Physical Exercise and the M. I. A.

PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND THE M. 1. A. Beginning with the current M. I. A. season, the Ensign stake Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association inaugurated a sheme for physical training in junior classes. This work has been directly under the supervision of E. J. Milne, a member of the stake board, and the physical director of the L. D. S. University, and Dr. E. G. Gowans, another member of the stake board. Permission was given by the President of the Latter-day Saints University for the use of the gymnasium connected with that school. Twice each month the junior boys from all the wards in the stake have been gathered at the gymnasium for physical training. One of these occasions is on Tuesday evening, when the lesson from the manual is given, under the direction of the instructor in charge. The officers have been greatly pleased with the results obtained from this experiment of combining physical culture with the manual lessons. Desiring that the members of the General Board M. I. A. should be made familiar with the work that is being done in the Ensign stake, along these lines, Superintendent R. Hillam, Jr., and his assistants Lewis R. Wells and Wm. H. Folland, invited the General Board to be present at the University gymnasium, on Tuesday evening, 7:30, January 14, to attend the regular semi-monthly meeting of the junior class. There were 127 junior boys present, and after a review of their manual lesson, they spent a good hour in physical sports, basket ball, races, etc. Presidents Joseph F. Smith, and Anthon H. Lund, and many of the members of the General Board were present and delighted with the exercises. In our large cities, physical training in connection with theMutuals is a crying need, and doubtless more will soon be said and done in this matter.