The record-union., 1891-06-20
THE WALK OF WOMEN.


A writer in Harper's Bazar deplores
the fact that American young women
neglect the art of walking. We are glad
that in a journal essentially for women
some one has had the courage to tell
American women the truth about the bad
walking habits SO very large number
of them are acquiring. There is no ac-
counting for it, but it is a fact that but
few of our women know how to walk
well or easily. There is, as the writer re-
ferred to puts it, too much ''scrambling,
Jerking, mincing and wiggling'' in the
gait of our young women. What our
women need be taught is that there is
ease, healthfulness and economy of
strength in proper method of walking,
while i'll methods are painful tiresome
and absolutely injurious to health
We are not proposing to lay down rules
in the matter; it is sufficient to point out
that there is radical error in present
styles Of walking, since it appears that it
is matter of style more than of any
thing else. Whatever gait is handsome,
easy and graceful, is natural walk,
which is free-limb exercise square and
firm placing of the foot, upright carriage
of the body, sufficiently expanded stride
and springy motion to carry the body
vigorously but easily and gracefully for
ward. These movements are, we repeat,
simply natural ones; the cut-short step,
thrown forward trunk, half swing of the
hips, and a sort OF hitching of the body
forward by a strengthening of the knee
in ierky manner are unnatural and ac-
quired habits.
The young girl of ten or twelve, who
has had plenty of exercise in open air
and has not fallen into the habits
of gait that appear to be adopted with the
assumption of long skirts, is a very good
example, as a rule, of the natural, easy,
speedy and healthful walker. This child
seldom walks with conscious effort, and
never with pain. Every muscle has free
and natural play with her-alas, that in
so short a time she is to distort them
and whip them into unnatural exercise.
The writer we referred to in the outset is
inclined to believe that the Objectionable
gait of our young women is due to
mental conditions in large part, and this
may be true to certain extent She
says:
equaole grace that would seem to proceed
from an easy and equable mind, neither
nurrying lmpetuously and ftfully and with
pronounced eXertiOn and evident eager desire
10 reach some point, or with the effort TO con-
done delay, nor dawdling along as if they had
not an object in mind and nothing were of
any consequence. Decent mental reserves, It
IS thus TO be noted, can be maintained almost
as much in the gait as in the conversation;
and II is 10 be doubted if we have the right to
obtrude our business and worries and enRltiS
upon public observation. as we do by any
other than a calm and even motion, whether
the motion be swift or slow. OF course one
may walk as rapidly as necessary, or as lott
eringly as inclination prompts, but equally,
of course, without the personal betrayal of
the impatient nervous motion of haste or the
almlesS one OF irresolution.
We are inclined to think, however, that
she gives undue importance to the mental
attitude. The difficulty seems to be un-
due consciousness on the part of women
that their gait is matter of observation
by others. Just as certain as that idea
obtains, the gait viii be stiff and unnat-
ural. Men walk more easily than women,
not so much because their limbs are less
confined by clothing, but because they
give less thought to their gait, and are
careless of observation of it. 1t is very
rare indeed to see q man moving along
the street with triple motion of the
body at each step, ending with snap OF
the head backward, as is so common
with young women, especially when out
to be observed.
1t is very easy to walk well, and unless
habit has mastered the woman about all
she has to do is to walk naturally and
with little thought about it, except to
preserve an erect carriage. However, il
women complain that this is too general
to be valuable, let them frankly submit
their gait to the criticism of close friends,
and then correct the errors pointed out
by little will power and little practice
until they come to walk mechanically
naturally, and in freedom from their
former i'll methods.