speaks of himself as “burdened with what I felt to be my life-work,
that of urging upon the people their right to ‘a sound mind in a sound
body,’ and the introduction of a new system of physical training into
the schools of the country ...;” and how his thoughts were turned to
gymnastics is told in these words: “During the eight years of lecturing,
the spare hours were devoted to the invention of a new system of
gymnastics. The old, or German gymnastics, the one so common throughout
our country,[224] was obviously not adapted to the classes most needing
artificial training. Athletic young men, who alone succeeded in the feats
of that gymnasium, were already provided for. Boat clubs, ball clubs,
and other sports[225] furnished them in considerable part with the means
of muscular training. But old men, fat men, feeble men, young boys, and
females of all ages—the classes most needing physical training,—were not
drawn to the old-fashioned gymnasium. The few attempts that had been made
to introduce these classes to that institution had uniformly and signally
failed. The system itself was wrong.”
After experimenting for some years with the new exercises he had devised
Dr. Lewis determined to concentrate his efforts on the attempt to
introduce them to the public, and in June of 1860 established his home
in the vicinity of Boston for this purpose. “I thought,” he says, “that
Boston would prove more hospitable to an educational innovation than
any other city in the country;” and he was not disappointed. Evening
classes in gymnastics were soon organized in West Newton, Newtonville,
Newton, Newton Upper Falls, and Watertown. The English and classical
school of Mr. N. T. Allen, in West Newton, was the first to introduce
the new system, according to Dr. Lewis, and it was soon followed by the
Normal School at Framingham, and in Boston by the institutions of Mr.
Gannett in Pemberton Square and Madame de Maltchyce in Pinckney Street,
the Concord Hall school, and many others in and near the city. A public
gymnasium, also, for men, women, and children was opened at 20 Essex
Street, in Boston. Among others, a class of clergymen and their wives met
there regularly for an hour on Mondays—‘blue Monday’—to exercise with the
proprietor and, as one of them expressed it, to “inhale hygiene in his
presence, and in the atmosphere of his room.”
In August of 1860 the ‘new system’ was all at once brought to the notice
of leading educators gathered from the length and breadth of the United
States. Dr. Lewis himself related the circumstances to a Boston audience,
several years afterward,[226] as follows: “I may remark that the hour
of my coming was most fortunate for my cause. Just then the American
Institute of Instruction held its great Convention—the largest ever held
in this country—in this city. I was so fortunate as to be invited to
appear before that most august of all educational bodies, to explain and
illustrate the new system of gymnastics. They told me ‘You may have half
an hour on the second morning; we have the business so arranged that we
cannot give you more.’ But when the half-hour had expired they said, ‘Go
on;’ and I went on until two hours had passed, and then they voted that
the next morning they would meet at half past eight (having announced
important business for nine o’clock), to hear more about the new
gymnastics. The next morning was foggy and dark, but the hall (Tremont
Temple) was full, and they passed over their important business and gave
me nearly two hours more, and at noon another hour. With such an opening
as this, it is not remarkable that the interest spread over the entire
country.”[227]
One of Dr. Lewis’s objects in coming to Boston had been the establishment
of a training school for teachers of the “New System,” and in the spring
of 1861 the _Normal Institute for Physical Education_ was incorporated.
President Cornelius C. Felton, of Harvard College, readily consented to
serve as its president, and continued to take an active interest in the
enterprise until his death, a year later. Upon the list of twenty-eight
Directors appear the names of Governor John A. Andrew, Hon. George S.
Boutwell, Dr. H. I. Bowditch, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Rev. E. E.
Hale, N. T. Allen, Prof. A. Crosby, and others of recognized standing.
The members of the first faculty were Thomas H. Hoskins, M.D., Professor
of Anatomy; Josiah Curtis, M.D., Professor of Physiology (the instruction
in this subject, as well as in anatomy, was later given by Dr. Hoskins);
Walter Channing, M.D., Professor of Hygiene; and Dio Lewis, M.D.,
Professor of Gymnastics. The next year a department of Elocution was
created, and Professor T. F. Leonard was called to the new chair. The
first course opened July 5, 1861, and continued ten weeks. Other similar
courses were to be given twice each year thereafter, beginning regularly
on the second of January and the fifth of July.
This Institute was not, as Dr. Lewis supposed, “the first ever
established to educate guides in Physical Culture,” since normal schools
of gymnastics had already been opened in Europe, _e.g._, at Stockholm
(1814), Dresden (1850), and Berlin (1851); but it was the first attempt
of the sort to be made in the United States, and as such merits more
than passing notice. A report of the first course and announcement of
the second, published in pamphlet form at Boston in 1861, yields the
following: “Readers of our educational journals are, to some extent,
familiar with Dr. Lewis’s system of Gymnastics, since in connection with
his appearance before the American Institute of Instruction last year
these journals, as also large numbers of the daily press, gave somewhat
full accounts of the principal features of that system.[228] It is a
novel system, novel alike in its philosophy and in its practical details.
Dispensing with the whole cumbrous apparatus of the ordinary gymnasium,
its implements are all light, easily managed, and designed less to impart
mere strength of muscle than to give flexibleness, agility, and grace
of movement. The exercises are accompanied by music, and all of them so
arranged that both sexes participate in each....
“The second course of the Institute will open on the second day of
January, 1862, and continue ten weeks. Many peculiar and marked
advantages will be enjoyed by the pupils of the winter term. D. B.
Hagar, Esq., Ex-President of the American Institute of Instruction,
Hon. Geo. Bradburn, Rev. Warren Burton, Rev. T. W. Higginson, and
several other well known gentlemen, will deliver lectures before the
class of the Institute....” In addition to the regular instruction in
anatomy, physiology, hygiene, and gymnastics, the class will be taught
“the principles of the ‘Swedish Movement-Cure,’[229] a department of
the institution devoted to the treatment of curvature of the spine,
paralysis, and other chronic maladies, affording rare opportunities to
study in detail the application of Ling’s methods in treating such forms
of chronic disease.... Each pupil, on being received into the Institute,
will be critically examined with reference to strength, form, and health;
and any deficiency thus disclosed will be at once placed under the most
thorough treatment.... Each will be drilled by Dr. Lewis in person, with
such care that he or she cannot fail to become a competent teacher of
gymnastics. And each will have two drills a day.... All will be made
familiar with at least two hundred different exercises ... and will be
allowed, every one in turn, to lead a small class....”
At this point a bit of contemporary testimony from a well-informed, but
more impartial, source may be introduced. During the years 1858-1862 Mr.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson contributed to the _Atlantic Monthly_ a series
of vigorous and stimulating articles, full of good sense and literary
charm, which were afterward collected and published in book form under
the title “Outdoor Papers” (Boston, 1863; New York, 1894). One of them,
on “Gymnastics,” which appeared in March of 1861, contains this reference
to the ‘New System:’ “It would be unpardonable, in this connection,
not to speak a good word for the favorite hobby of the day,—Dr. Lewis,
and his system of gymnastics, or, more properly, of calisthenics. Dr.
Winship[230] had done all that was needed in apostleship of severe
exercises, and there was wanting some man with a milder hobby, perfectly
safe for a lady to drive. The Fates provided that man, also, in Dr.
Lewis,—so hale and hearty, so profoundly confident in the omnipotence
of his own methods and the uselessness of all others, with such a ready
invention, and such an inundation of animal spirits that he could flood
any company, no matter how starched or listless, with an unbounded
appetite for ball-games and bean-games. How long it will last in the
hands of others than the projector remains to be seen, especially as some
of his feats are more exhausting than average gymnastics; but, in the
mean time, it is just what is wanted for multitudes of persons who find
or fancy the real gymnasium to be unsuited to them. It will especially
render service to female pupils, so far as they practise it; for the
accustomed gymnastic exercises seem never yet to have been rendered
attractive to them, on any large scale, and with any permanency.”
In a volume published in 1868 Dr. Lewis says that more than two hundred
and fifty persons had taken the diploma of the Normal Institute in
the nine sessions which had been held. His biographer, on the other
hand, makes this statement: “During the next seven years (after its
establishment) four hundred and twenty-one ladies and gentlemen, in about
equal numbers, were graduated from it. These were able to answer the
demand for instructors in the ‘new gymnastics’ which soon came from the
schools and from private classes in the larger cities of New England, and
later from the remoter parts of the country, until at length the system
was taught in every State of the Union.”
Dio Lewis was a voluminous writer, but only two of his books require
particular mention here—“The New Gymnastics for Men, Women, and
Children,” first issued in 1862; and the tenth edition, practically a
new work although it bears the same title, which appeared in 1868. Both
were published in Boston, by Ticknor and Fields. The leading article,
“The New Gymnastics,” in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for August of 1862 (Vol.
X, pp. 129-148) is from his pen, and another of sixty-five pages was
published in two instalments in Barnard’s _American Journal of Education_
for June and December of the same year (Vol. XI, pp. 531-562; Vol. XII,
pp. 665-700). Of the 275 profusely illustrated pages in the book of 1862
only a little more than a third are filled with material of the author’s
own devising. Pp. 102-115 (“Free Gymnastics”) contain exercises selected
from Schreber’s “Aerztliche Zimmer-Gymnastik;”[231] on pp. 117-164
“The Dumb Bell Instructor for Parlor Gymnasts,” by Maurice Kloss,[232]
is given in condensed form and free translation; and pp. 165-255 are
occupied with a similar translation of Schreber’s “The Pangymnastikon;
or All Gymnastic Exercises brought within the Compass of a Single Piece
of Apparatus.”[233] The first portion of the book begins with ten pages
of introductory discussion relating to the need of special gymnastic
training for children, the inadequacy of military drills and other forms
of exercise commonly employed, the use of music with gymnastics, the
gymnasium, and the gymnastic dress. Then follow (pp. 18-101) Lewis’s own
exercises, grouped as follows: Bag exercises (30), exercises with rings
(54), exercises with wands (68), dumb-bell exercises (34), club exercises
(22), pin running (a game with clubs), games with birds’ nests (played
with bean-bags), the arm pull, the gymnastic crown, and the shoulder
pusher.
In the tenth edition of “The New Gymnastics” (1868) the translations
from German authors are omitted. In the words of the preface, “their
places have been supplied by original exercises, now for the first time
published. At the same time changes have been made in that portion of
the book which was devoted to an illustration of the author’s system of
Gymnastics. In the constant practice of the system for the past five
years, among thousands of pupils, a multitude of new exercises have been
added, and the entire method has been improved in many respects. This
edition is an attempt to reflect upon the pages of a book the changes
which have taken place in actual practice.” A few of the introductory
pages are worth quoting here, since they contain Dr. Lewis’s own
statement of the advantages of his system, his claims to originality, and
the order in which the exercises were developed.
“The advantages of the New System of physical culture are, in part the
following: (1) The varied movements of the New System give opportunity
for the full play of every muscle in the body, resulting in an all-sided
development. (2) The exercises are constantly changed from one set of
muscles to another, thus obviating weariness and undue disturbance of
the circulation. (3) The centrifugal impulse of the predominating series
secures a completeness and _grace_ attained by no other means, while
the centripetal character of the old or German method has long been the
opprobrium of physical culture, with the philosophical. (4) In the New
System the exercises are subordinated to personal or individual wants,
while in the old the person is entirely subordinated to the performance
of difficult feats. (5) The physiological purpose of all muscle training
is to perfect the intermarriage between nerve and muscle. The skill
exacted by the accurate lines, changing attitudes, and difficult
combinations of the new methods compels the most complete interaction
between soul and body. (6) The New School employs apparatus which cannot
strain and stiffen the muscles, not even in the extremely old and young
or feeble, while the old school sanctions weights which must produce the
slow, inelastic muscles of the cart-horse. (7) The New Gymnasium invites
to its free and social life persons of both sexes and all ages, while
every attempt that has been made to introduce the old, or the very young,
or women, to the Old Gymnasium has failed. (8) In the New Gymnasium
persons of both sexes unite in all the exercises with great social
enjoyment, thus adding indefinitely to the attractions of the place,
while the attractions of the Old Gymnasium are about equal to those of
a ballroom from which ladies are excluded. (9) In the New Gymnasium
everything is set to music. Marches, free movements, dumb-bells, wands,
rings, mutual-help exercises. No apathy can resist the delightful
stimulus. The one hundred persons on the floor join in the evolutions
inspired by one common impulse. Under the old system each individual
works by himself, deprived of the sympathy and energy evoked by music and
the associated movement.”
For three years, 1864-1867, Dr. Lewis conducted at Lexington,
Massachusetts, a school for girls, in which Theodore Dwight Weld, once
the confident advocate of manual labor as a system of exercise, was
a leading teacher, and Catharine Beecher was for a time one of the
lecturers.[234] In September of 1867 the school building was burned, and
although temporary quarters were at once secured in a summer hotel at Spy
Pond the project was abandoned at the close of another year. The number
of pupils rose to 140 in the third year, drawn from all over the country,
and nearly 300 were enrolled during the whole period. In the words of
Dr. Lewis, “The character of the announcement, with what the public knew
of my interest in physical education, drew together a company of bright
girls, with delicate constitutions, such girls as could not bear the
exclusively mental pressure of the ordinary school.... The girls went
to bed at half-past eight every evening. They rose early in the morning
and went out to walk, which walk was repeated during the day. They ate
only twice a day, and of very plain, nourishing food. They took off their
corsets. They exercised twice a day, half an hour, in gymnastics, and
danced an hour about three times a week. This was the general course,
and upon this regimen they rapidly improved. The gymnastic exercises
proved invaluable, but the nine hours in bed, I believe, played a still
more important part.” The Eastman biography states that “On entering the
school pupils were measured about the chest, under the arms, about the
waist, and around the arm and forearm. The average gain for eight months
was in chest measure, two and a half inches; waist measure, five inches;
size of arm, one and a half inches; of forearm, about one inch. The work
was so hard that with all this remarkable development the weight of the
pupils was often lessened.”
The closing of his school for girls, in 1868, may be said to mark the end
of Dio Lewis’s greatest activity in the interest of physical training.
He had never relinquished altogether the lecture field, and now found
more leisure for the work, speaking in Massachusetts and New Hampshire
on his favorite topics, physical education and temperance. The winter
of 1873-1874 was given up to an extensive course of lyceum lectures
in the West, under the auspices of a lecture bureau, and again, as in
the fifties, he devoted Sundays to the cause of Temperance, “always
keeping in mind what he had for twenty years desired to see inaugurated,
a practical movement on the part of women to close the saloons.” The
balance of the year 1874 was filled with temperance work exclusively, and
out of the “Women’s Crusades” which he inspired and helped to organize at
this time was developed the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, formed
at Cleveland in November. In 1875 he was obliged to heed the signs of
approaching physical collapse, and went to California for three years of
outdoor life.[235] The year 1884 saw him located on a farm at Smithtown,
Long Island, in search of rest and trying meanwhile to “concentrate his
attention on chickens,” but in July able to deliver a course of lectures
and teach gymnastics at the Martha’s Vineyard Summer Institute. His death
occurred at Yonkers, May 21, 1886.[236]
Mr. James C. Boykin pays the following just tribute to Dio Lewis: “It may
be true that ‘he was unconventional, sympathetic, plausible, oracular,
and self-sufficient,’ and ‘not a scientist in any proper sense,’ as one
writer has said.[237] But, notwithstanding all this, he rendered a real
service. Even if he had nothing in his favor but the undoubted fact that
he gave gymnastics in America a greater impulse than any man before him
had done, that would be sufficient to earn for him the gratitude of all
interested in physical training. But he did more. He first awakened
the American public to the appreciation of the fact that the mere
development of huge muscles is not the true idea of physical training.
His contribution to the list of exercises and to gymnastic material was
by no means insignificant, though, to be sure, his claims were out of
all proportion to their value; but, more than all else, he lifted the
gymnasium above the low plane it had occupied in the public mind as the
resort of prize-fighters and bullies, and carried gymnastics into the
schoolroom to an extent never before approached in this country, and into
the home to an extent that no one else had ever attempted.”[238] His
so-called ‘system’ was not of a sort to survive for many years the loss
of the founder’s energetic leadership, and yet he prepared the soil for
the broader and more substantial type of work of a later day.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
This chapter was first published in the _American Physical Education
Review_ for June and September, 1906 (=11=, 83-95 and 187-198). It is
given here in condensed form, with a few footnotes added. The chief
sources of information have been already mentioned.
FOOTNOTES:
[222] Horace Mann (1796-1859), secretary of the Massachusetts Board of
Education 1837-1848, in the annual reports of the Board and in the ten
volumes of the _Common School Journal_ which he edited (1839-1848) had
much to say of school sanitation and the importance of instruction in
personal hygiene. In pp. 56-160 of the sixth report (1843) he attempted
to vindicate the title of a study of physiology and hygiene to “the
first rank in our schools, after the elementary branches.” Perusal of
successive reports of the annual meetings of the American Institute of
Instruction from the first (1830) to the thirtieth (1859), and of the
_Massachusetts Teacher_ from 1850 to 1860 (Vol. =3-12=) and Barnard’s
_American Journal of Education_ 1855-60 (Vol. =1-8=) reveals a cumulative
interest in the problem of physical education as the end of that period
approached. A. A. Livermore’s article in the _North American Review_ for
1855 (=81=:51-69), Dr. D. W. Cheever’s in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for 1859
(=3=, 529-543), and Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s series which began in
the latter magazine in March of 1858 (afterwards collected and published
under the title “Outdoor Papers”) point in the same direction, as do also
the twenty-first and twenty-second reports of the Massachusetts Board of
Education (1858 and 1859), that of the Boston School Committee for 1859
(pp. 52 ff.), and a report to the New York State Teachers’ Association
in the same year. “Tom Brown’s School Days,” first published in April
of 1857, presented an attractive picture of vigorous boy-life; and the
fourth chapter (Physical Education) of Herbert Spencer’s “Education” (New
York, 1860), which had already appeared in the _British Quarterly Review_
of April 1, 1859, was certain to attract attention. The following were
the recent manuals available:
Paul Preston’s Book of Gymnastics (Boston, Munroe & Francis, 1842). A new
edition, revised, was published in 1861 (New York, Charles S. Francis).
Walker’s Manly Exercises, revised by “Craven” (Philadelphia, John W.
Moore, 1856).
P. A. Fitzgerald, “The Exhibition Speaker” (New York: Sheldon, Lamport &
Blakeman, 1856). Pp. 223-268 are devoted to “Gymnastics and Calisthenics.”
N. W. Taylor Root’s “School Amusements” (New York, A. S. Barnes & Co.,
1857). Pp. 95-143 have to do with gymnastics.
R. T. Trall, “The Illustrated Family Gymnasium” (New York, Fowler &
Wells, 1857).
George Forrest (John George Wood!), “A Handbook of Gymnastics” (London
and New York, G. Routledge & Co., 1858).
Perhaps we should add that literary and pictorial curiosity, Henry de
Laspée’s “Calisthenics, or the Elements of Bodily Culture on Pestalozzian
Principles” (London, Darton & Co., 1856). A second edition was published
in 1865 (London, Charles Griffin & Co.).
[223] “The Biography of Dio Lewis,” prepared at the desire and with the
coöperation of Mrs. Lewis by Mary F. Eastman. New York, Fowler & Wells
Co., 1891.
[224] The oldest gymnastic society (_Turnverein_) of the German type in
the United States was the Cincinnati _Turngemeinde_, organized November
21, 1848. By October of 1853 there were at least seventy in existence,
and by September of 1856 ninety-six societies, with a membership of about
five thousand, had united into a national body and at least twenty more
were known to have been formed. At the outbreak of the Civil War there
were a total of one hundred and fifty-seven societies, in twenty-seven
states of the Union. See pp. 290 and 291.
[225] The beginning of rowing clubs in the United States goes back to
1833 and the few years following, and in the decade 1850-1860 interest in
the sport spread all over the country. Baseball, starting in the forties
and fifties, did not become a truly national pastime until the period
immediately succeeding the Civil War. The “Caledonian games” of Scotch
immigrants, forerunners of our track and field athletics, had been shown
in Boston in 1853 and Hoboken in 1857, but did not become widely popular
till the later sixties and seventies. Football existed only in its
primitive form.
[226] At the fourth commencement exercises of his Normal Institute for
Physical Education, March 18, 1863.
[227] See also the “Lectures Delivered before the American Institute of
Instruction, at Boston, Mass., August 21, 1860, including the Journal of
Proceedings, and a List of Officers” (published under the direction of
the Board of Censors. Boston, Ticknor & Fields, 1861). The references to
Dio Lewis occur on pp. 19-21, 23-25, 45 and 46, and 77 of the Journal
of Proceedings. Another report of these sessions is printed in the
_Massachusetts Teacher_, =13=, 378-393 (October, 1860).
[228] Lewis had himself published articles on “Physical Culture” in
the _Massachusetts Teacher_ for October and November of 1860 (=13=,
375-377 and 401-406), and in the latter month issued the first number
of a monthly periodical, _Lewis’ New Gymnastics for Ladies, Gentlemen
and Children, and Boston Journal of Physical Culture._ Vol. =2= (1862,
January-November, with one extra number) bore the title _Lewis’s
Gymnastic Monthly and Journal of Physical Culture_.
[229] It has already been noted (p. 157) that under Branting’s
directorship of the Central Institute in Stockholm (1839-1862) foreign
physicians began to be attracted by the new system of treatment, and
among them Mathias Roth of London. Roth afterwards published “The
Prevention and Cure of Many Chronic Diseases by Movements” (London,
1851), a translation of “The Gymnastic Free Exercises of P. H. Ling,
Arranged by H. Rothstein” (London, New York, and Boston, 1853), and
“Handbook of the Movement Cure” (London, 1856). The first American
physicians to write at length on the subject were the Taylor brothers of
New York, George H. Taylor “An Exposition of the Swedish Movement Cure”
(New York, Fowler & Wells) in 1860, and Charles F. Taylor his “Theory
and Practice of the Movement Cure” (Philadelphia, Lindsay & Blakiston)
a year later. Bayard Taylor spent the late winter and spring of 1857 in
Stockholm, visiting the Central Institute regularly as a “patient,” and
described his experiences in letters to the _New York Tribune_ and in his
volume “Northern Travel” (London and New York, 1857. Consult pp. 202-206).
[230] George Barker Winship, born at Roxbury, Mass., January 3, 1834,
and died at the same place (of heart disease) September 12, 1876. He was
educated at Harvard University (A.B. 1854, M.D. 1857), and in June of
1859 gave his first lecture on physical training, with an exhibition of
heavy lifting, in Music Hall, Boston, repeating these afterwards in many
places throughout the northern states and Canada. In the sixties and
early seventies he conducted a private gymnasium on Washington Street,
Boston, next door to the Boston Theater. See his “Autobiographical
Sketches of a Strength-Seeker,” in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for
January, 1862 (=9=, 102-115), an article on “Physical Culture” in the
_Massachusetts Teacher_ for April, 1860 (=13=, 126-132), and an item
in the latter magazine for April, 1861 (=14=, 159). Among the literary
announcements of Ticknor & Fields in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for August,
1862, a book on “Health and Strength” by Dr. Winship is mentioned as “in
press,” but it seems never to have been published.
[231] _Aerztliche Zimmer-Gymnastik_, oder Darstellung und Beschreibung
der unmittelbaren, keiner Geräthschaft und Unterstützung bedürfenden,
daher stets und überall ausführbaren heilgymnastischen Bewegungen
für jedes Alter und Geschlecht und für die verschiedenen speciellen
Gebrauchszwecke, entworfen von Dr. med. Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber,
pract. Arzte und Vorsteher der orthopädischen und heilgymnastischen
Anstalt zu Leipzig; 45 xylographische Abbildungen enthaltend, Leipzig,
Friedrich Fleischer, 1855. The third German edition of this work was
translated by Henry Skelton and published by Williams & Norgate, London
& Edinburgh, in 1856, with the title “Illustrated Medical Indoor
Gymnastics, or a system of medico-hygienic exercises requiring no
mechanical or other aid, and adapted to both sexes and all ages, and for
special cases.”
[232] _Das Hantel-Büchlein für Zimmerturner_, von Dr. Moritz Kloss,
mit 20 in den Text gedruckten Abbildungen. Leipzig, J. J. Weber, 1858.
Lewis’s translation is made from the second edition.
[233] _Das Pangymnastikon_, oder Das ganze Turnsystem an einem
einzigen Geräthe ohne Raumerforderniss als einfachstes Mittel zur
Entwickelung höchster und allseitiger Muskelkraft, Körperdurchbildung
und Lebenstüchtigkeit. Für Schulanstalten, Haus-Turner und Turnvereine,
von Dr. med. D. G. M. Schreber, Director der orthopäd und heilgymnast.
Anstalt zu Leipzig. Mit 108 Holzschnitten im Texte und 107 auf Tafeln.
II. Theil der “Aerztlichen Zimmer-Gymnastik.” Leipzig, Friedrich
Fleischer, 1862.
[234] See the “Catalogue and Circular of Dr. Dio Lewis’s Family School
for Young Ladies, Lexington, Mass., 1867” (Cambridge: Welch, Bigelow &
Co., 1867).
[235] Described in his “Gypsies” (Boston, Eastern Book Co., 1881).
[236] Lewis’s published works include, in addition to those already
mentioned, “Weak Lungs, and How to Make Them Strong” (1863), “Talks about
People’s Stomachs” (1870), “Our Girls” (1871), and “Five-Minute Chats
with Young Women” (1874), “Talks about Health” (1871), “Chastity” (1872),
and “In a Nutshell” (1883). In 1864 Amherst College conferred on him the
honorary degree of Master of Arts.
[237] Dr. E. M. Hartwell, in his first report as Director of Physical
Training in the Boston Schools (School Document No. 22, 1891), pp. 35 and
36.
[238] Report of the Commissioner of Education—1891-1892 (Washington,
1894), =1=, pp. 517 and 518.
CHAPTER XXIII.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.
Each of the four systems or sorts of physical training brought forward
for trial during the decade whose middle point was 1830 had been adopted
by one or more institutions of college rank. Under Follen’s guidance
Harvard students were introduced to the Jahn gymnastics in the spring of
1826 (pp. 235-237), and other outdoor gymnasia of the Hasenheide type
were prepared soon afterwards at Yale, Amherst, Williams, Brown (pp.
245-247), and Bowdoin (p. 249). In “A Memorial of the Class of 1827,
Dartmouth College,” written by Jonathan Fox Worcester (Second edition,
Hanover, N. H., 1867), there is also mention of “the interest awakened,
during the latter part of our career, in the subject of physical
education; the gymnastic apparatus set up behind the ‘College’ in 1826,
by the students themselves ...; the cricket clubs which covered the green
the next spring, adding this excellent game to our previous list of modes
of exercise....” Manual labor, combined with study, played a large part
in many sections of the country, and particularly in new colleges founded
while that movement was at its height. Norwich University made military
exercises and long marches on foot a regular part of the course, under
Captain Partridge, its first president (1835-1843); and Mount Holyoke
College, chartered as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, opened in 1837 with
both domestic work and “calisthenics” included in its plan. The latter
was more properly dancing steps, accompanied by singing.[239]
In the fifties there were many signs of a reviving interest in gymnastics
as a means of exercise, culminating at the end of the decade in the
erection of brick or stone gymnasia at Harvard, Yale, and Amherst
colleges, at a cost of approximately $10,000 each. In the “Catalogue
of the University of Virginia—Session of 1851-1852” (Richmond, 1852),
following the list of “Faculty, Instructors and Officers” and the name of
the “University Hotelkeeper,” is the note: “Gymnastics are taught under
the authority of the Faculty, by Mr. J. E. D’Alfonce.”[240] The Board of
Visitors reported in 1852 that they “have read with pleasure that J. E.
D’Alfonce proposes to give instruction in that subject (gymnastics), and
hereby renew the permission formally given for a site on the University
grounds for a gymnasium, and are disposed to offer proper facilities....”
John S. Patton, in Chapter XXII of his “Jefferson, Cabell and the
University of Virginia” (New York and Washington, The Neale Publishing
Co., 1906), says that “the gymnasium authorized by the Visitors was
erected on the site of the present Academic Building, and on the banks
of the little stream nearby was built a house for Russian baths. Both
enterprises were directed by D’Alfonce, but fell into disuse during the
Civil War, when the buildings were destroyed. As a teacher the Frenchman
is said to have been unusually successful....”
