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How to Get Strong and How to Stay So (1899)

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How to Get Strong and How to Stay So (1899)
by William Blaikie

Second revised edition

2297786How to Get Strong and How to Stay So1899William Blaikie

HOW TO GET STRONG

AND

HOW TO STAY SO


BY

WILLIAM BLAIKIE


WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS

New and Enlarged Edition from New Plates


LONDON

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY

LIMITED

St. Dunstan's House

Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.

1899


NATHAN HALE
From the MacMonnies Statue in City Hall Park, N. Y. City


TO

The Memory of

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE

THE GREATEST ENGLISHMAN SINCE CROMWELL

Who, of lofty Christian character, and pre-eminent abilities developed under favoring circumstances, devoted a life of unceasing, arduous toil,—ever among matters of great moment—

not himself;
not to his own interests;
but to the good of others;

yet who daily so intelligently trained his body also that he was able to maintain a true equilibrium between mind and body; and so to keep both in consummate working-order far on to a ripe old age,—

THIS BOOK

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED


Preface




Millions of our people pass their lives in cities and towns; and at work which keeps them nearly all day in-doors. Many hours for days and years, under careful teachers; and many millions of dollars are spent annually, in educating the mind and moral nature. But the body grows up all uneducated; indeed, often such a weak, shaky affair that it gets out of order, especially in middle and later life, and its owner is not equal to tasks which would have been easy had it had a tithe of the care given to the rest of the man. Not a few, to be sure, have in youth years of active out-door life on a farm; and so lay up a store of vigor which stands them in good stead throughout a lifetime. But many, and especially those born and reared in towns and cities, have had no such training, or any equivalent; and so never have the developed lungs and muscles; the strong heart and vigorous digestion, in short, the improved tone and strength in all their vital organs—which any sensible plan of body-culture, followed up daily, would have secured. It matters little whether we get vigor on the farm, the dock, the river, the athletic field, or in the gymnasium; if we only get it. Fortunately, if not gotten in youth, when we are plastic and easily shaped, it may still be had, even far on in middle life; by judicious and systematic exercise, aimed first to bring up the weak and unused parts, and then by general work daily, which shall maintain the equal development of the whole.

The aim here has been, not to write a profound treatise on gymnastics, and point out how to eventually reach great performance in this art; but rather in a way, so plain and untechnical that even any intelligent boy or girl can readily understand it, to first give the reader a nudge to take better care of his body, and so of his health; and then to point out one way to do it. That there are a hundred other ways is cheerfully conceded. If anything said here should stir up some to vigorously take hold of, and faithfully follow up, either the plan here indicated or any one of these others; it cannot fail to bring them marked benefit; and so to gratify

The Author.

New York, September, 1898.


Contents
Chapter Page
I. Do We Inherit Shapely Bodies? 1
II. Half-built Boys 12
III. Will Daily Physical Exercise for Girls Pay? 25
IV. Is it Too Late for Women to Begin? 37
V. Why Men Should Exercise Daily 51
VI. The School the True Place for Children's Physical Culture 76
VII. What a Gymnasium Might Be and Do 112
VIII. Some Results of Brief Systematic Exercise 133
IX. Work for the Fleshy, the Thin, the Old 145
X. Special Exercise for Any Given Muscles 165
XI. What Exercise to Take Daily 210
XII. Great Men’s Bodies 240
Moses (1571–1451 b.c.) 242
David (1015 b.c.) 243
Paul 245
Socrates (468–399 b.c.) 248
Plato (430–347 b.c.) 251
Aristotle (384-322 b.c) 254
Alexander (356–323 b.c.) 255
Demosthenes (385–322 b.c.) 257
Hannibal (247–183 b.c.) 260
Cicero (102–43 b.c.) 262
Cæsar (100–45 b.c.) 265
Mohammed (570–632 a.d.) 269
Charlemagne (748–814 a.d.) 271
Alfred (849–901 a.d.) 275
William the Conqueror (1027–1087 a.d.) 277
Wallace (1270–1305 a.d.) 279
Robert the Bruce (1274–1329 a.d.) 281
Columbus (1446–1506 a.d.) 282
Luther (1483–1546 a.d.) 283
Shakespeare (1564–1616) 286
Cromwell (1599–1658) 287
Milton (1608–1674) 290
Peter the Great (1672–1725) 291
John Wesley (1703–1791) 293
Franklin (1706–1790) 295
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) 297
Patrick Henry (1736–1799) 298
Jefferson (1743–1826) 300
Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) 301
Charles James Fox (1749–1806) 303
Chief Justice Marshall (1755–1835) 305
Hamilton (1757–1804) 307
Robert Burns (1759–1796) 310
Napoleon (1769–1821) 312
Wellington (1769–1852) 314
Scott (1771–1832) 320
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) 323
Lord Erskine (1750–1823) 325
Lord Eldon (1751–1838) 328
Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) 330
Chief Justice Shaw (1781–1861) 334
Chief Justice Gibson (1780–1853) 335
Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877) 337
Henry Clay (1777–1852) 340
Daniel Webster (1782–1852) 342
Rufus Choate (1799–1859) 348
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 350
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) 354
Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809–1884) 356
Bismarck 360
Von Moltke (1800–1891) 368
Mr. Justice Miller (1816–1890) 370
Charles O'Conor (1804–1884) 372
Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) 376
Charles Dickens (1818–1870) 379
Collis P. Huntington 381
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 383
Sir Archibald L. Smith 388
Mr. Justice Denman 390
"Tom Brown of Rugby" 391
Sir Joseph Chitty 392
Lord Esher 394
Sir Richard Webster 396
James Coolidge Carter 398
John Pierpont Morgan 400
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) 401
Professor John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895) 403
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) 406
Joseph Hodges Choate 410
Paul Krueger 414
Horace Greeley (1811–1872) 418
Charles A. Dana (1819–1897) 421
John Hall 424
Dwight L. Moody 427
Edwin Lawrence Godkin 428
Presiding Justice Van Brunt 431
Washington (1732–1799) 442
XIII. In Conclusion 457
Appendix I. 491
Appendix II. 491
Appendix III. 492
Appendix IV. 492
Appendix V. 493
Appendix VI. 494
Conclusion 495
Index 497

Illustrations
NATHAN HALE Frontispiece
THE WARD BROTHERS. Facing p. 20
EDWARD HANLAN TEN EYCK Facing p. 22
THE WHITELY EXERCISES Facing p. 48
SAMUEL E. GRISCOM (AT 80) Facing p. 158
D. L. DOWD Facing p. 202
MOSES Facing p. 242
JULIUS CÆSAR Facing p. 266
MARTIN LUTHER Facing p. 282
SHAKESPEARE Facing p. 286
CROMWELL Facing p. 288
PETER THE GREAT Facing p. 292
CHARLES JAMES FOX Facing p. 304
THOMAS CHALMERS Facing p. 330
CHIEF JUSTICE LEMUEL SHAW Facing p. 334
CHIEF JUSTICE GIBSON Facing p. 336
DANIEL WEBSTER Facing p. 342
ABRAHAM LINCOLN Facing p. 350
WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE Facing p. 354
CYRUS H. MCCORMICK Facing p. 358
VON BISMARCK Facing p. 360
MR. JUSTICE MILLER, OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT Facing p. 370
COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON Facing p. 380
SIR RICHARD WEBSTER Facing p. 396
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON Facing p. 400
HENRY WARD BEECHER Facing p. 406
PROFESSOR JOHN WILSON Facing p. 436
WENDELL PHILLIPS Facing p. 438
WASHINGTON Facing p. 442
"JOSH" WARD (AT 60) Facing p. 480


This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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