Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-02-04
WALKING IN SLIPPERY WEATHER.
a Letter-CaFrfer's RUSS For Getting
Along when the streets Are Ice Paw
ed

Letter~CaFrfer's RUSS For Getting
Along when the streets Are Ice Paw
ed
All but doctors and men who sell
liniments will be glad to read the adj
vice that follows about the proper
way to walk in slippery times. The
advice comes from a very old letter.
carrie", jogging home from his daily
rounds.
you've seen postmen climbing up
front stoops, diving into easements
scooting across streets in the slippe--
lest kind of weather." the old man
said, "but I'm sure you never saw a
postman fall down, unless he was
very young and inexperienced. Walk
ing, you see is the most important part
OF postman's duty, next to ringing
door bells so as to bring the girl on
the first ring. can tell you in two
minutes how TO walk; and if you re-
member what / say you will never
fall any more.
'In the first place, you must go
along with your feet pretty far apart.
Most persons walk with their feet close
together very close. That's all right
in Summer, but in Winter it's all
wrong. Your foot is likely to land on
round piece Of ice or snow, and slip
sldewise toward the other foot, which
is going along all right. If your feet
are close together, nine times out of
ten the one that slips will knock the
other one from under you, and down
you go. If it doesn't, it will get so
thoroughly mixed up with it that YOUR
ankles will curl all together, Just like
grapevines, and before you can get
them Strengthened out, down you 90
anyhow. If your feet are we'll apart,
as they should be, you have time to
think, reflect and get ready before the
crash comes, and perhaps save bone.
Another thing is to land well on the
ball of the foot when you walk. If
you can't get the ball of your foot
down first, briug it down as soon as
you do the heel, anyhow. Come down
hatfooted. That isn't fancy heel-and-
toe walking, but it's business, and it's
safer. And this is why. You may
slip and fall a million times, and every
time, i you notice anything, you will
notice that 1t was your heel that slip
ped, and not the ball of your foot. 1t
is always the heel that slips, | don't
know why, unless it is that the sole of
the shoe, being broader, gets firmer
hold.
These two rules, if you follow them
out carefully, will save you the price
of good many bottles of arnica.
There are some others but not so
important One is always to keep
the body timber, and keep the
legs Timber at the knees, too. 1t
is always a stiff, dignifed sort of a
man that goes down, because he holds
himself so that he is not prepared to
lean quickly one way or the other and
save himself. | don't want to see the
nation round -shouldered, but to hold
the shoul ders to far back in slippery
weather is not very good either; it
fixes one all ready to fall. The best
way to hold oneself is an imitation of
those Indians that you see pictures of
going along at sort of jog-trot, with
their bodies STOPPING little forward
Keep your eyes on the ground in
front OF you, as though you were fol-
lowing trail, and look for slippery
spots, and observe the other rules; and
II you are lady you can dispense
with humiliation of holding your mutf
behind your back, trying to make
folks believe you prefer to carry it
that way"
A