The note regarding D’Alfonce appears again in the same place in the
catalogues issued by the University in 1853 and 1854, and in those from
1855 to 1860 inclusive his name is listed under “Faculty, Instructors
and Officers.” Professor William M. Thornton contributes the following
picture: “A pretty sight might have been seen from the foot of the Lawn.
As the visitor reached the apex of the triangle his eye would have rested
on a great, circular framed building in the midst of the field below.
Near it would have been seen a company of two or three hundred students,
all in an easy uniform of blue blouse and grey trousers, drawn up in
rank and file. At their head stood a lively Frenchman, an ex-soldier,
issuing the word of command. And under his orders this regiment of
college boys would go through a series of complex exercises, marching
and countermarching, ... all out in the open air.... Or, entering the
building at an earlier hour, he would have found these same boys turning
upon bars, swinging upon ropes, brandishing broadswords or foils,
dumb-bells and clubs. And then, as the sun descended and before the
great bell of the Rotunda rang out its evening summons, he would have
heard the Frenchman, in his splendid baritone, raise the chant of the
Marseillaise, or some other martial strain, and all the boys would join
in, and the great chorus of manly voices would rise ... upon the ... air.
The soldierly Frenchman was D’Alfonce....”[241]
Frederick Chase, writing on “the beginnings of athletics at
Dartmouth,”[242] says that “gymnastics were introduced in a small way
by the erection, in 1852, by the enthusiasts, in the ravine east of
the observatory, of a frame popularly called the gallows, by some the
‘Freshman’s Gallows....’ The apparatus consisted of nothing but two
suspended ropes with rings, and a horizontal bar (it is referred to
elsewhere as ‘two posts and a rude horizontal rail’).... It was a feature
of that spot until superseded by Mr. Bissell’s Gymnasium building, with
its wealth of apparatus, in 1867.”
Allan Marquand, in “The Princeton Book,”[243] recites that “in the
year 1856-1857 Robert Tarleton and Hugh L. Cole, of the class of 1859,
resolved that Princeton should have a gymnasium. When a sufficient sum
of money had been raised, a single-boarded structure was erected, and
painted with the inevitable _red_, that it might resist the storms of
heaven as its founders had resisted the objections of an unpropitious
Faculty. All winter long, in this stoveless shanty, with the winds
sweeping through from one end to the other, might have been seen a few
enthusiastic gymnasts, at work on parallel bars, springboard, trapeze,
and ladder, or swinging upon the rings and shaking the rafters in their
efforts to touch the beam.... In the year 1864 the building was sadly in
need of repair. Through an effort made by the class of 1866 sufficient
money was raised to supply it with a stove and a new set of apparatus.
Thus renovated, it answered the purpose of a gymnasium, until one night,
during the summer vacation of 1865, a report was circulated that a tramp
sick with the yellow fever was sleeping there. The next day the building
was reduced to ashes by the frightened people of the town.”
The Board of Trustees of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, at a meeting
held July 2, 1857, adopted the following resolution, presented by William
M. Corry, one of their number: “Resolved, that the Committee on Finance
be instructed to report an appropriation of two hundred dollars for
the construction of a plain and substantial gymnastic apparatus for
the use of the students of the University.” J. C. Christin, M.D., a
Cincinnati German who was Professor of the German and French Languages
and Literatures at Miami University from 1856 to 1860, was made manager
of the project, and thus outlined its history in a report to the Board
of Trustees under date of July 4, 1859: “When in the fall of 1857 the
gymnastic apparatus purchased by your committee was offered to the use
of the students, a number of them organized themselves at once into
a society called the Miami Gymnastic Association, engaged Mr. F. H.
Roemler (a German) of Cincinnati as teacher at a salary of $40 a month,
and rented a building (a little west of the campus) for their gymnasium
at a cost of $60 a year.[244] During that entire first year the classes
practised regularly three times a week, and with what success you have
seen at our festival, where the young gymnasts of M. U. carried off the
first honors of the day over their competitors, delegates from several
of the old Turners’ societies. But to bring about this happy result we
were obliged to complete our gymnasium by purchasing about $300 worth
more of apparatus. This the Association did, encouraged as they were
by a generous donation of $150 from the citizens of Oxford and other
friends, and believing that they could pay their debt soon by the aid of
friends and the proceeds of some exhibitions. At the beginning of the
fall session of 1858 the society was reorganized, and Mr. Roemler again
engaged as teacher at a salary of $480; but as the number of members
during these two sessions was on an average only about 75 (out of 220
students) they were, for want of funds, obliged to rescind the contract
with their teacher at the end of March last, whereupon Mr. Roemler went
to Dayton.... After his departure the number of students at the exercises
of the gymnasium, which under their faithful teacher’s direction had
always been from 60 to 80, dwindled down in a few weeks to about a dozen,
and today the gymnasium is closed altogether, for want of interest in the
students and citizens to continue their exercises without a teacher.”
The annual catalogue of Miami University issued in May of 1859,
apparently oblivious of the sudden collapse of the plan, announces
that “An extensive Gymnastic Apparatus has been erected in the College
Campus, and an expert Teacher instructs the students in all the
branches of Gymnastics under the direction of Professor Christin,
M.D.” The “festival” to which the latter refers took place June 29,
1858,[245] on the day before Commencement. Apparatus had been set up
on the campus between the Main Building and the South Dormitory, and
“thousands of spectators of both sexes came.” A report published in the
_Cincinnati Daily Gazette_ of July 2, 1858, states that about twenty-five
representatives of the Hamilton _Turnverein_ and other delegates from
the Cincinnati _Turngemeinde_ and Young Men’s Gymnastic Association
were present. The program opened at 2 P.M. with a song by the Hamilton
Turners. William M. Corry then addressed the audience on the subject of
physical education, and the gymnastic exercises followed, continuing
until late in the afternoon. The eight young men to whom the judges
awarded prizes, four of them members of the Miami Gymnastic Association,
“were each crowned with a wreath of evergreen in the presence of the
multitude.”[246]
In the Williams College catalogue for 1851-1852, published in the former
year, it is stated that “A well furnished Gymnasium, with which are
connected facilities for bathing, is now provided.” The same sentence is
repeated in catalogues for 1852-1853 and 1853-1854, but modified in those
for 1854-1855 and the three years following to read: “For their physical
training a well furnished Gymnasium, with which are connected facilities
for bathing, is owned and controlled by the students.” The catalogue for
1858-1859, issued in 1858, announces that “a new stone Gymnasium, to be
owned and controlled by the students, is about to be erected, with which
will be connected facilities for bathing;” and in the next year we are
told that “a convenient Gymnasium, owned and controlled by the students,
has just been erected.”
President James Walker of Harvard University, in his annual report dated
December 31, 1858, after remarking that “the need of greater facilities
for exercise suited to our climate, and for the physical education of
students, has long been felt, and is felt more and more,” announced that
“a friend of the College, whose name is not divulged, has given $8000 to
be expended in the erection and equipment of a Gymnasium, for the use of
‘all undergraduates and officers of the College, and such other persons
as the College Faculty may permit’....” The next December he reported
that “a suitable building has been erected during the past year, with all
the necessary apparatus, accommodations, and means of instruction. Almost
all the students, both undergraduates and members of the professional
schools (there were then 431 undergraduates, and the total enrollment was
839), have begun to avail themselves of the advantages thus supplied,
each one paying a small fee (two dollars a term) in order to defray the
current expenses of the establishment.” The Treasurer’s Statement dated
December 1, 1859, noted that “the want of a Gymnasium has been supplied
by the presentation of $8000, through Rev. Dr. Huntington, by a gentleman
who declines to be known except as a ‘Graduate’ of the College.[247] The
building has been erected and furnished, at a cost of $9488.05.” Further
details are supplied by _The Harvard Magazine_ for October, 1859 (VI:
38): “The spot selected for the building was the little Delta at the
junction of Cambridge Street and Broadway. The ground was broken March
23, 1859. The building is in the Italian style, and was erected under the
direction of Mr. E. C. Cabot, architect, Boston.... The Gymnasium was
opened for use on Wednesday, September 14. Meanwhile, most fortunately,
the services of Professor (!) A. Molineaux Hewlett had been secured. He
came with an experience in gymnastic training of fourteen years, the
last five of which had been devoted most acceptably to the citizens of
Worcester....”
[Illustration: FIG. 71.—The Harvard Gymnasium of 1859.]
In “The Harvard Book” (Cambridge, 1875) Thomas Wentworth Higginson
describes the gymnasium as “of brick, octagonal in form, 74 feet in
diameter and 40 feet high. It includes as great a variety of apparatus as
is compatible with the size of the building; there are also two bowling
alleys, and there are dressing-rooms, but no bath-rooms.... The first
teacher of gymnastics in Harvard College was Abram Molineaux Hewlett. He
was a professional teacher of boxing, and had established a gymnasium
of his own in Worcester, Mass., where he was highly esteemed. He was a
mulatto, of very fine physique, and of reputable and estimable character.
He was, moreover, a fair gymnast and a remarkably good teacher of boxing.
In the first years of his term of service there was a good deal of
activity in the Gymnasium, and regular class-exercises went on. After a
few years the interest fell off in some degree, or concentrated itself
chiefly on the rowing-weights. Mr. Hewlett died December 6, 1871, and ...
Mr. Frederic William Lister was appointed in 1872.” Hewlett’s name does
not appear in the list of “Officers of Instruction and Government” in the
Harvard catalogues, but from 1867 to 1871 he is mentioned with the title
“Instructor and Curator” in a brief statement regarding the “College
Gymnasium.”
[Illustration: FIG. 72.—The Yale Gymnasium of 1860.]
[Illustration: FIG. 73.—The Yale Gymnasium of 1860.]
At Yale College a gymnasium was erected in 1859, on Library Street near
the corner of High, behind the college grounds proper, and “dedicated on
Monday evening, January 30th” of the following year.[248] It was a plain
brick structure 100 by 50 feet, with a main hall 25 feet high to the
crossbeams, and large gable windows. Across the front (south) end of the
hall stretched a gallery 25 feet deep, in which were dressing closets and
a room or rooms for an instructor or janitor. A basement story, about
10 feet high, contained bath-rooms and bowling alleys. The total cost
was something over $11,000, of which $10,000 was appropriated by the
Corporation and George Merriam of Springfield, Mass., contributed $500 of
the balance. Yale catalogues from 1860 on through the decade state that
for the privileges of the gymnasium, “including instruction, the sum of
$4 a year will be charged to each academical student.” Catalogues of 1867
and later years add that “those who use the bathing-rooms connected with
the Gymnasium pay a small fee for tickets.” Lyman B. Bunnell, B.A., is
listed as Instructor in Gymnastics in 1860 and 1861, and Follansbee G.
Welch[249] during the years 1867-72.[250]
[Illustration: FIG. 74.—The Amherst (Barrett) Gymnasium of 1860.]
The fourth president of Amherst College, Rev. William Augustus
Stearns,[251] in his inaugural address (November 22, 1854) and his
annual reports to the trustees urged impressively, again and again,
the adoption of measures designed to protect the health of students.
“Physical education is not the leading business of college life,” he
said in 1854, “though were I able ... to plan an educational system
anew, I would seriously consider the expediency of introducing regular
drills in gymnastic and calisthenic exercises.” And in 1859 he states
his belief that “if a moderate amount of physical exercise could be
secured to every student daily, I have a deep conviction ... that not
only would lives and health be preserved, but animation and cheerfulness,
and a higher order of efficient study and intellectual life would be
secured.” At their meeting in August of 1859 the trustees took steps to
carry out at once the president’s wishes. Work on the new building was
begun in the fall of that year, and the next summer “Barrett Gymnasium”
was completed.[252] The name commemorates a liberal donor, Dr. Benjamin
Barrett, of Northampton, who had been a near neighbor of the Round Hill
School throughout its entire life history. August 6, 1860, following
still the lead of the president, the trustees voted to establish a
department of hygiene and physical education, the head of which should
be a thoroughly educated physician, and the equal of any other member of
the college faculty. “It is distinctly understood that _the health of the
students_ shall at all times be an object of his special watch, care, and
counsel.” John Worthington Hooker (1833-1863), a graduate of Yale College
and Medical School (1854 and 1857), was appointed to the position at
once; but failing health led to his resignation within a year, and by the
action of the trustees on August 8, 1861, Dr. Edward Hitchcock[253] was
called from Williston Seminary to take the place thus left vacant. His
connection with the department continued without interruption for only a
few months less than fifty years, until his death on February 16, 1911.
[Illustration: FIG. 75.—Edward Hitchcock (1828-1911). (From a photograph
taken in 1867.)]
His own attitude toward physical training, and a foreshadowing of what
he was soon to undertake, will be found in the course of nine pages
of “Remarks upon Muscular Development” in an “Elementary Anatomy and
Physiology, for Colleges, Academies, and other Schools,” which Dr.
Hitchcock had just published (New York, 1860) in conjunction with his
father. An article which he prepared in 1878 for the Tenth Annual Report
of the Massachusetts Board of Health sums up as follows the essential
features of the “Amherst plan” as it had been worked out under his
direction: “This department was not created, nor has it been developed,
for the purpose of extraordinary attention to the muscular system.
Its sole object has been to keep the bodily health up to the normal
standard, so that the mind may accomplish the most work, and to preserve
the bodily powers in full activity for both the daily duties of college
and the promised labor of a long life.... At the same time, it has been
equally desired, that the so-called exercises of this department should
be mentally as well as physically enjoyed by the students, and not be
made a tedious, mechanical, or heavy drill.... An essential feature of
it is, that each student with his class by itself, at a stated hour on
four days of the week, appears at the gymnasium, and performs his part
in systematic and methodical exercises timed to music. Each class has
its own organization of officers and men.... The exercises are commonly
known as those of light gymnastics, which consist of various bodily
movements accompanied and guided by music; the larger part of them with
a wooden dumb-bell in each hand....[254] Especially during the colder
season of the year, running is practised by the class on the floor
of the gymnasium. A few marching movements are also undertaken by the
classes. This amount of exercise is required of every student who is
sound of limb.” In the fall of 1861 Dr. Hitchcock began to note in the
case of each freshman the age, weight, height, girths of chest, arm, and
forearm, and strength of upper arms (pull-up), repeating the examination
afterwards at the end of each year of the course. Other measurements
were added from time to time, and about twenty years later the list was
considerably extended. The tabulated results appear in the Anthropometric
Manual published in 1887, and in the revised editions of 1889, 1893, and
1900.[255]
[Illustration: FIG. 76.—Vassar College: “The Calisthenic Hall” of 1866.]
As a matter of record the following data regarding other college gymnasia
erected or equipped during the sixties and seventies deserve a place
here. At _Bowdoin College_ in 1860 or soon afterwards a gymnasium was
fitted up in what had been a dining hall. Before the middle of the next
decade it was removed to unfinished Memorial Hall, and in 1882 to the
lower floor of Winthrop Hall. William Colyer Dole was “Director of the
Gymnasium” 1863-1869, and Dudley Allen Sargent 1869-1875. Men students
in _Oberlin College_ organized a Gymnasium Association in 1860 and
erected a one-story wooden structure about 75 by 25 feet, opened March
30, 1861. Samuel Putnam, member of the Worcester, Mass., Gymnastic Club
and highly recommended by Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, was secured as
instructor of the classes which were at once organized, but left within
a month to join the Massachusetts troops at Washington. Another wooden
building of similar size, and again the result of student effort, was
opened in October of 1873, the earlier one having been removed in 1867.
At _Wesleyan University_ a one-story wooden structure with one room 70
by 40 feet was built and equipped in 1863-1864 at a cost of $5000. A
large room in Goodrich Hall, erected at _Williams College_ in 1864, was
fitted up with gymnastic apparatus, and there was a bowling-alley on
the lowest floor. A wooden gymnasium built in 1881 was blown down in
1883. Charles Russell Treat served as Professor of Physiology, Vocal and
Physical Culture 1866-1869, Henry Wilson Smith (A.B., ’69) as Instructor
in Physical Training 1870-1874, and Luther Dana Woodbridge (A.B., ’72)
in the same position 1874-1876. A gymnasium hall 80 by 30 feet and 19
feet high was ready for use at _Mt. Holyoke Seminary_ in the summer
of 1865. After 1862 the Dio Lewis gymnastics had replaced the earlier
“calisthenics” there. _Vassar’s_ gymnasium (80 by 30 feet) and riding
school was occupied at the opening of the second college year, in the
fall of 1866. Here, too, the Dio Lewis exercises were employed. In March
of 1867 a two-story gymnasium of brick with stone trimmings was opened at
_Dartmouth College_, to which George H. Bissell gave nearly $24,000 for
the purpose. The architect was Joseph R. Richards of Boston. F. G. Welch
was Instructor in Gymnastics 1867-1868, Charles Franklin Emerson (A.B.,
’68) 1868-1871, Devinel French Thompson (B.S., ’69) 1871-1872, Solon
Rodney Towne (A.B., ’72) 1872-1875, and Thomas Wilson Dorr Worthen (A.B.,
’72) 1875-1893. “In the spring of 1869 and during the greater part of
the year 1869-1870 the students (of _Brown University_) had the use of a
private gymnasium on Canal Street, the college bearing half the expense”
(Bronson 1914, p. 377). _Princeton’s_ gymnasium, the gift of Robert
Bonner and Henry G. Marquand, was a two-story structure of gray stone,
planned by George B. Post of New York, and with the ground on which it
stood cost $38,000. The main hall was 80 by 50 feet. George Goldie[256]
was Superintendent of the Gymnasium 1869 (it was opened January 13,
1870)-1885. The annual report of the Board of Regents for the year ending
September 30, 1870, records that at the _University of Wisconsin_ “a
building for drill and gymnastic exercises has just been completed at a
cost of about $4000.... The main building is 100 by 30 feet,” with a wing
containing an armory. Before 1870 _Washington University_ (St. Louis)
had provided for its students a one-story gymnasium with a main hall 70
by 50 feet, at a cost of $7000. Other institutions known to have made
similar provision were Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg (1870, wood,
$3000), Beloit (1874, wood, $5000), University of California (1878, wood,
$12,000), and Vanderbilt University (1879, brick, $22,000).[257]
The three decades which witnessed the gradual revival of interest in
gymnastics in the colleges were not without other signs of a growing
desire for some sort of physical activity suited to the conditions and
needs of the undergraduate world. The Civil War brought inevitably to the
front the idea of a trained citizen soldiery which had animated Captain
Partridge’s endeavors forty years before, and the beginnings of athletic
sports in the colleges go back to the period immediately preceding and
following the death-grapple between North and South.
The momentous Land-Grant Act of 1862, introduced by Justin S. Morrill
of Vermont, passed by both houses of Congress in June and signed by
President Lincoln July 2, allotted to each state a quantity of public
land equal to 30,000 acres for each senator or representative in
Congress, the proceeds from the sale of these lands to be used for “the
endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college, where the
leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical
studies and _including military tactics_, to teach such branches of
learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts in such
manner as the legislatures of the states may respectively prescribe in
order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial
classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.” The clause
relating to military instruction “was not in the original bill, but
was introduced ... because the advantage of the South over the North
at the beginning of the war was attributed to the numerous military
schools there, and it was thought that at least one college in each
state should teach military subjects.”[258] In accordance with this Act
nineteen states, among them Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, and New
Hampshire, have organized independent colleges of agriculture and the
mechanic arts; in twenty-one others the college of agriculture is a part
of the state university, as in California, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota,
Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin; and in a few cases all or a
part of the income goes to a privately endowed institution, like Cornell
University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University, and
Rutgers College. Army officers are detailed to serve as instructors in
military science and tactics, and in 1915-1916 the number of young men
who received such instruction under the Act of 1862 was 33,445.[259]
Rowing was the first sport to gain a foothold in American colleges.
The earliest organizations were the boat clubs formed at Yale in 1843
and at Harvard in 1844. Crews from the two colleges met for a race on
Lake Winnipiseogee, August 3, 1852. The next year the Yale Navy was
organized, University of Pennsylvania students formed a university barge
club in 1854, 1856 marks the beginnings of rowing at Dartmouth, Brown’s
first crew was the one of 1857, and on May 26, 1858, Harvard, Yale,
Brown, and Trinity organized the College Union Regatta, the first races
occurring July 26, 1859, and the second July 24, 1860, both at Worcester,
Massachusetts. The outbreak of the Civil War interrupted the series of
regattas, and after its close the crews of Harvard and Yale were the
only ones to renew the annual contests. But the Harvard-Oxford race over
the Putney-Mortlake course August 27, 1869, attracted the attention of
other colleges to the sport, and interest in rowing culminated in the
years 1870-1876. Amherst, Princeton, Cornell, and the Massachusetts
Agricultural College formed boat clubs in 1870, and Trinity became active
again. In the spring of 1871 representatives of Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown,
and Harvard organized the Rowing Association of American Colleges, and in
July of this and the five succeeding years this body held regattas, on
the Connecticut River at Springfield for three years, and afterwards at
Saratoga Lake. Thirteen colleges sent crews to the great regatta of 1875.
The list of those who competed at one or more of the races during this
period includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth,
Hamilton, Harvard, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Princeton,
Trinity, Union, Wesleyan, Williams, and Yale. Rutgers and the College of
the City of New York had also sought admission to the Association, and at
the University of Pennsylvania a boat club was organized in 1872.
College baseball had its beginning in the years 1858-1860, with the
appearance of teams at Amherst, Princeton, Williams, and Yale. The first
intercollegiate game seems to have been that between Amherst and Williams
representatives at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, July 1, 1859. During the
course of the Civil War the game was introduced at Harvard and Brown, and
Bowdoin had a nine as early as 1864. In the years immediately following
the war interest in the game became general and intense over the entire
United States, and clubs were formed everywhere, in the colleges and
outside of them.
Intramural football, in a primitive form, was all that existed
in American colleges up to 1869. Traces of it are found at Yale,
Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, Rutgers, Brown, and Amherst. The first
intercollegiate football game in this country was played by Princeton and
Rutgers teams at New Brunswick, New Jersey, November 6, 1869, and by 1876
the present form of game was definitely established.
The general practice of track and field athletics can be traced back
to three influences—the example of students at Oxford and Cambridge
Universities, the “Caledonian Games” of Scotch immigrants organized into
clubs for the purpose of keeping up interest in their native language
and customs, and the contests arranged as appendages of the rowing
events at Saratoga in 1874, 1875, and 1876. A letter from George Rives,
a graduate of Columbia University who was present at the annual meets of
the two English universities in 1868, led to the formation of an athletic
association at Columbia, and to its first meet, in June of 1869. The
first of the Caledonian Clubs was organized in Boston March 19, 1853,
and its earliest games were held later in the same year. The New York
Caledonian Club dates from 1856, and its first meet was on St. George’s
Cricket Grounds, Hoboken, in October of 1857. Similar clubs were formed
in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Montreal, and other cities. The
annual games of these organizations were especially popular in the ten
or fifteen years following the Civil War, and they may be considered
the precursors of our modern amateur athletic clubs. George Goldie,
long a member of the New York Caledonian Club, at one time director of
its gymnasium, and twice a winner of the championship medal at national
Caledonian meets, was director of the Princeton gymnasium from 1869 to
1885, and under the inspiration of his presence the Princeton Athletic
Club was organized in the spring of 1873. The club had its first field
day on June 21 of that year. Yale students held a field meet May 4, 1872.
In the fall of 1873 the University of Pennsylvania Athletic Association
was formed, and the Harvard Athletic Association a year later. Among the
colleges which competed in five events at Saratoga in 1874 were Columbia,
Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Wesleyan, Williams, and Yale. Amherst,
University of Pennsylvania, and Union were added in 1875, and Dartmouth
in 1876. Although an intercollegiate athletic association was organized
in this last year (1876), the present widespread interest in track and
field athletics was not reached until the following decade. Nineteen
colleges were represented at the Mott Haven (New York) games in 1886. The
New York State Intercollegiate Athletic Association, made up of seven
colleges, was already in existence (1885), and delegates from seven other
colleges formed the New England Intercollegiate Athletic Association on
November 23, 1886.[260]
[Illustration: FIG. 77.—Dudley Allen Sargent (1849-).]
Twenty years after the octagonal gymnasium on Cambridge Street and
Broadway was opened to students in Harvard University a structure ten
times as costly, the gift of Augustus Hemenway, Harvard 1875, to his
_alma mater_, was nearing completion at the corner of Cambridge Street
and Holmes Place, facing the College Yard. The selection and arrangement
of apparatus and the details of system and method were left to the newly
appointed director, Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, a man whose stimulating and
molding influence upon physical training in American colleges in the next
few decades was to be more potent and more widely felt than any other
that can be named. His interest in gymnastics reached back to boyhood
days, and during ten years of experience as a teacher in that field he
had evolved certain unique plans of equipment and administration which
were now to be carried out under most favorable conditions.
He was descended from New England ancestry, the son of a ship carpenter
and sparmaker in Belfast, Maine, on the west side of Penobscot Bay, and
was born there on September 28, 1849. The harbor and the bay furnished
abundant opportunity for youthful activity and enterprise, and the early
death of his father made it necessary to give much of the time outside of
school hours and in the long vacations to varied forms of manual labor on
land and sea, under the direction of an uncle. Meanwhile he had joined
with other high school boys in putting up a horizontal bar and some other
apparatus on the school grounds and starting a gymnastic club. Reports of
exhibitions given at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, sixty miles away to
the southwest, added to their zeal, and constant practice brought such
a degree of skill that they ventured to give similar public exhibitions
of their own, first in the town-hall at home, and later in some of the
neighboring towns.
An invitation to become director of the gymnasium at Bowdoin College, in
the fall of 1869, opened the way to further study for the young expert
and started him on a career which was followed thenceforth without
interruption. Two years later he was ready to enter the college as a
freshman, retaining still the position to which he had been originally
appointed, and now the authorities required all students to attend
regular class exercises in the gymnasium for a half-hour daily during
most of the fall and winter terms, _i.e._, when they were not occupied
with military drill. During his sophomore year Sargent spent three
months at Yale College, introducing there the same plan of work, and
he continued to divide his time between the two institutions until his
graduation from Bowdoin (A.B.) in 1875. The fall of that year found
him instructor in gymnastics in Yale College and a student in the Yale
Medical School, and from the latter he obtained the degree of M.D. in
January of 1878.
The next move was to New York City, where for a year he conducted
a private gymnasium on the site afterwards occupied by the Madison
Square Theatre Company. “I elaborated my old system of measurements,”
he says, referring to this period, “and had the first patterns of my
long-contemplated developing appliances constructed. These consist
of what are familiarly known as chest-weights, chest-expanders and
developers, quarter-circles, leg-machines, finger-machines, etc., to
the number of forty different pieces....[261] The attempt was made to
ascertain the strength and physical condition of the individual by
dynamometers, and other testing and measuring appliances, and then to
adapt the apparatus by means of pulleys, levers, adjustable weights,
etc., to the strength or weakness of the person as determined by the
physical examination.”
[Illustration: FIG. 78.—Frontispiece to Captain Chiosso’s “The Gymnastic
Polymachinon” (1855).]
Meanwhile the Hemenway Gymnasium was nearing completion, and the
attention of the Harvard authorities, in search of a man able to insure
the best use of such splendid facilities for physical training, was
turned to Dr. Sargent by alumni living in New York, and especially by
William Blaikie (1843-1904), whose “How to Get Strong and How to Stay
So” had just been published (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1879). In the
chapter on “What a Gymnasium Might Be and Do” he sets forth Harvard’s
opportunity in language that now sounds prophetic, and here and elsewhere
in the book makes repeated mention of Dr. Sargent’s work at Bowdoin and
Yale and of the new apparatus which he was then introducing. On September
22, 1879, the Corporation appointed him assistant professor of physical
training and director of the Hemenway Gymnasium.[262] His first task
was to determine the equipment and to superintend its construction
and installation, and the building, therefore, was not ready for use
until the following January. In the _Harvard Register_ a month later
he explains that the older gymnasia were “filled with crude appliances
that have been handed down in stereotyped forms for several centuries
(!). To use this apparatus with benefit, it is necessary for one to have
more strength at the outset than the average man possesses.... When it
is considered that only one man out of five can raise his own weight
with ease, the need of introductory apparatus to prepare one for the
beneficial use of the heavy appliances becomes quite apparent. It was
the realization of this need that led to the invention of the numerous
contrivances that have been introduced into the Hemenway Gymnasium; the
desire to strengthen certain muscles, in order to accomplish particular
feats on the higher apparatus, was the original motive.... The results
which followed were so satisfactory that the same appliances were
afterwards used as a means of attaining a harmonious development. For
this last-named purpose each machine has its own use. Each is designed to
bring into action one or more sets of muscles, and all can be adjusted to
the capacity of a child or of an athlete....”
