The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-04-24
Health for r. Dollar.

Since the athletic girl has become so dom.
inant figure in the feminine world, says
Harper's Bazaar, and fragility has become a
reproach rather than a charm, the treatises
multiply on all hygienic matters, and vol
umes are set forth without number to tell
every woman what she shall do to be saved
from all ills that flesh is heir to. The wo-
man with the interesting pallor, the violet
Swallowed eyes, and the willow-wand
form, who tainted if one said "Bohr' to
her, and solved all sentimental difficulties
with a brain fever, has given place to a
buxom jade, whose cheeks are as red as the
dawn, with brown, muscular hands
helpless BARNS from mad dogs, and
amid wreck of matter and crash of worlds
would never feel a tremor of her steel
strung nerves. And this magnificent per-
son is all the product of athletics and ath-
letics and yet again athletics. Ride a cock
tennis, swim, fence, practice in a gymnas-
ium, take cold baths, live in the open air.
And those who follow their advice attain
the stalwart loveliness of Atalanta and Kyp-
polita, bring forth rosy sons and daughters,
and are as the pillars of their husbands
house. But it costs money. to ride cock
horse; there is the habit to buy, the horse to
keep. and, if one lives in the city, groom
to be hired to ride after one in the
park. Tennis presupposes various advan-
tages of environment that all women do not
possess; swimming means a country home
near the sea or river; and fencing, work
in the gymnasium, and life out of-doors
follow ones own devices. The pale, the
nervous, the flaccid-muscled woman has not
disappeared vet, and these read with hope
less envy the directions given by the books
for the attainment of rosy beauty, their
own lives being too filled with work. too
narrow, or too straitened to make the use
of any of these prescriptions possible. But
athletic exercise, with its resultant health.
happiness, and beauty, is to be had
and that at price within the means
OF every woman, no matter how poor
or hard worked. Ninety cents will
up firm and make them elastic; to set her
blood pulsinR warmly under the skin; to
fine away too lavish outlines, or fill up hol-
lows. pair of tive-pound ladies' dumb
bells are to be had for thirty cents. These
are good weight to begin with. but should
of heavy Turkish crash cost the same sum
each. On rising in the morning begin prac-
tice at once. With dumb bell in each
hand lift the arms, touch the shoulders
with the bells, and straighten the arms out
smartly ut right angles from the body. Do
this smoothly and regularly ten times. Then
touch the shoulders, and lift the bells ten
times straight up on either side Of the head.
Hit out from each shoulder ten times; drop
the bells at full length of the arm and draw
them up to the armpits; and vary these
motions in the twenty or thirty different
directions possible, as ones own clever
ness suggests, thus exercising every muscle.
Begin with only two or three the first morn
ing, and increase them as the strength in
creases. Finishing with the bells set a
mark on the wall at height of four or five
feet, and standing on the left leg, try to
touch the mark with the right toe ten times,
doing the same Rfterward with the left,
as ones agility increases. Then set hands
on hips and jump up and down ten times.
Next spring into a bath-a warm one is
best-sponging ones self off with cold
water afterward, and dry the skin with Wig
orous manipulation of the rough towel.
Try that for a month, and see whether
health and beauty are not the consequence.