Part 1

THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78268 *** TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES This book contains illustrations depicting various states of nudity. More notes can be found at the end of this book. DANCING, BEAUTY, AND GAMES [Illustration: LADY CONSTANCE STEWART RICHARDSON _From a Photograph by the White Studios_] DANCING, BEAUTY AND GAMES By Lady Constance Stewart Richardson LONDON ARTHUR L. HUMPHREYS 187 PICCADILLY, W. 1913 CONTENTS PAGE PHYSICAL CULTURE 1 GAMES 17 BEAUTY 27 TEACHERS 43 DANCING 55 SWIMMING 63 BIG GAME SHOOTING 77 RELIGION 97 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS LADY CONSTANCE STEWART RICHARDSON _Frontispiece_ A GOOD POSE _facing Page_ 4 RORY DANCING ” 8 RORY, TORQUIL, AND HAMISH ” 12 GROTESQUE TOYS ” 34 MISS ISADORA DUNCAN ” 56 MAD^{LLE} ADELINE GENÉE ” 58 MADAME KARSAVINA ” 60 BAREFOOTED DANCING AFTER THE GREEK STYLE ” 62 ENGLISH POSITION IN AIR WHILE DIVING ” 64 SWEDISH SWALLOW DIVE ” 66 DANCING, BEAUTY AND GAMES PHYSICAL CULTURE To try and write about Physical Culture without linking it on to Mental and Moral Culture would be of little use or interest, as these three cannot be divided and good come from them, any more than a tree can be separated from its bark and leaves and live. It is true that many have realised the great and undeniable truth that Physical Culture properly used is also mental culture, but it is also true that the masses are absolutely ignorant of this fact, and merely think that the person who believes so is a harmless lunatic. That it is within the means of the majority to have a powerful weapon to combat sins and vice that at present go rampantly on their way, I do most sincerely believe, and that weapon is a right understanding of the effect which Physical Culture has on the mind and body; and that ignorance of this weapon is almost universal amongst the masses is due to the fact that those who are at the head of things do not understand and will not listen to those who do, or take the time and trouble to find out the root of the evils which exist to such an enormous extent, especially throughout towns. That this subject has been handled before by far more skilled writers than myself I know well, but in most of the articles on Physical Culture there is a great dislike to tackling the serious side of the question, and my excuse for doing so is that I have spent all my life or rather all my thinking life in enquiring into and trying to understand the effect Physical Culture has on the mind, and that this effect is tremendous no one who knows anything about the subject can doubt. The more artificial life becomes, the more necessary it is to fight the evils which arise from this artificial condition, and personally I am all for fighting artificiality with nature.

Nature, if understood, seldom fails us. Many hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent annually on hospitals, homes for the feeble-minded, &c.; if only a few of those thousands were expended in our schools, and in the proper teaching of the young, surely in a couple of generations a great many of the former institutions would be empty. And until it is understood that to help the human race towards real health, and the happiness that marches hand in hand with that health, it is necessary to attack and demolish the amazing system of wicked ignorance which has our young in its grip--both rich and poor--these institutions will be needed. For long it has been the cry, give every one a fair chance, and I do most sincerely believe that it is possible to give that chance by turning out into the world self-respecting men and women mentally and physically developed in the manner that I believe God meant us all to be; and not maimed body and soul by the course of instruction we have been put through before we are thrown out on our own resources to struggle blindly through our lives as best we may in a semi-developed condition, mentally and physically: some of us perhaps to learn what a fine thing we could have made of life if only we had known and understood sooner. That moral feebleness allied to real vice is tremendously on the increase in large towns, cannot be denied; also that a great deal of it has its beginning in school-life is well known, just as it is realised by thinking people that very little effort is made either to enquire into the cause of it or find a remedy. It seems to be taken for granted that if a young boy or girl shows moral feebleness there is nothing much to be done except to hope that they will not be found out and disgraced. I know well that to cure immorality in the young once it has established itself, is difficult, though not by any means hopeless. Cures always are difficult and take time; therefore prevention is so much simpler: and certainly a great deal, if not all, of this immorality could be prevented if Physical Culture and its true effects on body and mind were understood, and the teaching of a right system was insisted on in all places where the young gather together. [Illustration: A GOOD POSE _From a Photograph by Andrew Paterson, Inverness_] Let me try and explain what I mean by a right system.