[Illustration: FIG. 79.—Harvard University: Hemenway Gymnasium (1885).]
According to the university catalogue published in 1880, “The attendance
is voluntary, and the system adopted is one designed to meet the special
wants of each individual. Realizing the great diversity in age, size,
and strength, as well as in health, of the students who attend the
University, the Director makes no attempt to group them into classes
which pursue the same course of exercises. Upon entering the University,
each student is entitled to an examination by the Director, in which
his physical proportions are measured, his strength tested, his heart
and lungs examined, and information is solicited concerning his general
health and inherited tendencies. From the data thus procured, a special
order of appropriate exercises is made out for each student, with
specifications of the movements and apparatus which he may best use.
After working on this prescription for three to six months, the student
is entitled to another examination, by which the results of his work are
ascertained, and the Director (is) enabled to make a further prescription
for his individual case.”[263]
[Illustration: FIG. 80.—Harvard University: Hemenway Gymnasium (1885).]
A “Handbook of Developing Exercises” was printed in 1882, and a revised
and enlarged edition, with illustrations, in 1889. The skeleton
Anthropometric Chart (percentile) described in _Scribner’s Magazine_ for
July, 1887 (II: 3-17), had been issued the year before, and in 1893 table
charts were ready, “designed to show the distribution of any American
community as to physical power and proportions,” and ranging “from ten
to twenty-six years of age for either sex, there being one for each
age, except that the ages from twenty-two to twenty-six for men, and
from eighteen to twenty-six for women are combined.” In this same year
the life-size statues of typical American students, man and woman, were
exhibited at the World’s Fair in Chicago.
As early as 1881 Dr. Sargent had begun to train teachers, in the
“Sanatory Gymnasium” opened in Cambridge that year, primarily to meet
the needs of young women studying in the “Harvard Annex,” now known as
Radcliffe College. In 1883 accommodations were secured at 20 Church
Street, and here during the next two decades more than two hundred and
fifty women completed the prescribed two years’ normal course of theory
and practice. The commodious new building on Everett Street was ready for
use in the school year 1904-1905, and the course, now extended to cover
three years, was thrown open to men also. Summer courses in physical
training, lasting five weeks and given in Hemenway Gymnasium under the
auspices of Harvard University, have been offered since 1887. The annual
attendance in the first twenty-five years averaged over one hundred
students, of whom nearly one third were men.[264]
The continuous and rapid development of physical education in American
colleges and universities which has taken place in recent years may
be dated from the opening of the new Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard
University, with Dr. Sargent’s novel equipment and methods, in January
of 1880, and the publication of Dr. Hartwell’s report by the Bureau of
Education in 1886. First came an era of gymnasium building. In the brief
interval between the two events just named the list of institutions
includes Smith College (1880, $4000), Lehigh University (1882, $40,000),
Cornell University (1882-83, $40,000), Tufts College (1882-83, $10,000),
University of Wooster (1882-83, $4200), Johns Hopkins University (1883,
$10,000), Amherst College (1883-84, $65,000), Bryn Mawr College (1884,
$18,000), Dickinson College (1884, $8000), Lafayette College (1884,
$15,000), and University of Minnesota (1884, $34,000). Twenty-five years
later 114 institutions reported gymnasia, and in 1920 the number had
increased to 209.[265]
Next came the organization of departments of physical education. By 1909
at least 111 institutions were giving regular instruction in gymnastics,
and in 1920 such departments existed in 199 colleges and universities.
In 187 of them the head of the department had a seat in the faculty,
and in 157 the rank of a full professor. It must be recalled in this
connection that postgraduate courses like those offered in theology,
medicine, law, and general education have not hitherto been available
for men and women looking forward to a career in physical education, so
that not many candidates have been able to measure up to the standards
of general and special preparation which have determined appointment to
other college professorships. A course in medicine, which has seemed to
many the natural portal of entry to the new profession, cannot be viewed
as anything but a makeshift solution of the problem, and until this need
is met in some more adequate way it must be difficult for the department
of physical education to win and hold a status equal to that of others
long established. A national Society of (men) Directors of Physical
Education in Colleges was organized in New York City December 31, 1897,
and has held annual meetings during the Christmas holidays ever since. A
corresponding Association of Directors of Physical Education for Women
has been in existence since 1910, but until 1915 it included only the New
England colleges.
It early became the practice to prescribe courses in physical education
for students as a part of their required work. This was the case at
95 institutions in 1909, and at 180 in 1920. Freshmen were included
in the requirement at 157 colleges in the latter year, sophomores at
137, juniors at 44, and seniors at 29. The next step was the giving of
positive credit toward graduation for courses in physical education.
By 1909, 60 colleges were doing this, and in 1920 there were 139.
More recently the department has begun to take over the control and
administration of intercollegiate athletics,[266] to develop recreational
activities for the entire undergraduate body of students on a large
scale, and to offer both theoretical and practical courses of instruction
and training open to students who intend themselves to teach the subject
later on. These courses are sometimes grouped into a major, like those
offered in other departments of the college or university, and may
be considered the first step toward regularly organized professional
courses for graduate students. The relation of a department of physical
education to instruction in hygiene, the care of student health, and the
sanitation of the college community varies in different institutions. In
some a part or all of the latter functions are entrusted to a separate
“students’ health service.”[267]
Perhaps present-day tendencies can be best indicated by printing here in
full the report of a special committee appointed in 1919 by the Society
of Directors of Physical Education in Colleges to formulate the aims and
scope of physical education. It was published in the _American Physical
Education Review_ for June, 1920, and adopted by the Society without
change at the annual meeting in Chicago, December 30, 1920, as expressing
its attitude in general on the various questions involved. After an
introductory paragraph the report proceeds as follows:
“DEFINITION. The term physical education is sometimes regarded as
identical with the hygiene of childhood and youth. Others would limit
it to more or less systematic exercise of the neuromuscular apparatus
in order to promote and conserve the perfect functioning of the entire
human mechanism, to make it what Huxley called ‘the ready servant of the
will,’ and to develop correct motor habits. A usage more in conformity
with the present conception of man’s nature as a unit is that which sees
in measures insuring bodily health and the right kind and amount of motor
activity an avenue of approach through which the whole individual may be
influenced for good, in mind and character as well as in body; it employs
the word physical to denote the means, and not the end. Probably no one
would contend that education in general is identical with hygiene in its
broader meaning, which takes account of mental and moral soundness, and
there seems no better warrant for making physical education synonymous
with hygiene in the narrower sense. Obviously something more than health
is in the mind of one who adopts the newer definition proposed above, and
improved coördination is not the only goal in sight.
“AIMS. 1. If we conceive the perfecting of the individual in his social
relations to be of greater importance than more purely personal values
we may well begin our list of aims with certain qualities developed by
appropriate group activities, particularly games and athletic sports,
practised under favorable conditions. It is through these agencies
that the child and youth most readily and naturally acquire habits of
obedience, subordination, self-sacrifice, coöperation and friendliness,
loyalty, capacity for leadership, ability to lose without sulking and win
without boasting, a spirit of fair play, and all that is implied in the
word sportsmanship.
“2. Other qualities of marked, though indirect, significance to the
community are self-confidence and self-control, mental and moral poise,
good spirits, alertness, resourcefulness, decision and perseverance,
courage, aggressiveness, initiative. These traits, developed by the farm
life and varied home activities of an earlier age, must now be insured
through other means than those which the average family can itself supply.
“3. Underlying such aims must be the purpose to promote the normal growth
and organic development of the individual, conserve his health and
provide a fair degree of strength and endurance, and to secure an erect
and self-respecting carriage of the body and the neuromuscular control
required for prompt and accurate response and graceful and effective
movements. Emergencies should be anticipated by training in exercises of
which swimming may be taken as a type, and by others which accustom one
to bear physical punishment coolly and to defend himself successfully.
“4. But the teacher’s vision should not be bounded by the limits of
the school or college or university period. To engender in youth an
intelligent and healthful interest that shall lead to lifelong practice
of forms of active exercise which favor not only a continued high level
of physical efficiency but also mental sanity and stimulating social
contact is certainly not the least service he may seek to render.
“SCOPE. 1. The scope or range of physical education is suggested by what
has already been said. Physical examinations intended to reveal the
condition and needs of the individual and to allow the application of
various tests constitute a necessary introduction and accompaniment. The
educational procedure itself involves _two related lines_ of work: (1)
an orderly and progressive program of _activities_ designed specifically
to develop the qualities listed above, including regular and frequent
exercise of the fundamental muscle groups, and suitable employment of
corrective exercises in cases of faulty posture and other remediable
defects reached through such agencies; and (2) _instruction_ in personal
hygiene and public sanitation, and inculcation of health habits, together
with advice and suggestions to students confronted by individual health
problems. Special courses in school hygiene and in the theory of physical
education should be added in normal schools, colleges, and universities,
in order that students preparing for the teaching profession may be
adequately trained under the most favorable conditions.
“2. _Vocational training_ and industrial occupations supply a certain
amount of motor activity for a large part of the population, it is true,
but in forms which are in general too one-sided and too much limited
to the accessory mechanisms of the hand and fingers to be of serious
hygienic value, and too often they are practised under insanitary
conditions. The isolated exercises of _formal gymnastics_, if wisely
chosen, are serviceable for corrective purposes, and may be utilized
for bringing into play the fundamental muscle groups, and securing
erect posture and a good degree of neuromuscular control. They permit a
maximum economy of time and space and offer the advantages of skilled
supervision, and they may be made to yield a foundation of strength
and skill without which interest and success in games are likely to
be lacking. Carefully selected and arranged exercises in _hanging and
climbing_ and in _jumping and vaulting_ are especially valuable as
supplying elementary training in self-confidence, alertness, decision,
and courage, in addition to their hygienic and corrective uses and the
advanced training in coördination which they furnish. _Combat exercises_
make their unique contribution in the form of capacity for self-defense
and ability to take punishment coolly. Folk, esthetic, and athletic
_dancing_ have an obvious place with relation to fundamental muscle
groups and graceful control of the body as a whole. _Group games_, which
are lacking in corrective value and compare unfavorably with formal
exercises as a school of good posture and general coördination, may give
excellent results in the way of improved health, and their special field
is the development of sturdy character and right ethical standards.
“3. The _relative importance_ to be assigned to the different aims and
means of physical education mentioned varies, of course, with the age,
sex, environment, and other conditions of life and work. The teaching of
hygiene and the health habits emphasized must be related to the grade
of intelligence and the special needs and interests of the individual
at each stage, from early childhood to full maturity. The activities
of the _kindergarten_ and the _lower school grades_ should be directed
chiefly toward promotion of normal growth and organic development, by
exercise of the fundamental muscle groups, and particularly through the
agency of simple games, which also furnish a valuable social training
at this period. In the _upper grades_ and the _high school_ training
in coördination, with suitable attention to posture, should become a
prominent feature. Too often, nowadays, the _college or university_
department of physical education is called upon to adopt measures which
would be quite unnecessary with an adequate system in the elementary
and secondary schools, and to remedy conditions of malgrowth and
maldevelopment which ought never to have been allowed to develop. After
the high school period conservation of health and the higher social
values would normally become the dominant objectives. Outside the limits
of school life, _i.e._, in dealing with _industrial or professional
groups_, conditions of occupation and environment must determine the aim
and content of whatever plan is adopted.
“RELATIONS. 1. Closely associated with the purposes of physical
education are _other procedures_ which any complete health program in a
school, college, university, or system of schools will include. These
are measures intended to secure (1) prompt _detection of illness_ and
physical defects, through preliminary and periodic medical inspection
and physical examinations, and (2) _adequate treatment_, by means of
hospital, dispensary, or private service; and (3) to provide _sanitary
safeguards_, such as attention to food and water supplies, sewage
disposal, light and ventilation, rooming conditions, and the early
recognition and isolation of cases of communicable disease. Such measures
call for the employment of a practising physician and health officer,
whose services might also be utilized in the examinations given by the
department of physical education and in the instruction in personal
hygiene and public sanitation. For all other purposes mentioned in this
report the oversight of a specially trained educator is required.
“2. The influence of a well-organized department of physical education
ought to be felt in every phase of school work, through _coöperation_ in
attempts to promote mental hygiene and to follow hygienic principles in
the choice of methods of instruction and management. Teachers in other
departments may be stimulated and helped to maintain themselves in a
condition which renders their own work more effective.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The portions of this chapter which have to do with the life and work of
Dr. Edward Hitchcock and Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent have already appeared
in print, as Chapters XIII and XIV in the writer’s “Pioneers of Modern
Physical Training” (New York, The Association Press, 1915). Other
references are given in the text and footnotes.
FOOTNOTES:
[239] Mrs. J. H. McCurdy, “The History of Physical Training at Mount
Holyoke College,” in the _American Physical Education Review_ for March,
1909.
[240] See “Instructions in Gymnastics, containing a full description
of more than eight hundred exercises, and illustrated by five hundred
engravings. By J. E. D’Alfonce, late Professor in the Military School in
St. Petersburgh, and in Paris.” New York, George F. Nesbitt & Co., 1951.
The author speaks in the preface of “seven years’ practice with pupils
of all ages,” and of “the debt which I owe to America for the freedom I
enjoy, and for the hospitality and friendship I have received from her
citizens....”
[241] Page 60 of “The University of Virginia: Glimpses of Its Past and
Present,” by John S. Patton and Sallie J. Doswell (Lynchburg, Va., 1900).
See also a letter (“Due Tribute”) published in _The Outlook_ for May 18,
1907 (=85=, p. 122).
[242] In Bartlett and Gifford’s “Dartmouth Athletics” (Concord, N. H.,
1893).
[243] The Princeton Book. A Series of Sketches Pertaining to the History,
Organization and Present Condition of the College of New Jersey. By
Officers and Graduates of the College. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co.,
1879. See p. 268.
[244] It was opened for use December 8, 1857, according to an item in the
_Deutsche Turn-Zeitung_ for 1858, p. 44.
[245] This is the date given in _Jahrbücher der Deutsch-Amerikanischen
Turnerei_ (New York), =3=, 55 (December, 1893). See also a reference in
=2=, 267 (July, 1893).
[246] For references in the University catalogue and the records of the
Board of Trustees, and for a copy of the report in the _Cincinnati Daily
Gazette_ I am indebted to the kindness of Professor J. E. Bradford, of
the department of history at Miami. The first hint of any such episode
as the above was gained from the _Jahrbücher_ mentioned in the footnote
preceding this one.
[247] The donor was Henry Bromfield Rogers, Harvard 1822.
[248] The _Yale Literary Magazine_ of March, 1860 (=25=, 230).
[249] Follansbee Goodrich Welch was born at Concord, N. H., June 8, 1843,
and graduated from Dio Lewis’s Normal Institute for Physical Education.
In addition to his duties at Yale he served as “Instructor in Physical
Culture” at Dartmouth College from the spring of 1867 through the year
1867-68, and instructor in gymnastics at Wesleyan University 1868-69,
besides conducting for a number of years an eight weeks summer “Normal
Institute for the Training of Teachers in Dio Lewis’s New Gymnastics,”
at the Glenwood Ladies’ Seminary, West Brattleboro, Vermont. In 1869 he
published “Moral, Intellectual, and Physical Culture; or the Philosophy
of True Living” (New York, Wood & Holbrook), Part I of which deals with
“The Gymnasium,” and Part II with “the Dio Lewis System of Gymnastics.”
The New York Homeopathic Medical College conferred on him the degree of
M.D. in 1870, and he afterwards practised medicine in New York City.
[250] See “Four Years at Yale,” by a Graduate of ’69 (Lyman H. Bagg) (New
Haven, Charles C. Chatfield & Co., 1871), pp. 31 and 402-405; and Dudley
A. Sargent in “Yale College: A Sketch of Its History....” (New York,
Henry Holt & Co., 1879), =2=, pp. 458 and 459.
[251] He had been a student in Harvard College at the time when Follen
introduced the Jahn gymnastics there, and was in Andover Theological
Seminary while the “Mechanical Association” was still flourishing.
[252] It was 72 by 50 feet and two stories high, with walls of Pelham
gneiss or granite. The first floor contained an office, dressing rooms,
and bowling alleys, and above this was the main hall for gymnastic
exercises. The architect was Charles E. Parkes of Boston, and the total
cost of the building and fixtures amounted to $15,000.
[253] He was born May 23, 1828, at Amherst, Massachusetts, where his
father had been appointed professor of chemistry and natural history in
the college three years before and was afterwards to become its third
president (1845-1854). Upon completing his preparatory studies at Amherst
Academy, and at Williston Seminary, in Easthampton, eleven miles to
the southwest, he entered Amherst College and graduated with the class
of 1849. Then from 1850 to 1861, with the exception of a single year
(1852-53), he was teacher of elocution and natural science at Williston
Seminary, and early in this period obtained the degree of doctor of
medicine from the Harvard Medical School (1853).
[254] See the “Manual of Gymnastic Exercises, Arranged on Hygienic
Principles and Adapted to Music. Compiled by E. H. Barlow, Captain of
the Class of ’66, Barrett Gymnasium, Amherst College” (Amherst, 1863).
A second edition was published in 1866, and a third in 1875. It will be
recalled that in 1864 Amherst College conferred on Dio Lewis the honorary
degree of Master of Arts.
[255] The gift of a new gymnasium to Amherst College in 1884, by C. M.
Pratt of the class of ’79, brought new and much-needed facilities, to
which important additions have been made during more recent years; but
the unique contribution of the College, and of Dr. Hitchcock, himself,
to the advancement of physical training in America was made in the
two decades which succeeded the trustee meeting of August, 1859. Dr.
Hitchcock was chairman of the meeting in Brooklyn at which the American
Association for the Advancement of Physical Education was organized
(November 27, 1885). He was also its first president, a member of the
committee on statistics and measurements, and a frequent contributor to
the early programs.
[256] Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1841, March 16; removed to New York
City at the age of thirteen, and in 1861 became a professional gymnast;
as a member of the New York Caledonian Club was a leading figure in
its annual games, and at national Caledonian meets he twice won the
championship medal. He died at Princeton February 23, 1920.
[257] See Dr. E. M. Hartwell, “Physical Training in American Colleges and
Universities” (Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 5, 1885.
Washington, 1886), pp. 39, 60-67. It is possible that Cornell University
and Hamilton, Union, and Wabash Colleges should be added to the list.
[258] See “The Life of Daniel Coit Gilman,” by Fabian Franklin (New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co., 1910), pp. 70-73.
[259] See Bulletin 1918, No. 13 of the United States Bureau of Education
(Benjamin F. Andrews, “The Land-Grant of 1862 and the Land-Grant
Colleges”), and an article by Herman Balson in _The Outlook_ for May 4,
1901 (pp. 81-85).
[260] See “Rowing and Track Athletics: Rowing by Samuel Crowther, Track
Athletics by Arthur Ruhl” (New York, The Macmillan Co., 1905); and
“Football, the American Intercollegiate Game,” by Parke H. Davis (New
York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911).
[261] The idea of the pulley weight is an old one. See an illustrated
article in the _Deutsche Turnzeitung_, 1902, pp. 289-292, and Captain
Chiosso’s “The Gymnastic Polymachinon” (London, Walton & Maberly; Paris
and New York, H. Ballière, 1855).
[262] The appointment as assistant professor was for the usual term of
five years. After that period, and until his retirement in September of
1919, his title was simply “Director of the Hemenway Gymnasium.”
[263] See Dr. Hartwell’s Report on “Physical Training in American
Colleges and Universities” (Washington, 1886), pp. 41-59.
[264] At the meeting in Brooklyn which resulted in the organization of
the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education, in
1885, Dr. Sargent was elected one of three vice-presidents. In 1890 he
was chosen president, and held the same office again in the years 1892-94
and 1899-1901. He was also an active member of the Society of Directors
of Physical Education in Colleges from the time of its organization
in 1897, serving as president in 1899. Outside of these professional
associations he has been busy with voice and pen in the interest of
wholesome and nationwide physical training, and against excesses in
athletics, the abuse of military drill in the public schools, and other
unwise measures. A list of his more important papers and addresses
would include no less than forty titles (see pp. 9-22 in the “Fiftieth
Anniversary” volume prepared in 1919 and presented to Dr. Sargent at a
dinner given in his honor at Hotel Vendome, Boston, on the evening of
December 27th of that year). Twelve papers and essays were collected
into a volume under the title “Physical Education” and published in
1906 (Boston, etc., Ginn & Co.), and two years earlier another volume,
“Health, Strength and Power,” had appeared (New York and Boston, H. M.
Caldwell Co. Reissued in 1914 by the Dodge Publishing Co., New York).
[265] See the reports of a standing committee of the Society of Directors
of Physical Education in Colleges, based on questionnaires sent out in
1909, 1915, and 1920, and published in the _American Physical Education
Review_ for February, 1912, March, 1916 and November, 1921. These reports
supply the other figures quoted in succeeding paragraphs.
[266] An important step looking toward effective faculty control of
intercollegiate athletics was taken when the Intercollegiate Athletic
Association of the United States was formed in 1906. Four years later the
name was changed to “National Collegiate Athletic Association.” Annual
conventions have been held during the Christmas holidays since 1906.
[267] An “American Students Health Association” was organized in Chicago
March 4, 1920, and held its first annual meeting in that city on December
31st of the same year.
CHAPTER XXIV.
GERMAN-AMERICAN GYMNASTIC SOCIETIES AND THE NORTH AMERICAN TURNERBUND.
The first introduction of the Jahn gymnastics into the United States,
in the years 1825-1828, we owe to Follen, Beck, Lieber, and Völker, men
who had been associated with the German _Turnvater_ or had come under
his influence during their university days in Europe and who fled from
their native land to America or England in consequence of the reactionary
measures adopted by the Holy Alliance after the murder of Kotzebue by
Karl Sand in 1819. Although Prussia’s example in suppressing public
_Turnen_ was followed by other German states, the procedure was by no
means universal, so that between 1820 and 1840 not only did the old
organizations continue without interruption in certain cities, but a
number of new societies of older boys or young men, who met regularly for
exercise, were formed here and there. One sign of the quickened political
life which followed the accession of Frederick-William IV to the Prussian
throne in 1840 was a general revival of the Jahn gymnastics, we have seen
(p. 102). New societies sprang up everywhere, until at the close of the
decade they numbered nearly three hundred. The desire for union which
early showed itself was met by holding district conventions (_Turntage_)
and gatherings for gymnastic exercises (_Turnfeste_). Agitation for
reform in state and nation found many bold and able adherents among these
later disciples of Jahn, and Saxon and South German turners, especially,
took an active part in the revolutionary movements of 1848 and 1849. The
prompt suppression of all such popular outbreaks and the new reactionary
policy pursued by the various governments led to an exodus of thousands
of disappointed patriots to the United States, and these brought with
them, together with other institutions and customs of the fatherland, the
German _Turnen_.
The Cincinnati _Turngemeinde_, the oldest German-American gymnastic
society in this country, was organized November 21, 1848, at the
temporary home and with the coöperation of Friedrich Hecker, now an
exile, but the popular hero of a republican uprising in South Germany
earlier in the same year. He had been one of the foremost leaders of the
advanced revolutionary party. A week later another group of men, most of
them turners before their migration and former followers of Hecker and
Struve, met in Hoboken and organized the New York _Turngemeinde_. Other
societies followed in rapid succession, so that within three years there
were 25 or more in existence, with an aggregate membership of nearly
2000. These were scattered all the way from _New England_ (Boston), _New
York_ (New York, Brooklyn, Poughkeepsie, Utica, and Rochester), _New
Jersey_ (Newark), _Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, Reading, Pittsburgh, and
Allegheny), and _Maryland_ (Baltimore), to _Ohio_ (Cincinnati, Columbus,
and Cleveland), _Kentucky_ (Louisville), _Indiana_ (Indianapolis),
_Illinois_ (Peoria), and _Missouri_ (St. Louis) in the west, and as
far as New Orleans in the southwest. Four societies, in New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Cincinnati, contained about half of the
total membership.
The first steps looking toward union through the formation of a national
_Turnerbund_ were taken in New York as early as July of 1850, and at
Philadelphia on the 5th of the following October delegates from Boston,
New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Baltimore effected a provisional
organization, under the name of the “United _Turnvereine_ of North
America.” The next August (1851) the Philadelphia _Turngemeinde_ invited
all the societies in the country to join in a general _Turnfest_ (the
first) in that city on September 29 and 30. Between six and seven
hundred turners responded, and at a second convention held on October 1
and 2 delegates from nine societies completed the details of permanent
organization. The name was now changed to the “_Socialistic Turnerbund_.”
New York was made the headquarters of the Executive Committee (_Vorort_),
the members of which were to be chosen by the New York _Socialistischer
Turnverein_. The first number of the monthly _Turnzeitung_, the official
organ of the _Bund_, was issued November 15, 1851, and reported that 11
societies, with 1072 members, had already joined.
By October of 1853, when Philadelphia became the seat of the Executive
Committee, the number of societies had increased to about 60, and 10
others, recently organized, were expected to announce their accession
shortly. Seven years later there were altogether above 150 societies,
and the total membership had risen to between 9000 and 10,000. A list of
all those in existence at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 reveals
the following distribution: Massachusetts (4 societies), Connecticut
(5), Rhode Island (1), New York (12), New Jersey (13), Pennsylvania (7),
Delaware (1), Maryland (1), District of Columbia (2), Virginia (1),
West Virginia (1), Ohio (11), Indiana (8), Michigan (3), Illinois (29),
Wisconsin (13), Minnesota (7), Iowa (11), Missouri (6), Kansas (5),
Kentucky (4), Tennessee (2), South Carolina (1), Alabama (2), Louisiana
(2), Texas (1), and California (4)—a total of 157 societies in 27 states
of the Union.
These early societies, most of whose members had been profoundly
stirred by the popular uprising in Germany, did not confine their
activity to the practise of gymnastic exercises. On the other hand,
leavened by men of education, character, and superior ability, they
were centers of agitation for a great variety of reforms. American
socialism, for example, found here its first home. The “Statutes”
adopted by the Convention in Philadelphia October 5, 1850, announce
that the organization aims to secure the most complete independence of
the individual, along with his physical development, and declare the
promotion of socialism and the efforts of the Social-democratic Party
a matter of supreme importance. The _Turnerbund_ sought to assist each
member to a clear understanding of proposed political, social, and
religious reforms, to the end that in a spirit of radical progress he
might lend them effective aid, either individually or through the agency
of the _Bund_. The shadow of approaching Civil War helped to give to
love of freedom immediate objects of thought and endeavor. The Buffalo
Convention of 1855 (September 24-27) put itself on record as opposed
to slavery, and especially to its extension into free territories; to
the so-called American Party or Know-nothings, and to any other body
of similar spirit; and to all temperance legislation, which was deemed
undemocratic in principle and unjust and unpractical in operation.
In view of this multiplicity of interests it is not strange that the
history of physical training in the early societies was a checkered
one. For a time the official _Turnzeitung_ contained excellent articles
on gymnastics by Magnus Gross and Eduard Müller. The first Executive
Committee of the _Turnerbund_ distributed drawings of pyramids, and
employed Louis Winter, an expert turner from Leipzig, to visit the
smaller societies as itinerant teacher and to assist them in fitting up
outdoor gymnasia. Among the members of the larger societies were usually
to be found men able to direct the exercises of adults and older boys.
At the Cincinnati Convention of 1852 the Committee was asked to arrange
for the preparation of a suitable manual of gymnastics. The task was
committed to Eduard Müller (1803-1886), who completed it before the end
of the year.[268] Müller was born in Mainz, and becoming acquainted with
the Jahn _Turnen_ while a student of drawing and painting at the Munich
Academy organized a _Turnverein_ in his native city, and later became
its leader, city teacher of gymnastics, and editor and publisher of the
_Mainzer Turnzeitung_ (p. 103). When the disturbances of 1848 drove him
to America he continued his activity in the New York _Turnverein_, and
until 1858 was teacher of gymnastics in its school. His manual of nearly
350 pages was illustrated with numerous lithographed plates. It did not
prove as satisfactory a guide as had been hoped, partly on account of the
clumsy terminology adopted, and not half of the thousand copies printed
were sold at the published price (seventy-five cents).
