The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-29
Discusses the Exercise Most Con.
ducive to Beauty"
Americans Walk More Gracefully Than
Foreign Women, But Neglect 1t
ShamefulIy--H Hungarian and
French Pirouettes.

eminent New York physicians WIN
whom I am acquainted / have come to
the very decided conclusion that walk
ing is undoubtedly the form of exercise
most conducive to feminine health and
beauty. Tennis, although very exciting,
is too violent, and tends to lengthen the
arms, enlarge the hands and make the
shoulders uneven. Moreover, it is form
of sport of which one is apt to become very
fond and in consequence to indulge
therein to excess. Croquet does not really
give any exercise worth speaking of, and
may therefore be left out of the question
altogether. The side saddle, to which
we are restricted when riding on horse
back, Injuries in the long run both the
hip and sometimes, too, the spine.
Women who have habitually ridden for
years, usually have one hip higher than
the other. The doctors whom | ha We
consulted are unanimous in condemning
cycling for women. as producing weak.
ness in the back, and my own experience
convinces me that it seriously lmpalrs
any grace and elegance which they may
possess Cycling seems to render them
awkward in their walk, and they gradu-
ally come to move with plunging kind
of motion, which is the reverse of beauti-
full Fencing, besides being dangerous for
women, has the disadvantage of de-
valoping the right arm and shoulder to
such an extent as to give one the appear
ance of being lopsided. Nor can golf,
which has recently become favorite pas
81 Of britain ha
parded as destined to augment femme
grace. For, in order to drive ball
long way, the club must be raised
above the head and brought down
to the ball with a sideways mo-
ton, twisting the body from the waist
Gymnastics, while healthy, tend to i'm
pair the beauty of our hands, and
woman with large and ugly hands is to be
pitied. Of baseball and cricket it is need
less to speak. For, although we have
feminine cricket elevens and baseball
mines, yet it is useless to advocate them
as a popular form of exercise. None OF
us like TO appear ridiculous or to render
ourselves ludicrcus in the eyes of those
whom we are accustomed to tyrannize-
namely the men. Now, no woman can
play cricket or baseball without excit ing
masculine laughter, either of an indul-
gent or of a hooking character. for the
very simple reason that try as we may
we can never throw the ball properly.
Nature never intended that we should.
That is self-evident. For the very build
of our figure prevents us from doing so,
and the smallest and most weakly of
boys will invariably be able to throw
straighter and more surely tina the most
athletic of women.
Walking, however, has everything TO
recommend it as form of exercise Eol
women, and il is an established fact THAT
women who DO the most walking preserve
their health and, above all, their beauty
and elegance the longest. It does not
present the dangers that do some of the
forms of exercise above mentioned; nor
does it unduly develop one portion of the
body at the expense of the others; more
over, it has the additional advantage OF
being cheap and within the means
every one either rich or poor. 1t serves
to maintain the internal organism of our
1HdnOiif III oidCI, duo Ill AabuIhl Gull
sequence thereof preverves our complex
ion when it is worth preserving ami
improves it when it is not
For some reason or other walking has
never become popular among the women
in this country. Indeed, no form OF
exercise ever really has, and we seem tc
be imbued with certain species of Creole
tendency towards physical indolence-an
Incidence all the more striking and
strange when contrasted with the bright
ness, the sparkle and the activity of the
mind of the average American woman.
This disinclination on the part OF the latter
to adopt walking, as a form of exercise, IS
the more regretable as the daughters of
Uncle Sam are distinguished among all
other women of the world for the beauty
and elegance of their walk. graceful
walk is very rare in Europe. and there
are but few women who know how to
cross from one side of ballroom to the
other without impairing by their carriage
the effect of any beauty which they may
possess. English women although pas
sionately fond of walking-an English
girl thinks nothing of tramping twelve
or twenty miles a day on foot-very rarely
walk with elegance. Their movement 10
too harshly accumulated, their step too
vigorous and their action deficient in
feminine grace. The German woman
walks heavily, and as general rule SUBJ
stitutes slow clumsiness for the some
what masculine vigor and energy of the
Englishwoman's step. The French
women, the Hungarian women and the
beautiful Poles can none of them be con-
sdered good and graceful walkers
Graceful they are and supremely elegant
in all their movements. But they don't
walk They trip and futter and prance
and stamp their dainty feet like the
"piaffment" or ''dishing' of some high
mettled horse, but they can't walk.
Spaniards and Italians, especially those
belonging to the lower classes, do walk
very gracefully and seem to glide-one
might almost say hover-over the
ground, without offending the eye with
any angularity or accentuation in the
in the movement of the limbs. Much of
this elegance is attributable to the habit