minnow, JULY 29, 1922. . - ~ 3m somnogwm surmis- am -
iUU [VlAN‘if ‘RUN’JL GiRLS MA “FLOVE
Dy MARTHA. COMAN.
u "NlRLS fascinate -me." said
* Olga. Princess Luboff. "it is
d to them that there belongs
the molding of the world. Foolish
peome say that the young men are
the stuff of the next generation. buti
who makes the yo .zng generation?
Why, the girls!"
This statement by an emigre from
Russia brings before us a picture of
the present generation of girls. who
are the mothers of the future. They.
are decidedly of the "ruftt" type. Andi
the fact suggests the questions: Are
American girls growing smaller in
stature and where are the promising
offspring of the. Gibsonesque creatures:
of a quarter of a century ago?
City Overrun by
Diminufive Feminini'ty
The city seems peopled with thtsc‘
diminutive bits of femininity. Even”
where you go you see them. The
streets :irc packed with mitrs of‘hu—
manity. schools seem to have llllfl~‘l"
sized pupils. the shop girl. the cilork
and the factory worker impress you
as being much below the average size
of the girl wage earner of twenty
years ago.
At first vou try to explain it by
shying it is the modern style of dress
and Its“ (lcrrt rising effect. Knee length
skirts. little jackets and tiny round
hats make even a tall girl look
smaller. you remind yourself, but
when you begin to study the “question
more carefully you are compelled to
acknowledge that while present fash-
ions are somewhat “runty.” they do
not account for the actually smaller
stature of the generation that. peoples
-our big cities to-day.
The “run!" is here and she num-
bers thousands. Ethnologically she is
comething of a puzzle. You cannot
find an adequate explanation for her
prevalence because research workers
have been too busy with other prob-
lame to devote special activity to find-
lns out the why and the wherefore of
her existence.
And so we laid the question before
Dr. Thomas D. Wood. head of the
hysical education department of
isschers College. Dr Wood is par-
cularly well equipped to answer the
question because he not only has seen
hundreds of college girls and young
through the corridors and clause of
Bernard and Teachers College. but he
has. not. confined. llia observations of
phyalcal development alone to stu-
dents. He has given me attention
tothemaneeof girls in the industrial.
field. He has broadened his views so
as to include a comparative study of
all types of girls of the pruent day.
Dr. Wood Ascribes Dec-reuse _, ‘
In Size to Immigration
From this general observation Dr.
Wood is inclined to think that the
prevalence of the “rarity" type is due
largely to immigration. He called at-
tention particularly to the vast num-
ber of foreigners who have settled
here in the last quarter of a century
or more. and whose children an: the
ones we see employed in factories and
shops and who form the largest group
of public school pupils.
“Although i have no statistics at
hand to prove this statement I should
we see." “Dr. W’ood said. ”As you
know. foreigners, form a very large
percentage of the city's population
and many of these men and women
from other countries are undersized
themselxes. Naturally their children
would be the same.
“There are several elements to con-
sider in the production of an under-
sized generation—there is environ-
ment. development, growth, nutrition
and emp. ‘.oyment
' “Malnutrition is one of the most im-
portant factors in the development-—
I might say one of the greatest ab
3 say that the foreign element is largely '
I responsible for the undersized girls
science and care, lower the physical
average of this group, while then to
no such conditioanguringtln the equa-
tion of. the poor.
.“Industrial work is another impedi;
the .prlflr‘— Girls --who are employed
in motorloa where the work new.
totes maintaining one position prac-
tically all day cannot develop as they
should. Such work stunts them. to
what extent I cannot say offhand. but
statistics show3 that this :is a fact.
And when you think of the thousands
of girls employed in factories right
here in the city and in the outlying
districts you have an important solu-
tion to the ‘runty’? race question.
"Where the work is varied this is
not_ so much the case. But long.
steady hours of employment in build-
ings where the workers are without
proper physical relaxation through the
day is'bound to arrest the growth of
employees},I
Thematural change in muscular tis-
sue causes the body to grow. Dr. Wood
meat to. the. best physical growth of
explained. and lad empties, ,
for wholesome exerczse ficthfigfi
nourishment to bring about 3 this
structural development.