A few years later a period of decline set in. Membership fell off, for
the older turners began to discontinue their gymnastic practice and
the young German-Americans, trained in this country, did not always
sympathize with the ideals of their parents. _Turnen_ in Germany was
suffering from the reactionary measures which followed the events
of 1848-1849, so that good gymnasts were less numerous among recent
immigrants, and this continued to be the case until the marked revival of
interest in the sixties. The Executive Committee was absorbed in politics
and aside from offering prizes to the victors in _Turnfest_ competitions
did little or nothing to make physical training other than a subordinate
phase of society life. The same retrogression was manifest in the pages
of the _Turnzeitung_ and the proceedings of the national Conventions.
Only the larger societies employed professional teachers of gymnastics,
and nothing was done to recruit their ranks or to provide well trained
assistants. An attempt was made to remedy the latter condition in 1858
by establishing _Vorturner_ schools in various cities, but it met with
slight success. By this time, as a result of dissensions, the _Bund_ was
divided into two mutually suspicious and unfriendly groups of societies,
an Eastern and a Western, each with its own Executive Committee. One
noteworthy feature of the report of the Western Committee, presented at a
Convention in Indianapolis (September 4-8, 1858), was the statement that
fifteen gymnastic societies had been organized by native Americans (in
Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, and New Orleans, for example) after
the German model and were in flourishing condition, and that these had
held their first _Turnfest_, with competition for prizes, in Oxford, Ohio
(June 29, 1858. See p. 267).
A list of national _Turnfeste_ held by the societies of the _Turnerbund_
between 1851 and 1860 is added here, as a matter of record:
I. 1851, September 29 and 30 Philadelphia.
II. 1852, September 11-14 Baltimore (Eastern societies).
III. 1852, September 26-28 Cincinnati (Western societies).
IV. 1853, May 30 and 31 Louisville (Western societies).
V. 1853, September 3-7 New York (Eastern societies).
VI. 1854, September 2-7 Philadelphia.
VII. 1855, September 15-18 Cincinnati.
VIII. 1856, August 26-29 Pittsburgh.
IX. 1857, August 29-September 2 New York (Eastern societies).
X. 1857, August 29-September 2 Milwaukee (Western societies).
XI. 1858, August 30-September 2 Belleville, Illinois.
XII. 1859, August 20-23 Williamsburg, N. Y. (Eastern
societies).
XIII. 1859, August 27-30 Baltimore (Western societies).
XIV. 1860, June 30-July 5 St Louis.
As early as 1851, at the Philadelphia Convention, the _Turnerbund_
had announced itself in favor of the Free-soil party platform. The
delegates to the Pittsburgh Convention in September of 1856 announced
their adhesion to the platform of the new Republican party and to
its candidates, Fremont and Dayton. In October of 1860 the Executive
Committee, now located in Baltimore, sent out letters calling upon
societies everywhere to support the Republican platform and vote for
Lincoln in the coming election. This advice was generally followed, even
in the slave states. The next spring, during the riot of April 19 and 20,
a mob sacked the hall of the Baltimore society when their demand that the
national flag floating above it be replaced by the state one was refused,
and on the 22nd the office of the _Turnzeitung_ met a like fate. The
editor and most of the members of the _Turnverein_ were forced to flee
from the city. The _Turnerbund_ was therefore left without headquarters
or official organ, and since no attempt at recovery could prove effective
in the face of the approaching struggle, which engrossed all attention,
each society was left to shift for itself throughout the years of Civil
War as best it could.
President Lincoln’s call for volunteers, issued just before these events
in Baltimore, met with an immediate response among the German-Americans,
whose actions at this time demonstrate beyond question the sincerity
of their enthusiasm for freedom and human rights. Exact figures are
not available, but it seems tolerably certain that out of the total
membership of nine or ten thousand at the outbreak of the war between
five and six thousand turners joined the Union army, and to this number
should be added about two thousand more who had formerly belonged to
societies and now fought side by side with their old comrades. In the
St. Louis _Turnverein_ three full companies, well drilled and completely
equipped, were ready to take the field at once. The Seventeenth Missouri
Regiment was made up chiefly of members of societies in the Southwest
and was therefore known as the Western _Turnregiment_. The Twentieth New
York State Volunteer Regiment, twelve hundred strong, contained three
companies of New York turners, two from Williamsburg, one from Newark,
and others from societies along the Hudson and in the interior of the
state, with some men from Boston and Philadelphia. More than half the
membership of the Cincinnati _Turngemeinde_ enlisted at the first call,
and these and other turners from neighboring cities composed a large
part of the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On the evening that the
Philadelphia _Turngemeinde_ decided to raise a battalion of volunteers
86 men out of a membership of about 260 signed their names to the roll,
and within eight days four companies were formed. These were attached to
the Twenty-ninth New York or Astor Regiment. The Chicago _Turngemeinde_
met in extra session the day following Lincoln’s summons to hear the
excuses of such members as were unable to enlist, and had a company of
105 men ready to march by the night of April 17. A second company was
organized immediately afterwards. Turners from the Milwaukee and other
Wisconsin societies were incorporated in the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment as
Company C, known as the “Turner Rifles.” Many societies were so reduced
in numbers by enlistment that they found it necessary to disband, and
effort was everywhere centered on the support of those who were hastening
to the field, or had already gone. The roll of turner dead is a long and
honorable one.
During the years of the Civil War the _Turnerbund_ retained only a
nominal existence. The old Executive Committee remained in office, but
few societies kept up their connection with this central body and it
received no financial support. Immigration from Germany, where _Turnen_
was now making rapid strides forward, had given an impetus to gymnastics
in the larger societies meanwhile, and _Turnvereine_ in and near New
York City had effected a district organization, with monthly conventions
and _Turnfeste_. At their suggestion the New York _Turnverein_ undertook
to manage a general _Turnfest_, in which societies all over the country
were invited to share, and after which the matter of reorganizing the
_Bund_ was to be discussed. On September 14, 1864, accordingly, delegates
from twenty-two societies outside the New York district met with their
hosts in a sort of improvised national convention, which reaffirmed the
former platform and appointed a provisional central committee. In less
than five months six other district organizations, after the New York
plan, had reported their existence. The next spring at Washington (1865,
April 3-5) fifty-eight societies were represented by delegates in regular
convention, and on the first day the details of reorganization were
completed under the name _Nordamerikanischer Turnerbund_ (North American
Gymnastic Union).[269] The headquarters of the Executive Committee were
established in New York, and its members were to be chosen by the New
York district (_Turnbezirk_). Physical training was declared to be the
first object of the societies. All active members were to take part in
the gymnastic exercises up to their thirtieth year, after a uniform
system based on the Jahn-Eiselen model and the “free exercises” of
Spiess, and suitable classes for boys and girls were also to be provided.
The following table reveals the progress made in the next two decades:
------+----------+------------+---------+----------------+----------
Year. |Societies.| Membership.| Active | In classes for | Teachers
| | | members.+--------+-------+ employed.
| | | | Boys. | Girls.|
------+----------+------------+---------+--------+-------+----------
1866 | 96 | 6,320 | 3,240 | 3,317 | 120 |
1868 | 148 | 10,200 | | | |
1872 | 187 | 9,920 | 4,500 | 4,770 | 394 |
1877 | 167 | 11,653 | 3,906 | 6,318 | 1,069 |
1878 | 162 | 11,313 | 3,799 | 7,307 | 1,795 |
1879 | 178 | 12,376 | 3,044 | 6,972 | 2,083 |
1880 | 186 | 13,387 | 4,199 | 8,337 | 2,388 |
1881 | 188 | 14,885 | 5,586 | 9,286 | 2,701 |
1882 | 183 | 16,349 | 7,357 | 10,141 | 3,040 | 97
1883 | 187 | 17,537 | 7,372 | 10,312 | 3,186 | 111
1884 | 199 | 19,713 | 8,439 | 11,392 | 3,572 | 106
1885 | 213 | 21,809 | 5,117 | 12,228 | 4,005 | 98
1886 | 231 | 23,823 | 5,562 | 13,161 | 3,888 | 95
------+----------+------------+---------+--------+-------+----------
During the same period national _Turnfeste_ were held as follows:
XV. 1865, September 2-6 Cincinnati.
XVI. 1867, June 10-13 Baltimore.
XVII. 1869, August 7-11 Chicago.
XVIII. 1871, August 5-10 Williamsburg (now Brooklyn, E. D.).
XIX. 1873, June 26-29 Cincinnati.
XX. 1875, New York.
XXI. 1877, July 18-23 Milwaukee.
XXII. 1879, August 2-6 Philadelphia.
XXIII. 1881, June 4-7 St. Louis.
XXIV. 1885, June 20-24 Newark, N. J.
A paragraph added to the by-laws of the _Turnerbund_ at the Convention
held in Pittsburgh September 1-5, 1856, provided that a school for the
complete preparation of teachers in the theory and practice of physical
training should be established in the city where the Executive Committee
was located. This was almost five years before Dio Lewis opened his
Normal Institute for Physical Education in Boston. The next September the
Executive Committee, whose headquarters at that time were in Cincinnati,
reported to the Detroit Convention that lack of means had prevented the
carrying out of the provision. At the Rochester Convention in 1860 (July
30 to August 2) the Committee reaffirmed the necessity of establishing
a central normal school, at the same time that it acknowledged the want
of success which had hitherto attended its efforts. Soon after the
reorganization of the _Turnerbund_ in 1865 the new Executive Committee,
in New York City, took up the matter again, and worked out a plan to
be laid before the next national convention. Resolutions adopted by a
conference of teachers of gymnastics which followed the Cincinnati
_Turnfest_ of 1865 also recommended that the step be taken. Both actions
were reported to the St. Louis Convention of 1866 (April 1-4), and
it was decided to open such an institution at once, with a one-year
course which should include lectures on the history and aims of German
_Turnen_, anatomy and aesthetics in their relation to gymnastics, and
first aid, together with gymnastic nomenclature, the theory of the
different systems, and practical instruction with special regard to
the training of boys and girls. Only persons whose qualifications as
teachers were attested by some _Turnverein_ were to be admitted, and
certificates of attendance and proficiency were to be awarded to pupils
who were successful in examinations given at the close of the course. The
direction of instruction was entrusted to three persons to be appointed
by the Executive Committee.
In accordance with this decision the normal school was opened in _New
York City_, November 22, 1866, ten years after the original proposal,
with an attendance of nineteen men from different parts of the country.
The practical instruction was given by Wilhelm Heeseler, formerly a pupil
at Hermann Otto Kluge’s gymnasium in Berlin, and the lecturers were Dr.
H. Balser, Dr. Julius Hofmann, Eduard Müller, and Heinrich Metzner. Nine
men remained for the final examinations, on February 13, 1867, and five
of these received diplomas. The second course was opened in New York
January 3, 1869, and at its close on July 2 of the same year diplomas
of the first grade were granted to five pupils and those of the second
grade to three. At the Pittsburgh Convention of 1870 (May 29 to June 1)
it was voted to move the normal school from New York to _Chicago_. The
third course (six months, beginning in January, 1871), conducted in that
city under the direction of August Lang, John Gloy, and George Brosius,
fell short of expectations, although there were ten participants, of whom
four obtained diplomas as teachers and two as _Vorturner_. The great fire
of October 8-10, 1871, made another change necessary, and the fourth
course was therefore held in _New York City_ again, from October 27,
1872, to the end of May, 1873. Seven diplomas of the first grade and four
of the second were granted, and three pupils received certificates as
_Vorturner_. The Rochester Convention of 1874 (May 24-27) transferred the
school to _Milwaukee_, and there in the years 1875-1888 ten courses were
completed.
The technical director of the Normal School during all these years in
Milwaukee was George Brosius, who becomes therefore the most important
single figure in the earlier history of _Turnvereine_ of the German type
in America. His father was born in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1815 and his mother
near Leipsic in 1818, but both came to this country with their parents in
the early thirties, and settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here they met
and married, and here the boy was born, September 9, 1839. In 1842 the
family moved to Milwaukee, which was thenceforward to be his home except
for a few brief intervals. He was educated first in the public schools
and afterwards in the Engelmann School, now known as the German-English
Academy. Eduard Schulz, a political fugitive from Berlin, was conducting
a private gymnasium in the city, and this the boy attended. When the
_Turnverein_ “Milwaukee” opened its classes for children in 1854 he
joined one of them, becoming a junior member (_Zögling_) of the society
soon after and entering into full membership in 1858. Already he had
developed such great ability as a gymnast that he was able to win the
first prize for juniors at the _Turnfest_ of the Western societies held
in Milwaukee in 1857. In that year he was also admitted to the militia
company commanded by his father. After the latter’s death (1859) he moved
to St. Louis, and was following there the trade of painter and decorator
at the outbreak of the Civil War. Although married only a few months
before, he immediately returned to Milwaukee, enlisted as a volunteer
for the three-year term, and was made sergeant in Company E of the Ninth
Wisconsin Regiment, later receiving a commission as second lieutenant in
the Thirty-fifth Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers.
[Illustration: FIG. 81.—George Brosius (1839-1920).]
The career of Brosius as a teacher of gymnastics, which was to continue
without interruption for fifty fruitful years, began in the autumn
of 1864, when he undertook the direction of the various classes of
_Turnverein_ “Milwaukee.” The regular exercise soon restored his
former degree of strength and skill, and a long list of successful
appearances in local, district, and national _Turnfeste_ gave evidence
of his own merit as a practical gymnast and of his gift for developing a
corresponding proficiency in his pupils. In 1866 the Engelmann School,
one of the first to introduce physical training into its curriculum,
secured a part of his time as teacher, and during the same period he was
also conducting the exercises at the Milwaukee Gymnasium, frequented
chiefly by native Americans. Then followed a year in Chicago (1870-1871),
in the service of the “Aurora” and Scandinavian societies. When the third
course of the _Turnerbund’s_ Normal School was opened there, in January
of 1871, he became one of the three teachers who directed it. But the
great fire of October sent him back to Milwaukee, to open a private
gymnasium and take up again his work at the Engelmann School, and in 1873
to resume his former position at _Turnverein_ “Milwaukee.”
The next period of his life, and the most fruitful one, opens in
1875, with the transfer of the Normal School of the _Turnerbund_ to
_Turnverein_ “Milwaukee.” Brosius became its technical director, as we
have seen, and in the ten courses held between 1875 and 1888 more than
a hundred teachers of gymnastics were graduated from the institution,
to become leaders in _Turnvereine_ all over the country, and many of
them to undertake the direction of physical training in important city
school systems or in other positions of large influence. From 1875 to
1883 Brosius himself served as superintendent of physical training in
the public schools of Milwaukee, and after 1878 as instructor in the
National German-American Teachers College (_Lehrerseminar_), which had
been established there.[270] The rules in force at the time the ninth
course was given in Milwaukee (1885-1886) required that it should last
not less than ten months, and should include systematic instruction in
the following subjects: Practical gymnastics, gymnastic nomenclature,
the value and uses of the different pieces of apparatus, the preparation
of series of graded lessons in gymnastics; the history and literature of
physical training, including systems and methods, with special attention
to modern times; the history of civilization, in connection with the
preceding course; the essentials of anatomy and physiology; hygiene,
medical gymnastics, and first aid; the principles of education, and
practical hints derived from them; the German and English languages and
literature; simple popular and _Turner_ songs; foil, sabre, and bayonet
fencing; swimming. There was also to be frequent observation of classes
in gymnastics, for adults and for school children, and practice in
conducting them. It was deemed desirable that every graduate should be
able to use the English language in his teaching.
[Illustration: FIG. 82.—Gymnasium of the Milwaukee _Bundesturnhalle_.]
Some idea of the organization and activities of the _Turnerbund_ as
it was in January of 1886 may be gathered from the annual statistical
summary published by the Executive Committee in that year. This shows 231
societies, grouped in 30 districts (_Turnbezirke_). The total membership
reported was 23,823, of which number 18,164 were citizens of the United
States, 5562 were on the list of active turners, and 3201 actually took
part in the gymnastic exercises. Ninety-five professional teachers of
gymnastics were employed. There were 1028 members in the junior societies
(_Zöglingsvereine_), and 587 had passed from these into the regular
_Turnvereine_ during the preceding year; 13,161 boys and 3888 girls were
enrolled in the classes for children; 436 members took part in fencing,
and 399 in rifle-shooting; 1722 belonged to singing sections. The society
libraries contained 44,139 volumes; 224 lectures had been delivered
and 283 debates conducted, and during a single month 109 meetings for
intellectual improvement were held. The attendance at day schools
supported by the societies was 1921, at night schools 428, and at Sunday
schools 1482. One hundred and forty-four societies occupied buildings of
their own, and the total value of society property was $2,556,018, of
which amount $1,662,583 was free from debt.
The year 1886 may be regarded as a turning point in the history of the
German-American gymnastic societies, and there is some reason for calling
the period which precedes this date the German one, and that which
follows the American. The immigrants not unnaturally gravitated toward
cities or sections where communities of fellow-countrymen were already
established. They continued to use the mother-tongue among themselves,
and the consequent imperfect command of English, together with certain
continental customs which they retained, serve to explain the fact
that few Americans outside of their own ranks appreciated the aims of
the _Turnvereine_ or knew how much they were doing to provide physical
training for children and adults. For example, Dr. E. M. Hartwell, for
two years a resident of Cincinnati, and director of the gymnasium at
Johns Hopkins University at the time he was asked to prepare for the
Bureau of Education a report on physical training in American colleges
and universities, had travelled widely in states east of the Mississippi
before completing his manuscript in the spring of 1885, and yet did not
learn of the existence of _Turnvereine_ in the United States until his
visit to Germany that summer. Two pages of the appendix to the report,
added after his return, are devoted to the North American _Turnerbund_.
At its national convention in Boston in the summer of 1886 the
_Turnerbund_ authorized its executive committee to appoint delegates to
the second annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement
of Physical Education, and before this body, in Brooklyn on the 26th of
November following, three papers were accordingly read by representatives
thus named, and an exhibition of German gymnastics was given by classes
from New York and Brooklyn societies. This was the beginning of a
systematic campaign undertaken to acquaint American educators and the
public in general with the claims and merits of the German system.
Representation by delegates at the annual meetings of the American
Association for the Advancement of Physical Education was continued, and
at Philadelphia in 1892 a paper by William A. Stecher made an especially
favorable impression; a special committee of well-known men (Doctors
Hitchcock, Sargent, and Hartwell) was invited to attend the national
_Turnfest_ in Milwaukee in 1893 as guests of the _Turnerbund_, and other
similar committees were appointed at several succeeding _Turnfeste_;
there were demonstrations and exhibits at the World’s Fair in Chicago
(1893), together with the distribution of great quantities of printed
matter; a monthly periodical, _Mind and Body_, started in March, 1894,
has been issued regularly ever since;[271] a summer school was held at
Milwaukee under the auspices of the _Turnerbund_ in 1895 and the three
years following; and a “Text-book of German-American Gymnastics” was
published in 1896.[272]
For years the _Turnvereine_ had provided classes for children of school
age, directed by their own teachers of gymnastics and held in their own
gymnasia. These enrolled 13,161 boys and 3888 girls in January of 1886,
and ten years later the numbers had risen to 18,582 boys and 10,274
girls. But within the same decade of expansion (1886-1896) falls the
introduction of physical training into the public school systems of many
cities under the supervision of graduates from the Normal School of the
_Turnerbund_. Among the very first to take such a step was Kansas City,
Missouri, in 1885, and the career of Carl Betz, the man who proposed the
action and himself directed the work during the next thirteen years, may
be taken as typical of this phase of the second period in the history of
German-American gymnastics.
His father and mother, both natives of Bavaria, came to America in 1843
and 1844, and were married at Baltimore in the latter year. Their second
home was Belleville, Illinois, where the boy was born June 1, 1854.
Two years afterwards they moved again, to St. Paul, and in this young
capital the father’s social and political activity made him member of
the common council and of the school-board, United States assessor,
one of Minnesota’s Presidential electors, and a speaker (in German) in
the Greeley campaign of 1872. Carl was educated in the public schools,
and took one year of the high school course, but then discontinued
his studies to enter a bank as office boy. Four years later he had
advanced to the position of general bookkeeper and assistant teller.
In April of 1875 he was employed as teacher of gymnastics by the St.
Paul _Turnverein_, and the next autumn decided to fit himself further
for the work by attending the Normal School of the _Turnerbund_, which
had just been transferred to Milwaukee. The four-months’ course there
was completed early in 1876, and for most of the decade following he
was actively engaged in the practice of his new profession in various
western societies—at South Bend, Indiana (1876-1877), Louisville,
Kentucky (1877-1882), Terre Haute, Indiana (1882-1883), St. Paul again
(1883-1884), and finally in the _Socialer Turnverein_ of Kansas City,
Missouri, beginning in January of 1885.
[Illustration: FIG. 83.—Carl Betz (1854-1898).]
At a meeting of the Kansas City Teachers’ Institute on May 2, 1885, Mr.
Betz was present with a class of a dozen girls and led them in a series
of exercises with wands and Indian clubs which excited much interest. In
the discussion that followed, the need of some sort of physical education
in the schools was generally recognized. He assured the teachers that
he could work out a plan which might be successfully introduced, and
a motion was carried requesting him to do so. The result was a little
pamphlet of eighteen pages, published by the _Socialer Turnverein_. The
next October the School Board accepted his proposal to conduct gymnastic
exercises in the public schools for three months without pay. Before the
end of that period, however, on December 5, 1885, they appointed him
director of physical training, and thus he was launched upon the career
which ended only with his death, on April 28, 1898. During the last two
years of his life he was also supervisor of music in the city schools.
The executive committee of the _Turnerbund_ made him a member of the
committee which represented the German-American gymnastic societies at
the second meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Physical Education (November 26, 1886, in Brooklyn), but the paper which
he presented there, on the introduction of gymnastics into the public
schools, does not appear in the published _Proceedings_ of that year.
Another, read at the sixth annual meeting (April 4, 1891, in Boston)
describes the system and methods employed in Kansas City, and will be
found, much abridged, in the corresponding volume of _Proceedings_. Mr.
Betz was also director of the first summer school conducted under the
auspices of the national _Turnerbund_, at its Normal School in Milwaukee
(July 1 to August 10, 1895).
[Illustration: FIG. 84.—Gymnasium of the Washburn School, Cincinnati.
(From a photograph loaned by Dr. Robert Nohr).]
[Illustration: FIG. 85.—Gymnasium of the Westwood School, Cincinnati.
(From a photograph loaned by Dr. Robert Nohr).]
A letter written in 1887 explains his plan of instruction as follows: “On
every Saturday the director of physical training drills the principals
of the different ward schools. These in turn drill their assistants, the
regular teachers, on every Monday. The assistants take up the new drill
for the week on every Tuesday. The drill is obligatory, and is taken as
any of the other studies. At ten o’clock all principals strike a gong,
and at this signal all teachers take up the drill at once (daily). Thus
at the same time all school children throughout the city have the same
exercise. Each teacher is furnished with a manual of instruction, which
clearly marks the work to be accomplished. The scholars, of course, do
not leave the schoolroom.... As yet we have only free gymnastics, but
as soon as possible dumb-bells, wands, poles, rings, and clubs will
follow. Then gymnastic games and popular gymnastics will be taken up, and
lastly heavy gymnastics on apparatus.” The little manual of instruction
to which he refers was afterwards expanded into a _System of Physical
Culture in a Series of Four Books, i.e., Free Gymnastics_ (Kansas City,
1887), _Gymnastic Tactics_ (1887), _Light Gymnastics_ (1887), and
_Popular Gymnastics: Athletics and Sports of the Playground_ (1893).
Later editions of these books, all more or less revised, were published
in Chicago (A. Flanagan Co.). Additional volumes were planned, and even
announced as “in preparation,” but never completed. The ones named were
adopted as guides in the schools of numerous other cities, and also
served as models for similar works prepared by fellow-graduates of the
Normal School who occupied corresponding positions elsewhere.
Among the considerable number of cities which soon followed the example
of Kansas City in introducing systematic instruction in gymnastics into
the public schools under the direction of graduates from the Normal
School of the _Turnerbund_ were Chicago, in 1886, under Henry Suder
(class of ’75); Davenport, Iowa, 1887, under William Reuter (’78);
Cleveland, Ohio, 1887, under Karl Zapp (’75); St. Louis, 1890, under
George Wittich (’82); Sandusky, Ohio, 1890, under Hans Ballin (’90);
Columbus, Ohio, 1892, under Anton Leibold (’77); Cincinnati, Ohio, 1892,
under Carl Ziegler (’86); Milwaukee, 1892, under Hans Rasmussen (’88);
and Dayton, Ohio, 1892, under Robert Nohr (’90). Schoolroom manuals like
those of Betz were published by Ballin, Leibold, and Rasmussen.[273]
Karl Kroh (’79) was head of the department of physical training in the
Cook County, Illinois, Normal School 1891-1899, and in the University of
Chicago School of Education 1901-1907. William A. Stecher (’81), after
three years as supervisor of physical training in the public schools of
Indianapolis (1904-1906), was appointed director of physical education in
the Philadelphia schools in January of 1907; and in the same year George
Wittich (’82), who had been successor to Brosius at the Normal School of
the _Turnerbund_, became supervisor of physical training in the Milwaukee
schools. Reports from societies to the National Executive Committee under
date of January 1, 1920, show that in 51 cities 171 men and 91 women
graduated from the Normal School of the _Turnerbund_ (now known as the
Normal College of the American Gymnastic Union) were employed as teachers
in the public schools.
The varying fortunes of the _Turnerbund_ since 1886 are suggested by
the following table, compiled from statistical reports which reveal
conditions in the constituent societies on January 1 of the year
mentioned.
-----+----------+-----------+--------+----------------+---------
Year.|Societies.|Membership.| Active | In classes for |Teachers
| | |members.+-------+--------+employed.
| | | | Boys. | Girls. |
-----+----------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+---------
1887 | 237 | 26,722 | 5704 |14,123 | 4,765 | 104
1890 | 277 | 35,912 | 7337 |17,145 | 7,735 | 148
1893 | 316 | 41,877 | 7604 |17,389 | 8,702 | 172
1895 | 314 | 39,870 | 7647 |18,879 | 9,992 | 180
1900 | 258 | 33,964 | 5675 |17,252 | 9,756 | 166
1905 | 244 | 37,090 | 5843 |18,033 |10,823 | 167
1910 | 234 | 39,207 | 5134 |12,870 | 7,897 | 146
1915 | 218 | 37,941 | 4989 | 9,264 | 7,958 | 165
1920 | 186 | 33,853 | 4135 | 6,782 | 6,958 | 125
-----+----------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+---------
On January 1, 1920, there were also 2760 juniors (boys fourteen to
eighteen years of age), 1904 older men, and 6565 women enrolled
in classes; 123 in fencing, 971 in singing, and 283 in dramatic
sections; and 6404 in the Women’s Auxiliary, organized at the time of
the Twenty-seventh National Convention of the _Turnerbund_, held in
Louisville, Kentucky, June 22-24, 1919, and intended to “unify as much
as possible the efforts of the women’s societies connected with the
gymnastic societies, and to increase their efficiency.” One hundred and
forty-two societies owned their gymnasia, and the total value of the
property of all societies was $6,842,224, of which amount $4,995,718 was
free from debt.
[Illustration: FIG. 86.—Kansas City Turners at the Thirty-first
_Bundesturnfest_, Denver, 1913 (From a photograph loaned by Dr. Robert
Nohr).]
