Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1911 — ATHLETIC DEVOTIONS. [ARTICLE]

ATHLETIC DEVOTIONS.

Gymnastic Exercises That Impressed the Kurdish Villagers. Everything is liable to be misunderstood, even gymnastic exercises. This truth was brought home to George H. Hepworth, and he tells his experience In “Through Armenia on Horseback.” The author was stopping in a Kurdish village, and the inn possessed but one general living room. In the morning I began my regular gymnastics, stooping until my fingers touched, the floor, throwing my arms about like the spokes of a wheel, striking out from the shoulder and going through all the exercises, none of which I ever omitted. I would gladly have taken a sponge bath, but it would have been impossible to get enough water. A pint is enough to suffice a Turk. Well, I got under way with my exercises when I saw that my audience was excited; conversation dropped into a whisper, then ceased; word passed from one to another, and one by one the occupants of the room quietly left. I feared that they were offended and wanted to call them back and apologize. Just then my dragoman entered, laughing. “What has happened?” I asked. He laughed the hauler as he replied: “The Kurds think you are practicing devotional religious exercises, and they retired under the impression that you would regard their presence as an intrusion."