. “But would steady factory work also
the height down?" we asked;
"Certainly," hé replied "You can-
not reach normal size, given a. fair
start, unless you cooperate with na-
ture. Factory work followed for a
long period .will eventually reduce the
nor-trial height. It: Will Dre\ eat the ln-’
.dividual. from attaining her natural
stature. And if this‘is normally some-—
what under the average the change
produced is even more striking.
“Too much cannot be said about the
importance of proper nourishment.
We have made vast strides forward in
this path. The balanced meal is now
recognized as essential to the best de.
velopment of the human race. It is
followed in institutions and else ere
where there are large numbers 0 per-
sons to (feed, Families are adopting
the program, but it has not become
universal. There are many of the
stacles to the development. of a. gen-
eration. It accounts for decrease of
stature. arrested growth or breadth of
and physical handicap.
it is by no means unknown among the
rich. It is amazing to find out how
children of the wealthy are improperly
fed. I don't know whether this is to
be attributed entirely to lack of knowl-
edge of what growing children require
to build up their bodies. or somewhat
to carelessness on the part of parents
"But it is a foot that far more mal-
nutrition exists among families who
do not have to count the cost of liv-
ing than you would dream of..
“Then there is another point to con-
sider if you include among the under-.
sized girls of to- day those Of the
survival of the sickly. The powei of
wealth can keep alive and nourish
through to manhood and womanhood.
children who woukl not have been
able to pull through if they had been
born to hummer station. The weak-
tvomen training to be teachers pass
BIBLE HISTORY ST
s'ruaa'r L. TYSON MA. (01mm),
Honorary Vicar of the Cathedral of
St. John the Divine.
ILLIONS of orthodox Chris-
IVI tians still think 01 the Bible
as a single book. every part
of which is equally inspired. infalli-
l‘le and incrrant, and no p’ortion
HIof which can contradict any other por-
tion. ‘This unfortunate inheritance
from the sixteenth century. which
makes it impossible for millions of
other people to find in it much else
than hopeiegs stumbling blocks is the
result of a complex historical process,
having no real basis in the documents
themselves. Briefly summarized the
most important stages are the Elbow-
log:
The Founder of Christianity deliv-
ered His message verbally. in a pro-
vincial Semitic dialect known as Ara-
maic. which was understood by only
a small fraction of the human race.
Chiefiy. in the first instance. through
the, work of the converted rabbi. Paul.
the ideas of this message Were trans-
lated into the universal language of
the empire. Greek; and it was as a
Greek speaking society that the
church set out to convert the world.
The twenty—seven Christian documents
which at a later time were gatheredo
Into an authoritative or canonical col-
lection were originally written in
Greek, and this tongue was for some
time the language of Christians as far
west ill Rome.
How Stumbling Blocks
'Rise Before Bible Readers
Originally the only "Bible" of the
Christian society was the Jewish
Scriptures—containing thirty-nine doc-
uments as v79 reckon them—which
were inevitably taken over into the
new religion. inasmuch as all of
Christ’s first disciples were Jews.
These dopuments, originally written
1‘ Hebrew. had by the opening on the
Christian era been translated into
Greek. through the labor: of Jewish
scholar. at Alexandria. and from this
monsoon they are many quoted by
Iglow Testament writers. An early“
t a third century. however, Latin was
becoming a formidable rival to Greek
in the West. Some imperfect translaé
tlonl of the Jewish and Christian
Scriptures had already been made into
lg: language. but by the opening of
fifth century there was imperative
need for a more accurate and omdal
version in this tongue. to which all
could appeal with confidence.
The task was attracted to Jerome.
the greatest scholar of his day, and
all oompl'dt not maayeyefi-a before
theological thought.
Wu but in the re-
llngs of the Wealthy, kept alive by
from the Latin Bible or Vulgate of
Jerome.
Books of Bible at First
Farmed a Library
Now the early church thought of its
collection of religious writings as 23.
miscellaneous library. Each volume
was in the form of a roll. which in
Greek. their own official language. is
Biblion. plural Biblia. Their common-
est term for the entire collection of
sixty-six volumes was "Ta Hugia
Biblia." "The Sacred Rolls or Books."