To the list of national _Turnfeste_ given on p. 296 the following have
been added:
XXV. 1889, June 22-25 Cincinnati.
XXVI. 1893, July 21-25 Milwaukee.
XXVII. 1897, May 6-10 St. Louis.
XXVIII. 1900, June 18-23 Philadelphia.
XXIX. 1905, June 21-25 Indianapolis.
XXX. 1909, June 23-27 Cincinnati.
XXXI. 1913, June 25-29 Denver.
XXXII. 1921, June 29-July 3 Chicago.
We have seen (p. 299) that in the years 1889-1891, while Brosius was
in New York City and the new gymnasium of the _Turnerbund_ was being
built in Milwaukee, its Normal School occupied temporary quarters in
Indianapolis, with the _Socialer Turnverein_ and under the direction
of William Fleck (class of ’81). Two courses were given here, and 32
men and 1 woman were graduated. The last three courses under Brosius
(1895-1899) covered two years each. Upon his retirement George Wittich
(class of ’82) was called from St. Louis to serve as technical director,
the scope of the school was broadened, and in the years 1902-1907 five
more courses, each of one year’s duration, were held in the Milwaukee
_Bundesturnhalle_, graduating a total of 36 men and 23 women. At the
close of that period the building was sold, and on September 23, 1907,
the newly christened “Normal College of the North American Gymnastic
Union,” incorporated under the laws of Indiana and authorized to confer
academic titles and degrees, was opened in the German House of the
Indianapolis _Socialer Turnverein_. The name was changed to “Normal
College of the American Gymnastic Union” in June of 1919. Karl Kroh
(class of ’79) was the technical head for two years (1907-1909), and
since that time the position has been held by Emil Rath (’98).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Jahrbücher der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Turnerei. Dem gesammten Turnwesen
mit besonderer Berüchsichtigung der Geschichte des Nordamerikanischen
Turnerbundes gewidmet. Herausgegeben und redigirt von Heinrich Metzner.
Three volumes of six numbers each, published in New York from November,
1890, through October, 1894.
Jahresberichte des Vororts des Nordamerikanischen Turnerbundes. In 1920
the English language was substituted for the German in these and the
title now reads “Annual Report of the National Executive Committee,
American Gymnastic Union.” Each report covers a period extending from
April 1 to April 1.
The _Amerikanische Turnzeitung_ (weekly), the official organ of the
_Turnerbund_ since January 1, 1885.
Proceedings of national conventions, reports of national _Turnfeste_,
catalogues of the Normal College, and numerous other occasional
publications issued by the National Executive Committee.
The “Brosius 1864-1914” illustrated souvenir.
I am indebted to Mrs. Carl Betz for material relating to her husband’s
life and work. Most of what is said of Brosius and Betz has already
appeared in print, as Chapters XV and XVI in the author’s “Pioneers of
Modern Physical Training” (New York, 1915).
FOOTNOTES:
[268] “_Das Turnen. Ein Leitfaden für die Mitglieder des Sozialistischen
Turnerbundes und alle Freunde der Leibesübung. Im Auftrage des
Vororts dargestellt von Eduard Müller, Turnlehrer. Mit erläuternden
Zeichnungen._” New York, Buchdruckerei von John Weber, 58 Chatham St.,
1853.
[269] The name was changed to _American Gymnastic Union_ June 24, 1919.
[270] The “Central _Turnverein_” of New York City drew him away for two
years (1889-1891) with its $800,000 building and its membership of 3000,
to take charge of classes which soon enrolled 160 actives, 100 older men,
150 women, and from 1400 to 1500 children. Meanwhile the Normal School
of the _Turnerbund_ had been moved to Indianapolis, but a building of
its own was now ready in Milwaukee, connected with the new home of the
Teachers College and the German-American Academy (the model school of
the College), and in these commodious quarters Brosius took up again the
task of training teachers. Seven courses were held and 59 more men were
graduated under him between 1891 and 1899. In the latter year he retired
permanently from the Normal School, but took up his earlier position in
_Turnverein_ “Milwaukee,” to continue there his active teaching until
in June of 1914 he had rounded out a full half-century of professional
achievement. He died in Milwaukee March 17, 1920.
No account of his career would be complete without mention of the
famous “Frankfort Squad” of 1880. The fifth general German _Turnfest_
was to be held at Frankfort-on-the-Main on July 25-28 of that year, and
_Turnverein_ “Milwaukee” decided to send a team of seven members, under
their teacher Brosius, to take part in the exercises and compete for
prizes. To the amazement of everyone, at home and abroad, they succeeded
in winning second, third, fifth, sixth, thirteenth and twenty-first place
in the competitions. Herman Koehler, whose mother was the oldest sister
of Brosius, carried off the second prize. He afterwards completed the
course at the Normal School (1882) under his uncle, and since 1885 has
been Master of the Sword and director of physical training at the West
Point Military Academy, with the present rank of Colonel.
[271] The editors have been Hans Ballin (March, 1894—June, 1896), Franz
Pfister (August, 1896—December, 1906), and William A. Stecher (since
January, 1907).
[272] A Text-book of the German-American System of Gymnastics, Specially
Adapted to the Use of Teachers and Pupils in Public and Private Schools
and Gymnasiums. Edited by W. A. Stecher, Secretary of the Committee on
Physical Training of the North American Gymnastic Union. Boston, Lee and
Shepard.
[273] Gymnastics in the School Room: A Manual for the Use of Teachers. By
Hans Ballin. Erie, Pa., Herald Printing and Publishing Co., 1891.
Manual of Physical Culture for Public Schools, by Anton Leibold.
Columbus, Ohio, Journal-Gazette Press, 1892.
Physical Culture for Public Schools: A Manual for the Use of Teachers. By
Hans Rasmussen. Chicago, Geo. Sherwood & Co., 1893.
CHAPTER XXV.
PHYSICAL TRAINING IN THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS.
In 1869, eighteen years after the introduction of the Young Men’s
Christian Association into America, the first Association buildings to
contain gymnasia were dedicated, in San Francisco and New York, and in
the latter city William Wood took up his duties as the first director
of an Association gymnasium. By the close of another eighteen years,
when the number of gymnasia reported had increased to 168, and the paid
directors to 50, it had become apparent that steps must be taken to
provide adequately trained leaders for this phase of work in individual
Associations and some sort of general oversight for the whole country.
Accordingly in 1887 a department of physical training was added to
the Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield,
Massachusetts, a summer school for gymnasium directors was opened at that
institution, and the International Committee established a department for
supervision of the physical work with a special secretary at its head.
Luther H. Gulick, a young student who had just finished his first year
in the medical department of New York University, was chosen to fill the
office thus created, and was also made one of two instructors in the
new department at the Springfield Training School. The other, Robert
Jeffries Roberts, was a veteran of twelve years’ experience as director
of the gymnasium at the Boston Young Men’s Christian Association, and at
that period the most influential and widely known teacher of gymnastics
engaged in Association work.
His colleagues in the earlier days had been drawn in many cases from the
ranks of professional gymnasts, trained in difficult and showy feats
of strength and skill. William Wood, an Englishman born in December,
1819, had conducted a private gymnasium in New York for thirty years
before he was called upon to superintend the equipment and exercises
in the new Twenty-third Street building (1869-1889).[274] At the
Brooklyn Association in the eighties was James Douglas Andrews, born in
Kilmarnock, Scotland, July 25, 1839, who became proficient in gymnastics
and athletics under the tuition of the Huguenins in London, and for
nearly a score of years had been in charge of private and other gymnasia
in Glasgow, Belfast, Ottawa, Toronto, and at various points on the
Pacific coast. John C. Doldt, of the Providence Association, was the
first manager and instructor at the Tremont Gymnasium, on the corner of
Eliot and Tremont Streets in Boston (opened in 1859), and afterwards
travelled about the country as a professional athlete. Roberts himself
had come under the influence of Doldt and of Dr. George Barker Winship,
a graduate of Harvard College and Medical School, who went about
lecturing on physical culture and giving exhibitions of heavy lifting
in the sixties, and whose interesting “Autobiographical Sketches of a
Strength-Seeker,” published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ in 1862, have
already been mentioned (p. 258).
[Illustration: FIG. 87.—Robert Jeffries Roberts (1849-1920).]
It was such models as these that Roberts sought to copy during his own
years of apprenticeship. Born in England June 29, 1849, he was brought
to America in early infancy, and thereafter resided in Boston with the
exception of three years in Springfield and Utica (1887-1890). He nearly
completed the course of study at the Phillips Street Grammar School,
at fifteen entered the service of the Western Union Telegraph Company,
first as messenger boy and afterwards as delivery clerk, and finally
gave up this position to earn his living by the wood-turner’s trade.
Primarily to escape from the evil influences of the streets, he joined
the Tremont Gymnasium in 1864, and a few years later was both exercising
and giving instruction at the Union Gymnasium, 300 Washington Street,
and also visiting Dr. Winship’s gymnasium across the way, next door to
the Boston Theater. When the Young Men’s Christian Association bought
out the Tremont Gymnasium, in 1872, he continued his membership there,
and now made it his practice to go two nights a week each, in regular
rotation, to the Union, Association, and Winship gymnasia. In 1875,
having determined to devote himself to the new calling, he asked to be
made superintendent of the Association gymnasium, and on the first of
July began to discharge the duties of that position.
A list of his best performances at about this time will serve to show
the aims and results of the strenuous course of discipline to which
Roberts had subjected himself hitherto. Although only five feet five
inches high, he weighed 145 pounds and had a 43-inch chest, 32-inch
waist, 23-inch thigh, 14½-inch calf, and 15-inch upper arm. With a
yoke on his shoulders he lifted 2200 pounds, could rise from a lying to a
sitting posture while holding a 100-pound weight back of his neck, push
up a 120-pound dumb-bell with each hand, pull himself up to the chin 3
times with either hand and 35 times with both, had covered more than 12
feet in one broad jump and 35 feet in three, cleared 4 feet 6 inches in
a standing high jump from either side, 5 feet 4 inches in a leap with
running start, and 9 feet with the pole, put the 16-pound shot 35 feet
right and left, threw the 16-pound hammer 70 feet, walked a mile in less
than eight minutes and 6 miles an hour, ran 100 yards in eleven seconds
and 5 miles in thirty minutes, had learned to box and wrestle, and was a
good swimmer and oarsman.
But this is not the type of work which Roberts advocated in 1887, when
he was called from Boston to Springfield, or for which he is remembered
in Association circles today. After a few years of experience, he says,
it began to dawn upon him that health did not necessarily improve as
strength increased, and that the Winship plan of heavy lifting was not
calculated to yield “the greatest good to the greatest number, physically
speaking,” any more than the Dio Lewis exercises, which he considered
too light and easy. “I noticed when I taught slow, heavy, fancy, and
more advanced work in acrobatics, gymnastics, athletics, etc.,” he
writes,[275] “that I would have a very large membership at the first of
the year, but that they would soon drop out because they could not do
the work, and ... the weak members would not renew the next season.... I
give most of my attention to those who need it most, the beginners and
those who cannot for various reasons do the more advanced work. By ...
pushing simple work I can get more men to go into it, and find it easier
to find leaders to teach it, and also can run more classes in a day....
In competitive work and the harder kind of safe exercises ... the men
leave the classes and become spectators, but when I teach easier work
the crowd do the work and the few look on.” He was also led to emphasize
trunk exercises rather than those of the legs and arms, in order to
influence respiration and circulation favorably and keep the abdominal
organs in a condition of healthy activity; and special attention was
given to those muscles which expand the chest, draw back the head and
shoulders, and hold the body erect.
According to the Roberts “platform,” as it came to be known, all
exercises should be “safe, short, easy, beneficial, and pleasing.” They
must be safe for the man who does them, _i.e._, well within the limits
of his capacity at the time. When apparatus is employed such work must
be selected that the members of the squad or class follow each other
rapidly, without tedious waits. No exercise must represent more than
a slight advance over others which have preceded it. Each “must serve
some definite and useful end,” instead of being chosen at random and
with nothing in mind beyond the mere desire to keep the class busy. It
must give pleasure if it is to exert its full effect and not degenerate
into a sort of monotonous and mechanical “grind.” These principles found
illustration in the _Roberts Dumb-bell Drill_, the _Home Dumb-bell
Drill_, and the little volume of _Classified Gymnasium Exercises, with
Notes_,[276] which were very generally used in Association gymnasia
thirty years ago.
While he was still in Boston Roberts had been conducting a sort of
training school, and during the years 1885-1887 25 or 30 men went out
from his gymnasium to become instructors. At Springfield the summer
session of 1887 (six weeks) was attended by 24 men, or 48 per cent of
the whole number then engaged in Association work; that of 1888 (July 17
to August 21) by 50 men; and the third, in 1889 (June 30 to July 31),
by 57 men. At the regular sessions of the Training School there were 5
juniors and 1 senior in the Gymnasium Department in the year 1887-1888,
and 6 juniors and 2 seniors in 1888-1889. After two years in Springfield
Roberts resigned to take charge of a new Association gymnasium in Utica,
New York, but the next year (1890) accepted an invitation to return to
his old position in Boston, where he continued his activities as teacher
almost to the day of his death, December 22, 1920. Together with several
assistants he conducted four-weeks summer courses there in July of 1893
and 1894, himself giving instruction in the system of floor work which he
had made so widely popular.[277]
[Illustration: FIG. 88.—Luther Halsey Gulick (1865-1918).]
Luther Halsey Gulick, associated with Roberts at the Springfield
Training School in 1887-1889, was superintendent of its physical
department for twelve years (1889-1900), and for sixteen years special
secretary charged with supervision of the physical work in the Young
Men’s Christian Associations of North America, under the International
Committee—the first man to be appointed to such a position. He was the
third son and fifth child of Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, a missionary
located for a time in the Hawaiian Islands, and was born in Honolulu
December 4, 1865.[278] The first fifteen years of the boy’s life were
far from monotonous. In 1870 the father was called to New England, to
act as a temporary district secretary of the American Board, and here
his family soon joined him. Late in 1871, upon the Board’s decision
to undertake missionary work in Roman Catholic countries, they sailed
for Spain, to make their home in Barcelona for two years and a half.
August of 1873 found them settled in Florence, but the closing of the
mission in Italy the next year was followed by Dr. Gulick’s return to the
United States, and in 1875 he accepted a call to become the agent of the
American Bible Society in China and Japan, with headquarters in Yokohama.
Meanwhile the family had remained in Europe for six months after his own
departure for America, and now Mrs. Gulick and four of the children were
left behind in California, and did not follow him to Japan until 1877.
Three years later Luther Halsey, Jr., again crossed the Pacific, to make
his home for a time with an older sister whose husband had just been
appointed to a professorship in Oberlin College.
Two uncles had graduated from Williams College, and his two older
brothers, Sidney Lewis and Edward Leeds, completed the course at
Dartmouth in 1883, but his own desire for a college education was not to
be gratified. Although he was enrolled in the preparatory department of
Oberlin College during a part, at least, of the school years 1880-1882
and 1883-1884, severe headaches which now made their appearance rendered
continuous application to study impossible and finally compelled a change
of plan. He had entered the middle preparatory class in the fall of 1885,
but was taking some work in the college department and rooming with a
sophomore, Thomas D. Wood, now Dr. Wood of Teachers College, Columbia
University. What happened just at this time may be told in his own
words.[279] “The advent of one of Dr. Sargent’s graduates, Miss Delphine
Hanna, now Dr. Hanna, had brought to our minds in a more vivid way then
ever before, that there was really such a thing as scientific teaching
of gymnastics, genuine body building. We had both of us been very much
interested in the gymnastics and athletics of the college, had identified
ourselves thoroughly with all the work that was going on in these lines,
and had read as far as we were able what had been written on the subject
at that time. Blaikie’s _How to Get Strong_, particularly the chapter
entitled ‘What a Gymnasium Might Be and Do,’ filled us with enthusiasm.
One Sunday afternoon we took a long walk out into the woods, and sitting
beside a rail fence (I can picture the situation even now), we looked
forward to the future of physical training. We spoke of the relation
of good bodies to good morals, we thought of the relation of bodily
training to mental training.... The glimpse which we secured that day of
the future has remained ... a prophecy of the work which each of us was
to do....”
His own course thus determined upon, Gulick at once left Oberlin for
Cambridge, Mass., to spend the winter in Dr. Sargent’s Normal School
of Physical Training. On April first following (1886) he began his
professional career, as superintendent of the gymnasium with the Young
Men’s Christian Association of Jackson, Michigan; but withdrew from this
position the next fall in order to take up the study of medicine at the
University of New York, from which his father had graduated thirty-six
years before. For six weeks in July and August of 1887, together with
Robert J. Roberts, he conducted the first summer school for directors
of Association gymnasia, at the Springfield, Massachusetts, Training
School, and these two men constituted the special teaching staff of
the department of physical training which was added to the school at
this time and opened its first regular session on Armory Hill early in
September of the same year. The next month the International Committee
secured a part of his time for the task of supervising the physical
side of Association work in the country at large. Meanwhile his medical
studies in New York were continued, and completed in 1889. He also served
in 1887-1888 as medical examiner at the Twenty-third Street Association,
where William Wood was still superintendent of the gymnasium, and during
a part of the New York period was in charge of the physical training at a
girls’ school in Harlem.
For thirteen years, until the close of the school year 1899-1900, Dr.
Gulick retained his position at the International Young Men’s Christian
Association Training School in Springfield, after 1888 as superintendent
of the physical department and during most of the time as instructor
in the history and philosophy of physical training. The service under
the International Committee was continuous from October of 1887 until
his appointment as director of physical training in the public schools
of Greater New York, in 1903. The problem that confronted him was
twofold—first to find and train new men for the physical directorship and
to unite and guide and stimulate those already in the field; and second
to develop a type and methods of work suited to Association conditions.
In 1887 there were only 50 “superintendents” and 3 assistants employed
in the 168 gymnasia reported by American Associations. By 1900 the
number had increased to 244 physical directors and 22 assistants, in
491 gymnasia, and nearly 80,000 men and 20,000 boys were being reached
by physical agencies. The regular course at the Springfield Training
School covered two years until 1895, when it was extended to three, and
meanwhile, in 1890, a second and independent institution of similar
sort had been incorporated in Chicago. For five years, from 1887 through
1891, summer courses, lasting from four to six weeks, were given at the
Training School, and attended, respectively, by 25, 50, 57, 33, and 23
men. A western section, at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in July of 1890, had
an attendance of 16. These were succeeded by summer “conferences,” more
informal and intended for directors already in the work, which met for a
week or ten days each year from 1892 through 1895. In 1896 and thereafter
the conferences were held under the auspices of the International
Committee. Additional educative means were the correspondence courses
for physical directors, first offered by the Training School in the fall
of 1891 and continued for four years, and the monthly Athletic League
Letter, beginning in November of 1898. The Physical Directors’ Society
of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of North America was organized
during a conference held at Lakewood, on Chautauqua Lake, New York, June
16-18, 1903.
The relation of physical training to Association work as a whole, and
the type and methods suited to Association conditions, Dr. Gulick
considered in a paper on “Our New Gymnastics,” read at the Twenty-eighth
International Convention (Philadelphia, May 11, 1889), and one on “The
Distinctive Features of the Physical Work in the Association” at the
Twenty-ninth Convention (Kansas City, May 9, 1891). He urged that man is
a unit, that the Associations “are working for _young men_, not simply
for their bodies, minds and souls, but for the salvation, development and
training of the whole man complete as God made him,” and that physical
education therefore forms a vital part of the Association program.
The objects of exercise and the sorts needed in Association gymnasia
were discussed at the first and second summer conferences of physical
directors (1892 and 1893) and in the columns of _Physical Education_ for
May, 1892, and January and October, 1893. He furnished the chapter on the
Physical Department for a “Hand-Book of the History, Organization and
Methods of Work of Young Men’s Christian Associations,” issued by the
International Committee in 1892 (pp. 297-339), and presented the claims
of “The Physical Directorship of the Young Men’s Christian Association as
a Life Work” in a pamphlet published by that body in 1890.
A desire to render anthropometric methods uniform and useful resulted
in a “Manual for Physical Measurements in connection with Association
Gymnasium Records,” which was ready in 1892. An anthropometric chart was
also compiled and published. He read a paper on “The Value of Percentile
Grades” before the American Statistical Association February 10, 1893,
and for Volumes II and III of _Physical Education_ (November, 1893, to
January 1895), prepared a series of articles on “Physical Measurements
and How They Are Studied.” In connection with the summer conferences
various “hygienic drills” and lists of exercises on apparatus suitable
for Association use were elaborated. James Naismith, an instructor
at the Training School, invented basket ball in the autumn of 1891
to meet the need of a good indoor game, and it was described in the
_Triangle_, the school paper, for January 15, 1892. To promote all-around
development a _Pentathlon_, comprising the hundred-yard dash, throwing
the twelve-pound hammer, the running high jump, the pole vault, and the
mile run, was recommended, with a scheme for uniform scoring. Some years
of agitation and discussion led in 1895 to the formation of the Athletic
League of Young Men’s Christian Associations of North America, designed
primarily “to band together those who feel that athletics are often large
elements in the formation of character, and to arrange for them lines of
coöperation;” and “to foster a better spirit of manliness in connection
with these activities that will banish from them the discourtesy and
dishonesty by which they have been too often disgraced.” The first
official handbook of the League was issued in 1897.
Gymnastic therapeutics formed the subject of a course of lectures given
at the Thousand Islands Conference in 1900, and a series of articles
published in Volumes I and II of _Physical Training_ (November, 1901,
to April, 1903); and material prepared originally for classes at the
Training School and for the Athletic League Letter appeared later
under the title “Physical Education by Muscular Exercise” as Part II
of the seventh volume (“Mechanotherapy”) in _A System of Physiologic
Therapeutics_, edited by Dr. S. S. Cohen (Philadelphia, 1904). The duty
and opportunity of the Association in its relation to boys was emphasized
at the Mobile, Alabama, Convention in 1897, in Volumes VII and VIII of
the _Association Outlook_ (1897-1899), and before the Physical Directors’
Conference at Dayton, Ohio, in June of 1899. Other studies led to papers
on “Some Psychical Aspects of Muscular Exercise” (Appleton’s _Popular
Science Monthly_, October, 1898) and “Psychological, Pedagogical, and
Religious Aspects of Group Games” (_Pedagogical Seminary_, March,
1899). How indefatigable was Dr. Gulick’s pen may be gathered from the
bare enumeration of the periodicals which he employed successively as
a regular means of expression: The Physical Department of the _Young
Men’s Era_ (1890, to September 1), the _Triangle_ (February, 1891, to
January 15, 1892), _Physical Education_ (March, 1892, to July, 1896),
_International Training School Notes and Association Outlook_ (January
to July, 1897), the _Association Outlook and Training School Notes_
(October, 1898, to July, 1900, two volumes), and _Physical Training_
(November, 1901, to June, 1903, two volumes). He was also editor of the
_American Physical Education Review_ from June of 1901 through 1903.[280]
In the summer of 1890 the Springfield Training School, hitherto a
department of Rev. David Allen Reed’s “School for Christian Workers,” was
separately incorporated under the name “Young Men’s Christian Association
Training School,” changed early the next year to “International Young
Men’s Christian Association Training School,” and in the spring of 1891
thirty acres of land bordering on Massasoit Lake, on the outskirts of
Springfield, were secured as a site for future buildings. A gymnasium,
the first structure erected on the new grounds, was completed in the
summer of 1894 and formally opened October 26, a dormitory and recitation
hall was added in 1896, Woods Hall, a social center, in 1904, Pratt Field
in 1910, the west gymnasium in 1911, and a library and a natatorium in
1913. Dr. James Huff McCurdy, who was to become Gulick’s successor as
director of the physical course, joined the staff in the fall of 1895,
and at that time the course of study and practice was extended to cover
three years. In 1905 the Massachusetts Legislature authorized the school
to confer the degrees bachelor and master of physical education (B.P.E.
and M.P.E.), and in April, 1912, its name was changed to “International
Young Men’s Christian Association College.” Three years later the
trustees voted to make the course for physical directors a four-year one,
beginning in September of 1916.
At a secretaries’ conference held in Montreal in June of 1884 the plan
of a permanent summer camp and “institute” was proposed, and in August,
while a number of Association men were together at Camp Collie, Lake
Geneva, Wisconsin, a committee settled upon that lake as the site of
such a camp, adopting the name “Western Secretarial Institute.” Land was
purchased in the spring of 1886 and on the 6th of October the institute
was incorporated under the laws of Wisconsin. July 1-29, 1890, a summer
school for physical directors was held on the camp grounds, under the
auspices of the Springfield, Massachusetts, Training School and the
direction of Dr. Luther H. Gulick. Meanwhile, on June 28 of the same
year, the “Young Men’s Christian Association Training School” (Chicago)
had been incorporated, with the object of training young men for the
duties of general secretary, physical director, and other Association
officers. It opened its first two-year course September 10th, in rooms of
the Central Young Men’s Christian Association, 148 Madison Street, with
Dr. E. L. Hayford “principal of the physical department,” and in 1891 and
following summers conducted at Lake Geneva courses similar to those given
there in July of 1890. In May of 1896 the Chicago school and the Lake
Geneva Institute were consolidated under the title “Secretarial Institute
and Training School of Young Men’s Christian Associations,” changed to
“Institute and Training School of Young Men’s Christian Associations” in
1903, and ten years later to “Young Men’s Christian Association College.”
The summer school at Lake Geneva was made an integral part of the
Training School, _i.e._, a required summer term, in 1901, and the course
for physical directors became a three-year one in the fall of 1908. The
purchase of a block of land lying between Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth
Streets and Drexel and Ingleside Avenues, as a site for an independent
College home, was announced early in 1912, and the new building erected
there (5315 Drexel Avenue) was formally dedicated November 30, 1915.
George W. Ehler was principal of the physical department 1892-1897,
John W. Shaw 1897-1900, and Dr. Winfield S. Hall 1900-1903. Dr. Henry
F. Kallenberg, who had been assistant principal since 1896, then became
director of the department of physical training, and retained the
position until the fall of 1917, when he was succeeded by Martin I. Foss.
January 1, 1898, the International Committee added to the part-time
services of Dr. Gulick as secretary for the Physical Department the whole
time of George T. Hepbron, whose chief task was to promote the Athletic
League. Hepbron resigned in 1905, and the next year Dr. George J.
Fisher was called to the position from the physical directorship of the
Brooklyn, New York, Association. He was already serving as president of
the Physical Directors’ Society of the Young Men’s Christian Associations
of North America and editor of its official organ, _Physical Training_,
which had resumed publication under the new auspices in November of
1905 (Volume III. Volumes I and II had been published by Dr. Gulick at
Springfield between November, 1901, and June, 1903). A second secretary,
Dr. John Brown, Jr., was added to the department in June of 1910, and
a third, William H. Ball, in November of the same year. Dr. Fisher
resigned November 1, 1919, to become Deputy Scout Executive of the Boy
Scouts of America, and Dr. Brown then became senior secretary. The years
since 1900 have seen the influence of the Associations reaching beyond
the bounds of their own membership into the community at large. Work
for boys, as well as young men, has been organized, and leadership has
been furnished to a great variety of social agencies providing physical
training and working for health betterment—to playgrounds, Sunday-school
athletic leagues, swimming campaigns, summer camps, etc., etc. A handbook
of “Physical Work: Management and Methods” was compiled by a special
committee of the Physical Directors’ Society and published in 1913 (New
York, Association Press). This served as the basis of discussion at an
eight-day conference held early in the following year, out of which
grew a new volume, “Physical Education in the Young Men’s Christian
Associations of North America,” issued in 1914 (New York, Association
Press), and revised and republished under the same title in 1920 (New
York, Association Press). Chapter ten in the latest revision describes
briefly the very great service rendered by the physical department of
the Young Men’s Christian Associations in organizing recreative work
during the Great War, in army camps and naval stations at home and among
the allied troops in Europe.[281] The Physical Directors’ Society has
held annual conferences since 1903 (except in 1917 and 1920), and has
continued the publication of _Physical Training_ (monthly, except July
and August) since November of 1905.
The number of Associations reporting attention to physical training,
through gymnasia or other means, the number of members participating, and
the number of physical directors and assistants employed, as reported in
the _Year-Books_, have been as follows:
----+-------------+----------+-------------+---------------+-----------
|Associations.| Gymnasia.| Other means.| Participating.| Directors.
