Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 28, 1916)
l magazine Page MAHA C3UNDAY he u .DEI , Hwawgwoowwniw n-WW fwy iiii;-fiiwpi iimiwmibww w i ' t , m . . , i" . ?:t L V n , . " I V .'I'll. Marion Morgan Explains Just How It Benefits Girls to Dance Barefooted in Winter's Snows and Why the Coming Race Needs Mothers Who Have Returned, in Part, to the Primitive By Marion Former Physical Culturt Instructor WHEN in New York my six pupils went into Central Park in mid winter and played and danced In the snow it was thought that this was done for effect. . On the con trary, it was done through necessity. Play Is a necessity. If it cannot be taken on the sand of the seashore or in the grass of the lawn or of the fields it must be taken amid snow and ice. If the health be normal there will be none but good results from such exercise. Which Is a sign of the return of the over-clvl-lized woman of to-day to the state of the cave woman. I see a marked trend toward the primi tive manner of living. I welcome and aid It. It is the salvation of the neurotic, hypersensitive product of civilization. Our women have fineness, acuteness, ten derness, but they have not stability and equanlnimity. To acquire these they must return to simple living. To give sons that shall be strong men they must rpturn, in a measure, to the lives of thoir progenitors, the cave women. 1 plead for a hardier life, for normal liv ing. The more Is this needed in a time of the possible Imminence of war. Women may nepd to arm for national defense. Did I hoar the objection that cave women were themselves weak creatures, else tliey wou'd not have pormitted tbem mmvh to be wooed by a club? To be knocked senseless by a love tap with a limb of a tree? To have loved the con queror who draggnd her by the hair to his subterranean dwelling? I answer that I have always had J 7 r v ; . t,j; , 3.' 4V- .A- '.'V ' . ' " ' :: ' , i . . . . .... . Morgan. of the Los Angeles High School. doubts about the weight of those clubs and the terror and abject submission of the women thus won. The prints of our ancestresses, with caves for addresses, strengthen my doubts. Apparently art ists shared my doubts. The hairy crea tures of sparse clothing were of stature and weight almost equal to their lords. In a test of strength they might have been victors or at least the battle might have been a draw. A woman may be Judged by her chil dren. The immediate descendants of the cave, women were creatures of great strength and appalling ferocity. It is related of them that they Joined the males in tribal battles and that they were more ferocious than their brothers and husbands, more feared by opposing tribes. Woman has moved far up in the arc of civilization since the time of the cave woman. She has developed Intellectually and spiritually far beyond her forebear. But her strength has been in Inverse ra tio. She has become highly individual ized, but excessively nervous. She has put her shoulder to the wheel of propress, but she has often to lie in bed all day, a victim of nervous headaches. She suf fers from depleted vitality. There are many palliatives. There is but one remedy. That Is a back-to-the-cave-woman move ment by the physical path. The chief means to this necessary end Is play. Out of doors play. That is the reason the six pupils I selected from my classes in physical culture in the l.os Angeles High School are the flawletta young examples of physical perfection I "4 . A--....,. r v i. v .i.,' .... A KK)thm!f Snow lUnrt in MigMM i I they have become. I have encouraged in them the spirit of play. The cave woman is, in many respects, worthy to emulate. It is known that she did not suffer from that mark of physical deterioration, the packed spine. Let me make it clear. Are you a housewife and are you con sidering at this house-renovating time your mattresses? They are good mat tresses but several years old. They have had fairly good care. But It is noticeable that they have settled Into a too solid condition. If you are a good housewife I assume you will take off the cover. The filling, be it felt or hair, will be taken out and be shaken out of Its too solid condition. Obviously we cannot use such drastic measures for the spine. But we can stretch and soften its packing, not waiting for the annual housedeanlng but doing a little day by day. The healthy person is buoyant of body and spirit. There is no lasting buoyancy without an elastic spine. In the now Roman dance that I am preparing, with sixteen girls, I shall In sist upon an activity of the arms as great as that of the legs. Arms are, indeed, more wieldly than the logs and more oloquent. It is a great pity that they are permitted to become ugly and Inex pressive through lack of activity. Stretch, stretch, stretch. Stretch the arms upward and you will give the car tilage cushions, between the vertebrae, the Htrtitrlilng they so much require and without which no one .can have health comparable to that of her great-great-grandmatuinu cave-woman. Continue the stretching and the spine will slowly yield to the pull of adjacent muscles. It will change from the parked condition of Its cartilage cushions to an easily maiilpu- I Ml HU Mill.!.. I . - I - i M 1 v. V Pin for Utralth nj I'x'.kktt V f t wi-W .ul .i.V.'J O Above Is a Group of Miss Morgan's Pupils Dancing Barefoot and in Modified Corsage Attire in the Snow of Central Park, New York While on the Itijrht Others Are Pursuing Their Stuides in the Primitive. 'Wo at Top mi'' 'mill ill II l..i,t I r,i.n uilit in, Hi!' "! "I 7V i i J ! f . (-. ' -s, wJ, .'' ,'i .. .... KMK' i- ; - ' t , ' 1 M ' S " (' ", 1 I V. t . . i f "5 t'l . . t , 1 1 iff i.tt 'i'.i n a I'tfi . ,.,,, ,.i, r..r,.Kl.. Hut . '' -" l"K' 'i-.-m m V l l UM'.i,:,. ('..it K t,ri.r,. ,,,,, . (f.H. ' .'I " I H.UH,. t'i ,.lll- 'i ,!f 1 1 !' 't I t'M .1.. I , 1 ' , r, " i : ; I.. u. !r j .vt'-.i'. I ! '. Til 'uiiiati 1. Hi ! i a , ' ,.( " ' ' 'V V : ,tf ;-. h II Hii! 4H , t ., i ', t-H! l-ivl.i..,!,,, Si'ijr! .U " it ' ' ! it i-i-.!..r i I ..i r . r - .,! ,1 rj i 41,. M, ix ! ii - Hi I ...... 'i. i it. . u !.:. H u I ,, (-,: t , 4 iV V5 'JJt I 1 J a . r IV V? 7 1, i JK1 '-' If '' :'. j V 1 ii j r t it t f it kit LA'S xr i i 1 i i a v'ys r A try? m A 'liVsXU 1 t i ti rr a : i lni I Hi.- nitiiili t J imp n lift. n1 b U ruttiiiiij! lift tins hrij. V Hit th ''' u"' !( riu'ii m ,i.4 ' ''' )lHir i: ' ( Ul, t l,k 111,- :-:, l ti:: , .L.jM.I,,,, , .,n.t'4 J,,', j) InM !, J Ml. (! ' ' 1 ( U"i i t. the hrt ' ti -rt. i.i i',u :r iiui,m l i.i in i t '"' "" h- "'" H ..! Mil ii :: M t '! :,,ri.uirf t:.. u ,.f ' n .it t,..,.i , tr. ' i ' .. I I . ... (I .. u. I i , I. u '. I - I t I'-. , j t4i, ' ii f i t'-t t m. i .ii h if i't ls jn,t , ' ' $ Hijf vU - ' .V J. ...it " f. - kt 111 fUl 4 r f