The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-25
YAWNING AN EXERCISE.
A Suggestion That All Persons Should
YaWn More.
From the Cincinnati Tipes-star.

From the Cincinnati Ti1ies-Stdr.
"Bet you 81 I can make every individual
passenger in this car yawn before we reach
Gilbert avenue" said Walnut Hills cable
passenger one night not long ago to friend
as the two seated themselves in the crowded
trailer after an evening spent at the thea
ter.
Take the bet" was the answer; tits
worth 81 to see you try it.n
The first speaker at once ceased conversa-
ton, allowed his eyelids to droop, rolled up
his eyeballs four or five times and, in full
view OF the passengers opposite to him,
opened his mouth till it looked like the en-.
trance to coal pit and yawned. The Of
fort was so natural and so thorough that in
spite of himself the friend who was watch
ing him yawned also. Before the car had
reached the Broadway turn, two or three
of the passengers opposite, who had seen
this exhibition Of natures gymnastics
looked up at the car advertisements, tried
to look interested and wise and then put
their hands to their mouths and yawned.
They passed the infection across the car and
again it crossed and continued to cross until
the tally was complete and that. too, before
the car had turned into Court street. The
initial yawner had won.
Can any one tell why il is possible TO so
easily spread yawnlng epidemics To be
sure, the hour OF the night has something
TO do with the episode. Just detailed, but a
limited success would attend a similar effort
at almost any hour Of the day. Indeed the
mere mention Of the subject of yawning Is
apt to induce the peculiar premonltOrY
symptoms of a yawn about the roof of the
mouth and the hinges of the jaw. It is a
sleepy subjeot-a subject that probably al
ready has caused the reader of this to move
his slppered feet from chair to mantelpiece,
to hoist his extended arms over his heNd
aud utter an "Ohio" that has frightened the
rest of the family wide awake.
1t is probable that no one can be found
able to give a reason for the infectious ten
denotes Of this local epidemic, for instantly
one begins thinking about it he begins
yawning, and then deep thinking is as inn
possible as deep sounding in a mud puddle.
We are not apt to pay much attention to
anything but yawhinR, and we are generally
yawning when listening to the sixthly in a
typical orthodox sermon, the katydid'5
serenade on hay afternoon, or trying to
think of reason for yawning and the
spread of yawns or trying to suppress a
yawn which we are very much afraid a
guest will discover.
The Mrs Russell, who was more or less
responsible for the "Delsarte craze" in New
York Of few years ago, insists, In u little
book she has caused to be published, that a
ries say it is. viz: ITO open wide the
mouth through drowsiness or WEAKNESS"
She says:
The yawn is an involuntary exercise
which nature suggests to us when, in conse-
quence OF sleep or drowiuess or ennui or
cold or hunger or indigestion, something ia
neeied to restore the system to a state of
general activity. Through 1t aud the
movements which accompany it the whole
body, beginning with the muscles Of the
throat aud face, is stimulated and refreshed,
the successive motions extending themselves
throughout the entire frame and reaching
finally to the feet.
1t is TO refresh every nerve, not after a
ierky fashion such as one might experience
by falling from six-story window or by
being an artist On the spot in a powder mill
explosion, but slowly, 'in perfect success
sion OF rhyths" Yawning is said to en-
body all the laws of growth needed for re-
freshment. and that Is no doubt the reason
fellow generally stretches" himself out Of
joint in the morning when the alarm goes
off, simply because after a night OF refresh
ing sleep he needs few morning hours OF
the same medicine.
The moral of these Russell observations,
the Fall Mall Budget suggests, is that we
ought all to yawn as much as possib le-the
ofteuer the better and further, since yawn-
ing comes so near perfection as a mode Of
bodily exercise, we should do well to dis
card such conventionalities as dumbbells
and the horizontal bar, and to cultivate our
bodily powers by merely longing in onr
chairs and yawning.
Those who have been taking their morn
ing ''consttutioual' can abandon 1t accord
ing to the modern expounder Of Delsartism,
and yet preserve the physical equilibrium
by yawning. 1t is a good deal easier to
open wide the mouth through drowsiness"
than walk few miles. To take this form
of "nature's gymnastics" for the sake Of
establishing physical symmetry is about as
pleasant as going to sleep for the purpose of
cultivating wekefulness, or eating pie and
plum pudding in order to work up a raven
GUS appetite. With Mrs. Russelrs ideas
adopted as law and gospel. yawning will no
longer be vulgar. It will equite the caper
to yawn, for to yawn is to exercise. A
cable car full Of yawners, according to this
latest feminine scientist, is a car full of ex-
ercisers, who have caught an exercising in
lection.
AS pleasant. faced woman passed the corner
Jones touched his hat to her and remarked feel