----+-------------+----------+-------------+---------------+-----------
1885| 131 | 101 | 54 | | 35
1890| 466 | 407 | 262 | | 151
1895| 559 | 495 | 355 | | 227
1900| 556 | 507 | 357 | 80,433 | 294
1905| 673 | 571 | | 133,627 | 342
1910| 724 | 658 | | 271,506 | 495
1915| 1112 | 728 | | 447,351 | 650
1920| 899 | 838 | | 488,478 | 663
----+-------------+----------+-------------+---------------+-----------
The number of swimming pools increased from 151 in 1905 to 293 in 1910
and 610 in 1920; and the number of athletic fields from 143 in 1905 to
205 in 1920. The _Year-Book_ covering the period from May 1, 1919, to
April 30, 1920 reports 151,209 men and 157,772 boys enrolled in regular
classes at the Association gymnasia, 2927 men and 6469 boys in leaders’
clubs, 916 leaders in community service, and 107,580 persons aided by
this community service. Nine summer schools for physical directors were
held in 1920, attended as follows: Springfield, Mass. (86 men); Silver
Bay, N. Y. (101); Blue Ridge, N. C. (45); Lake Geneva, Wis. (100);
Hollister, Mo. (14); Estes Park, Colo. (20); Asilomar, Calif. (34);
Seabeck, Wash. (16); and Lake Couchiching, Ontario (43).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Catalogues of the Springfield and Chicago colleges and the Springfield
periodicals mentioned on page 317, official Handbooks of the Athletic
League of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of North America,
_Physical Training_, and the Year-books and other publications of the
International Committee. The biographical sketches of Roberts and Gulick
have already appeared in print, as Chapters XVII and XVIII in the
author’s “Pioneers of Modern Physical Training” (New York, 1915).
FOOTNOTES:
[274] See his “Manual of Physical Exercises: Comprising Gymnastics,
Calisthenics, Rowing, Sailing, Skating, Swimming, Fencing, Sparring,
Cricket, Baseball. Together with Rules for Training and Sanitary
Suggestions.” New York, Harper & Brothers, 1867. Second edition,
enlarged, in 1870.
[275] Quoted by Dr. Gulick in the _Association Seminar_ for May, 1908, in
the course of an authoritative and exhaustive paper on Roberts and his
work.
[276] Compiled by A. K. Jones. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1889. Other editions
later.
[277] See “The Body Builder, Robert J. Roberts,” by B. Deane Brink. New
York and London, Association Press, 1916.
[278] Some knowledge of Dr. Gulick’s ancestry is required if one seeks
to explain the work he accomplished with such limited preparation of a
formal sort. Peter Johnson Gulick (1797-1877), the third of seven sons
of a New Jersey farmer, and a descendant of Hendrick Gulick, who came to
this country from the Netherlands in 1653, was graduated from Princeton
College in 1825, studied afterwards in Princeton Theological Seminary,
married Fanny Hinckley Thomas, of English ancestry, and in November of
1827 sailed with her from Boston under appointment as a missionary of the
American Board. The following March, only eight years after the opening
of the mission to the Hawaiian Islands, they reached Honolulu by way of
Cape Horn, and in this field he remained in active service for forty-six
years. Of his eight children one died during student days in America,
and all the rest became missionaries. Luther Halsey, the oldest son
(1828-1891), came to the United States and entered an academy in Auburn,
New York, in the fall of 1841, and after further study with a physician
in Amboy, New Jersey, went to New York City for three years in medicine,
first in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and then in the medical
department of the University of New York, from which he was graduated
in the spring of 1850. The next year he was ordained as a missionary,
married Louisa Lewis, daughter of a New York merchant, and started back
on the long journey around Cape Horn. For eight years (1852-1860) he was
stationed at Ponape and Ebon Islands, in Micronesia. At the end of that
time, broken in health, he returned to Honolulu. Several years of public
speaking on missionary topics in the United States followed, and then
from January of 1864 till February of 1870 he was secretary of the Board
of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, the agent of the American Board
on the Hawaiian Islands and in Micronesia. See “Luther Halsey Gulick,
Missionary in Hawaii, Micronesia, Japan, and China,” by Frances Gulick
Jewett (Boston and Chicago, Congregational Sunday School and Publishing
Society, 1895).
[279] _Physical Education_ =1=, 25 (April, 1892).
[280] In 1900, not yet thirty-five years old, Dr. Gulick resigned his
position at the Springfield Training School in order to become principal
of the Pratt Institute High School, in Brooklyn. Three years later he was
appointed director of physical training in the public schools of greater
New York, but retained this office only until 1908, and then accepted the
directorship of the department of child hygiene under the Russell Sage
Foundation. In 1913 he became president of the “Camp Fire Girls.” A study
of his labors since 1900, in these new fields, in organizations like the
American Physical Education Association and the Playground Association of
America, and as an advocate of the Efficient Life by spoken and written
words which reached an ever-growing audience would carry us beyond
the immediate object of this sketch, which is to suggest the place he
has filled in the evolution of ideals, means, and methods of physical
training in the Young Men’s Christian Associations of North America.
He died at Camp Gulick, on Sebago Lake, Maine, August 13, 1918. The
following books suggest his later interests: “The Efficient Life” (1907);
“Mind and Work” (1908), “Medical Inspection of Schools” (with Leonard P.
Ayres, 1909), “The Healthful Art of Dancing” (1910), “The Dynamics of
Manhood” (1917), and “A Philosophy of Play” (1920).
[281] See the “Army and Navy Athletic Handbook,” New York, Association
Press, 1919.
CHAPTER XXVI.
SWEDISH SCHOOL GYMNASTICS IN THE UNITED STATES.
The system of medical gymnastics which we owe to the labors of Per
Henrik Ling and his successors at the Royal Normal School of Gymnastics
(the “Central Institute of Gymnastics”) in Stockholm was brought to the
attention of Americans as long ago as the early fifties (see p. 258). By
the end of that decade writers on physical education had begun to refer
to it under the name of “the Swedish movement cure,” and authors of
manuals intended for school use were borrowing some of their exercises
from this source. But to meet the needs of growing boys and girls Ling
had also devised a system of school gymnastics. This had been further
elaborated by his son Hjalmar (1820-1886), and teachers trained in the
Central Institute, or by its graduates, were everywhere using it in
Sweden, in common schools and high schools alike. Of the aims, content,
and methods of this branch of the “Ling gymnastics” little or nothing was
known in this country until near the close of the eighties in the last
century. Hartvig Nissen, a native of Norway and the head of a “Swedish
Health Institute” in Washington, D.C., began to use it with teachers and
pupils in the Franklin school in that city in 1883, and with students
at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, early in 1887. A Swedish
gymnasium with its equipment was also shown at the World’s Industrial
and Cotton Centennial Exposition held in New Orleans 1884-1885, in
connection with the exhibit of the Bureau of Education, and Commissioner
Eaton had placed Mr. Nissen in charge of this and other gymnastic
apparatus. Other isolated instances might be cited, but it was not until
1889, however, that the claims of Swedish educational gymnastics were
brought forward in the United States so prominently and stated with
such clearness and cogency as to attract general attention. Boston was
the center from which the movement radiated, and its initiation was due
to the public spirit and liberality of Mrs. Mary Hemenway (1820-1894)
and the executive ability of her assistant, Miss Amy Morris Homans,
coupled with the thorough professional training and forceful personality
of Baron Nils Posse (1862-1895), the agent who first made their plans
effective and afterwards conducted an independent and vigorous campaign
of enlightenment until his untimely death.
Baron Posse was born in Stockholm, Sweden, where his father, Baron Knut
Henrik Posse, a major in the army, was at one time head of the Royal
Army Staff College (_Kungl. Krigshögskolan_, at Marieberg). Both parents
ranked among the Swedish nobility. The boy, an only son, was graduated
from a private high school at the age of eighteen, and afterwards
completed the fifteen-month course at the Royal Military School (_Kungl.
Krigsskolan_, at Karlberg), and the two years of study and practice then
offered at the Central Institute of Gymnastics, including medical as well
as educational and military gymnastics. Meanwhile for five years he had
been enrolled in the Swedish army, half of that time as a private and
later as second lieutenant, first in the Life Grenadier Regiment and then
in the Royal Svea Artillery. Outside of this formal training his fondness
for physical activity led him to join the Stockholm Gymnastic and Fencing
Club, the Gymnastic Association, the Rowing Club, and two skating clubs,
and in fancy skating he won his title as amateur champion over some of
the most accomplished masters of that art in all Sweden.
[Illustration: FIG. 89.—Nils Posse (1862-1895).]
It was on his twenty-third birthday (May 15, 1885), that Baron Posse
graduated from the Central Institute of Gymnastics. Three months later
he was on his way to America, and in October, after a visit to Nissen,
then vice-consul of Norway and Sweden in Washington, he took up his
residence in Boston with the hope of interesting physicians there in
medical gymnastics and building up for himself, with their coöperation,
a practice in that method of treatment. The first attempts were not
encouraging, and progress was slow, yet after three years of such efforts
opportunity at length knocked at his door—an opportunity not of his own
choosing, but it found him ready. In the interval he had been married
to Miss Rose Moore Smith of Newburyport. Besides writing a sixteen-page
pamphlet on Medical Gymnastics (Boston, 1887), he had also completed
an abridged translation into Swedish of an article on Massage by Dr.
Douglas Graham (Lund, 1889), and was at work on an English translation of
the Swedish physician Björnström’s work on “Hypnotism: Its History and
Present Development” (in the _Humboldt Library of Science_, New York,
1889). These labors help to explain that rare command of the language of
his adopted country for which he was afterward conspicuous.
Mrs. Mary Hemenway, whose only son had given the new gymnasium to Harvard
College in 1879, was herself widely known as one of the wealthiest women
in Boston and as a wise and generous dispenser of her riches for the
promotion of worthy objects, at home and elsewhere. The introduction
of systematic training in sewing and of the kitchen garden and school
kitchen into the city schools were among the results of her efforts.
Together with Miss Homans, who has been called “one of her right hands”
in the execution of such projects, she had been impressed with the need
of some efficient system of physical training for school children. A
friend suggested Swedish gymnastics, and spoke of the graduate of the
Stockholm Central Institute of Gymnastics who was at that time living
in Boston. Baron Posse was accordingly consulted, and in October of
1888 Mrs. Hemenway employed him to demonstrate the system in a course
of lessons given to twenty-five or more women teachers gathered from
the public schools. A small room on Boylston Place was leased for the
purpose, and larger quarters, in Park Street, were afterwards secured.
On the twenty-fifth of the following June the Boston School Committee
accepted her offer to furnish free training for one year, beginning in
September, to “one hundred public-school teachers, who may be permitted
to use the system in their school work, thus enabling your Honorable
Board, and educators in general, to decide upon its merits by actual
results produced upon the school children within the environment of
the schoolroom.” At the same meeting the Board of Supervisors was
authorized “to report in print upon the subject of physical training
in the schools.” September 24 the committee accepted Mrs. Hemenway’s
further offer to provide “a teacher of the Ling system of gymnastics for
service in the Normal School for one year, free of expense to the city.”
October 8 the Board of Supervisors reported, recommending “that the Ling
system of gymnastics be the authorized system of physical training in
the public schools,” and at the same meeting a letter was read in which
Mrs. Hemenway expressed her willingness “to provide instruction, free of
expense to the City of Boston, for those masters and submasters who may
desire to make a thorough study of the Ling system for the benefit of the
Boston public schools.” The report was laid on the table, but the offer
was accepted two weeks later. Baron Posse continued to give instruction
to all these various classes up to January of 1890. Several small normal
classes were also organized in 1889, which mark the beginning of the
Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, established and afterwards endowed
by Mrs. Hemenway, and with Baron Posse as its first director. In his
annual report dated March 31, 1890, Superintendent Seaver writes that
these demonstrations of Swedish educational gymnastics had already been
attended by “30 masters, 24 submasters, and 166 other teachers. These
have imparted their knowledge to yet other teachers, so that there are
now 360 teachers prepared to use the ‘Ling system’ in their classes.
In addition to these may be counted 97 recent graduates of the Normal
School, who have all received instruction in this system.”
Mrs. Hemenway and Miss Homans were also responsible for the calling
together and successful conduct of that notable “Conference in the
interest of Physical Training” which was held in Boston on November
29 and 30, 1889.[282] From one to two thousand persons attended each
of the four sessions, which were presided over by William T. Harris,
United States Commissioner of Education, and addressed by many
well-known educators and by representatives of a variety of systems. At
the beginning of the second session Baron Posse set forth “The Chief
Characteristics of the Swedish System of Gymnastics” in a masterly paper,
followed by a demonstration of that system by a class of women under his
leadership. One result of this wisely planned and persevering agitation
of the subject was the action of the Boston School Committee taken June
24, 1890, in line with the report and recommendation of its committee on
physical training presented two weeks before, which ordered “that the
Ling or Swedish system of educational gymnastics be introduced into all
the public schools of this city.” In November of that year Dr. Edward
Mussey Hartwell of Baltimore was elected Director of Physical Training,
to hold office from January 1, 1891.
Meanwhile Baron Posse had been succeeded at the Boston Normal School of
Gymnastics by Claës J. Enebuske in the middle of January, 1890; but on
the first of the following month he opened a gymnasium and training
school of his own in the Harcourt building, on Irvington Street. The
six years of life that remained were crowded with incessant teaching
and writing. During this period, it is said, “gymnastics according
to his methods were officially introduced into the public schools of
fifty-two cities and towns, and into as many more private institutions
and academies. Clinics for medical gymnastic treatment were established
by him in most of the larger Boston hospitals, and instruction was given
to the nurses of many hospitals in adjacent towns.” Summer courses for
teachers and others were conducted at the Martha’s Vineyard Summer
Institute (1890, 1891, 1892), in his Boston gymnasium (1892, 1894, 1895),
and at Harvey, Illinois, while he was in charge of the elaborate exhibit
sent to the Chicago World’s Fair by various Swedish gymnastic societies
and athletic clubs.
A book more complete than anything published in the Swedish language,
at the time it appeared, was his volume on “The Swedish System of
Educational Gymnastics” (Boston, Lee and Shepard; New York, Charles
T. Dillingham, 1890), republished the next year with additions. In a
third edition (1894), considerably enlarged, the title was changed to
“The Special Kinesiology of Educational Gymnastics” (Boston, Lee and
Shepard). His small “Handbook of School Gymnastics of the Swedish System”
(Boston, Lee and Shepard) was ready in 1892. Among his more important
papers were “How Gymnastics Are Taught in Sweden” (The _Academy_, Boston,
V: 485-493, December, 1890), a series on “The Scientific Aspects of
Swedish Gymnastics” (_The Doctor_, New York, October, 1890, to August,
1892, Volumes IV-VI), “The Necessity of Physical Education and the Means
of Introducing it into American Schools” (_Popular Educator_, Boston,
IX: 122 and 123, December, 1891), “Modifications of the Swedish System
of Gymnastics to Meet American Conditions” (_Physical Education_,
Springfield, Mass., I: 169-174, November, 1892), and “Swedish Gymnastics
_vs._ German” (_Posse Gymnasium Journal_, Boston, July, 1893). Four of
these are included in his “Columbian Collection of Essays on Swedish
Gymnastics” (Boston, 1893). The first number of the _Posse Gymnasium
Journal_ (monthly) was issued in December of 1892, and for four years
thereafter nearly every number contained at least one contribution from
his pen. Baron Posse’s death occurred on December 18, 1895, but as late
as 1905 the _Journal_ was still publishing material selected or prepared
from his literary work.
The Boston “Conference in the Interest of Physical Training,” held
in November of 1889, is a landmark that grows in significance as the
years give perspective. Leading educators attended its sessions, and
the published report of papers and discussions reached a larger
audience. German and Swedish gymnastics, the systems employed at Amherst
College and Harvard University, the claims of military drill, physical
training for purposes of emotional expression, and for mental and moral
quickening—these were all set forth by able champions. But the first
place on the program, after the opening remarks by Commissioner Harris,
was assigned to a judge and not an advocate, to a trained biologist and
thorough scholar, able to speak with authority regarding the effects of
exercise upon body and mind, familiar with the history of this phase
of education at home and abroad, and made acquainted with the various
systems by travel and personal observation. It was peculiarly fitting
that Dr. Edward Mussey Hartwell should be chosen to discuss “The Nature
of Physical Training, and the Best Means of Securing Its Ends,” on that
occasion, and his appointment as director of physical training in the
Boston schools a year later came as a further testimonial to proved
ability. There was need in those years of just such a keen and fearless
critic, impatient of assumption and half-knowledge, conscious of adequate
mastery of his theme, and gifted with a pungent vigor of expression that
compelled attention.
Dr. Hartwell came from a long line of New England ancestry. Shattuck
Hartwell, his father, a graduate of Harvard College and Law School, was
just closing the fourth year of service as tutor in Latin at Harvard when
the boy was born (May 29, 1850, at Exeter, New Hampshire). The mother was
a daughter of Dr. Reuben Dimond Mussey, who after holding for almost a
quarter-century a professorship in the medical department of Dartmouth
College, his _alma mater_, had moved to Cincinnati twelve years before to
become professor of surgery in the Medical College of Ohio. In the fall
of 1850 Shattuck Hartwell took up his residence in the same city, but
after less than seven years in the practice of law returned to Littleton,
Mass., his birthplace, thirty miles northwest of Boston. This was
henceforward the family home. With the exception of a few years, he was
employed in the Boston Custom House from the fall of 1865 until his death
in 1899.
Edward, the oldest of eight children, graduated from the Public Latin
School in Boston at the age of nineteen. It is worth noting that as one
of Captain Hobart Moore’s orderly sergeants in the school battalion he
gained experimental knowledge of military drill at this period. Then
followed four years at Amherst College (A.B. 1873, A.M. 1876, LL.D.
1898), and the fact that he was chosen captain of his class in the
gymnasium in the junior year, rowed on class and other crews, and was at
one time commodore of the navy, suggests not only physical fitness and
gifts of leadership, but also the influence of Dr. Edward Hitchcock and
the department of hygiene and physical education. In 1871 he won the gold
medal for excellence in human physiology. College days were succeeded
by four years of teaching, first as vice-principal of the high school
in Orange, New Jersey (1873-1874), and then as “usher” in the Public
Latin School in Boston (1874-1877), where he had once been a student. At
the latter Hobart Moore was still instructor in military drill, and in
obedience to the wish of the head master Hartwell introduced the Amherst
plan of class exercises in light gymnastics among the smaller boys.
Greatly interested in natural science, he had already attended the summer
school at Penikese Island, and this inclination now led him to abandon
teaching for a time. An uncle, Dr. William Heberden Mussey, was professor
of surgery in the Miami Medical College in Cincinnati, and prominent
in scientific and educational circles in the city. Thither he came,
therefore, to take up the study of medicine (1877-1878), but interrupted
the course for three years in biology at Johns Hopkins University
(1878-1881), leading to the degree of Ph.D., and did not receive his M.D.
in Cincinnati until 1882. In Baltimore, where he was fellow in biology
for two years in succession (1879-1881), he made animal physiology, under
Professor H. Newell Martin, his principal study, and the subordinate
ones animal histology and morphology under Dr. William K. Brooks.
Membership in and papers before the Scientific Association, the History
and Political Science Association, and the Metaphysical Club attest the
breadth of his view at this time, and reveal a fondness for historical as
well as biological research.
After a summer’s work in Baltimore in 1881, and before entering upon the
second and final year in Cincinnati, Dr. Hartwell went home to Littleton
for a brief vacation, and in Cambridge looked over the new Hemenway
gymnasium and made the acquaintance of Dr. Sargent. Interested in what
he saw and heard, he spoke of the visit to Herbert B. Adams, another
Amherst man, then associate in history at Johns Hopkins University. The
students at the university were agitating the subject of a gymnasium. It
was therefore natural that his advice should be sought, and the next fall
(1882) he was offered the position of instructor in physical culture.
The death of Dr. Mussey in Cincinnati, on the first of August, had left
him without definite plans for the future, and a leaning toward hygiene
moved him to accept the call to Baltimore. In June of 1883 the trustees
authorized the construction of a $10,000 gymnasium, which was ready for
use before the Christmas holidays. It was supplied with the Sargent
developing appliances, and he at once introduced the Sargent plan of
physical examinations and prescribed individual work, in place of class
exercises, and also gave lectures to undergraduates on health topics.
After two years of service he became Associate in Physical Training
and Director of the Gymnasium, and remained at Johns Hopkins in that
capacity until the end of 1890.
An address which Dr. Hartwell delivered to the students of the university
and others on the occasion of the formal opening of the new gymnasium,
December 7, 1883, contained a review of the history of physical training
in ancient and modern Europe and in America. Soon afterwards Commissioner
John Eaton, of the United States Bureau of Education, asked him to
prepare a special report for that department. The result was a visit to
college and other gymnasia from Maine to Tennessee, in the summer of
1884, and the manuscript for a volume of 150 pages on “Physical Training
in American Colleges and Universities,” with illustrations and plans,
which was handed in on the fourth of March following. Immediately upon
completing it he sailed for Europe, to look up matters relating to
hygiene as well as gymnastics. After a brief visit to England he spent
most of the time in Frankfort and Berlin, with a side trip to Dresden for
the Sixth General Gymnastic Festival of the German _Turnerschaft_, and
some attendance upon clinics in Vienna. A 25-page appendix on “Physical
Training in Germany” was now added to the former report, and 2 pages
on the North American _Turnerbund_, whose existence he had discovered
while abroad, and the whole was issued as No. 5—1885 of Circulars of
Information of the Bureau of Education (Washington, 1886).
It seems to have been this visit of Dr. Hartwell’s to Germany which
led, directly or indirectly, to the presence of representative
German-Americans at the second annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Physical Education, in Brooklyn November 26, 1886,
where for the first time the work of the North American _Turnerbund_
was brought prominently before native American teachers, by descriptive
and historical papers and by illustrative classes of men and children.
Dr. Hartwell himself was elected treasurer of the Association at this
meeting, and read a paper on “The Physiology of Exercise,” not printed
in the _Proceedings_ but later amplified and rewritten and published in
the _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_ for March 31 and April 7, 1887
(Vol. 116, pp. 297-302 and 321-324). As far back as September of 1884
Commissioner Eaton had introduced him to Hartvig Nissen, at the latter’s
Health Institute in Washington. Early in 1887 Mr. Nissen was invited to
give a course of lessons in “Swedish free movements” and German apparatus
exercises to Johns Hopkins students, and this instruction was continued
in 1887-1888, from November to the middle of April. From the following
May until the end of August, 1889, Dr. Hartwell was in Europe on leave of
absence, interested especially in the hygienic and medical application of
exercise and with the thought of developing a practice in this specialty
upon his return. The winter was spent in Stockholm, with almost
daily visits to the Zander Institute and the Royal Central Institute
of Gymnastics. He went also to St. Petersburg, revisited Vienna, and
received six weeks of instruction in Bonn. December 20, 1889, he read
a paper on “Mechano-Therapy in Sweden and Germany” before the Clinical
Society of Maryland, and repeated it in March before the Johns Hopkins
Hospital Medical Society. In this connection attention may be called to
the 45 pages on General Exercise which he prepared for Vol. I of Dr. H.
A. Hare’s “System of Practical Therapeutics” (Philadelphia, 1891), and
to his translation, from the Swedish, of Dr. Emil Kleen’s “Handbook of
Massage” (Philadelphia, 1892).
Meanwhile he had been consulted in the preparation of plans for the
Boston Conference of 1889, and an examination of the printed proceedings
will show how conspicuous a part he played at the various sessions. The
summer of 1890 was devoted to a third visit to Europe, this time to
gather material relating to school gymnastics and playgrounds. The trip
took him to England, France, Switzerland, parts of Austria and Germany,
and again to Stockholm. June 24 the Boston School Committee had voted
to introduce the Ling or Swedish system of educational gymnastics into
all the public schools, and on November 25 they elected him director
of physical training. Still hoping to become eventually the head of an
institution for mechano-therapy, he consented to inaugurate the work of
the new department, and his resignation was therefore presented to the
Johns Hopkins trustees, to take effect December 31.
A part of the story of the next seven years is contained in his series
of five “Reports of the Director of Physical Training” to the School
Committee of Boston, dated December 31, 1891 (75 pages. School Document
No. 22—1891), June, 1894 (151 pages. School Document No. 8—1894), 1895
(82 pages. In School Document No. 4—1895), March 15, 1896 (pages 159-192
in School Document No. 4—1896), and March 15, 1897 (pages 135-143 of
School Document No. 5—1897). On September 1, 1897, he resigned his
position in the Boston schools to become secretary of the newly created
Department of Municipal Statistics in that city. One must also examine
the contents of the published _Proceedings_ of the American Association
for the Advancement of Physical Education, from the sixth meeting (1891)
onward, and of their successor, the _American Physical Education Review_,
to appreciate fully the yeoman’s service he rendered to physical training
in the country at large, during these years and also after his direct
connection with the work had ceased. In 1891-1892 he was president of the
Association, and again from 1895 to 1899, and he was author of the plan
of reorganization on the basis of local and district societies which was
adopted in 1895. Chapter XII (Physical Training) in the Report of the
Commissioner of Education for 1897-1898 (Washington, 1899), and Chapter
XVII (On Physical Training) in that for 1903 (Washington, 1905), give
final expression to the results of his years of study and observation.
His long series of reports and papers which began in 1885 constitute the
most scholarly contribution hitherto made to the literature of physical
training in English, and no other man in America has done so much to win
for physical training a position of dignity and recognized worth. Dr.
Hartwell died in Boston February 19, 1922.
[Illustration: FIG. 90.—Hartvig Nissen (1855-).]
Other pioneers of Swedish school gymnastics who deserve further mention,
or should be included here, are Hartvig Nissen, Claës J. Enebuske, Jakob
Bolin, Louis Collin, and William Skarstrom. Nissen, born in Kongshavn,
near Christiania, July 13, 1855, was educated in the large private higher
school (_Latin- og Realskole_) opened in the Norwegian capital by his
father, Ole Hartvig Nissen, studied gymnastics and massage with private
teachers here and later in Dresden (1878-1879, in the _Allgemeiner
Turnverein_) and Stockholm (summer of 1890), for three years taught
gymnastics in towns near Christiania, and in March of 1883 established
a “Health Institute” in Washington, D.C., as we have seen. 1891-1897
he worked with Dr. Hartwell in the Boston public schools as assistant
director of physical training, and 1897-1900 himself served as director.
In 1891 he became instructor in Swedish gymnastics and massage in the
Harvard University Summer School, and five years later in the Sargent
Normal School of Physical Education. 1900-1912 he was director of
physical training in the Brookline public schools, and then resigned to
remove to Portland, Oregon. But he soon returned to Boston, and in May
of 1915 acquired a controlling interest in the Posse Normal School of
Gymnastics, of which he became president.[283]
[Illustration: FIG. 91.—Claës Julius Enebuske (1855-).]
Enebuske was born in Ystad, southern Sweden, May 6, 1855, graduated as
a student of pharmacy in Stockholm (1877), and took his doctor’s degree
(Ph.D.) at the University of Lund in 1886. After a year of special work
in school and medical gymnastics, under Colonel Norlander, fencing-master
and teacher of gymnastics at the university, he came to New York City in
1887. Dr. William G. Anderson, then in charge of physical training in
Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, had begun to train teachers there (February
1, 1886), and at Chautauqua, New York (summer school, in 1886), and he
secured Enebuske’s services at the latter in the summers of 1889 and
1890, and in his normal school in Brooklyn during the intervening year.
We have said that Enebuske succeeded Posse at the Boston Normal School
of Gymnastics early in 1890. Here his chief work was done, in the eight
years that followed, and meanwhile (1896) he graduated from the medical
department of Harvard University. In 1898 he left the Normal School, and
in 1902 removed to Paris, receiving the degree _Docteur en Médecine_ from
the _Faculté de Médecine de Paris_ four years later. He was a scholarly
gentleman and a thorough teacher.[284]
[Illustration: FIG. 92.—Jakob Bolin (1863-1914).]
Bolin, born in Stockholm November 5, 1863, and educated in the higher
schools of Visby and Stockholm and at the Stockholm University, spent two
years in the United States (1885-1887) and then returned to Sweden for
a year to study medical gymnastics in Liedbeck’s Institute (Stockholm).
