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Show :1 j Woman's World. 1 1 Specially Prepared for Our Feminine Readers. ft - ! ) 1 :i j BE GRACEFUL. !By Marion Martineau in Chicago Tribune. . I This is the story of a girl who was ; I once so awkward that it was painful j I to look upon her! It . She was a healthy girl, full of ath- 1 r. letics and so fond of outdoor exercise I : that she simply could not stay in the f house. Yet with it all she was pain- j . " fully awkward. j Her athletics, instead of improving i her, had only made her a great deal f J worse. ; This young woman had to learn the ; I lesson of the present day physical i. culturists, which is that true physical ;; I culture means not awkwardness but I- grace; it means that as one progresses - : physically one becomes prettier; it :'' ;' means that the girl who goes in for ; body building and body reducing must go in at the same time for grace of '. lody. Otherwise her work is all lost. ? ' Strength and beauty must go together. ' In these days it is not the strong " I women who wins your approval. It is I not the woman who can walk ten miles in the morning and bob up in i the afternoon ready to walk ten miles I more. It is not the woman who can ; , lift a ton weight and cry that she ! , can yet lift one more pound without tottering. It is not any or all of these 1 ; j ; women that are the most admired of I I their sex. j ! ' On the contrary, it is the woman who builds herself up along graceful, beautiful lines who is admired, not 1 i the one who is healthy and strong I by mere brute force. I j In Vienna there is a new kind of I I physical culture now being taught, V I which is so much like one that was in I f vogue in ancient Rome that the two f seem allied in every way. This Vien- " na doctrine, as it may be called, ! teaches that a woman must learn to 1 he graceful, must learn to be pretty, must learn to be pleasing, and must i learn to charm. These are the things that come first of all. Incidentally, i while learning the other things, she j will learn to be healthy and to be J? 4 strong. l -o- I. Easy Road to Grace. I J Physical culture is taught not by I lifting weights but by lifting the body , j upon the toes, by balancing upon: one I foot and upon the other, by swaying I the arms, and by running and jumping I and taking many other bodily move- I ; inents. . I j All violent exercises are forbidden. Dumbbells are thrown away, heavy j weights are not allowed in the gym- I j nasium. rings and poles for swinging f - and vaulting are put aside, and the I I pupil substitutes for all of these a I I system of bodily exercise which, in I S the end. turns her out strong in mus- I cle and beautiful in body. The graceful people are those who J-f 1 practice graceful motions, who do . I graceful tasks every day, who try to ! v -e jiraceiui; wno stpay it, ana wno become, by practicing grace, proficient in the art. just as one becomes pro- l ficient in any other art. It is a ques- tion of practice, as you see. j This theory is quite a different one from the theory usually advanced for I J phyp'cal culture for women: It used " ' ; j to be thought that a woman must be- -; ' come strong without regard to grace, i It ivas the prevalent idea that the ! athletic girl must necessarily be un. j lovely to look upon, j It. was firmly believed that to be (i j healthy a woman could not bebeau- j tifu!. And that the first step toward j health and beauty was the casting off I ef one's stays, the taking off of one's , S pretty shoes, the discarding of 'belts i and all snug fitting bands, and the I great deal too big for one. Often the ; athletic girl adopted a slouchy kind of f blouse and wore a skirt that was too V short to be conventional. j o f i KEEPS ON HER CORSETS. i ' I But the young woman who flew ! from awkwardness to grace began by keeping on her corsets. She loosened j them and adopted a kind of corset ! . j that, while conventional, was not too ; . ' high, too long, nor too heavily boned. I i She kept her figure conventional so f ? far as possible, and then, throwing , away her weights, her vaulting poles, . ; her horizontal bars and rings, she ! went in for grace, just by using her arms and her legs and exercising her body as it should be exercised. ; This young woman was naturally , unfortunate in her figure. She was I i flat in the chest and rather full across " ; the hips. This made her appear at a j I disadvantage. Instead of being top J heavy, she was too heavy in the body, j j ? and she moved in a lumbersome way, (4 . as muse uiuve wno are 100 micK oe- 1 low the waist line, i But slie took the flying exercises, f the pretty, graceful flying movements which are so admirable in the line of I physical culture. She began by I standing upon a small foot stool ex tending her arms first to one side and ( then to the other. Then she raised herself on her toes. She reached out i. . ; this way, and she reached out that t way, swaying her arms as though she were a flying machine just going into ' . action. One of her greatest troubles lay in I keeping her balance while upon her toes, but she tried it and tried it until she could stand on the balls of her j : feet and breathe easily with her arms I ' outstretched, while she counted ten or twenty according to the luck she j. i had in getting the right poise, i Then she tried another movement 1 ! which was