Show i THE GIRL YOU WOULD BY I LIKE TO BE KATHERINE MORTON POINTS ON BEHAVIOR If II Not Nott every woman can have beauty of face fa e and figure nor can she have I perfect features the hands of o a Venus or the hair of Helen but there Is one thing that she should have and that thatIs thatIs thatis i Is grace of bearing The woman who i is to be graceful should begin her 1 training In her cradle days The chil children children dren of the rich are taught graceful d deportment even before they are taught to read and write Yet it is extraordinary extraordinary extraordinary that so many women once they have reached r ached maturity cease to have any semblance of poise or harmony in wal bearing or gesture We constant constantly ly see about us hostesses or guests making movement after movement with such awkwardness and such sueh ga s that tha t even eyen the most beautiful beautiful beautiful ful faces cannot redeem this lack of ot grace We Ve see se women beautifully gowned and with evident refinement getting up and sitting down with a that would not be tolerated In a school girl If you Y go to a thea theatre theatre theatre tre and sit somewhat back in the or orchestra orchestra orchestra chestra chairs with a good view of the aisle watch the women ns as they walk down it About one in twenty will car carry carry carry ry herself erectly and toward her seat without some ungainly motion of the arms or body Perhaps the floating gliding motion which was so fashionable le In the early Victorian times is out of date now that we have reached the athletic age the age when woman Is quite able to battle with the world But why should she try to show her narrowness both men mentally mentally mentally tally and physically in the swing and stride Instead of the slow and meas measured measured measured tread which is supposed to go with the evening function The first requisite for physical grace is physical and mental relaxation If It your mind Is tense and nervous your body will be the same The woman whose every very movement is flighty who comes into a room full of people turn turning turning turning ing first to the right then backing then turning to the left then hesitating again then making a third or fourth unsuccessful start Is not only showing Indecision in her manner she is show showing showIng showing ing indecision of mind The hostess who greets you with a tense and ab absorbed absorbed orbed manner probably forgetting your our name when trying to introduce you ou to some one need not expect to im improve improve improve prove In cordiality of appearance un until until until til she has improved and warmed the cordiality of her heart Behind a graceful manner there Is always some forethought The woman who never never has a hand to give gle to you ou in greeting though she may be your hostess at a reception is not necessarily an ungraceful un ungraceful graceful woman but merely a thought thoughtless thoughtless thoughtless less one Possibly some one o may have given ghen to her a bunch of roses or she sho sh may have just brought In the teapot t but if her mind is working properly she would have put these things out of the way wa before she received you in order not to embarrass em barrass both you and herself Every woman woo in c be graceful If she sheso sheso sheso so desires No Xo mutter whether you are all angles or blessed bl ed with two many curves if you will to be so and con concentrate concentrate concentrate your our mind on the matter there is no reason why you should not be noted both for grace and graciousness seeing that they the both come from the same source and are aIe born of gentle thought Physical Ph grace is to a great greal extent the outcome of poise and well balanced mind You will always notice that the woman who is constantly making jerk jerky useless angular motions follows out a jerky train of thought that she site is either too strenuous or too Intense for her good health and for the comfort of those around her lIeI The wo woman woman man of or great mental capacity if she is small can cun indulge in much gesture if she is larger her sense of proportion will tell her he that the slower and smoother motions are more becoming to her height Once the mind mild is directed to the question of physical grace the next most important thing is loose and com comfortable comfortable comfortable clothing There never was a woman who walked gracefully in tight USh t shoes nor whose hands looked well in pinched gloves when she used them for gestures No woman can use her neck ne k kand and head freely if her collar is tight or uncomfortable or if her hat is too heavy hea v and particularly Is the corset The Feline Grace That Comes from Mental Poise and Bodily Control The Shrinking Woman Who Is Too Conscious of Those Around Her j i I I a hindrance to physical grace gr e The most graceful actresses on the Amer American American American ican stage today are Mrs Leslie LesUe Carter and nd Ethel Barrymore They are en entirely entirely entirely two different types one is in the early and the other Is a mother who has a boy of that age Neither of these women wears tight or confining stays They both have beautiful fig figures figures figures ures the one a type of splendid ma maturity maturIty maturity and the other of girlish grace They use their bodies with absolute relaxation that is the secret of grace This condition however Is not absolutely necessary for we all know l now that corsets can be made to fit fitI I the figure even to give the figure those curves which fashion prescribes and yet jet not hinder free movement of the th body The Tte dressmaker with more nerve than art is responsible for a good deal of ungainliness It is she who takes I away way the one extra Inch of fullness I across the chest or between the shoulders shoulders ders which makes the difference be between between I tween comfort and the sense of being bound into ones clothes If you feel I that your want waist wat t line binds you in any anyPlace anyplace Place take a pair of scissors and cut cutI I it that is if you care about being graceful You can be graceful I clothed cl thed in a garment of loose sack sackcloth I cloth eroth but bub not In a gown of rarest vel velvet velvet velvet vet that binds you between the shoulders shoulders ders dels or across the chest or indeed in inan any an other place Physical grace or motion is the out outcome outcome outcome come of prompt control of the muscles and limbs Physical culturists will tell teU you this can only be acquired through physical culture but I have seen so many many women who were graceful that I I have come to the conclusion that though this is true namely that grace presupposes perfect control of the mus muscles muscles d cles esI I believe this can only be accomplished accomplished accomplished by learning to relax each muscle separately If you know how to relax elax your muscles you must know how how to stiffen them for you have to stiffen them in order to