Part IV
ROUND ABOUT THE HOUSE
Chapter XVI
A HOUSE GYMNASIUM
All healthy-minded boys are interested in physical development; it is the instinct which leads them to climb high trees and scale precipitous cliffs, generally at the expense of some anxiety to the minds of their parents and guardians. But these amusements are more in the nature of “stunts,” pure and simple; the logical and rational field of athletic culture is the gymnasium. In the large cities, and at schools and colleges and Y.M.C.A. societies, there are opportunities in abundance for gymnastic exercises. The purpose of this chapter is to show the boy who has to stay at home, or who lives in a small country village, what can be done in the way of rigging up a barn floor or a spare room like the one shown in Fig. 1. He can also make most of the apparatus; for, with a few exceptions, all the principal pieces are simple in construction and not beyond the ability of the average boy.
For indoor exercise the outfit must necessarily consist of those pieces of the gymnasium equipment that can be used when in a standing or sitting attitude, for the confined space of the average room will not admit of running, jumping, or leaping with the pole or from a spring-board. In preparing a list of the pieces of equipment suitable for a boy’s “gym,” some of the familiar ones have been omitted, as they are either beyond the ability of the average boy to make or they are too cumbersome for the home. The apparatus that is described and illustrated is simple and practicable and can be made at a much lower cost than the prices charged at the shops.
Fig. 1.
Dumb-bells
Wooden dumb-bells weighing a pound each may be purchased for about fifty cents a pair, but the boy who is interested in making his entire equipment can use croquet-balls with broom-handles, or one-inch curtain-pole sticks, for handles (Fig. 2).