Jerome translated the adjective. but
only transliterated the noun. so that
in the Vulgate the title becomes Biblia
Sacra. While the Greek noun Biblla,
howeVer. is plural, and means ”The
Books," the theologians of later Eu-
ripe, who knew only Latin. thought
it was a singular term. and this con-
ception. aided by later theories as to
the exact nature of its inspiration ul—
timately became unitersal, so that in
the languages of modem Europe, as a
single Booth is conceived.
In England Jerome‘s transliteration
of the Greek Biblia, “the Books," was
once again transliterated. and hence
the term “Bible," with its erroneous
connotation as “the Book." Add to
this the following, and it is easy to
realize how orthodox Christians de-
rived the inheritance of a single, in-
errant. infallible volume. Although
Christ rejected the notion of an in-
fallible tribunal on earth the church
had scarcely passed out into‘the em-
pire ere the theory arose, later hard-
ened into a dogma. that the verdict
of the collective Episcopate did in fact
constitute Just such an infallible
tribunal in the sphere of faith and
morals. The Protestant reformers in
breaking with the medieval church
did not dxeam of abandoning the con-
ctption of an earthly infallible court
of appeal; they simply transferred the
notion from the collective Episcopate
to a Book.
Henceforth whatever was contained
between the covers “the Bible was
indubitably true for all time. and as a
result we have the Bryans. the Volivas
and the pre- -milienarians of to-day:
men presenting the strange autumn”
of a. bitter antagonism to the Roman
Catholic church, yet fundamentally
differing not at all from the most ex-
treme ultr'amontane.
Every Fact 0!, History
Ignored by Antagonists
This conception, of tile Divine Li-
bréry of Christendom. the outgrowth
of a long and complex historical proc-
on, not only completely ignores the
dam of the document. themselvu, but
is in entire opposition to every fact of“
history. Starting from the a priori
conception of what the Bible must be.
modifying or coca-m evidence is
either ignored or treated absolutely
arbitrarily. The modem student re-
verse. thou-ocean. Howillgather the
cm am. and than, and not till
then. form the conclusion as to what,
in fact. the Bible really in. Nor will
sneerl, charm of unbeliaf. or any
wdslit of Well authority
check him in his aeard: for Truth.
l‘heBibiniafactiaaam-ialsmrv.
of the knew!-
the body, and proves a general mental 1
"Lack of proper nourishment prefl
vails among the poorer workers, but
'golden spoon' class. and that is thei
i
I
l
i
wfriing families to whom it is still
an unknown quantity.
’ “To refer to the foreign element in
New York, for instance. let us consider
the various nationalities represented.
The majority are of small build. They
are usually the poorest in their native
countries. They come here without
having had a fair start at home and
they almost invariably drift into A
type of- work that limits their natural
expansion. They do not reproduce
stalwart sons and daughters."
Foreign Nations Send . -
Small and Poor Specimens
This statement leads to the quasnon
whether New York. .which is thickly
peopled with immigrants from south-
em Europe, is unique in its “runty”
girls. Are those States in which" the
men and women of the northern ecun-
tries settle producing a taller genera-
tion? .
Investigation of the immigrant sit-
uation shows that by far the greater
number of me and women who have
come to America within the last.few.
years have preferred to remain-in or
near. . New , ”.Yol'k. .. Thai... accounts .. for
one group of "mum":
But what about the college girl?
Is she fulfilling the promise of a
decade or more ago when statistics
Were sent brgadcast to show that the
intellectual tspe was a finer. more
Junoes‘que specimen of womanhood?
Dr. Wood is of‘the opinion that the
stature-of the average college girl has
not decreased: on the contrary. he be-
lieves that it has increased. if any;
thing; and certainly it has held its
own. He wwphatic in stating that
there has. been no noticeable influence
of “runtiness” in the classes of .girls
graduated within the last few years.
A glance over a gathering of girls
numbering close to two hundred
marching in to receive their degrees
did not seem to confirm this belief.
Among all those girls in somber cap
and gown loss than half a. dozen of
more than usual height could be sin-
gled out. And their towering figures.
VICTORIAN LADIES MARVEL AT LITTLE WOMEN OF TO- DAY.
UMBL iNG BLOCK To ORTHODOX7
thirty- nine volumes. falls. like Gaul
into three broad divisions known re-
and the Other \Vritings. and canon—
ized or treated as authoritative re~
spectively about B. C. 300. 200. 100.
