The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-12-10
A DIFFICULT TASK
Not One Out Of Ten Women
Walk Upstairs Grace
fully and All Dread
the Journey.
ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS
Literary Career Begun at Thirteen
distinguished Feminine Cy-
clists-Setting Up the
Christmas Tree.
ELIZABETH U A PHELPS

Nine out of every ten women dread
the stairs. says the Philadelphia "Fress-"
So great is the physical suffering and
exhaustion engendered by ascending and
descending that one wonders why stairs
are not altogether banished from the
scheme of American architecture.
The woman who finds herself at the
top of a flight of stairs breathIess and
exhausted, gasping and blowing in a dis
tressing manner, has undergone an
awful physical strain. The heart and
stomach nave been made to do double
duty, that of the lungs and their own
function combined with more often
only a half of the room required to do 1T
in from the COMPRISING force of stays;
consequently one of the most graceful
actions that a woman is called on most
often to illustrate is transformed by
the ignorance of a few rules of physical
culture into one of the most ludicrous
and sorry sights imaginable.
The woman who clutches her skirts In
front, midway between the hip and knee,
bends her body from the hips almost
into a bow, and drags up, laboriously ex-
hausting her vital energies at every step,
is making a foolish and ridiculous mis-
take, for which she suffers severely long
before arriving at the top.
The proper motion, the correct ascen-
sion is neither injurious nor ungraceful;
in fact, the act is grace itself. One
of the handsomest pictures painted of
feminine beauty is that of a lovely wo-
man ascending a fine old staircase. Her
slender figure is gracefully erect, her
lovely face on the column-like throat
turned half over her shoulder. The arms
and beautiful throat are bare, n droop
with perfectly natural grace to her knees
where the silken skirts are daintily
lifted to allow the free play of tiny
slippered feet. The lady Is in the act
of ascending, and seems to float upward.
the personifcation of grace itself.
One imagines they can see her catch
her silken skirt at either knee, lifting
it just to the ankle, expand her chest.
hold her shoulders well back and her
squarely on the hips. not dragging for
ward, n standing perfectly erect she
glides upward, easily and gracefully.
tier, and nothing less injurious when
properly understood than the exercise of
ascending stairs; It brings into play
fullest capacity, thus tending toward a
very necessary accomplishment, and one
frequently lacking, even in actresses and
JULIET ulSuly CullIVduQ WOilCAi, lLdt-
walking naturally inc with grace. Put
a small object IN the top of the head.
catch the skirt as directed and start up
stairs, holding the head well UP, the
shoulders pack and the arms down. This
is the proper position, and when the
parcel drops it IS a sign that the shoal,
and that you ere dragging up instead Of
ascending.
An axiom tina an English riding mas
ter strove to impress upon his pupils
is one that women who would be grace
full in carriage, who in walking or
going " or down stairs should take
UP, helbows an 'ands well down. With
such unlimited variety in the way Of
footgear as the American woman has to
choose from, and with the many really
practical advantages in the way of phys
ical culture, with the unrivalled advan-
tages for outdoor exercise the climate
of the United States presents for SO
need for the shocking ungainliness in
present to public view.
When the girl Of today recognizes
this fact, the wabble so universal nov
will be a thing of the past, let one hope.