Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/253

188 in 1844 in Barre, Mass. She remembers once seeing this old grandfather, who made a strange impression upon her childish imagination, with his broken English and his velvet coat, an ele- gance not affected by the fanning population among whom he lived. He ilied when she was quite a child, and all subseciuent attempts to trace her true name and French ancestry have proved imavailing. Her early years were spent in a country village until the death of her par- ents, when, at the age of eight, she was adopted by her uncle, Mr. James Nowell, of Ports- mouth, N,.H.

In 1859 the family that had now become hers moved to Cambridge, Mass. She entered the Cambridge High School, from which she was graduated in 1862. The profession of teacher seemed best adapted to her, and events have proved that she chose wisely. Her work began in Montpelier, Vt., and, be- fore her first year was over, she received a cell to the Williams School, a large school for boys in Chelsea, Mass. At the end of her first year she was given the position of master's assistant, which she occupied for two years, resigning in the spring of 1868, to accept the position of assistant gymnastic teacher in Vassar College. Through some misunderstand- ing among the faculty this plan was not car- ried out, and in the fall of the same year she accepted the position of master's assistant in the Chapman School in East Boston, a mixed school of girls and boys.

Miss Allen was always a popular teacher, nmch beloved by her pupils and appreciated by their parents, and she thoroughly enjoyed the work; but she rebelled at the mass of use- less cramming imposed upon the public school teacher, and found herself opposed in principle to spending so much time in fitting for exami- nations, when she would gladly have devoted herself to teaching in its broader sense. Full of energy and ambition, she chafed at the re- straints of her position, realizing also that, however great the eminence to which she might attain as a teacher, .she could not, being a woman, aspire to the only two positions above her in the grammar school, those of submaster and master.

All this, added to the excessive strain of the daily routine upon an organization not over robust, forced her to look about for some other field of work in which to e.xercise her unusual powers, before they s"hould begin to wane. For a long time she had been interested in physical training, and during the last tlozen years she had aroused much enthusiasm for gymnastics in her classes at school. Miss Allen's interest in this subject led her into a field which she found was almost un- explored. Nowhere in Boston could a woman or child secure any regular ])hysical training. Further investigation revealed the same lack of opportunity in this direction throughout the country. Classes in gynmastics had been opened in Boston and elsewhere, both before and after Dr. Dio Lewis's day; but nothing had proved permanent, and Dr. Lewis's phe- nomenal work had been practically dead for a dozen years or more.

Allured by this untried path, she soon se- cured the hearty support and co-operation of many of the most prominent Boston physi- cians of the day. Not only did they semi their patients to her, but their wives and children also joined her classes. The enterprise, begun quietly in 1878 in a meagrely equipped room in E.ssex Street, under the name of "The Ladies' Gymnasium," was popular from the start.

At the end of the first year Miss Allen real- ized that her pupils who returned to her must have more advanced work. Then began her scheme for progressive physical development, which she has been greatly interested in per- fecting, as the years have gone on.

She was the first to introduce the sensible gynmastic costume (consisting of blouse and Turkish trousers, with no skirt), allowing perfect freedom of motion, which is now adopted, in similar form, in all gynmasiums. A prominent Boston physician, on visiting her classes, remarked that it would be worth while for the women simply to put on this healthful dress and play about in the gymnasium a while, even if they did not ]ierform any of the exercises. It is probable that the physical training for women, of which Miss Allen was the pioneer, has been one of the potent factors in diminishing the evils of tight lacing, which in