From 1888 until he accepted the professorship of physical education in
the University of Utah (Salt Lake City) in 1910 he practised medical
gymnastics and massage in New York City, but in the meantime followed
Enebuske as teacher of Swedish gymnastics at the Anderson Normal School
of Physical Education (transferred from Brooklyn to New Haven, Conn., in
1892 and since 1901 known as the New Haven Normal School of Gymnastics),
until 1907, and at Chautauqua Summer School of Physical Education
1891-1909. He died in Salt Lake City May 15, 1914.[285]
Carl Oscar Louis Collin, born February 1, 1866, at Sölvesborg, a seaport
near Kristianstad in southern Sweden, graduated from the higher classical
school in Kristianstad in 1884 and as a student there was for four years
class leader under Major Carl Silow, who afterwards became second teacher
in the section of school gymnastics at the Stockholm Central Institute
of Gymnastics. From September of 1884 until October of 1888 Collin was
a student in the University of Lund, taking courses in gymnastics under
Colonel Carl Norlander at that time, and in November of 1888 joined
Enebuske in New York City. He taught gymnastics at Chautauqua with the
latter in the summers of 1889 and 1890, and went with him to Boston
in the fall of 1890 to become instructor in practical gymnastics and
afterwards in anatomy also at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics.
From April till August of 1892 he studied under Major Silow in Stockholm,
in 1898 graduated from the medical department of Harvard University,
spent six weeks of the summer in the medical gymnastic clinic of Dr.
Anders Wide in Lysekil, Sweden, succeeded Enebuske that fall as chief
instructor in the theory and practice of gymnastics at the Normal
School, and continued in that position for three years after it became
the department of hygiene and physical education of Wellesley College,
in September of 1909. He taught in the Battle Creek Normal School in
1912-1913, and in the latter year became an instructor in the Chicago
Normal School of Physical Education.
William Skarstrom was born in Stockholm June 15, 1869, and educated in
the Nya Elementarskola (higher school for boys), whose pupils received
their physical education in the halls of the Central Institute of
Gymnastics. For two years following the fall of 1891 he was in New
York City, a member of the Twenty-third Street Young Men’s Christian
Association and volunteer instructor of classes in its gymnasium, and
during one winter taking a correspondence course with the Springfield
Training School. He entered the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics as
a student in the fall of 1893 and completed the course there in 1895,
acting as Bolin’s substitute at Chautauqua in the summer of 1894, and in
1901 received the degree of doctor of medicine from Harvard University.
From the fall of 1899 through the spring of 1903 he gave instruction in
gymnastics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and also at the
Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. 1903-1912 he was instructor in the
Columbia University gymnasium, giving courses in Teachers College also
and in the Summer School. In 1912 he was appointed associate professor
and later (1918) professor in the department of hygiene and physical
education at Wellesley College. He has written “Gymnastic Kinesiology: A
Manual of the Mechanism of Gymnastic Movements” (Springfield, Mass., The
F. A. Bassette Co., 1909), and “Gymnastic Teaching” (Springfield, Mass.,
the American Physical Education Association, 1914).
Alice Tripp Hall, a graduate of Wellesley College (1881) and the Woman’s
Medical College in Philadelphia (1886), visited the Central Institute of
Gymnastics in Stockholm in the spring of 1889, and that fall when she
took up her duties as professor of physiology, hygiene, and physical
training in the Woman’s College of Baltimore (now Goucher College)
classes in the new gymnasium, Bennett Hall, were put in charge of a
graduate of the Central Institute, Mathilda Kristina Wallin (class of
’85). Miss Wallin was followed two years later by Gulli Öberg (’85) and
Maria Palmquist (’91), under whom a demonstration of Swedish gymnastics
was given April 7, 1892, before visitors on their way to the seventh
annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of
Physical Education, in Philadelphia. Thereafter the instructors employed
in the gymnasium were regularly graduates of the Stockholm Central
Institute, or of the Physical Training College at Dartford Heath,
England, which was directed by Madame Bergman Österberg, herself a
graduate of the Central Institute in 1881.
In a similar manner Dr. Kate Campbell Hurd, also a graduate of the
Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia, and under appointment as the
first medical director at the Bryn Mawr School for Girls, in Baltimore,
spent the winter of 1889-1890 at the Central Institute in Stockholm
and the spring with Madame Bergman Österberg in London (Her Physical
Training College was removed to Dartford Heath, Kent, in 1895), and
engaged as her first assistant in the gymnasium Fanny Schnelle (Stockholm
Central Institute, class of 1891), whom she had met in Sweden. After
Miss Schnelle came one of Madame Bergman Österberg’s graduates, to be
succeeded in turn by young women trained at the Boston Normal School
of Gymnastics, Miss Senda Berenson, a graduate of the latter school,
introduced the Swedish system at Smith College, in Northampton, Mass.,
where she was director of physical training in the years 1892-1911.
In this connection attention may be called again to Mrs. Hemenway’s
gift which made possible the publication of a portion of Hjalmar Ling’s
collection of pen-drawings illustrating positions and movements used in
gymnastics (see p. 161). One half of the edition was presented to the
Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. Director Törngren of the Stockholm
Central Institute also accepted her invitation to come to Boston as her
guest, reached that city May 14, 1893, and spent some time at the Normal
School, in June watched the classes in gymnastics at many of the Boston
schools, and the next month read a paper on “The Royal Central Institute
of Gymnastics in Stockholm” at the eighth annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Physical Education, in Chicago (see
_Proceedings_ VIII: 50-52). The clearest and most intelligent exposition
of the system under discussion which has yet been written by an American
is “A Review of Swedish Gymnastics,” by Theodore Hough, first prepared as
a lecture in 1899 while its author was assistant professor of biology in
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and instructor in physiology
and personal hygiene at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. It was
published in pamphlet form (Boston, George H. Ellis, 1891, forty pages),
and later reprinted in the Report of the United States Commissioner of
Education for 1898-1899 (Vol. I, pp. 1209-1226, Washington, 1900).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The first part of this chapter, including the biographical sketches of
Posse and Hartwell, has already appeared in print as Chapters XIX and XX
in the author’s “Pioneers of Modern Physical Training” (New York, 1915).
It is based on personal correspondence and conversations with the persons
concerned, supplemented by information gleaned from catalogues, reports,
and other authentic sources.
FOOTNOTES:
[282] See “A Full Report of the Papers and Discussions of the (Physical
Training) Conference held in Boston in November, 1889. Reported and
edited by Isabel C. Barrows” (Boston, 1890).
[283] The numbers of the _Posse Gymnasium Journal_ for February and May,
1920, contain portions of an autobiography by Nissen, covering his early
years in Norway. He also published in 1891 an “ABC of the Swedish System
of Educational Gymnastics” (Philadelphia, F. A. Davis).
[284] His chief literary work was the “Progressive Gymnastic Day’s
Orders, according to the Principles of the Ling System,” first published
in Boston in 1890 and reissued in 1892 (New York, etc., Silver, Burdett
& Co). Other publications include: “The Place of Physical Training in a
Rational Education” (in _Boston Conference Report_, 1889, pp. 35-41),
“The Gymnastic Progression of the Ling System” (_Proceedings_ of the
American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education, =5=
(1890), pp. 21-35), “The Pedagogical Aspect of Swedish Gymnastics,”
read before the American Institute of Instruction at its annual meeting
in Bethlehem, N. H., July 8, 1891, (_Popular Educator_, Boston,
=9=, 52 and 53, October, 1891), “Some Measurable Results of Swedish
Pedagogical Gymnastics” (_Proceedings_ of the American Association for
the Advancement of Physical Education, =7= (1892), pp. 207-235), “An
Anthropometric Study of the Effects of Gymnastic Training on American
Women” (Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association,
December, 1893, =3=, pp. 600-610), “A Diagram of Working Capacity and
Resistance as manifest in Gymnastic Exercises” (_Proceedings_ of the
American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education, =9=
(1895), pp. 11-17), and “Pedagogical Gymnastics” (_American Physical
Education Review_, =2=, 81-88, June, 1897).
[285] His publications were: Three articles on “Den svenska gymnastiken
och dess representanter i Amerika” (_Valkyrian_, New York, January,
February, and March, 1891, =2=, pp. 28-30, 91-94, 138-143), “Mental
Growth through Physical Education” (18-page pamphlet, 1893), “The
Physical Processes Involved in the Nutrition of Muscle” (_Proceedings_
of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education,
=10=, 1895, pp. 83-89), President’s address at the annual meeting of the
Physical Education Society of New York and Vicinity, December 4, 1896
(_American Physical Education Review_, =2=, 1-11, March, 1897), another
President’s address (_American Physical Education Review_, =3=, 25-29,
March, 1898), “On Group Contests” (_American Physical Education Review_,
=3=, 288-294 and =4=, 66-72, December, 1898, and March, 1899), “What is
Gymnastics” and “Why Do We Teach Gymnastics” (28- and 57-page pamphlets,
New York, by the author, 1902 and 1903), and a posthumous volume,
“Gymnastic Problems” (New York, Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1917).
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. STATEWIDE PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
The playground movement, which we have already traced in Germany (pp.
132-145) and Denmark (pp. 194-197), was slow in gathering headway in
the United States. Minister von Gossler’s playground order was issued
in Prussia October 27, 1882, and the German “Central Committee for the
Promotion of Games” was organized in Berlin May 21, 1891. The Danish
minister Bardenfleth sent out his games circular August 31, 1896, and
a group of men and women met in Copenhagen April 11, 1897, to form a
“National Committee for Promoting Group Games among School Children.” In
this country certain Boston children had access to a sand pile, under
supervision, as far back as the summer of 1885, and a public outdoor
gymnasium was opened in that city August 27, 1889; but not more than
10 cities are known to have established playgrounds before 1900, and
26 others in the years 1900-1905, _i.e._, up to the founding of the
Playground Association of America, at Washington, D.C., in April of 1906.
In the four years following (1906-1909) 83 cities were added to the list,
and by the end of 1916 a total of 480 had been reached, according to a
report in _The Playground_ for March, 1917.
The first step in the Boston experiment is recorded as follows by
Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells, chairman of the executive committee of the
Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association, in the second annual
report of that body (May, 1886. The Association was organized in 1884):
“Last summer (1885), at the suggestion of Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, and
in accordance with the plan in Berlin, which has proved so useful to
children, a large heap of sand was placed in the yard attached to the
Parmenter-street Chapel.... An average of fifteen children connected with
the chapel came there three days in the week, through July and August,
and under the guidance of Mrs. Gamble, dug in the sand with their little
wooden shovels and made countless sand-pies, which were remade the next
day with undismayed alacrity. They sang their songs and marched in their
small processions, and when weary, were gathered in the motherly arms
of the matron.... The same plan was tried at the West End Nursery, but
as the children there were hardly two years old they cared little for
it. Your committee hope, however, that the success of the experiment in
Parmenter Street may have sufficiently demonstrated the usefulness of the
sand-garden to secure its adoption elsewhere....”
The third annual report (May, 1887) announces that three sand-gardens
“are now permanently established during the summer seasons in the
playyards of Parmenter-street Chapel, of Warrenton-street Chapel, and
of the Children’s Mission. They are maintained in the interest of
hygiene and amusement.... An awning has been placed over the sand at
the Children’s Mission; and there, with wooden shovel, broken bricks,
and much sand, the long days are passed out of doors....” In 1887 “the
number of these gardens increased from three to ten. No rent was paid
for them. The sand was given ..., and the School Committee granted the
use of the Wait School yard.... The matrons in charge of each garden
were generally women who lived in the neighborhood, and who watched, in
their play, the children, to whom shovels and pails were given, with
which they made castles and pies. At the end of the season the sand was
stored in barrels for future use.... This spring (1888) the Association
petitioned the School Committee for the use of schoolyards which would
be suitable as playgrounds for little children kept in town through the
summer....” As a result, during this fourth season (1888) “seven school
yards situated in the neighborhoods where children swarm, were open for
three hours on four fair days of each week. A kindly matron was ready
to welcome the children, and offered them sandheaps and shovels, balls,
tops, skipping-ropes, reins, bean-bags, building-blocks, flags to march
under, and transparent slates to draw upon. Besides these seven yards
which were dignified by the name of ‘Playgrounds,’ there were three
‘Sand-Gardens,’ where only sand and shovels were furnished....” A year
later “there were eleven playgrounds instead of seven; there were 1000
instead of 400 children; there was double the number of tops, twice the
amount of sand....”
In the seventeenth annual report of the Boston Board of Park
Commissioners, for the thirteen months ending January 31, 1892, the
open-air gymnasia at Charlesbank are described in detail. The site is
a strip of land containing about ten acres, and lies along the Boston
shore of the Charles River between the Craigie and West Boston bridges.
It measures about 2200 feet in length by 200 in width. A sea-wall and the
filling behind it were completed in 1886, and the plan of the grounds was
drawn up by Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect. It included
a level promenade, 25 feet wide, overlooking the salt waters of the Back
Bay, and behind this, on the side toward the city, stretches of lawn
planted with trees to resemble a natural grove, but with a space 500
by 150 feet at the north end fitted up as a gymnasium for men and boys,
and another at the south end, 370 by 150 feet in extent, enclosed with
a screen of shrubbery and prepared especially as an exercise-ground
for women and girls. At either end there was to be a landing for
boats, offered for hire, and near this and the entrance a house with
waterclosets, toolrooms, and offices of administration.
[Illustration: FIG. 93.—View of Charlesbank, Boston, looking north.]
[Illustration: FIG. 94.—Charlesbank: Men’s Gymnasium.]
The men’s gymnasium, surrounded by an iron fence, was reached only from
the upper story of one of the houses just mentioned, connected with
the grounds inside by a bridge on which turnstiles were placed, for
registering attendance. The equipment, designed by Dr. Sargent of Harvard
University, consisted of two sheds with twelve sets of chest-weights in
each, including six high and six low pulleys, “two giant-strides, eight
sets of horizontal bars, eight sets of parallel bars, six jumping-boxes,
seven boxes for quoit-pitching and shot-throwing, two sets of jumping
standards and ropes, two sets of sandbags and attachments, four vaulting
poles, three shots, two heavy weights, twenty-four quoits, twenty
pairs of dumb-bells, ten sets of hurdles, and two large frames, each
160 feet long, to which are attached the following apparatus: four
balance-swings, eight breast-bars, four single swings, two double
swings, five swinging-ropes, one rope ladder, one iron Jacob’s ladder,
one perpendicular ladder, one inclined ladder, four pairs of flying
rings, four single trapezes, one climbing-pole, two inclined poles, two
perpendicular poles. Around the outside of the ground there is a running
and bicycle track 15 feet wide and ⅕ mile long.” The men’s grounds were
opened to the public on August 27, 1889, in charge of Superintendent John
Graham, and the next season extended from April 1 to about the middle of
December, an average of 447 men and boys a day entering for use of the
apparatus during this period. In May of 1891 thirteen electric arc-lamps
were added, and thereafter the gymnasium was kept open until 9.30 P.M.
The total number of visitors this year was 169,219, and on the three days
showing the largest attendance the turnstiles registered 1649 (May 3),
1480 (July 30), and 1572 (July 31) admissions.
Entrance to the women’s gymnasium and the children’s playground was
likewise through the upper story of the women’s lavatory building. The
apparatus included “two balance-swings and frames, two seesaws (with
side-rails and guards), two seesaws (plain), two single swings, two pole
ladders, two perpendicular ladders, four hanging ropes (fastened at the
bottom), one long inclined rope and attachments, four long and four short
inclined poles, four perpendicular ladders combined, five serpentine
ladders united (with guard-rails), two perpendicular climbing-poles,
twelve swinging-ropes, one horizontal rope-ladder, two sets horizontal
bars and stanchions (with heights adjustable), one set of movable
parallel bars, one set of high parallel bars, one set of vaulting-bars,
eleven travelling rings and attachments, two single trapezes (with
height made adjustable by pulley and chain attachments), two sets of
flying-rings (with height made adjustable as above), twelve pairs of
chest-weights to run in wooden boxes, one set of jumping standards and
ropes, two giant-strides (ropes, handles, and fixtures), twenty-four
ring quoits and pins, twelve jumping-ropes, twelve hoops, twenty-five
long and ninety-eight short wands, ninety-eight pairs dumb-bells,
ninety-eight pairs Indian clubs.” In the rear of the building were sand
courts for the younger children. “The problem of the proper supervision,
management, and care of this gymnasium was satisfactorily settled by our
acceptance of the proposition of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene
Association, which is under the management of well-known ladies, to
take the entire charge and oversight of it without expense to the city,
beyond the furnishing of supplies, cleaning the rooms, and taking care of
the grounds and apparatus.” Miss Elizabeth C. McMartin, a pupil in Dr.
Sargent’s Normal School, was appointed superintendent, and the matron had
had six years of experience as assistant in a kindergarten. The informal
opening occurred at noon on June 1, 1891. From this time until November 1
the average daily attendance was 945, and the largest was 2477 (July 6),
2368 (July 9), and 2389 (July 11).[286]
[Illustration: FIG. 95.—Charlesbank: Women’s Gymnasium.]
At Wood Island Park, in East Boston, another outdoor gymnasium and
playground, nine acres in extent, was opened September 6, 1895. Men were
admitted on four days of the week, and women on two. Beginning in 1896,
and with the effective coöperation of Mayor Josiah Quincy (1895-1899),
there was a rapid expansion of public facilities for recreation of all
sorts in and about Boston, including playgrounds, indoor gymnasia,
beach baths, floating bath-houses, swimming pools and all-the-year
baths, and provision for skating and coasting in winter. This whole
series of progressive steps is outlined in Joseph Lee’s “Constructive
and Preventive Philanthropy” (New York, The Macmillan Co., 1902), along
with corresponding steps in other cities, and details will be found in
reports of the Boston Park Commissioners, the Boston Department of Baths,
and for the North End Playground the instructive annual reports of the
Massachusetts Civic League (after 1900). The first municipal indoor
gymnasium was the East Boston (Paris Street) building, a one-story,
truss-roofed structure 137 by 98 feet, with a main hall 100 by 80 feet.
Originally a skating rink, it was purchased by Esther P. (Mrs. Daniel)
Ahl and turned over to the East Boston Athletic Association for use as a
combined gymnasium and bath, and in 1897 given to the city and opened to
the general public. The South Boston (D-Street) gymnasium, the first to
be built by the city, was opened in the winter of 1899-1900.
Next to Boston, Chicago occupies a prominent place in the early history
of the playground movement. As Mrs. Charles Zueblin points out in
_The Playground_ for July of 1907 (pp. 3-5 and 11-13), it has passed
through three distinct phases of growth in that city, represented by
the independent, schoolyard, and municipal playgrounds. The independent
experiments, now almost forgotten, deserve mention, to quote Mrs.
Zueblin, “because their experiences and lessons and accomplishment were
of proved value later on. In 1893 Hull House opened a large playground
in an empty lot, the land belonging to Mr. William Kent; it was equipped
with swings, seesaws, giant stride and sandbins, and was maintained under
their management for five years.... Play was totally disorganized both
on the part of the children and of the supervisors, and everything from
games to management had to be learned.... This playground later passed
under the number of municipal playgrounds. In 1896, under the auspices
of the University Settlement of the Northwestern University, and through
the great generosity of Mr. Livingston Fargo, a large and splendidly
equipped playground was opened accommodating from three thousand to four
thousand children. Besides a fine equipment for play, there was a large
shelter with plenty of benches and retiring rooms. A police officer and
a matron had charge of the grounds, which were maintained for two years,
until the playground had to be abandoned, owing to the extension of the
tracks of the Northwestern Railway Company. For six years, beginning in
1896, the University of Chicago Settlement, under the leadership of Miss
Mary McDowell, maintained a very successful playground, where there was
provision also for mothers with little babies.”
“The first school playground in Chicago,” according to Mrs. Zueblin,
“was maintained in the Washington School’s yard in 1897 by the West
End District of the Associated Charities. In the spring of 1898 an
appropriation of $1000 was obtained from the City Council ($750
additional being later subscribed by individuals) for ‘temporary small
parks,’ the administration of which was turned over to the Vacation
School Committee of Women’s Clubs.” Miss Sadie American, chairman of
that committee, writing of “The Movement for Small Playgrounds” in the
_American Journal of Sociology_ for September of 1898 (pp. 159-170) says
that “the use of six schoolyards, basements, and one room to be used
on hot and rainy days was asked of the board of education, and, being
granted, the yards were equipped with swings, seesaws, sandbins, and
cedar building-blocks. The Turnverein was greatly interested, and loaned
portable apparatus for each school, such as parallel bars, horizontal
bars, horse, ladders, etc., which were taken into the building at night.
The playgrounds chosen were all in densely populated districts and among
various nationalities.... For each there were engaged a kindergartner
and a man who should be a ‘big brother to the boys,’ for the older boys
were considered equally or more than the younger ones.... The men were
inexperienced, but entered into the spirit of the work with enthusiasm,
and from week to week rose in efficiency on the mistakes of the foregoing
days.”
But it is the municipal aspect of the movement that demands more than
passing mention. The _City Club Bulletin_ of March 4, 1908, presents the
significant features of the story as follows: “During the last half-dozen
years Chicago has achieved a development of small parks and playgrounds
more remarkable than has taken place in any other city of the world.
It is remarkable, first, because of its extent, and second, because of
its unique character. Eight years ago there were, besides the six main
parks of the city, fifteen or sixteen small public parks and squares,
some maintained by the three divisional park commissions and some by
the city Department of Public Works. There was not a public playground,
however, in all Chicago nor a public bathing beach. Today there are in
the city over 30 such small parks and squares, 13 public playgrounds,
17 combination small park playgrounds and 3 bathing beaches—in all, 63
public neighborhood centers of rest, beauty, recreation and culture. This
number is also being added to and does not include school playgrounds.
“This expansion has been carried out by four separate authorities,
_i.e._, the Lincoln Park Commission, the regular park authority for the
north side of the city; the South Park Commission, the regular park
authority for the south side; the West Park Commission, the regular park
authority for the west side; and the Special Park Commission, whose
field is the entire city. The first three commissions were created by
the legislature about 1870. The Special Park Commission was created by
the City Council in 1899, to investigate and report upon the need both
for small parks and playgrounds, and for an outer belt park system.
While investigating and reporting upon these two subjects it also
became, by the very pressure of the subject with which it was dealing,
both a promoting and an administrative body. In 1900 it secured from
the City Council an appropriation of $10,000 and opened four ‘municipal
playgrounds’ in thickly populated neighborhoods of the city. The
next year it secured legislation authorizing the three regular park
commissions to raise and expend $2,500,000—that is, $1,000,000 each on
the south and west sides, and $500,000 on the north side—for small parks
and playgrounds.
“The Park Commissions of the north and west sides were slow in securing
the necessary amendment, and approval on referendum, of their laws in
this matter, but in 1903 the South Park Commission secured the amendment
of the law applying to its district, together with legislative authority
for a still larger expenditure for like purposes, and the proposed bond
issues having been approved at the polls, the Commission entered upon an
unparalleled career of small park and playground development.[287] In
1904 and 1905 it acquired fourteen sites, ranging in size from 7 to 300
acres, and equipped ten of them on an entirely novel plan. Two more of
these are being thus equipped, and three more sites are being acquired.
The proposed bond issue for the west side was approved on referendum in
1905, and the West Park Commission has within the last year and a half
secured and nearly finished the equipment, after the south side plan, of
two sites in crowded neighborhoods. It is now acquiring a third site. It
has also made ‘Holstein Park’ a very attractive playground. The Lincoln
Park Commission, having secured approval on referendum for its proposed
$500,000 bond issue, has now acquired three sites, and they are nearly
equipped in somewhat like fashion. Two of the three lack park features
proper, on account of limited space, but they provide equipment similar
to the park-playgrounds, among which they are here counted. The sites for
these various park-playgrounds range in size from 4 to 60 acres, have
cost from $40,000 to $290,000 each, and the buildings cost from $60,000
to $100,000 for each site. Each of these centers calls for an annual
maintenance budget of from $20,000 to $30,000....
“Small park and playground development in Chicago is even more remarkable
because of its unique character than because of its extent. The
assemblage of functions represented in the small park-playgrounds which
we have been considering is a new thing in the world, and its creation
three or four years ago by the South Park Commission was an event of
civic imagination and adventure of which Chicago is worthily proud. A
typical center includes both outdoor and indoor activities. The outdoor
activities comprise as the central feature a liberally planned bathing
pool, with sandbanks, dressing rooms, cleansing showers, life-guards
and bathing suits. Collateral to this are an outdoor gymnasium for men,
another for women, another for boys, another for girls, running tracks,
wading pools, and sand courts for the youngsters; also tennis courts and
ball fields—turned into skating rinks in the winter time. The interior
features include a thoroughly equipped gymnasium for men, another for
women, each having a trained director and being furnished with baths
and lockers, a lunch room, reading and library room, one or two small
club rooms for small gatherings, and a large and beautiful assembly hall
for neighborhood meetings, lectures or pleasure parties. The entire
construction is on a liberal plan and is carried out in accordance with
high standards. So is the maintenance....”
[Illustration: FIG. 96.—South Parks, Chicago: Plan of Armour Square.]
[Illustration: FIG. 97.—South Parks, Chicago: Typical Outdoor Gymnasium
for Girls.]
[Illustration: FIG. 98.—South Parks, Chicago: Typical Swimming Pool
Scene.]
It is not necessary to repeat here in detail the experiences of other
cities in connection with the playground movement. A special report
(“General Statistics of Cities, 1916”) of the United States Bureau of the
Census relating to the recreation service of cities having a population
of over 30,000 contains this statement of progress, prepared by Joseph
Lee, president of the Playground and Recreation Association of America:
“Thirty years have passed since the birth of the movement to protect
children’s play—an era which has seen the spread of the movement from
Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York to Chicago and the Pacific
coast; which has witnessed at least the theoretical establishment of the
children’s right to play in safety under good influences and of a man’s
right to spend his leisure hours, through the provision of the proper
facilities by the city in which he lives, in a way which will fit him to
make the best use of his working hours, and will keep alive in him those
ideal interests for which his work too often furnishes no scope.
“In these thirty years playgrounds have been established in large and
small cities and in rural communities throughout the country. A national
organization, the Playground and Recreation Association of America, has
been called into existence to act as a clearing house for information
and, through the publishing of literature and educational work, to
further the recreation movement. Buildings used wholly for recreational
purposes have been erected. Reports made to the Playground and Recreation
Association of America in December, 1916, show that 38 communities
have recreation buildings, valued at $4,093,525. In rural communities
has come a great awakening to the need of wholesome recreation to
counteract immoral influences and to conserve for the community its
young men and women who would otherwise go to large cities to find their
opportunities. Both large and small cities have established systems,
at the head of which have been placed workers employed throughout the
year, corresponding to school superintendents in our educational system.
Schools have introduced organized play in connection with their school
playgrounds and specially trained play directors are employed, who spend
their entire time directing the play of the pupils. Cities have come to
see the economic waste of great buildings used a few hours each day for
educational purposes and have thrown their schoolhouses open at night
for the use of all the people for evening recreation-center activities,
for dramatic clubs, orchestras, social dancing, gymnasium work, mothers’
clubs, civic forums, lectures, and motion pictures. In December, 1916,
127 cities reported that their school buildings were being used as
neighborhood recreation centers. Legislation making possible such a
use of school buildings has been passed in a number of states. The
creation of special recreation departments and playground and recreation
commissions to administer playground work has been authorized by law in
many states and cities. Increasingly has the emphasis been laid on the
importance of considering recreation work as a governmental function
and of administering it as one of the duties of a municipality to its
citizens.
“These facts are borne out by the information gathered by the Bureau of
the Census in its study of playgrounds and athletic fields, the results
of which are to be found in Table II. It is a very significant fact
that during the fiscal year 1916, the 213 cities of more than 30,000
population conducted 2190 playgrounds with a total area of 4662.1 acres.
There were, in addition, 19 athletic fields, exclusive of those located
in parks, with an area of 148.7 acres. For this work there were payments
from public funds for expenses amounting to $2,502,902; and for outlays,
$1,017,539. Three thousand seven hundred and ninety-four workers were
in charge of the activities of these playgrounds. Graphic as these
figures are, they by no means represent the total municipal provision
for play and recreation even in the 213 cities themselves. In many of
these cities the schools have playgrounds equipped with apparatus and
with play leaders in charge, and organized play periods are conducted in
connection with their school program. Nor do these figures attempt to
include the evening recreation-center work conducted at many schools at a
considerable expense to the school board, nor the municipal golf courses,
tennis courts, skating facilities, and community music provided for the
public from city funds. The public provision of recreational facilities
is by no means limited to cities of over 30,000. Reports sent to the
Playground and Recreation Association of America show that many cities of
less than 30,000 inhabitants are maintaining playgrounds and neighborhood
recreation centers, while approximately 50 communities of less than 5000
carried on recreational work privately or publicly during the year ending
December 1, 1916.”