It is not just a different way of exercising the arms, legs, and body. There are many most admirable methods of Physical Culture, composed and propounded by men who thoroughly understand the human body and its needs. But what I think is wanting in our teaching of the young when we teach them at all, is the giving of any reason as to why they should exercise regularly; beyond the rather feeble fact that they will most likely feel better if they do. Give children a true reason for doing anything and they will hold on to it throughout life, and the true reason for Physical Culture surely is that God has given you a body and a brain to develop to the best of your ability, and that when the time comes to render them back again to your Maker you will be able to do so with no sense of shame. Instil this into the young and it is wonderful how they understand and reverence the thought. To merely tell children that it is jolly to have big muscles and be stronger than their neighbours, will certainly urge them on for the moment, but these reasons have little strength or help in them if there is a temptation to be overcome, and to continue to use them is but building upon sand. Children are born idealists, and surely it ought to be the duty of all to make those ideals higher and of a strength that will last through life. The only ideal that the average child has nowadays is ‘how to get on,’ and in the getting on if the other fellow goes to the wall no matter; the ideal of Physical and Mental culture ought to be of the highest and the greatest purity, and it is only possible to instil this into the very young.

All chance of pure thinking as regards the body is generally entirely shattered by nurses and parents before a child reaches four or five years of age: its body is made a shameful thing to hide as much as possible and never to be referred to. If you want to feel real shame, and understand the impure manner in which the body is regarded, watch small children in any well-to-do nursery being washed by their nurses; instead of being taught that their body is a beautiful and sacred thing and one of God’s greatest works, they are made to believe it is a shameful thing. Little harmless questions that all children ask and which ought to get straight, sensible answers, are greeted with giggles or winks, and the child is told not to ask naughty questions. Thus at the beginning of their lives is planted the little, creeping, insidious, dirty growth. All children will think about their bodies, it is right and natural that they should do so; only those thoughts must be guided into pure, sensible channels, not left in black ignorance, except for the unclean hints dropped by many who, to our shame be it said, have children in their charge. To instil pure-mindedness, a child from the moment it can understand must be taught to take a proper pride in its body, then when come to man or woman’s full growth, a clean-minded, healthy, happy, human being will be the result, and during the always more or less difficult age before full growth is reached there need be little fear of the dangers and temptations which as a rule beset the young. [Illustration: RORY DANCING _From a Photograph by Andrew Paterson_] If from early youth it was explained and impressed on the young of both sexes, that it was a real sin against God to allow their minds to become a mass of sensuality, and that the mind becoming like this means that the body has been neglected, and the only right remedy for body and mind is proper exercise and a proper understanding of what to eat and what to avoid in eating and drinking, what a help it would be to them. As a rule this is never explained to the young, and surely its great importance ought to be understood at least by those who have children in their charge. The ordinary man or woman fighting the temptations which arise from the artificial conditions of life, are as helpless from their ignorance and neglect of the human body as a man naked fighting against one fully armed.

