The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-12-28
PHYSICAL CULTURE.
One q the Most Efficient Aids to Besuty
and GrLco.

and Grloo.
England undoubtedly pays moro at
tenuoH TO physical culture than any
other civilized country. English ladies'
in all ranks think nothing Of walk of
ten miles, and besides they ride on
horseback and use safety bicycles
great deal. But American women have
an idea that it is positively dangerous
for Thorn to walk after they are TWEEN
ty-hve or thirty years old. and they
They may walk about the house and
sometimes venture to push carpet
sweeper, but to walk for pleasure or ex.
ercise is something they rarely think Of
doing.
One reason women walk SO little is
because they do not know how to walk.
Some authority says that not ono wom-
an in hundred knows how to walk
gracefully. Certainly there can rarely
be found ono willing, if necessity re-
quired, to walk the length Of drawing
room alonc, knowing that she was the
center OF all eyes. Ungracofulness is
due TO lack OF symmetrical develop
menS a savage is graceful, and little
boys and girls are nearly always grace
full. unless their inheritance is worry bad
and the examples they 500 are worse.
Nature is always graceful. The lines
and curves OF flowers and trees are
those OF beauty, while the movements
OF bees and birds and animated nature
generally arc lines of grace and
symmotry. The laws which govern
these lines and curves apply to
human beings; men and women, high
est in tho scale of life, ought TO be tho
most graceful of all, but as matter of
fact 1t is not so. by tho time they are
twenty-five or thirty years old their
natural grace has fallen into decay
from neglect of physical culture, and
they are awkward and ungainly. A
well-carcd for and not ovcr-workcd
horse is as graceful as a colt, but hui
man beings who are graceful at matur-
ty are very scarce. The most of them
arc more like old stage horses in which
somo muscles are ovcr-developod while
others are wasted away. Their voca-
uons lead them to strengthen some
muscles abnormally while others arc
almost entirely disused. This onc-sided
development is often SO marked that an
observant person can tell n mans bust
ness by tho way he carries himself
There arc very few people who do not
have slightly curved spincs from neg
lect OF the exercise necessary TO keep
tho body evenly developed. To this
uneven development is chargcable tho
want of grace so much to DO dcplored
1t is certainly cause of much re-
joicing that women are awakening to
their needs of symmetrical develop
ment, and that out-of-door sports ami
exercises arc getting to be fashionable.
England is sweeping us still further
into tho background by an increase of
physical culture societies all over tho
country. At one gymnasium l visited
in birmingham more than three thou
sand children are taken in every weok
for exercise. Tho girls arc put through
the Same drill as the boys. Tho entire
body is developed and grace OF move
ment comes as natural consequence.
In this country the Dclsarto systom of
aesthetic gymnastics is becoming quito
fashionable. 1t differs somewhat
from ordinary gymnastics in that its
movements are graceful and beautiful
rs we'll as healthful. by persistent
practice on the part OF its students,
most Of tho effects OF carly neglect can
be done away with. The first thing it
undertakes to do is to broak up tho
frigidity and stiffness which is charao-
teristc OF the average American woman
after the age of youth is passed. if not be-
fore. Sho is muscle bound; some mus
cles are too long and some arc too short.
while others arc small and relaxed or
else over-grown and stiffoned. Tho
'setting-up drill" to which the young
recruit is subjected answers the same
purpose as the Delsarte system. only it
is not 80 graceful nor so thorough
That exercise may DO beneficial and
that graceful movements may BIO
possible, the dress must be light and
loose. the shoes with broad solos and
low heels. A famous actress Is TO-
ported as saying that she has not worn
8 corset for many years and that she
found as soon as she took off tho fetters
she was able to appear to better advan-
tage every way. Ladies arc rightly in
terested in being beautiful, but they
should know that grace, beauty and
health always go together and that
nature has thus allied them. They can
not BIO beautiful without being healthy,
and they cannot be graceful without
physical development and freedom OF
motion and plenty of room to breathe
So, then, to neglect physical culture is
to neglect one Of the most efficient aids
to beauty and grace.-From q Lecture
by j. II. Kellogg, NJ. D., Battle Creek
Sanitarium.
Qp~nyoy, Srt,,,.rtro