Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-05
Shirley Dare Discourses Of the Dis
comforts of Too Much Flesh.
THE EDENIC WAY OF REDUCING IT.
Why We Ought to Weigh Ourselves Every
Week or Two.
EMBOEPOINT A SERIOUS DISEASE
rvR,rrEx FOR THE p1sPArcE.1

OF the old masters in some unexpected nook
or garret. An expressive face speaks to the
beholder in most uumistakable language.
After one has acquired a knowledge of
scientific physiognomy, he can never mis-
take knaVe for an honest man, or a COM
mon-faced person for a genius. Neither
will talent and goodness pass him unno-
ticed. And the face which he might have
considered plain or homely, may, under
the full blaze of physiognomical law, reveal
traits Of beauty and power"
The obligation we all feel at having our
own ideas put into expressive language will
be felt toward the writer of these lines, from
Mrs. Mary 0lmstead Stanton's Physiog-
nomv, not yet published. Readers will
rather thank than cavil at any freedom used
In drawing upon this work, which is most
original and highly suggestive on personal
culture as well as its own topic. We must
understand the forms and faces about US, the
significance of features and physical quail
ity, and the causes which produce them.
before we can improve upon them. The
most important to health, beauty, and vital
ity is the bodily condition as to flesh. The
first thing judge of human beings will
note is their balance of condition, toward
plumpness or the reverse. Commanders
used to selecting men for service instinct
lively pronounce upon their weight atsight.
The first thing which strikes a man in
judging of pretty woman is her expression
of face; then her build, as plump or slender.
And politicians, when in judging the
tempers of men, instinctiVelY calculate upon
their physical condition.
DANGERS OF sUPERFLUoUs FLESH.
The big, fat, bulbous man is either hard
to move from his inertia, or very easy to in
huence, through his dislike to being dis
turbed; while the lean and hungry Cassius
is more difficult to deal with. There is
sound physiological reason behind this in
stinct. Every ounce of overweight is so
much deducted from force of brain, muscle
so much shortening of days and lessening
of activities. If the direct influence of
over-supply OF tissue, in destroying vitality,
was understood, as demOnstrable by facts
and statistics, "superhuous flesh" would
be as much phrase of
dread and dislike as superfuous
hair is now, and with far greater reason. It
is the first sign of physical degeneration;
the clogging OF energies within and the film
upon the fine steel of mental keenness.
Nature has its exact weights and measures
for each person. to exceed which is loss of
force and invitation to decay. No steam
engine has its parts so exactly balanced as
the human frame. Its heart must beat its
breath be drawn so many times a minute
no more and no less-to keep it in good
working order; its food and its waste must
be exactly proportioned to its exertions of
mind or body, or the want OF repair is mani
fest. Loss of flesh is no Injury so long as
actual wasting and shrinkage of the muscles
do not occur.
The quality of muscle also differs. It NAV
be bundle of mere thin cordage, hardened
by use, aud innervated to the EXTREMIST
fiber, by abundant nervous fluid, from a
brain kept in full play-and this sort of
nerve-steei in thin, rackboned Zouvaye
regiments. recruited from the exposure and
privations of the streets, will endure hard
ships in campaign better than lads from
easy homes. Or, how wiry housekeepers will
go through year of hard work which
those refuse who were never bred to
it. A surgeon will tell from the
fiber under his knife that exercise and
tension have indurated a muscle, Just as we
can tell the flesh of working cattle from
stall-fed beef, or the whip-cord sinews Of a
racer from the muscles of an easy saddle
horse. So the gaunt and lean may have
vast endurance, albeit without pound of
fat to pad the hardened muscles into round
ness. But, beyond that conservative
rounded spareness, which is natures choicest
outline for dancer or athlete, every pound |
additional not only
DETRACTs FROM BEAUTY
out from life. No one who has realized the |
nigh condition implied in agreeable out
ines, without an ounce of superhuous flesh,
he free play and command of limb and
brain, the swift wits ready on call of emer-
,ency, the fash of vision through dimness
md questioning, which beset derogate NOR
ais, who spend in poor digestion the nerve
orce which should lend them light-no one,
say, who knows this clear and blissful
tate of body, can ever be patient with any
Inferior state. We eat more than the body
onsumes in activity; more than enough to
;eep up the three days provision of dainty,
omely flesh; which is all the ration nature
Vould cumber US with-and the outlines
ose their sinewv grace, the motions their
eadiness, the wits their promptness.
Fat about the hips disfgures the gait and
logs breathing, as it impedes the dia-
hr9gm in its movements. About the heart
lessons arterial action-the veins swell,
he breath grows a snore, the lungs work
1ore slowly and laboringly, and the color
ssumes an even, purplish, or pasty tinge in
be face. Napoleon lost his battles when he
rev eorpulent, and fat witted, by compari-
On with the lean, ambitious corporal of
oulonne. Men lose their caution and capac-
" as they grow stout, and take to question
bic policy in business, or postpone action
-hich would insure success out of the sloth
red by few unnecessary pounds of flesh.
ord Byron was wise to watch over his ten
ency to corpulence as he did; and if he had
OF relaxed his care, and grown stout CO.
uetting with Italian landladies, he might
ave pulled through his attack at Misso-
,ngehi, and found life worth living after
Il.
WATCH YOUR WEIGHT.
We ought to keep as close watch Of phYsi-
Il condition as of the state OF our teeth;
nd it would be well to make practice OF
sing weighed once week or fortnight, at
asst. to keep trace of ones state. And any
sviation from the right weight, by three
ounds, should receive immediate correction.
bath or two, long walk, or light diet for Q
70 or three days, will reduce one to fair I
roportions; when eorpulence, once fixed, l
ould be LIES labor to overcome. II is
istake to say that oYerplus of flesh is ever 6
lerable in man or woman. We put up t
ith the sight of it as long as it is not abso- ;
Itely enormous; but compare the stouter ]
ltline with the more graceful one, as 3
hers see it, and it will seem worth care :
i'd self-denial to preserve the latter. A
rtain amount of bodily exercise every
", to balance brain work, living on deli
tie, lean meats, or game, with salads,
cen vegetables, fruit and light desserts,
i'll control the first tendency to stoutness
henever it comes on. And, this UNDER g
bod, fine men and refined women will no
ore endure losing the grace of youth, and ! !
hiking into middle age solidity, than they c
III take to false teeth. t
But, when flesh is fixed, uncomfortable p
ct, blurring the clear lines of the face. 9
ID obliteratlnP the figure, don't hY to :
anting for relief. There is surer way. 2
lich California physician has brought v
to notice with marked success. His idea '
that uncooked food will not tend to flesh;
d he keeps his patients for months on a \
ct of fruit, grains, nuts and vegetables, in 4
cir natural state. This he illustrates By