The Portland daily press., 1894-07-06
THE WAY TO WALK.
Head Up, Stomach In Torso In Repose and
Toe Down First.
(From the New York world.)

|
American women are pretty and witty
and wise, but they don't know how to walk.
Horrors, how your women walk, 1.-THE
Englishmen say. Ladies' tailors in New
York say the very same thing Unless a
man is in love with her, it is punishment
to walk with the modern woman. This is
what Yale College man says about the
| New York girls:
I'm rocking chairs they are bewitching.
In the dance they are poetry personfied.
But in boots and gowns on the road cows
| are not clumsier'
| What do you think of that, now?
| Summer resorts are wide OPEN Last Sun
day the seaside hotels were very well pat
ronized. The fair guests on the piazza be-
longed to what might be called the represen-
tative women. They were well dressed, but,
horrors, now they walked. ut is not an
| exaggeratlon to say that they shook the
piaZzas.
There was very little tiptoeing at Oriental
Beach. Women who go there have loads of
good clothes and lots of money. Those who
took their cons itutionals last Sunday m orn-
ing were as gay as flowers, but they couldn't
have made more noise going found the house
if they had been hoofed or clubfooted. 1t
was sad to see them, and painful to hear
them. The quietest guest in her movements
was sensitive creature dressed in mourn
ing, who walked with a cane,
Most women walk from their necks, their
shoulders go forward and back, their arms
swing, their hips wiggle, their knees rotate,
and their skirts flop.
In this wabbling command of the body is
| lost, and the alternate pitching of the weight
from one foot to the other is both noisy
and exhaustive. Exhibition of this sort
through Broadway and 5th avenue. The trip
hammer tread is heard in the dining rooms
and Railways of the best hotels and most
exclusive restaurants in the city. 1t raises
the dust from the carpet of fashionable
churches, it makes the elevators in dry
goods stores sag, and the 5th avenue stages
rock.
The typical English woman has two essen
tial charms-a low voice and graceful walk.
Her movements are quiet. She may not be
altogether unconscious, but she is calm.
Usually she is long-waisted. She cultivates
the lines between her shoulders and hips.
She wears belt. The belt business is only
a tride below the tea traffic. That belt
never slips it's mooring She may or may
not walk UP to it, but never walks above it,
From the belt up she is calm, commanding
and grand.
Some foreigners suppose that the English
women study the army, others claim that
royalty is the model. They certainly have
good shoulders, and they wear their bonnets
like crowns. Nine. Albani said of Queen
Victoria: ''She is the grandest little woman
l ever saw" And our critical Mrs. Sherwood
never tires of extolling the majestic carriage
of her majesty.
One of the most successful and beautiful
artists on the musical stage walks most
clumsily although she has spent hundreds of
dollars for lessons. 1t is SO amusing to see
her come down a terrace staircase that
scenes of the sort are never used when they
can be avoided. model in motion, who
] as lived abroad long time, and who car
ries herself with regal grace, was taught
how to walk by her ia Their a military man.
She is a truthful woman
II never wore out shoe OF a boot in my
life," she says. ~ give my clothes away at
the end of the year because the Innings are
soiled. But never turned heel or broke
the sole of a shoe. I claim that lady-or,
If you prefer the term, gentle woman-has
no business to wear out leather. A gentle
woman has gentle ways. She moves softly,
steps lightly; she is simply gentle. I am
gentle. l can go round the room in shoes as
softly as a cat. claim, too, that only a
vulgar woman walks noisily in BOOTS If she
were cultivated, and knew how to walk, she
would not walk on her heels.
That throws the weight of the
body straight down, and, of course,
there is a noise. Take long step, step from
the hips, and step on the front of the foot,
and the weight is divided along curves and
noiselessly carried
Before woman can walk gracefully she
must stand properly. One of the prettiest
lines in the figure is bell back often re-
ferred to as the grace-hoop line. 1t makes
natural hustle. When it is lacking pads
are put in the skirt bands to throw the
draperies out. To cultivate this bell-back
the stomach must be subdued. Stomachs in
women disgusting. Stand SO to throw, the
stomach in, and there is the secret of fine
back and an admirable carriage. For the
finishing touch look up.
''Now for the walk. First of all keep as
quiet as possible. Hold the body. There
should be repose from the head to the hips.
Take long steps. Walk on line for prac-
tice. Give the knees play. but not loose
play. Let the heel be the last part of the
foot to touch the ground. Walk slowly. A
lady should never be in hurry, nor in any
thing heavy. Double soles. calf-skin, cow
hide, furs and broadcloth are, in my judg
ment, garments fit only for clumsy ami
lie