much more difficult Stand- j j ing squarely upon one foot she threw ; the other foot behind her and out- j j stretched both arms. This gave her j : body poise and ireedom of action with j ; ' i the arms. She stood this way while I ; she waved her arms backward and forward as though she were a flying i . machine with flappable wings; then ' j 1j she stood upon the other foot and did the same thing. What It Did for Her. It was great practice, and, after the exercise hour was over, she felt, somehow, some-how, as though she could move about more gracefully, lift her arms more easily and with prettier gestures, and as if her hands belonged to her, instead in-stead of belonging to some one else an uncomfortable feeling from which she had too often suffered. This young woman danced with her feet and danced with her arms, swaying sway-ing them over her head as in a Spanish Span-ish fandango, and she skipped and ran about and jumped up and did many other things, always working in curves, and not in straight lines. Sometimes, out on the lawn, she put on a sweater and pitched a light rubber ball, just to occupy her mind, while she was exercising for grace, but she did not' do it mechanically or heavily, for she knew that this would make her awkward instead of easy in her movements. This young woman had learned the new cult, which says that a woman to be attractive must possess three qualities. She must have grace, she must have strength, and she must have health. These three things give beauty. Not strength ajlorc, nor health alone, nor coarse, rough body motions, but the soft, graceful, easy ones that catch the eye and hold it In admiration. Now, these are things you must learn to do if you would fly from awkwardness awk-wardness to grace: Learn to stand on one foot, with the other foot lifted behind you and with both arms outstretched. Learn to balance yourself on your toes, with both arms waving ahead of you. Learn to sway the arms in rhythmic rhyth-mic time over your head, and learn to dance a little while you sway your arms. If j-ou are a little too heavy around the waist you can put on a sweater to induce perspiration, and you can get out upon the lawn and toss a light rubber ball. Do not take a heavy ball, nor one that in any way taxes your arms, your hands, or your back muscles. Learn to throw the ball, which should be a large, light one, with your arms instead of with your hands; learn to rise, to run, to bend, to sway, and to stoop, all without exerting your strength, but by a use of the body muscles. That is the way to become graceful, and the sooner you try it the better it will be for you. If you are an athletic girl you must forget some of your strong armed stunts and take up the gentler ones. If you are a domestic woman, capable only of sinking into a chair and rising with difficulty, you can practice these with excellent results. re-sults. If you are a woman of fads, then here is the best fad of all, and the prettiest one that has come up in many a, uay: The fad of flying from awkwardness awkward-ness to grace! Answers to Correspondents. Marie E.: I always read your valuable valu-able suggestions and helps to correspondents, corre-spondents, so take the liberty to ask advice from you in regard to my complexion. com-plexion. I am dark, with black eyes and brown hair, 5 feet 3 inches tall, and weigh 10S pounds. Will you please tell me what to use so as to whiten my face? Please understand that I do not want to use anything in the least harmful to my skin. I think I ought to state that I seldom have much color in my cheeks, but when I do the red seems to make me look darker. I think you will understand and help me with your kind advice. Red cheeks almost invariably have the effect of making the complexion seem deeper. It is the effect of red on the skin. To whiten your face use the cucumber lotion not the cream often given in this column. If you have mislaid it send a self-addressed envelope and I will send it to you. Miss Winnie: Several receipts for reducing weight have apeared In th column. All d'ugs are dangerous and should be avoided. Exercise may be indulged in at lower altitudes with beneficial results, but often fails in the high mountains because the heart will not stand the strain. A permanent perma-nent cure can only be effected by dieting. diet-ing. Anyone your age who is too stout eats too much. Avoid starch, sugar and fat. Eat fresh acid fruits. If you have to work hard and require to eat strong food, try eating lean beef and nothing else in the way of meat. You will soon get so that you will only eat what you actually need. Whem people say they do not lose flesh through abstinence ab-stinence thev tafk nonsense. Several people in Salt Lake City have reduced re-duced their weight from 50 to 100 pounds or more by starving themselves. them-selves. Eat less, and still less, till the required weight is reached. Drink water when hungry and you will not suffer any pangs. Try rubbing a little pure olive oil into the scalp to check the hair turning turn-ing gray. It may be put right on the scalp without greasing the hair by using us-ing a common sewing machine oil can. A tin one is best, as brass is affected by this oil. Massage with the finger tips. The continual colds In the head show you have catarrh. Inhale spirits of camphor for temporary relief. No real cure is known, while exposure continues. |