get the sensa sensation sensation sensation tion of relaxation If you can both stiffen and relax them you ou can control them So few persons persons know how holy to relax that I will give glye a little illustration of how this is really rean done one particularly as relaxation is one oneo of the odds nowadays I remember the day when I paid 10 to a famous teacher to learn what I am about to describe to you I do not say that it was not worth It In fact I am sure it was because if you ou know how ho hoto to relax absolutely both your mind and body you know how to forget care how to cure the mind of the nervous nerous trouble prevalent in these times how to rest yourself when weary w ary and best of all aU j how to fall faU asleep when sleep p seems an impossibility and even eren e en sleeping bleeping po potions potions are of no avail Well Vell this is the lesson les on in relaxation my teacher gave to tome tome tome me meShe She placed me in a large arm chair the well known Morris kind Behind my head beside the regular cushion of the An Embarrassing Manner Mann er of Greeting a Guest chair there was a small pillow the back of the chair was lowered so that the body was in a more comfortable attitude The hands were rested on the arms of the chair and the feet on a small footstool The teacher now be began began began gan by telling me to expel my breath rapidly and forcefully I did so and was told to begin again inhaling quick quickly quickly quickly ly and expelling the breath as force forcefully forcefully forcefully fully as possible with possible if I the sensation of sinking in not only of the chest but of the whole body This breathing was kept up until I began to grasp her further explanation of her hers system s stem of relaxation She now asked me to try ty to get the sensation as if the top of my head were sinking down downright downright downright right straight to my eyes e es The down downward downward downward ward sensation accompanied the ex expelling expelling expelling of the breath Of course this sounds rathar rath r extraordinary utterly foolish in fact but if you tried to get the sensation of letting go the top of the head of letting it sink in you would see just how restful that sensa sensation sensation sensation tion Is I did dill not get it for some time but when I did it was a delightful feel feeling feelIng feeling ing The top of the head is the hardest part of the body to relax with the ex of the vital organs There is isso isso Isso so much tension in these days particularly particularly with all an those engrossed in busi business business business ness and who are of a nervous or wor worrying worrying worrying temperament After I had se secured secured secured cured this sensation of falling drop dropping dropping dropping ping relaxing or sinking of the top of the head I was told to take all the muscles of the face one by b one and feel as if they the too were relaxing and dropping as if all the tension were leaving them The same of the neck muscles In Iii order to get a better idea of what relaxation meant the teacher told me to strain every muscle of my neck as much as I could that is to say sayto sayto sayto to put on all the pressure and tension possible By this of course I simply mean Inward pressure or tension of the muscles I lid this and felt every muscle straining as ns if with some exertion exer exertion exertion tion Now Non said the tile teacher relax rela your neck Let everything go Once again all the muscles were ten tensioned tensioned and contracted with the out outgoing outgoing outgoing going breath and even greater relaxation relax relaxation relaxation was felt feIt and each time that I put on the tension and an then relaxed the muscles I perceived d that the degree of relaxation was greater and that I was getting better control We now came down to the shoulders I focused my thought on the muscles of the shoulders shoulders shoulders ders making them tense and then re relaxing relaxing them as I first Inhaled then ex exhaled exhaled exhaled haled deeper Then the arms were made to relax until they felt heavy and lifeless Each internal organ was treated in this way v ay first centering the thought up contracting and then relaxing relax relaxing relaxIng ing and so on then the limbs to the very toes It must have taken some ten minutes to work down from the head to the toes i Now said the teacher teach r inhale deeper while contracting the whole body count six to seven while doing this Hold the tension and also your breath while you count seven s seven ven then re relax relax relax lax expelling the breath to the same number I did this repeatedly and by the end of the I thought I knew what perfect relaxation meant And I did not mind mim paying my 10 for the experience experience experience I have found it of great bene benefit benefit benefit fit in slight cases of illness due to con congestion congestion of some part of the body which I have known how to reduce through tensioning and relaxing the part and thereby inducing the circulation Many of the pupils of this teacher who is now famous have benefited by it particularly particularly particularly those of nervous tense and over overwrought overwrought overwrought wrought temperament It is the physically relaxed woman woma woman who is always famous for her feline grace just as the cat Is the most re relaxed relaxed relaxed of or animals and at the same time the most graceful You can tell the nervous tension under un er which a wo woman woman woman man is laboring by her gesture when she passes you the cake If the arm armis armis I is round roun and free she is probably at ease ase with herself and with you your if the elbow 15 cramped is C 1 undoubtedly the UlC mind behind it is cramped and anxious too i So much is 15 said of the graceful poise of a womans head and what extraordinary extraordinary extraordinary things we see them do Yet Tet what they fondly hope is to acquire graceful poise I have seen unfortunate un unfortunate for fort t girls work worle for hours in a gym gymnasium gymnasium gymnasium stretching their heads bend bending bending bending ing their necks and going through per perfect perfect perfect torture in order to acquire this free carriage and then th n leave the gymnasium gym gymnasium walk down the street full rull of fear of a n big city cit or bashfulness and perpetually conscious of those around In the gymnasium they had been forced to hold their heads high in the street the carriage of their heads was mere merely merely merely ly the outward expression of a shrinking shrink shrinking shrInking ing conscious self that did not dare to look the world and high hea the face Physical grace Is the symbol of har harmony harmony harmony mony of mental poise and bodily con control control control The physical control you can get by b exercising ex your limbs and mus muscles muscles muscles cles the other by exercising mind and spirit Copyrighted Cop righted 1906 by br T C McClure |