There are a certain number of men and women who are strong-minded enough to be able to take up physical exercises late in life and get a considerable amount of good from them, but with the majority unless the exercises are a habit from early youth, they find them a bore after the novelty has worn off, and they are eventually dropped altogether. It is a very great effort for a man or woman who has neglected any regular exercise all their lives, to get up in the morning and perform a certain set amount. But if a child is trained almost from infancy to do this, and made to understand that it is quite as dirty to neglect the body or to put dirty (otherwise unwholesome) food into it, as it is to walk about with unwashed teeth, they no more think of neglecting the care of the one than they do of the other. Therefore, personally, I always train my own children to exercise ten minutes every morning before their baths; not that it is a real necessity when living an open-air life, but that I feel the habit will go with them through life; also that the time may come when having to be in town it may prove of incalculable value. At present they would no more think of missing their exercises than they would their baths. Again, I think great help against the bad and harmful habits of drinking and smoking can be given, if a child is taught that his body is a beautiful and precious trust, and that to soil and harm it by the accumulation of bad and artificial habits is to commit a real sin, and also shows a considerable lack of intelligence if commenced with open eyes and understanding. Also, if the explanation is given of how these habits grow and take hold, if once started, and how a liking for them becomes quickly ingrained, I am quite sure that boys and girls would no more make a habit of these harmful things than they would cheat at cards--as in one case you are behaving dishonourably to your fellow-men, in the other you are betraying a trust given into your hands by God; surely the latter ought to be made of as much importance as the former. It is all very well to say that smoking and drinking in moderation harm no one; perhaps not, but the difficulty of keeping them in moderation is very great, particularly when troubles come along, which even if they be molehills in reality, to the young are always mountains, and it seems somewhat foolish to learn and encourage an artificial habit which may at any time prove a most dangerous enemy, and is certainly not missed if never begun.

I also feel most strongly that it will be an impossibility to make Physical Culture what it ought to be until a radical change is made in present-day clothing for both sexes. Revolutionise the clothing of children and all would be well, as if sanely clad during their growing years, they certainly would not submit in later life to the absurd garments worn by their parents. [Illustration: RORY, TORQUIL AND HAMISH _From a Photograph by Andrew Paterson_] I do not suggest that every one should go about in Greek tunics, as this garment is not very suitable to our grey climate; but there is a far cry between a Greek tunic and an Eton suit, for instance. That the garments children often have to wear are responsible for a great deal of immorality I am certain, and they are on the whole most insanitary, great carriers of germs, and intensely uncomfortable as well. There has certainly been a slight move for the better amongst some who have stopped their children wearing hats; thus giving them a chance to grow up without chronic headaches, and to have beautiful hair. Also a few now give their children a shoe that does not deform their feet as in the past, but even now it is very rarely that one sees a child over ten years of age with toes that are not crooked; for it does not seem to be realised the tremendous pace a child’s foot grows between the ages of two and fifteen; therefore if only sandals were used for growing children such a lot of pain and expense might be saved; a sandal showing at once if it is too small, and also is much cheaper to replace than shoes, or those still greater iniquities, boots, which cramp the muscles of the legs and stop the ankle muscles from gaining growth and strength. I know that many people will contend that the mental impurity I have spoken of is the exception and not the rule. I can but ask these people to spend an afternoon in the sculpture room at a museum or in a picture gallery, and watch the majority of those who come through and see the nudes in either marble or on canvas. Apart from a few serious art students there are generally two types, the one who passes by with averted head and downcast eyes, getting slightly red in doing so; these are generally men or women very religious from the world’s point of view, and with sad, contracted minds.

They pray, but at the same time they have made up their minds that one of God’s most splendid works is a shameful thing to be covered up, neglected and forgotten as much as possible. The other type is the man or woman who comes to stare and giggle, and nudge with coarse innuendo and joke. These are more awful than the others to watch, as they are alive with a horrible wakefulness coming from minds that are merely cesspools. And with both types the same cause is at work in different ways. They cannot see a naked figure either in life, painting, or sculpture without bringing in the sex question. They can see no beauty, as it is obscured by the grime of their minds. Surely a state of things to make one stand aghast with bent and shamed head. I do not think I ever realised fully the extreme impurity that is rife through the minds particularly of those who live in towns until I went on to the stage, and took up classical dancing seriously.