The founding of the Playground and Recreation Association of America has
already been mentioned on p. 337. One must turn to the _Proceedings_ of
the first, second, and third “Annual Playground Congresses,” the volumes
of _The Playground_, and other publications of the Association for the
full story of its achievements.
Although there had been legislation favoring statewide physical
education prior to the outbreak of the Great War (_e.g._, North Dakota,
1899; Ohio, 1904; Idaho, 1913), it was without doubt the same military
motive which has operated in the case of European countries, or that
realization of the fundamental values of physical fitness which always
comes with the approach of war, that led twenty-five of our states,
in the years 1915-1921, to enact laws requiring or permitting the
introduction of physical education into their schools. The list is as
follows: In 1915—Illinois; 1916—New York; 1917—California, Nevada, New
Jersey, Rhode Island; 1918—Delaware, Maryland; 1919—Alabama, Indiana,
Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington; 1920—Georgia,
Kentucky, Mississippi, Virginia; 1921—Connecticut, Massachusetts,
Missouri, North Carolina, West Virginia. These laws differ considerably
in their statement of the educational aims in view and the means to be
employed in attaining them, in the ages or school grades affected, and
the time requirements, and in the provision made for a central authority,
supervision, the training of teachers, and financial support to make the
legislation effective.[288] Some of the state authorities have already
published manuals of physical training.[289]
Three examples, quoted from Bulletin 40, 1918, of the United States
Bureau of Education, will serve to illustrate the general character and
range of the State laws already adopted. The Illinois law (approved June
26, 1915) “provides for physical training in all of the public schools
and in all of the normal schools of the State. Apparently, no special
provision has been made in that State for the operation of the law; no
appropriation for the development of a program or the publication of
a syllabus; and no resources for the employment of State supervisors,
inspectors, or other administrators of physical education....
“The New York law, approved May 15, 1916, and amended at the legislative
session of 1918, provides that: ‘All male and female pupils, above the
age of eight years, in all elementary and secondary schools of the
State, shall receive, as a part of the prescribed courses of instruction
therein, such physical training under the direction of the commissioner
of education as the regents, after conference with the military training
commission, may determine, during periods which shall average at least
twenty minutes each day....’ The administration of this law in the State
of New York is a function of the regents of the University of the State
of New York, that is, of the State department of education. A bureau of
physical training has been established as a subdivision of the State
military training commission. The State inspector of physical training,
the chief officer of this bureau, is required, in accordance with the
law, to observe and inspect the work and methods described under the
provisions of the education law relating to instruction in physical
training. The State law in New York also provides that all public schools
in the State employing special teachers of physical training, qualified
and duly licensed under the regulations of the regents, may receive
financial support from the State to the extent of half the salary of
each teacher so employed, provided that half the salary does not exceed
$600....” In the _State Plan and Syllabus for Physical Training_ that
subject “is interpreted as covering: ‘(1) Individual health examination
and personal health instruction (medical inspection); (2) instruction
concerning the care of the body and concerning the important facts of
hygiene (recitations in hygiene); and (3) physical exercise as a health
habit, including gymnastics, elementary marching and organized supervised
play, recreation, and athletics.’ For the direction and supervision of
the State program there is a force of inspectors, consisting of a State
inspector of physical training and nine assistant inspectors....
“On May 26, 1917, an act providing for physical education became a
law in the State of California. This law provides that the school
authorities in the public schools of the State, elementary and secondary,
shall prescribe suitable courses of physical education for all pupils,
except such as may be excused from such training on account of physical
disability. The California law makes it a duty of the superintendent of
schools in every county and city, and of every board of education, board
of school trustees, and high-school board, to enforce the courses of
physical education prescribed by the proper authority, and to require
that such physical education be given in the schools under their
jurisdiction or control. In the elementary schools the time requirement
in California shall ‘average twenty minutes in each school day,’ and in
the secondary schools ‘at least two hours each week while that school
is in session.’ This law requires that, if the number of pupils in a
given school system is sufficient, there shall be employed a competent
supervisor or such special teachers of physical education as may be
necessary. The enactment further specifies that the State board of
education shall require a course in physical training in all the normal
schools of the State and provides that the State board of education
shall prescribe a course in physical education for such schools and shall
make the completion of such course a requirement for graduation. Under
this law, it is the duty of the State board of education: ‘(1) To adopt
such rules and regulations as it may deem necessary and proper to secure
the establishment of courses in physical education in the elementary and
secondary schools in accordance with the provisions of this act; (2)
to appoint a State supervisor of physical education; (3) to compile,
or cause to be compiled or printed, a manual in physical education for
distribution to teachers in the public schools of the State.’ The sum of
$10,000 was appropriated for the purpose of carrying out the provisions
of the California law....”
Attempts are now being made to secure federal aid to physical education
in the various states, through laws passed by the Congress of the United
States. A commission on the reorganization of secondary education,
appointed by the National Education Association, has also recently
approved a report on Physical Education in Secondary Schools, which is
published by the Bureau of Education as 1917 _Bulletin_ No. 50.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The student of the playground movement in America will need to be
familiar with the following, in addition to the publications already
mentioned: G. E. Johnson, “Education by Play and Games” (Ginn & Co.,
1907); Joseph Lee, “Play in Education” (The Macmillan Co., 1915);
Henry S. Curtis, “Education through Play” (The Macmillan Co., 1915),
“The Practical Conduct of Play” (1915), “The Play Movement and its
Significance” (1917), and other volumes; E. B. Mero, “American
Playgrounds” (Baker & Taylor Co., 1908); A. and L. H. Leland, “Playground
Technique and Playcraft” (Baker & Taylor Co., 1910). See also “The Play
Movement in the United States,” by Clarence E. Rainwater (The University
of Chicago Press, 1922).
FOOTNOTES:
[286] For a full account of this first year see the eighth annual
report (May, 1892) of the Mass. Emergency and Hygiene Association, pp.
13-17. See also _Reports of Proceedings_, American Association for the
Advancement of Physical Education, =9= (1894), pp. 125-130, and _The
Bostonian_ for June, 1896 (pp. 258-266, illustrated).
[287] See Reports of South Park Commissioners for 1904, 1905, and 1906
(illustrated.)
[288] See United States Bureau of Education _Bulletin_, 1918, No. 40
(Recent State Legislation for Physical Education). Part IV contains
copies of the State laws of Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey,
Nevada, California, Delaware, and Maryland. Bulletin 1922, No. 1, brings
the story up to July, 1921.
[289] For example, the following: General Plan and Syllabus for Physical
Training in the Elementary and Secondary Schools of the State of New
York, as adopted by the Board of Regents of the University of the State
of New York upon the report and recommendation of the Military Training
Commission of the State of New York. Albany, 1917. A second edition
(Book 4, Complete Syllabus) was published in 1921.—By the Department of
Public Instruction, Trenton, New Jersey, September, 1917, Courses in
Physical Training as follows: For Grades I to VI (Manual 1), Grades VII
and VIII (Manual 2), and Grades IX to XII (High School Manual).—Manual in
Physical Education for the Public Schools of the State of California—Part
IV: Syllabus on Physical Training Activities with Methods of Management
and Leadership. Sacramento, 1918.—A Course in Physical Training for the
Graded Schools of Michigan. Bulletin No. 2 (Third Edition). Lansing,
published by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1919.—Manual
of Physical Education. Department of Education, State of Alabama,
Montgomery, 1920.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
The earliest attempt in America to prepare teachers of physical education
was made by Dio Lewis in the years 1861-1868, at his Normal Institute
for Physical Education in Boston (see pp. 256-259). Its first course
opened at 20 Essex Street July 5, 1861, and at the commencement exercises
held nine weeks later, on September 5, 7 men and 7 women were graduated.
The second course, which extended from January 2 to March 13, 1862 (ten
weeks), was completed by a class of 18, the third (July 5 to September
15, 1862) by one of 12, and the fourth class, graduated March 13, 1863,
numbered 22. Details of later courses are lacking. In a volume published
in 1868 Lewis says that more than 250 persons had taken the diploma
of the Normal Institute in the nine sessions which had been held, but
his biographer states that “421 ladies and gentlemen, in almost equal
numbers,” were graduated in the seven years following its establishment.
The second normal school, that of the North American _Turnerbund_, was
projected as far back as 1856, but not actually opened until November
22, 1866. After two courses in New York City (1866-1867, 1869), one in
Chicago (1871), and a third in New York (1872-1873), it became firmly
established in Milwaukee under Brosius (1875-1888). Then followed two
years in Indianapolis (1889-1891), a return to more ample quarters in
Milwaukee, under Brosius and Wittich (1891-1907), and finally a permanent
transfer to Indianapolis (in 1907). Its present name, Normal College of
the American Gymnastic Union, was received in 1919. Four summer courses
were given at Milwaukee, 1895-1898 inclusive. The history of the school
is given at some length on pp. 297-300 and 307.
We have already mentioned Dr. Sargent’s contribution to the training
of teachers (p. 284). During his forty years at Hemenway Gymnasium
(1879-1919) his influence in this direction was more widely felt than
that of any other man in America. The beginning was modest enough,
at Witneys Block, corner of Palmer and Brattle Streets in Cambridge
(1881-1883), where a single pupil, Mrs. Mary E. W. Jones, completed the
one-year course in 1882. A second year was now added, and 4 women were
graduated in 1884. Meanwhile quarters had been secured and equipped at
20 Church Street, and here in the years 1883-1904 a total of 261 women
finished the prescribed work in theory and practice. About 70 others
remained for a single year only. In 1902 the course became a three-year
one, with attendance at a summer camp in New Hampshire added in 1912.
When the new “Sargent Gymnasium,” on Everett Street, was occupied, in the
school year 1904-1905, men as well as women were received as students,
and in the next five years 130 more women and 6 men were graduated. In
the year 1918-1919 the total enrollment had reached 406, with 22 names on
the list of “officers of instruction,” not counting student assistants
and special camp instructors and assistants.
In connection with the Harvard University Summer School five-week courses
in physical education, under the direction of Dr. Sargent, were first
given in 1887, attended that year by 18 men and 37 women. The total
registration in the years 1887-1898 was 982 (329 men and 653 women), or
an average attendance of 82. For the next three years the course was
lengthened to two summers, and the enrollment was 98 men and 204 women,
or a total of 302 and an average of 101. Thereafter the graded course
covered four successive summers of theory and practice. The figures
reached in the period 1902-1919 were 971 men and 2211 women, or a total
of 3182 and an average per season of 177. For the entire period of
thirty-three years, from 1887 through 1919, the enrollment was 4466 (1398
men and 3068 women), with an average attendance of 135.
The Brooklyn-Anderson-New Haven Normal School of Gymnastics and the
Chautauqua (summer) School of Physical Education stood in much the same
relation, in the years 1886-1904, as the Sargent Normal School and
the Harvard University summer courses. William Gilbert Anderson, the
prime mover in each, was the son of Edward Anderson, a Congregational
clergyman, and grandson of Rufus Anderson, assistant secretary of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 1824-1832 and
secretary 1832-1866. He was born at St. Joseph, Michigan, September 9,
1860. From 1874 to 1880 his father was pastor in Quincy, Illinois, and
early in this period the boy became “an ardent champion of advanced
work in gymnastics, possessed of considerable skill as a performer on
the horizontal bars, a tumbler and a battoule-board and springboard
leaper.... Attainment as an acrobat had come, in part, from association
with the circus men who wintered” in Quincy, and his enthusiasm was
further stimulated by William Blaikie’s “How to Get Strong” (New York,
1879) and Archibald Maclaren’s “Physical Education” (Oxford, 1869). In
the year 1877-1878, while a student in the Roxbury Latin School, Boston,
Anderson was a pupil of Robert J. Roberts in the Young Men’s Christian
Association at 68 Eliot Street. Then came two years (1878-1880) as
freshman and sophomore in the classical course at the University of
Wisconsin, where military drill was the only required form of exercise,
though there was a crude outdoor gymnasium which the catalogue described
as “well-furnished,” and “open to students at fixed hours.” After
teaching school for a year in Clayton, Illinois, he became superintendent
of the Cleveland, Ohio, Young Men’s Christian Association gymnasium
(1881-1882), and received the degree of doctor of medicine from the
Cleveland Medical College in 1883. The next two years were spent in
Columbus and Toledo, Ohio. He had now decided to follow physical training
as a profession, and in the fall of 1885 accepted an appointment as
director of the gymnasium at Adelphi Academy (now Adelphi College),
Brooklyn, New York.
Here, early the next year, he organized the “Brooklyn Normal School
for Physical Education.” Its first announcement, which lists a faculty
of ten, calls attention to the fact that “no school in the country
pays more attention to the physical education of its scholars than the
Adelphi Academy. The number of scholars enrolled is within a few of one
thousand, the majority of whom take daily exercise (obligatory). Members
of the Normal Class will have opportunity to observe and assist in the
instruction of these classes.... The gymnasium of Adelphi Academy, corner
of St. James Place and Lafayette Avenue, has been secured for the use
of Normal classes.... The first course in reading and study will extend
from February 1 to October 1, 1886. The course in practical training in
the gymnasium will begin February 1 and end June 1, 1886. The second term
will begin October 4, 1886, and end June, 1887.” A class of 10 students
was graduated in 1887, and 87 altogether in the period 1886-1892. At
the end of that time Dr. Anderson removed to New Haven, Connecticut,
to become associate director of the Yale University gymnasium, and the
school, rechristened the “Anderson Normal School of Gymnastics,” was
opened in the new location in September of 1892. In the next eleven years
its graduates numbered 140. Meanwhile Dr. Ernst Hermann Arnold[290] had
been associated with Dr. Anderson in the management of the school, and in
1903 the latter’s active connection with it ceased altogether.[291] The
name had again been changed in January of 1901, this time to “New Haven
Normal School of Gymnastics.”
In 1886 Dr. Anderson went to Chautauqua, New York, to take charge
of physical education in the summer school established there by the
Chautauqua Institution seven years before, and gave some free instruction
to a normal class of three pupils. The next season there was a charge
for such tuition, and certificates were given to the few who finished
the work; but the normal course was not formally established until the
following summer (1888). An old skating rink at the corner of Palestine
and Scott avenues served as headquarters until a new gymnasium, started
in 1890 and completed in the winter of 1890-1891, was ready for use.
Meanwhile a company had been organized to erect the building and conduct
the normal course, and the summer school of physical education was
managed by this company in the years 1890-1912. Dr. Anderson held the
position of principal from 1890 to 1894, and dean 1895-1904. By the
addition of an advanced year in 1891 the course was extended to cover two
summers, and in 1903 a third term was offered for the first time. In 1902
a second gymnasium, for classes in Swedish and corrective gymnastics,
was available. Upon Dr. Anderson’s retirement Jacob Bolin, a member of
the faculty since 1891, succeeded him as dean (1905-1909). In 1913 the
school passed into the hands of the Chautauqua Institution. Dr. Jay
W. Seaver[292] had been an instructor at the summer school since 1889
and president of the company 1895-1912, and now became director of the
courses in physical education. After his death Dr. Joseph E. Raycroft was
acting director for two years (1916 and 1917), and in 1918 the position
was given to Professor Charles Winfred Savage of Oberlin College, who had
already served for two seasons as a member of the faculty.
The history of the physical training departments of the International
Young Men’s Christian Association College at Springfield, Massachusetts
(since 1887) and the Young Men’s Christian Association College in Chicago
(since 1890) has been given in a previous chapter (pp. 309-319). In
the absence of other opportunities for the professional training of
men, these schools have enrolled among their students some who were
not looking forward to Association service, and on the other hand many
of their graduates have withdrawn from Association positions to accept
others in public schools, in secondary and state normal schools, in
colleges and universities, in church or settlement or playground work, or
with athletic clubs or Boy Scouts.
We have already noted (p. 325) the beginning of the Boston Normal School
of Gymnastics, in 1889, the teaching done there by Posse, Enebuske, and
Collin, and that in September of 1909 this school became the department
of hygiene and physical education of Wellesley College. Mrs. Hemenway, at
her death in 1894, had endowed it for a period of fifteen years, and Miss
Amy Morris Homans was its director from the start until her retirement
from the Wellesley faculty in the summer of 1918. After occupying
temporary quarters at Boyleston Place and on Park Street, in Boston,
the school was housed in Paine Memorial Building, 9 Appleton Street,
between Tremont and Berkeley, and then from September of 1897 until the
transfer in 1909 in the building of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic
Association at 97 Huntington Avenue, near Exeter Street. At Wellesley
the new Mary Hemenway Hall, constructed with a view to the needs of
the Normal School and also to provide for the physical training of all
Wellesley College students, was ready for its use. Twelve women had
graduated from the first class, in 1891, and 433 women and 9 men in the
years 1891-1909 inclusive.
Upon severing his connection with the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics
Baron Posse at once opened a small gymnasium of his own in the Harcourt
Building, 23 Irvington Street, on February 1, 1890. Afterwards more
spacious quarters in the same building were occupied. From the normal
classes, during the next six years (1890-1895), a total of 96 women
and 6 men were graduated, 3 of them receiving the diploma from the
medico-gymnastic course only. A still larger number had come under
his instruction in the brief summer courses conducted in the Boston
gymnasium, at the Martha’s Vineyard Summer Institute, and at Harvey,
Illinois (see p. 326). Following Baron Posse’s death, on December 18,
1895, Baroness Rose Posse became director of the school. In the fall
of 1900 it was transferred to the Fensmere Building, 206 Massachusetts
Avenue, and in June of 1911 incorporated under the name “Posse Normal
School of Gymnastics,” with Baroness Posse as president. That same summer
(1911) the building at the corner of Garrison and St. Botolph streets,
originally constructed (1886) for the (Mary E.) Allen Gymnasium and
later used by the Women’s Athletic Club of Boston, was secured. This was
completely destroyed by fire in the spring of 1913. A plot of land at
773-781 Beacon Street, near its intersection with Commonwealth Avenue,
was now purchased, and the formal opening of the new building erected
here took place on November 17 of that year. Baroness Posse retired from
active connection with the school in May, 1915, and was succeeded as
president by Mr. Hartvig Nissen (see p. 332).
No attempt is made here to trace the growth of the numerous other
privately owned gymnasia, most of them of later origin, which have
offered training courses for teachers. Nor have the data been collected
which would make possible a history of physical training at the various
state normal schools. One recalls, however, in the case of the latter,
the long service of Dr. and Mrs. C. E. Ehinger at West Chester, Pa.,
Dr. H. B. Boice at Trenton, N. J., and Professor Wilbur P. Bowen at
Michigan Normal College, Ypsilanti (since 1894). Much more significant,
as pointing the way to the final solution of the problem of adequate
professional preparation for leadership in physical education, are
the beginning of teachers’ courses at our colleges and universities.
But here again the facts are not at hand for a complete story. Such
courses, counting toward a bachelor’s degree, have been offered at the
University of California since 1898, the University of Nebraska since
1899, Oberlin College since 1900, University of Missouri at about the
same time, Teachers College of Columbia University since 1903, Wellesley
College since 1909, and University of Wisconsin since the fall of 1911.
Doubtless there are other institutions which should be added to this list
for the period it covers, and within the last ten years the number has
grown considerably. Summer courses, with university credit allowed, have
been conducted at Columbia University since 1899. Carefully coördinated
courses leading to advanced degrees will mark the next step in advance,
and in this direction, also, there are some encouraging signs of progress.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Catalogues, announcements, and lists of graduates published by the
institutions or in connection with the summer courses of which mention
has been made.
FOOTNOTES:
[290] Born in Erfurt, Germany, February 11, 1865, of German and Polish
ancestry; educated in the _Realgymnasium_ at Halle until 1883; completed
the ten-month course at the normal school of the North American
_Turnerbund_, in Milwaukee, in April of 1888, and was teacher of
gymnastics in _Turnvereine_ in Trenton, New Jersey (1888-1891), and New
Haven, Connecticut (1891-1894); M.D., Yale University Medical School,
1894, and the next year took courses in surgery and orthopedics in the
universities at Halle and Leipsic; became associate director of the
Anderson Normal School of Gymnastics in 1895, and its director in 1896.
[291] Dr. Anderson published a volume on “Light Gymnastics” in 1890
(New York, Effingham Maynard & Co), and another on “Methods of Teaching
Gymnastics” in 1896 (Meadville, Pa., Flood & Vincent).
[292] Born at Craftsbury, Vermont, March 9, 1855; prepared for college
at Craftsbury Academy and Williston Seminary; A.B., Yale, 1880, and
M.D., Yale Medical School, 1885; instructor in physical training at Yale
University 1883-1892, and medical examiner in the department after 1885;
died at Berkeley, California, May 5, 1915. Published “Anthropometry and
Physical Examination” (New Haven, 1890. New edition in 1909).
INDEX.
A
Amherst College, 245, 271-274
Amoros, Don Francisco, 81
Amsinck, Julius, 184, 188
Anderson, William Gilbert, 353-355
Andre, Christian Carl, 70
Arnold, Ernst Hermann, 354
Asceticism, doctrine of, 37;
effects, 39
influence on education, 41, 47
practices, 38
Athens, physical education at, 20
B
Balck, Viktor, 163, 224
Bardenfleth, Wilhelm, 194, 196
_Barrenstreit_ of 1861 and 1862, 123
Basedow, Johann Bernhard, 67
Beck, Carl, 227, 230-235, 242
Beecher, Catharine, 227, 261
Bergmann Österberg, Martina, 209
Betz, Carl, 302-305
Bolin, Jakob, 333, 355
Bornemann, Johann J. W., 92
Bowdoin College, 249, 274, 280
Branting, Lars Gabriel, 123, 152, 154, 155
Brosius, George, 297-300
Brown University, 247, 275
_Burschenschaften_ in German universities, 98-100, 111, 229
C
Caledonian games, 278
Camerarius, Joachim, 53
Cardano, Girolamo, 51
Clias, Phokion Heinrich, 81
Collin, Carl Oscar Louis, 334
Comenius, Johann Amos, 54
Coubertin, Pierre de, 202, 216-218
D
D’Alfonce, J. E., 265
Dartmouth College, 264, 266, 275
Demeny, Georges, 224
Diebow, Paul, 126
Du Bois-Reymond, Emil, 123
Dürre, Eduard, 96, 97
Du Toit, Johann Jakob, 68
E
Eckler, Gebhard, 124
Eiselen, Ernst, 92-94, 101, 111, 120
Eitner, Gustav Ernst, 140, 142, 145
Elyot, Sir Thomas, 55
Enebuske, Claës J., 325, 332
English public schools and universities, 133, 141, 201, 216
Euler, Carl Philipp, 123-125
F
Feltre, Vittorino da, 49
Filelfo, Francesco, 51
Follen, Charles, 227-233, 235-238, 242, 247
Fuller, Francis, 64
G
Georgii, Carl August, 152, 154, 157, 209
Germans in time of Caesar and Tacitus, 34
Goldie, George, 275, 278
Gossler, Gustav von, 136, 137
“Greek gymnastics” at Dessau, 69
at Rome, 31
Griscom, John, 244
Gulick, Luther Halsey, 309, 312-319
GutsMuths, Johann Christoph Friedrich, 71-81, 110, 111, 149, 179, 183
Gymnasium, the Greek, 22
H
Hartelius, Truls Johan, 159
Hartwell, Edward Mussey, 284, 301, 325, 327-331
Hartwich, Emil, 135-137, 140
Harvard University, 235-237, 242, 268-270, 279-284, 353
Hasenheide _Turnplatz_, 88-95
Hemenway, Mrs. Mary, 161, 322, 324, 336, 356
Hermann, August, 133, 142, 145
Hitchcock, Edward, 272-274
Hoffmann, Friedrich, 65
Homans, Amy Morris, 322, 324, 356
Humanists of 15th century, 49
I
Isthmian games, 27
J
Jahn, Friedrich Ludwig, 81, 83-101, 106-108, 111, 115, 238, 240
K
Kloss, Moritz, 103, 117, 260
Knight, training of the, 43
“Knightly exercises” at Dessau, 69
Knudsen, Knud Anton, 189-192, 195
Koch, Konrad, 132, 137, 142, 145
Küppers, Ignaz, 125
L
La Cour, Nils Georg, 182-184
Land-grant Act (1862), 270
Lewis, Dio, 251-263, 352
Lieber, Francis, 97 (footnote), 227, 238-242, 243
Ling, Hjalmar Fredrick, 154, 159-161
Per Henrik, 81, 146-155
Locke, John, 59
Lorinser, Dr. Karl Ignaz, 121
Lübeck, Wilhelm, 102, 121
Luther, Martin, 53
M
Maclaren, Archibald, 203-208
Mann, Horace, 251
Manual labor movement, 227
training advocated by Locke, 61
introduced at Dessau Philanthropinum, 70
and Rousseau, 63
and Schnepfenthal, 75
Massmann, Hans Ferdinand, 93-99, 114, 120-123
Mercurialis, Hieronymus, 52, 56
Miami University, 266-268
Military training in Land-grant colleges, 276
Roman, 29
in Swedish schools, 173, 175
Milton, John, 57
Montaigne, Michel de, 55
Mount Holyoke College, 264, 275
Mulcaster, Richard, 56
N
Nachtegall, Franz, 81, 149, 151, 178-183
Neal, John, 240, 248-250
Nemean games, 27
New York High School (1825), 244
Nissen, Hartvig, 322, 329, 331, 356
Northmen of viking age, 34, 36
Nyblæus, Gustav, 117, 152, 158
O
Oberlin College, 274, 357
Olympic games, ancient, 24 (see also 32 and 33)
modern, 216-224
P
Palæstra, exercises of the, 21
Partridge, Alden, 227, 264, 276
Pentathlon, 23
People’s high schools (Denmark), 184, 186
Philanthropinum at Dessau, 68, 70
Piccolomini, Enea, Silvio, 50
Posse, Nils, 322-326, 356
Princeton University, 266, 275
Pythian games, 27
R
Rabelais, François, 54
Ramsing, Peter Erhard Marius, 189
Raydt, Hermann, 141, 145
Rifle clubs (Denmark), 184
Roberts, Robert, J., 309-312, 353
Rothstein, Hugo, 120, 122-124, 157
Round Hill School, 233-235, 242
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 61
S
Sadoleto, Jacopo, 51
Salzmann, Christian Gotthilf, 70
Sand, Karl Ludwig, 100, 230
Sargent, Dudley Allen, 279-284, 352
Schenckendorff, Emil von, 139-145
Schmidt, Dr. F. A., 142, 145, 177
Schnepfenthal Educational Institute, 70
Seaver, Jay Webber, 355
Silow, Carl, 162, 177, 334
Simon, Johann Friedrich, 68
Skarstrom, William, 334
Sparta, physical education at, 18
Spiess, Adolf, 109-119
Swedish medical gymnastics in America, 358
in England, 207
T
Thermæ (public baths), Roman, 32
Tissot, Clement Joseph, 66
Simon André, 65
Törngren, Lars Mauritz, 161, 202, 336
Tournaments and jousts, 45
_Turnen_, origin of the word, 89
its revival, 101 ff.
its spread in Germany, 96
suppressed in Prussia (1820), 100
_Turnerschaft, Deutsche_, 104-108
_Turnfeste_, German, 106
German-American, 293, 296, 307
U
University courses in physical education in Denmark, 191
in Germany, 126
University courses in physical education in United States, 285, 357
V
Vassar College, 275
Vegio, Maffeo, 50
Vergerio, Pietro Paulo, 50
Vieth, Gerhard Ulrich Anton, 81
Virginia, University of, 264
Vives, Juan Luis, 54
Völker, Karl, 98, 229, 240, 248
W
_Wartburgfest_ of 1817, 99
Wassmannsdorff, Karl, 119
Wegener, Johann Theodor, 184
Welch, Follansbee Goodrich, 271, 275
Weld, Theodore Dwight, 261
Wellesley College, 334, 356, 357
Wesleyan University, 274
Williams College, 246, 268, 274
Winship, George Barker, 258, 310
Wood, Williams, 309
Y
Yale College, 245, 270, 280
Z
Zückert, Joh. Friedrich, 65
Zwingli, Ulrich, 53
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