But, although the Law. the nucleus
of the Hebrew Bible. was the. [list por-
spectively as the Law. the Prophets;
tion to be curimiizcd. in its present-
form it is far from being the earliest.
portion of the Hebrew Bible. Folk
,pair marries is not stated. but ere long
his descendants have founded a great
civilization. This God frustrates an
:impious attempt to build a tower to
heaven by making each workman
‘speak in a language that no one else
can understand. and so destroys the
I possibility of cnopcrnti on.
Thus the origin of diversity of
Ho accepts food
and as he “smelled
tongues is explained.
from His people;
long and ballad werthhe earliest form
of literature among this people, a few
extracts only of which have survived.
Tbe‘BibIe a Serial Story
' With a Code of Laws to Start
The earliest extant pardon of the
Bible was compiled in the ninth cen-
tury B. C.. and consisted of a primi-
tive code of laws, suited ton nomadic
or pastoral people. 'With‘ this was
combined tribal traditions and legends
as to the originof the world and its
history up to the writer's day Natu-
rally. it is simple in the same. God,
is but a magnified man, somethlcai.
and of highly limited attributes. 330
REV. STUART 1.; TYSON.
the sweet savour" of the animal which
Noah had roasted for Him he prom;
ised he would never again send a flood
upon the earth. Abr ,Isaac and
Jacob lie, and the ma ter is not seri-
one. And so on. Now all this repre-
sents the beginnings of Israel's re-
The people are given just so much re-
ligious truth and of such a. quality as
they are capable of assimilating. As
they advance mentally and spiritually
more will be gIVen, and this will. in-
valve a modification of their earlier
belief. Now this truth of progressive
revelation which the mere tradition-
out in: to completely lost sight. of.
runs vigil through not only the doom;
manmoftheaibie. butall humanitie-
torio'
ligious belief and needs .no defense.'m
The oldieconstantlybeingdiey '_ 33
plaéedinfavorofthenew,andammr
that race which has consistently
looked out on life from the standpoint
of religion.
Other Codes and Traditions
Compiled 100 Years Later
About a hundred years after the
preparation of the first document an-
other code and series of traditions,
representing just about a century’s
advance in thought. were compiled,
and soon after these two documents
were Welded into one continuous whole.
Now occurs. in the eighth century, an
event of momentous significance, the
appearance of the writing prophets.
Such men as Amos. Hosea. Isaiah
and Micah entirely transformed the
conception of Israel's religion, and in-
deed have left an indelible mark upon
all religious history. Under the illumi-
nation of the Spirit of God these men
site an entirely new meaning to re-
ligion.
Hitherto the people had acknowlc
edged the existence of many gods,
though worshiping one. Yahve3or Je-
hovah, whose jurisdiction was limited
to Canaazn "There is no God save
one!" cry the prophets. These other
beings are but flgments of human
imagination. “The living God " as he
is henceforth termed, is the maker of
. Leavcn and earth. Thus the old com-
mandment, “thou shalt have no other
gods but me " becomes ."Thou shalt
not believe that there are any other
gods but me." Deeper knovledge of
truth has involved a modification of
earlier belief. .lut it is not only the
substitution of Mopotheism for mono—
latry which marl: s‘ the writings of the
prophets; the very nature of God
. Himself is transformed under their in-
:fi'uence.
God is now an ethical being,
who is not interested in sacrifice or
externallconformity to a code. but in
inner purity of life. "I desire loving
kindness and not sacrifice and the
V knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings." is the substance of the new
spiritual 'message.
Under the influence of this teaching
,Deuteronomy. perhaps the most’spirit.
ual book of the Old Testament. was
Compiled. It is a prophetic reformula-
tion of earlier. codes: and with its
teaching as to centralization of wor-
ship at Jerusalem profoundly modified
the conception of the later church.
