a course of training and take a degree.  The Swedes are quite as particular about this as they are about the study of medicine.  No medical practitioner can hang out a sign without a diploma from one of the universities, and no person can teach gymnastics in that country without a similar certificate of competency from the Royal Institute.  Every officer of the army is required to undergo a course of instruction, not only to develop his physical constitution, but to qualify him to teach gymnastics to his soldiers.  The teachers of physical culture in the public schools, both men and women, are obliged to take a similar course in order to drill their pupils properly, for in every schoolroom in the country, down to the kindergartens, daily physical exercise upon Ling’s plan is required to promote the development of the body and improve the health.  This is required in private as well as public schools, and the methods of instruction are subject to the inspection and approval of the Central Institute.  In every town of any size there are gymnastic clubs and associations, which are generally guided by instructors educated at the Central Institute.  They include women as well as men in their membership, and in many of them fencing and other sword exercises are also taught.  In common with all the gymnasiums are bath-houses.  You will find them in every part of the city of Stockholm and in other large towns.  Some of them occupy entire buildings.  It is the habit of business men to go to their stores or offices at nine o’clock in the morning and remain there until two or three in the afternoon, when they go to their club or gymnasium and take an hour’s exercise and afterward a bath.  These establishments in the business quarter of Stockholm and other cities are considered just as important as clubs, restaurants, or other places of resort, and usually have connected with them reading and smoking rooms where patrons can read the daily newspapers and current magazines and sip coffee and smoke while they are cooling off.  It would surprise a visitor in New York or Chicago to be informed that his broker or his lawyer or his banker or a contractor with whom he has business, had gone to a bathhouse or gymnasium at three o’clock in the afternoon, but in Stockholm it is a common reply to an inquiry.  During winter afternoons you can usually find anybody you want by going to his favorite gymnasium or bathhouse, just as you would look for him at his club in Chicago.

There is a distinctive dress for the exercise.  The patrons take off their street clothing and put on light woolen shirts and trousers, and canvas shoes on their bare feet, and, standing in rows, go through a series of motions under the command of their instructor to exercise the arms, legs, neck, and every other part of the body, gently, not violently.  The idea is movement, not exertion, and the muscles are restrained.  The arm is raised slowly with self-resistance.  No clubs or dumb-bells are used, only a gentle motion