The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-11-01
Boy and Girl.

our readers VINO are OF an observing sort
may take their placesi' any morning where
they can see a stream of people pursuing
their way to busness-clerks, shop girls,
teachers, editors, lawyers, merchants, mar
keters-and they will soon take notice of
peculiar fact, which is that every nine men
out of ten go with careless air, Indifferent
if not absorbed, slouching, shuffling, head
down or awry, shoulders bent, hands in
pocket, and legs moving any way to cover
the distance; and that every nine women
in ten walk erectly, shoulders back, chest
full with measured movement and more or
less gliding gait, never forgetting proper
bearing, although often apparently as alb
sorbed and lost in thought as he who pre-
cedes or who comes after her.
| Now this is curious circumstance and in
realizing the truth of ones observation one
looks about for the reasons why the greater
number Of our women walk so well, while
the men pay so little attention to gait and
demeanor, except under particular stress,
and then relapsing into ordinary habit when
the necessity of the moment is removed |
And the more one thinks of it the more one |
is convincedj that the reason lies with the |
mothers of these men and women.
From the moment that the little girl can
60 alone, her mother, her nurse, her guardian
of the moment, whoever it may be, is per-
petualy counseling her to hold up her head,
to sit straight, to fill her lungs, to throw
? back her shoulders, to turn out her toes, and
in extreme cases braces are put upon the
= tender shoulders, the feet are obliged to
= walk line while book is balanced on the
: head, or the little wretch is even laced to
peculiar chair for a certain length of time
daily, to enforce the carriage of the body in
! nearly a straight line from the base of the
d spine TO the top Of the head, or, if the spine
o be bent, to lie on an inclined plane held
1t there by cap of leather or steel, if the latter
!, has not, by this, gone out of use. When
!, she walks her gait Is marked and cultivated;
:. she is told not to wag her shoulders, not to
n swing her body, not to look behind her, no,
J. to shuttle, not to bend or lift the knee, and
l made to give a goodly share of attention tc
n the effort of getting over ground in a right
Is line without the visible lifting of the foo
and Jerking of the frame and tossing of the
e head. Thus early taught that walking is al
ly art, she practices it till it becomes nature.
On the other hand the boy receives nj
ht such instruction a general impression, bu
r. perhaps not an entirely conscious one, pre-
of walls that such course would make hin
c. vain and efeminate, and therefore he i
We never. subjected to it except in militar
I'd schools. Great care being taken in hi
ue infancy that the chubby little legs shall nc
become banded, and an occasional wor
at being thrown in in advancing years as t
it holding up his head, responsibility concern
in ing his carriage ceases and is dismissed,
las being taken for granted either that goo
ne walking does not matter so much for a mai
at or that, being a man, he is sure to do every
,ed thing in the right way. Moreover, bo
r seldom walks; he runs and skips and JUMP
nd and saunters, and the opportunity of in
re pressing the future importance of his bearir
lrd upon him is much more inirequent than it
i'm with girls-girls who are apt to be old
ith for their years than boys, and who early d
as velop I've love of praise and the desire
cd! please, and who, in superficial things, i'm
the tate their elders more quickly than boys d
fell having also the hourly sight of the gracef
n. and gentle movements of mothers and aun
ike and teachers and elder sisters before then
less for, perhaps, if they saw their mothers 81
Gus ting with their feet higher than their hea
of or with their knees crossed in the ca
all and the soles of their shoes wiping every o
en-, who brushes by, or with their two hands
If a their pockets in the street, they also wou
be inclined to do as these mothers do.
u Whether in so many words or not, the g
'he is taught from her earliest lesson, to ma
''h herself attractive; that she learns is one
the her chief duties in life. If it has some
e basing and beitting efTects-if even VIII
ees' it teaches slavsh humility in the one lig
'hu- it gives birth to vanity and coquetry in I
other and destroys some portion of woman
my grace and refinement-it nevertheless he
the largely in the work of civlizing the ra
and rather than repress the custom of
structon and correction in this regard,
would enlarge it and apply it to boys, Il
'Aeu they might, when older, from force of ha
rather than from constant consclOusn(
my carry themselves as becomes the lords Of c
alton, modifying, however some of the pl
ent manner Of giving the instruction, VIII
l''eu really produces in the end the debasem
and coquetry, and compelling proper
meanor as fit reverence for the powers of
ere body and its Creator.
The fact that, in the natural life of
savage, this difference in the carriage of Il
and women fails to be found, only serves
l. convince us that it is more matter of
,.iI. and maxim than of nature, for, under
,n,a, necessities Of savage lite, the Indian L
20 and woman will be observed to have
~, same erect hearing and elastic tread, it be
.;. admitted that their defects are common
both; and it seems a pity that while
portion of the race is becoming more ci
lied, beings should become less perfect
., mails. When occasion arises, indeed, Il
,a. is no one who has a more magnificent b
ing than our brothers and husbands bu
nj, think that if mothers would consider it
I'LL somewhat to impress upon boys the al
pleasing and the fitness of dgnifed
riags, it would not be only on occasion
,,.I the average man equals the exceptional
,,1,, tlaman and walks iaudari a audato vi
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