Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-13
To Secure a Good Figure.

If you want the grand, sloping shoulders
of the Venus, which make the waist small in
proportion, you can find no exercise equal to
pumping water, and if you have a force
pump about the house reserve the use of it
for yourself. Begin with ten minutes work,
the wet towel pinned tightly round the hips,
corset off and Mother Hubbard gown on,
which is the best modern version of the
Greek robe possible. Wet the head well, for
the exercise Will pump the blood well over
the body, heating the temples and spine; roll
Cp your sleeves, sponge and wipe the arms
dry, and go to work moderately at first. In
ten minutes or less quit, sponge off the mus
cles that culver and burn, drop into an easy
seat and rest ten or fifteen minutes, then pull
again, resting and working for an hour.
Keep this up a month and you won't know
your shoulders and arms for the same.
Walker in his well known work on artistic
beauty says the absence of fine arms in wo-
men is due to long sleeves and want of exer-
else. Pumping, sweeping, spinning, throw
ing stones at mark and playing quoits are
all better than tennis or rowing to secure
finely modelled arms and busts
The way to get the most benefit from work
is to time ones self and see how much can be
q
on till the sweat flows, that great restorer of
the complexion and refiner of the figure. 1t
carries off the grossness of the body and
though it is a proverb in outspoken districts
that such a one is ''too proud to sweat" and
l have heard ladies of middle station in So
ciety aver that they never perspired, as if it
were sign of gentility. They never failed
to pay the penalty in thick sallowness Of
face and adipose. The moderate. easy going
woman grows fat. The active, quick footed
one keeps down her flesh and shows as trim
waist and ankle at As as she had at 20. That
fatal thickening at the back Of the neck, by
which men profess to know women past 40,
is an unnecessary consequence. The woman
who uses the shoulders freely and rapidly
will show as fat and fine an outline Of the
back at 80 as my beautiful Italian Reading
Girl" and there is hardly pleasanter sight
after the roses and lily figure Of l6 than one
Of these trim, nice, wholesome ladies Of GO,
with waist as fine as that of her own
granddaughter. A woman who is too fine
to work is too fine to be fair, and she will be
stout-the one fatal defect in a woman Of
any age.
To secure the round slenderness, which is
far enough removed from vulgar plumpness,
care must be given to the nutrition Of the
skin. The hot soap and water bath should
be taken and the skin dried in a warm room
by brisk rubbing with o towel. Friction
with the land should follow, and when the
skin CLOVIS to redness it is to be anointed
from head to foot with plenty Of pure olive
or almond oil These are chosen as being
nearly identical with the composition Of
human fat and quickly assimilated. When
rubbed with oil the person should sit over
hot air register or in a sun lighted window
until the oil is absorbed. The skin Will take
in this way ten times the nutriment tho
stomach is able 10 manage, and the result,
in very emaciated bodies, is 4 marked soft
ness, translucency, and gain in flesh. The
rays of the sun. falling directly on the skin,
have the most potent effect, increasing its
activity for the exchange of worn out parti-
cles and deposit of new ones.-Shirley Dares
Letter.