Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-15
GRACE IN THE STOOP.
The Sound Young Woman Win Pick
Up Her Own Handkerchief
PHYSICAL WRECKS CAN'T DO II.
Shirley Dare Says There's Lot Of Nonsense
In Training to Rest.
4 PIN DB Steele FAD PICKED APAR7
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.1

| WRITTEN FOR THE DISPArcH.1
nthere is one precept in the Bible which
| its preachers need to e1pound and enforcs
upon the minds of their hearers it is
that stirring, heavenly war call, "Bs
strong" How many times it is repeated in
the Holy Writ, as if to fix it on our memo
ries as sovereign command for all time. Be
strong in feshly frame as chaste and WELL
kept body must be, giving the spirit that
/ wonderful advantage and propulsion which
comes of sound nerve.
| The strong may be hard, but they are sell
dom mean, whereas your weaklfng must
| sneak and flch and sponge on others, une-
equal to earning his own share or taking
J his part of effort. Weakness has been cu1-
tlvated in women till it goes far to sap the
| morals of the race, men being the sons Of
| women and shaping their souls after them.
The treatment which developed this weari-
some species of women began century and
more ago, when the polite world discovered
that women were different flesh and blood
| from men. 1t was then to fine woman's
credit that she could no more than carry
her own handkerchief, though it was still
too heavy for her to lift it when dropped,
/ and the superstition still holds more or
less
"A Acst VI . oOunu HnySlQuos
Part of young lady's fashionable outfit
of education is to have muscle enough to
| look well with short sleeves in evening
dress-that is, she may exercise for physical
development, provided she attempts moth
ing useful with her strength when gained.
But the health of the sex will not be estab-
Hshed on a sound basis till woman can
stoop, bend and rise without strain or
fatigue. The criterion of woman's sound
ness is her ability to stoop and rise without
growing flushed in the face or feeling the
effort. Coelebs in search of q wife, not de.
sirous of getting an invalid one, should not
be too careful to pick up every tri1e his ad.
mired lets fall, but shrewdly mark now and
again how she performs that Office for her
self, and no movement, not even a court
courtesy, shows off the graces of the person
or the training of the gentlewoman more
than STOPPING to pick up something.
You should bend at the waist and the
knee as if in homage to the floor keeping
the head easily held but not face to floor,
in the usual strained posture. With this
sort of kneeling bend, recovery Is quick and
easy, for the person preserves his balance.
That this inability to stoop, to bend and
move in these positions is unnatural, is
proved by the habit OF half-civilized people
to sit in squasting posture, and to make
obelsances which civilized person attempt
ing would most likely complete by falling
on his nose. To pass from the half civilized
to the most civilized of nations, the Japan
eSe, whose graces and courtesies put Europe
and America to the blush, gain incredible
strength of leg and loin by the habit OF sit
ting on their heels from earliest childhood
The Idea of Training for Rest
We are taught exercise nowadays; but .
clever woman has evolved new idea, which
will captivate most of her sex-the idea OF
being educated how to rest To use her own
UnTlQ to he IA 1I1rrnt hot Stroir in all
things, small and great is something thas
can be and should be studiously abandoned,
with as regular a process of training, from
the first simple steps to those more complex,
as is required in the Development of muscu-
lar strength" Delicious notion that of going
to teachers who will eloquently dissuade US
from overstrain and exertion and first SIM
ply and then completely train Us how to rest.
But ones nerves must be prepared for sur
pris.ng statements, beginning with the in.
formation that Extreme nervous proStra-
ton is most prevalent MANY are
living, one might almost say, in a chronic
state of nervous prostratlon, which lasts for
years before the break comes. Further pages
tell Us that "we fatigue ourselves in Sleep"
that 1--WE try to hold ourselves to the bed
and the head, instead OF letting the pillow
have its full weight, holds itself on to the
pillow"-the elegancies of language are not
mine. "Women go to bed with knees drawn
up, the muscles of the legs tense, the arms
and hands contracted and the fingers
clinched, the tongue cleaving to the roof Of
the mouth, the throat muscles contracted
and the muscles of the face drawn up one
way or another" We "hold ourselves on our
chairs, We fatigue ourselves on long jour-
neys by "an unconscious officious effort to
carry the train instead of allowing the train
to carry Us" We sew with the backs of our
necks" we "use tremendous and unneces-
sary force in talking" we hold our pens as IL
somebody was trying to pull them away; We
listen too hard, we look at pictures too hard,
We brace ourselves hard to bear pain.
The Cure for Nerve Tension.
We are to escape from these enormous and
terrific errors by the most remarkable
ratiocinations that enter the mind of mortal
to conceive. In lifting heavy weight we
are to "relieve the back by pressing hard
with the feet upon the floor, and thinking
the power of lifting in the legs"
The writer says she has made nurses
practice lifting, while impressing the fact
forcibly upon them, during the process OF
raising a body ami lowering it, that they
must use entirely the me muscles h @ OF the legs"
how this can be effected by the muscles Of
the legs unless the weight is attached to the
ankles. The patient desirous Of learning
rest velopment is to lie down on the floor,
"giving up entirely to the force of gravity"
W which most of US have done from birth
without knowing it, then stop and imagine
herself heavy" First think one leg heavy,
then the other, then each arm and both
arms, being sure to keep the same weight in
the legs, then your body and head. Use
your imagination to the full extent Of its
power and think the whole machine heavyj
wonder how the floor can sustain such
weight. Inhale ami exhale rhythmically.
After the deep breathing, drag your leg
up slowly, very slowly, trying to have no
effort except in the hip joint and dragging
the heel heavily along the floor until the
sole touches the e ound without effort. Les
the leg slip slowly down again. Repeat with
the other leg, ma king every movement
,lower each day. After this the arms.
Decidedly Amusing Recommendations.
"Be careful to think the arm heavy and the
motive power in the shoulder. 1t helps to
.elax if you imagine your arm held to the
shoulder by a single hair, and IL you move 10
With force beyond the minimum needed to
-aise it, it will drop of. To free the spine
,it up on the floor and let 1t go back as if the
JertebrB were beads on a string, and first
,ne bead lay fiat, then another and another
ill the head falls back withits own weight"
SHIRLEY DARE