Character Corner
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Fit as a Fiddle
In A Tailor-Made Bride, the heroine, Hannah Richards, is a 19th century fitness maven. We tend to think of physical fitness as a relatively modern movement, but a similar movement swept the nation in the mid 1800s.
After the Industrial Revolution, many people left farms and ranches to find employment in nearby cities. Because they were no longer working the fields, their lives became increasingly sedentary. This led to a great decline in women's health, especially among the middle and upper classes. Reformers like Catharine Beecher (sister to the famous abolitionist and author, Harriet Beecher Stowe) spoke out on the need for regular exercise among women and children. She published a book in 1856 entitled Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families where she describes an exercise system that could be utilized in schools or at home.
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Catharine Beecher |
Dioclesian Lewis |
Perhaps the most influential reformer of this era was a man named Dioclesian Lewis. In the 1860s he developed a system of light gymnastics for women and children and went on to found a school specifically to instruct physical education teachers, most of whom were women. He lectured extensively and wrote several books on the subject of fitness, the most notable being The New Gymnastics for Men, Women and Children, published in 1862. It is this book that Hannah Richards follows so diligently.
Having suffered a near drowning as a child, Hannah grew up with weak lungs and a poor constitution. After her mother attended one of Professor Lewis's lectures on the importance of physical exercise, she started her daughter on a daily regimen of calisthenics. Hannah's heath and strength improved, and the habit stuck. During the course of the story, Hannah employs many of the devices Professor Lewis advocated, such as small wooden dumb bells, Indian clubs, and exercise rings.
The guiding principle was to use small weights with many repetitions. In this way women and children could participate in the same manner as the men. Professor Lewis even recounts a story of how several of his young male students scoffed at the two-pound dumb bells, claiming they needed more weight to make the exercises challenging. However, after they completed the regimen with three-pound weights, they unanimously returned to the lighter ones. Hannah issues a similar challenge to Jericho Tucker at his initial mockery of her routine. After trying it for himself, the livery owner, like the young men at Professor Lewis's academy, changes his tune.
Dio Lewis's book, The New Gymnastics, can be found online here at Google Books. |