Then as now. however, there were two
conceptions of religion—the priestly
and the prophetic. tle Catholic and
the Protestant. the Aristotelian and
the Platonic. How far the prophetic
' teaching influenced the current ortho-
doxy is still doubtful. Certainly the
priestly standpoint was very much in
evidence during the years of captivity
in Babylonia: and in the sixth and
fifth centuries, members of this caste
compiled. in part relying upon Baby-
lonian theology, what is. called the
Priestly Codex. a dry, legalistic docuo'
meat, with its long genealogies, rubri-
cal directions and liturgical explana-
tionsaatothooriilnoffestivaisand
facts. ‘
The final step in the formation of
the Jewish Law is: the welding to-
gather of these various codes into one
more or less harmonious whole. dons
byEnraandhissncceseorslntte
fifth and following centuries. First
oomesapiecetromtbepnests’cwe—
' _, author‘s own religiotfi amoeba
Gospel! of 1mm
indeed do not require such treatment.
for they represent two stages. sepa-
rated by several centuries. in the evo-
lution of the knowledge of God. And
so all the way through. Sometimes'a
sentence from one. tizcn a sentence
from another. sometimes an entire
document. and the result is not only
the five books which to-day stand first
in our Bible. but several more as well,
the several portions of which date
from the ninth to the fifth century
B. C.
Following the Restoration
sixth century. the prophets” message
became formal and stereotyped. and
as a result their influenced-waned. At
length. with "lilalachi" in the fifth
century, the prophetic succession is
brought to a close. and there is no
longer an official interpreter of the
Divine mind. Coincidently. there is
brought to Jerusalem the completed
Law. and the succeeding centuries
witness the rise and ultimate predomi-
nance of the legalistic theologians.
Then Apocal’pfic Writers
' ' Confused the Spirit
Through these two factors, “‘5 the
troubled political situation in the two
centuries before Christ comes into be-
ing the Apocalyptic writers, who carry
on and develop the seiial story until
it is taken up by the Founder of
Christianity and His followers. Writ-
ing. for the most part. in Galilee. these
pséudonymous mystics and scars. of
which the author of the book of Dan-
iel is one. immeasurably transcended
the. prophets in the sweep of their
vision. Heretoi‘ore, it was believed
that at death man passed out of God’s
care and went. a nerveless shadow of
his former self, into a vast subterra—
nean',cal£erJL—-the “hell"3 of the Old
Testament: Only those who were alive
at- the Messiah's coming would share
in the glories of His Kingdom, the
scene of which was to be the earthly
Jerusalem.-
In the hands of these mystics, with
' their immeasurably deepened religious
experience, all these ideas become
transformed. and there emerges the
doctrine of a. blessed immortality, no
linger in the earthly, but in ‘tne
heavenly Jerusalem: the underworld
will give up its dead each will find
its own body, which will be reassem-
bled, and in this body will pass to a
deathless life in the world of spirit.
So Christ comes. and once more
transforms the current beliefs. Writ-
lng nothing Himself. He finds His first
interpreter in the converted Rabbi
Paul. who first It Rabbinic setting,
then with not inconsiderable Greece-
Roman aid. expounds Jesus’s teaching
in the light of his own religious ex-
perience. Soon after Paul's death. a
bi-Ilngual Jewish Chrhtian named
John Mark. Who for com time had
been paraphrasing into Greek Peter's
Aramaic sermons at Rome. is asked
to put down the substance of these
sermons in narrative form, and the
result is our earliest Gospel. Within
twenty-five ”years two writers—mice,
a companion of Paul, and unfitknown
Palestinian iJewish Christian—had
embodied Mark’s Gospdl and a collecv
tion of sayings of Christ. conipiied,
probably. in the first instance by
Matthew the Apostle. into much
longer documents each with me tin
terpretation .01 Christ based upon the
in the
and
RACE ;s_-IIEIG
1 really
measuring five feet ten, perhaps. but
served to emphasize the dwarnshneu
oh the remaining graduates. ‘ ‘
. There were scores ' or girls age
proaching the midget type. If they
hadn't been full fledged B. A!!! you
drop, except in rare instances—and
prodigies are few indeed—so we may
Some may have been eighteen. bug
day to consider as a. start 6.
ties, of descent at least, and few of
them were farmers' daughters. The
men and women. With their splendid:
physical foundation it was easier to ’
build up a generation of well de-r
vdoped and Well glown girls. L ‘ '
*send their girls to enjoy the benefits
of higher education and they did not
start with all the advantages of their
predecessors. 'lhey may have 59c!)
born ofpaients both of whom were
employed in industries. Or their par—
onts may have led a sedentary life
of another kind. Instead of picked
girls choosing an intellectual career
pcting for college honors.
ing the argument. a \‘ussar daisy
chain group, or a Smith College grad-'
uating class. or a Wellesley or a Bryn
Illawr class t03day or a decade ago ‘
with a group of girls attending a city
college. Do they measure up in actual
inches with the average college girl
born and bred and educated in the
city? Recollection leads us to believe
they do not.
