Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/266

 with four pupils, two of those being children of a local physician, who recommended her class to patients with growing children in the family. Skillfully she mixed pleasure with physical culture, took her pupils on walking trips, with nature talks on the side, arranged games to be played after the lessons, and in fact scored a social success among young people.

Gradually her class grew, because children wanted to share the good times. Then she offered to supervise an entertainment for local charity, and for this purpose drilled a number of the elder brothers and sisters of her pupils. The drill was a success, and while the entertainment did not net her enough money to pay for the many rehearsals, it introduced her work to the general public and started an advance class. She worked in this fashion, barely making a living, for nearly two years, and then public sentiment demanded that she be given a chance to introduce physical training in the public schools. I cite this instance particularly to show that physical culture opens up possibilities in almost any city for the woman with sufficient force of character and personality to make her influence felt.

The teacher of physical culture who is a recognized authority in her community has no financial problems to solve. If an appointee in the