Then there used to pour in upon me a stream of letters of such a terrible kind that one wondered it were possible for any living being who had a soul to write such things, and in those days came to me a great and sincere wish to help on in any way possible the work of trying to establish a system of Physical and Mental Culture that should give the children their fair chance in life; for rich and poor there ought to be but one system, and that instilled in a manner to give to them a knowledge and reverent love of all that is God’s work, to bring within the reach of all the chance to keep the body beautiful outwardly and clean inwardly, and to fill the mind with high ideals and a fine knowledge of men and books. May we all try and make it more possible and easier for the little children to walk with firm and unfaltering footsteps the path that ours have tottered so painfully along. GAMES Games are nearly always regarded as recreation, though a few people take them seriously and work at them with a view to becoming professionals and earning a livelihood in this manner. When I say they are used as a recreation, this is applicable to those people who play different games in a desultory fashion during the whole or part of the year; showing as time passes curiously little improvement in their play. Plodding continuously on, but from what point of view it is difficult to understand, unless it be from a purely animal liking of being in the open air and the pleasure they derive from following after, hitting, or kicking a ball. One cannot believe that they can get any pleasure from the competition arising in games, as they never strive to improve their play. Many I know have devoted several hours weekly for a long time to a game, but they play no better or very slightly better now than when they commenced. If one remarks on the rather curious mental condition a person must be in to act like this, the reply generally is, ‘Every one cannot play games well.

A good eye is necessary,’ &c. Certainly that is so, but a good eye is mostly training and practice like any other muscle control. Surely if a thing is worth doing at all it is worth doing well, and I think that any one who gives the matter a few moments’ thought will agree that it is extremely harmful physically and mentally to go on doing a thing in the wrong way year after year. It denotes lack of concentration, lack of self-control, and a general mental sloppiness. Curiously enough these people are always the ones who continually ask others to teach and help them to improve their play, but an endeavour to do so is nearly always greeted with a laugh, and, ‘Oh, yes, I see,’ and they go steadily on with the same faults as before, though quite often showing that with a little concentration and control they might have become admirable players. This class of game-player, I feel sure, has developed from the child who has been allowed to undertake its games and its work in a slipshod fashion, never being made to realise that if a game or a piece of work is taken up it should either be done well and completely or left alone. By this I naturally do not mean that all amateurs ought not to play a game unless they play it like a professional, but there is a very far cry between professionalism and the slipshod game-player. The next type of man who plays games is the one who does so purely from the health-giving point of view and not from any real love of games, doing so most likely only when he is a bit off colour, and in vulgar parlance, wishes to have a good sweat!

A Turkish bath would have as good an effect, but he, like a good many others, cannot be bothered to seek after health unless his mind is stimulated and amused at the same time. He is not really of much interest from the game-playing point of view, as he enters into the world of games but little. At the opposite extreme is to be found the man who takes games seriously, though this type is really divided into two classes; one who plays games to keep fit, and the other who keeps fit to play games. The latter, of course, are the men with a real devotion to games who spend little time doing anything else; at all events, during the season when their own particular game is to the fore. The questions I think one is inclined to ask oneself, when seriously thinking over games, are: in what spirit ought games to be taken? Are they a waste of time or not? and are they of real good mentally and physically to the player? I have always personally felt that games, regarded as they are at the present day, are extremely bad, but if taken in a sane and sensible fashion ought to be of the greatest value. This is what I mean.

Children when they start to play games are nearly always allowed to do so in a most haphazard manner; for instance, a child who shows a strong fancy for games is often left to play them _ad lib._, only being reproved if his school-work suffers, and often a lenient eye is turned on all shirking of work if the shirker is found to have used the time for game-playing. It is rarely explained to him or her that games ought to be regarded as a recreation and an aid to health, also that if played they ought to be played properly at proper times. Shirking your other work to play them or playing them badly is misusing both your body and mind, and generally hurting yourself physically and mentally. Games must be looked at in their proper proportion and once finished with not allowed to usurp the mind, as a man who makes games his sole thought throughout life is a sad person to meet. If the child who was backward and rather stupid at games was taken a little trouble with and equally taught with his more forward brother that games are to be regarded educationally like any other physical exercise, I think that as grown men they would both be improved. On the one hand, you would not find the man who does not play games at all, from having been told when a child that he was no use; and on the other, the man who eats, thinks, talks, and sleeps games: but two human beings with the good health, concentration, quickness, and self-control which games properly used certainly bring, all of which are most admirable qualities having a very great effect on a man’s life in all and every profession. A man of the above qualities, added to a clean outdoor sense of things, is far more apt to make a success of his life from the higher point of view than the one without them. Equally this reacts on his children.