And to continue the comparisoti
study the high school girl. Does she
belong to the statuesque or the '
“runty” ty pc? You have the impres-V.
class of these young diploma. winners
school girl height, and possibly they:
fall short of it.
Also obsene the girls you see in
rants. at dances, in ofilces,'\vherever3V
'cnough of them are gathered to often
a fairly well picked set. Is not the.
average less than medium. isn't itV
short? Wouldn’t. you call the,
majority "runty" whether you dared .
apply the term frankly to them or?
not. even if you only made a mental}
note of it? Canvassing among avail-3'.
able material the consensus sustains;
the belief that-the “minty" girl is
here and in astonishingly’iarg num—
bers.
being to trace the course of Ch-istlac- l
ity from its birth in Jerusa‘em. the
capital of the Jewish world until it;
found lodgrnent in Rome. the capital
of all the world.
Gospel of St. John
A Great Theological Treatise
-—there is prepared out in the heart”
of the Greek world a great theological}
treatise called the Gespcl according to;
Christians at the end of the century
had found Him to be, and endeavor-ins
to show. inter alia, that, this Christ
and the Jesus of History are Identical};
in the serial story of the Bible. At
first primitive. at times barbaric.
when we place the documents in their‘
chronological sequence and free them
from theological encrustations. we ob-
serve 335 the story develops out of tiny;
beginnings. a sure and steady upward 33'
growth "in many portions and inl
many manners, " culminating t length
in what is confessedly the Intel: per-2
fect religion that man has experienced3
in-his long and chequered history. '
cal research gives us back our Bible.
no longer ,an impossible book full
of 'moral and intellectual stumbling
meaning in our religious. social and ‘
political problems of to- day.
France and the Negro.
From the Outlook, London.
France—or at least Paris—today is
full of plans to use the Moroccan and 3
and she is "cultivating" the negro in
all kinds of ways. One incident,
slight in itself but significant as a'.
wind vane. is the fuss made of Rena3
Maraa’s Bafaoula—Veriiable Roman}.
negro—Which has been awarded the
Goncourt prize for 1911 and is pub-
lished under the sponsorship of tiara
distinguished French writers. The
book really is a beastly book. It may 3
depict faithfully the negroa at
French equatorial Africa, though
some of the orgies it describes sug-
gm rather the negrm of Diane-
martre.
Apart from "realism" carried into
disgusting detail it has nothing to
make it notable. There is a negro
husband. and one of his wives with a
taste for adultery, and a young negro
to- complete the triangle. and a little
folklore (which seems to be faithffl).
and many orgies, which give the in.
measles. not so much of the African
forests as of the queer places that am
kept, up in Paris for the delecm‘tion all
foreign visitors. For the rest it
pan-negro propaganda. against , the
white, man. Yet Paris “takeslit up.
It ia‘a reclame of the moment.
. 01:13 y an incident. but. 8333an 3
one._ If France has thermostat: :9
win _and keep a great pm in
for France with the aid of
one is doomed. I hope 3
has not {Emission but M
might have thought them children. ’
Degrees are not conferred upon chil‘ V"
consider them about 20 years of agé. I
They represented many nationall- '*
first college girls came from the farm; i
They were the offspring of sturdy. V
Then 3the newer settlers began to;
the street, in iunchrooms. in restau—x'"
Compare, for the purpose of follow- . ‘
sion after looking over class after. ‘
tWenty is close enough to the average 7
age of the collegé graduate of 30- V
we now have girls of every type com- 3 3 3.
that they do not reach the average ' '77
v
Finally—to pass by the lesser booksV .
St. John setting forth the Christ as;
And so modern critical and histoz'l— ' 'V
blocks, but an orderly record of pro"- ' V
‘gressive revelation charged with vital 1 *
Such are some of the chief chapters; .
the negro as bulkarks of, shall we 1-.
,say. in politeness. a defense policy:
.4
Norwalk Chronicler