PHYSICAL CULTURE IS BOOMING IN PARIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 400, 14 July 1928, Page 7

PHYSICAL CULTURE IS BOOMING IN PARIS

(Written for The Sun.] IN pre-war days, Parisians cared little for physical culture. their energies being diverted into widely different channels. Now, however, young men long to possess a rosy complexion, bright eyes, supple limbs, an upright carriage and well-developed muscles. Their elders, also, up to 50, that dangerous age, fight shy of becoming fat and unsightly; formerly rejoicing, more or less, in a disgustingly exuberant stomach and fallen shoulders, they now abhor the deformity. iSo youth, men who are long out of their teens, and those who consider middle age no excuse for slacking and overeating, take kindly to physical culture. Sports clubs are booming. There is no limit to these institutions. Hundreds of Parisians belong to football clubs, Saturday and Sunday afternoons being devoted to “le Rugby” and “I’Association.” and uncommonly well do the members play. Many of the enthusiasts are shop assistants, bank clerks, and industrious students, all of whom almost count the days till Saturday afternoon. As they can ill afford the outlay required for the paraphernalia of the game, philan-thropically-inclined people finance the clubs to which these keen players flock. Everything is “found,” including jerseys, caps, shorts, boots, and stockings; footballers have only to pay a ’bus fare to the suburban football field. Noble patrons! Well-to-do men belong to more exclusive clubs; .100 francs entrance fee and the usual monthly subscription are demanded by the committee. The rendezvous is some distance from Paris; the ardent ones reach it by train, play a hard game, indulge in “le shower bath,” and dine early and joyously at the clubhouse. HOCKEY AND FENCING. A covered tennis club is in considerable request, the Parisienne being every bit as eager a player as the Parisian, while the courts are engaged days ahead. There is a talk of forming a squash rackets club, although it must be confessed that the project, mooted at intervals for over a year, looks as if it would never materialise. But three hockey clubs (one of them is composed of the English bank clerks in Paris) enjoy considerable prosperity. Hockey also is popular in girls* schools, the jcunes filles playing an excellent, game. Next winter these young people will have * their own hockey club, with a French duchess as president, and other female big-wigs on the committee. Fifteen years ago no girl would have dreamed of succumbing to so manly a pastime. Fencing clubs have always been popular, while two of them are now devoted to the interests of women. At the cercle the fencers wear a black costume, the members of the other club sporting white; in either case the simple, but not inelegant, kit is limited to a tightly fitting, blouse-like garment, breeches, stockings and heel-less shoes. The British assistants employed in fthe Paris branches of various London shops plump, to a man, for physical culture. They have their own clubhouse, a roomy building, situated on a iSeine islet, accommodating the members, Here they play tennis, arrange ■ football matches with the English bank clerks’ club, row on the muddy ,waters of the swiftly-flowing river, and, in short, lead a vigorous life. Their employers are generous in the matter of subscriptions, also presentling innumerable silver cups, which ,a.re competed for annually. In the intervals of athletics the members devote their strenuous leisure to deep breathing and other physical culture exercises. Ttoese English sports clubs scarcely do all that could be wished towards promoting a much-desired .athletic* entente. True, French hockey and [football teams are occasionally incited to meet the members in friendly contest and to “assist” at exhibitions iof physical culture. But the British ! physical culturists and’ their allies jdo not mingle in heart-to-heart fashiion; English insularity frequently initervenes. A deplorable state of things; !an opportunity missed. . . . GEORGE CECIL.