W. G. Anderson, Associate Director Yale University Gymnasium: “I believe in ‘tumbling’ as an exercise. It makes a man quick, agile, and very sure-footed. It is a form of sport that is popular and perfectly legitimate when properly taught. We have no good book on the subject, but need one. If such a work is to be presented to those interested in this subject, it ought to be written by a man who has had much experience in actual tumbling, who is familiar with the mechanism of the body, and who is educated. Dr. James T. Gwathmey, of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., is just the person to compile a book on this form of gymnastics. He is a clever performer, a teacher of wide experience, and an educated physician. I have looked over the MS. of the Doctor’s new book, and I indorse it.”
R. Tait McKenzie, M.D.: “I am glad to find some one ready and able to draw the veil from a branch of gymnastics which the professional acrobat has so long kept shrouded in mystery. The reducing of the various feats of tumbling to a progressive sequence, and the analyzing of the various combinations, is indeed a difficult task; but your kinetoscope method of illustration will make clear what would otherwise require pages of description. Your work can not but assist any one of ordinary ability in mastering the rudiments of the art; but it will also appeal to the much wider field of all who admire acrobatics, and will give them some idea of the difficulties mastered by the professional, whose work they will more fully appreciate. I wish your book every success.”
E. Hitchcock, Jr., M.D., Director of Department of Hygiene and Physical Training, Cornell University: “It has always seemed to me that this graphic method of instructing is the most useful, and I know that this subject in your hands will help enormously in instructing in a decidedly difficult branch of gymnastic work.”
E. Hitchcock, M.D., Amherst College, Pratt Gymnasium: “In physical education, as in many other branches of mental and bodily training, there are some advanced branches which are adapted to the few and not the many. Acrobatic work is one of these. But it should be controlled, cultivated, and made good use of, like the other work, which may be undertaken by anybody. It is a pleasure to know that a manual on this subject is to be prepared and furnished for our use by one so capable to issue the book as is Dr. Gwathmey, of Vanderbilt University. We shall wait impatiently to get hold of it.”
R. F. Nelligan, Instructor, Amherst College: “For sound men and boys tumbling is one of the best and most exhilarating of exercises, when practised under favorable conditions. Of course tumbling on a brick sidewalk differs from tumbling on a hair-stuffed mattress, with the aid of the safety appliances while learning. It has been said that one can not learn after reaching maturity. This is not so, as many first-class tumblers did not commence until after reaching twenty-five. At the age of thirty-two I was induced to take up tumbling under Dr. Gwathmey, and, with the aid of his safety appliances, succeeded in learning to do fairly well over fifty different movements and combinations.”
Carl Betz, Supervisor Music and Physical Training, Public Schools: “Your book, ‘Tumbling for Amateurs,’ which you have announced, will undoubtedly be hailed with delight by thousands of young American men who seek and find recreation in this particular kind of exercise. The photographs that will illuminate the pages of your book will be of intrinsic value to amateurs, who usually have no expert teacher to explain to them minutely each step of the exercise. If the element of danger in tumbling is greater than is consistent with the needs of physical education, as some claim it is, then your book, giving such minute instructions, and photographs of the body passing through the different stages of each exercise, cannot fail to reduce that danger to a degree which every interesting gymnastic exercise must contain. I therefore cheerfully recommend your interesting and timely little book to all who may wish to learn and practice the delightful pastime of tumbling.”
William A. Stecher, Secretary Technical Committee, Nord Amerikanischer Turnerbund: “I think that your undertaking is a very commendable one; for I believe that the greater the control a person has over his body—and tumbling undoubtedly increases this—the better off he is. I wish you all success.”
Frank Pfister, M.D., Editor Mind and Body: “Received your favor of the 7th inst., and congratulate you upon the idea of publishing a manual on tumbling, for nothing recommendable exists in that line.”
Luther Gulick, M.D. (“History of Physical Training”), International Y. M. C. A. Training-School: “Your letter of the 7th is at hand, with the excellent cuts that were inclosed. You ought not to charge less than one dollar for the book. I do not know but what you could get more. I shall be very glad to purchase a copy of the book as soon as it is published. Please let me know.”
G. W. Ehler, Physical Director of the Y. M. C. A. of Chicago, Central Department: “There is a necessity for a good book on tumbling, as there is none now in print to my knowledge; and I believe that such a book would meet with a very hearty reception by physical directors and by others who are interested.”
Robert J. Roberts: “I approve of your idea of getting out such a book as you speak of. I would keep out the dangerous exercises; or, if you put them in, hedge them in so that amateurs will not use them. There is no kind of physical work that will so harmoniously develop every part of the body as tumbling.”