HOW TO GET STRONG
nies alone to provide for this work; even one premium more, upon each insured, would far more than pay for it; and it would mean many more premiums than one. Personal supervision of the work in every school in the State, would, in a few years, do more for the health and vigor of the people, and of their posterity, than any other one step ever taken. And it is really not much to do. It is a trifle beside what other States and nations have done for their youth.
"With the Greeks and Romans" [says Salzman] "gymnastic exercises constituted the principal part of youthful education. Their objects were heartiness; strength and dexterity of body; elegance of form; courage; presence of mind in danger; and patriotism founded thereon. The appointment of public teachers for this purpose paid by the State; and the public edifices erected for it in every city of Greece, some of them of vast extent, and singular magnificence; sufficiently prove the high estimation in which gymnastics were held."
If they could do all that; is it not time that we did a little of it? We are told by discerning foreigners that we are only a commercial and scholastic nation; and that such nations lose their manliness and independence; and the better qualities which are found in martial training. Emerson says, that you get the best man, when you combine in one the soldier and civilian. Mad as a foreign foe, or a bunch of them would be, to try us, upon our own land; if our best heads are statesmen enough to keep us one nation; what other step will pay as well as that which makes nearly every man and woman, boy and girl, healthy; strong; enduring; spirited; and self-reliant? It will cost practically nothing. But what other investment will yield such dividends? The men named are not the only ones. In theirs and in many other States there are others, faithful, capable, experi-
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