The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-08
THE Do1Nas OF WOMEN FOLK.
lettings Sober and Merry in Feminine
Fields.

New YORK, July I've Americans used
to have the reputation of being thin and
wiry people, but, among women, at least ,one
hears just now more queries as to methods
of taking off flesh than of putting it on
The number of specialists, mostly women,
who treat women for superfiuous avoirdu-
pois is growing all the time They never
seem to lack patients, and one or two drive
expensive turnouts and import dreams of
gowns. Each establishment has its own
method of restoring shape and cOmellness,
but they agree in this one particu ar,
treatment is paid for by the month and the
reduction process is timed to your wishes,
you may take it fast or you may have it
slow. If you are a person of leisure and
can devote yourself to your figure, you are
trained down in three months, though you
may find it Il difficult matter to summon
strength to walk three blocks when the
business is fairly under way. If you can't
afford to weaken yourself in such fashion,
the period is doubled, and in six months
or eight months after less violent measures
you may order gown Of the waist measure
you please, without, they say. suffering in
convenience meanwhile. It is a more diff
cult matter, however, to control the wrinkles
which nearly always follow any successful
attempt to make a fieshy woman thin.
They tell pretty tale, if only it had a
pretty sequel of a handsome New York wo-
man whose husband had been for some
years absent on diplomatic business abroad.
One fine afternoon she received letter set
ting day some months distant for his re-
turn. Now the lady, though handsome,
was stout, and she could not endure the
thought that the man who left her young
and slim should find her obese and aged.
So then putting all other business out of
hand. she devoted herself with assiduity to
one of the various Turkish bath systems Of
putting aside unwished for pounds The
lady was perseverlng aud the doctor skllltul;
the arrival of the steamer found her weigh
ing to an ounce what she had weighed when
her Youthful husband sailed away. She got
back her girlish figure but she could not
present her handsome face. The fine lines
which scanned il in every direction were a
heavy price to pay in exchange for the ma
tronlv proportions which she feared her
hu band would not look with favor upon.
The husband, that chance mad not occurred
to her. had gained avoirdupois also, and If
she had let herself alone they would have
made well matched, portly pair.
The expedients adopted by amateurs, so
to speak, without DOCTORS advice to re-
store shape to the figure are often amusing.
Walking is the commonest device, and so
many times around the obelsk in Central
mark a convenient measure. To hear the
tales that are going of evenings devoted to
go-as-vou please matches against time about
that crumbling Egyptian relic is enough,
one would think, to make the ghosts OF
Pharaoh's henchmen who chiseled It's In
scriptions rattle the wrapping OF their mum
mics for glee. II the moon were TO come
out suddenly one of these evenings on half
dozen flesh-burdened danes, laborlousiy
trotting at one and the same time patiently
round that gravel track, it would be worth
being bird in a bush close by to see.
But flesh in excess is a detriment to the
health. aud TO cast it off with as little loss
of strength or beauty as Fanny Davenport
or Lillian Russell seem TO have sustained, Is
a contamination for which many women
devoutly pray. A simple regimen, pre-
scribed by a doctor, intended to tighten the
figure gradually and without any Interrupt
lion TO the daily avocations, is as follows:
Keep the system open with aperients under
a nhvsician's advice Take cold bath in
water in which salt has been dissolved,
daily. rubbing vigorously with flesh brushes
afterward. Take calisthenic exercise
with sufficient vigor TO start profuse per-
aspiration twice daily, rubbing down as after
tae bath. Eat meat, acid fruits aud gra-
ham bread. Avoid sugar as much as conve-
niently possible, and drink sparinRly Never
touch coffee, unless you like it barefoot, that
is without milk or sugar.
This is a time Of year when reeines Tor