St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-22
LOST FIGURES RESTORED
Never Too Late to Mend Defects OF
the Female Form.

Every woman is just as young as
she looks, and any woman can continue
to look young as long as she keeps her
figure The lost figure is one that once
was round of waist, supple and hat or
shoulder, narrow of back, wide OF
chest, and shapely of hip, the figure OF
your youth. that by high living and
lazy ways you have allowed to grow
thick and broad, with bent shoulders,
a long curved spine, the bust thrust
out, the head poked forward, and the
measurements increased at a rate of
ten inches all around A genuine fig
ure of fun, that at thirty is outlived
already in half the women you meet
and at forty depends entirely on cor
sets for support, is the terror of the
most ingenious dressmakers, the despair
of the photographers, and the cross on
ones own life. It's the sort of lump
ish, dumpy, knobby, absurd figure that
makes a pretty woman look old before
her time, avoid long mirrors. and drive
her friends to wondering how crea
ture so tall and erect at eighteen, at
thirty-six is half foot shorter.
A foreigner would attribute this to
the general instability of all things
American, but the woman herself is
quite within the range of redemption.
At least that is what she hears at the
various women's gymnasiums, where
the building up of figures is now dis
tinct and important branch of the ath-
letic business.
Most of our patrons" said a tall
brawny, blue-eyed Swedish woman,
who was in charge of the rescue work,
better known as the figure department
of a popular gymnasium, range in age
between thirty and fifty. 1 never re-
fuse an applicant, for it's really never
too late to mend a broken figure
Numbers of dignified grandmammas,
with recollections of their girlhood's
waist lines, come for their training and
instruction three times a week, and it's
an impressive sight to see a class of
twenty-five sobersided matrons, the
least of whom tips the beam at IT'S,
lined up in knickers, fiat slippers, and
sweaters to learn a new movement
1.-THE system consists of a series of
fifteen movements, by which we guar
antee to reduce enlarged abdomens, re-
store long-lost waist lines, brace I'D
the shoulders, strengthen and reduce
the bust, and pare down the biggest
hips. This is done by taking off the
overweight of flesh in one place and
putting it on thin arms and legs, where
symmetry demands it, and by picking
up long muscles and knitting them
back into place until, without the cor
set, the figure shows self-sustainine
and firm
No woman under a course of treat
ment for her figure is allowed to eat
potatoes, white and hot bread anv
richer sweet than pudding, and never
pastry. Green vegetables, fruit. all the
meats desired, butter, sugar in her tea
and coffee, and gluten bread are adj
vocated, and the attack in reduction
Is made first against the overdeyel-
oped abdomen and shelf-like hips. that
worry woman more than all the other
shortcomings of her figure put togeth-
er. The patient is made to lie fiat on
her back on the hard, unsympathetic
floor, hold tightly to some fixed object.
In her own room bed leg is the thing.
and then lift her legs from the floor
straight up to the perpendicular. When
she can do this twenty times Land
running, she will begin to feel the mus
cles of her stomach and abdomen and
although exercise after this fashion
leaves one blown and exhausted #
ought at once to be followed by daily
five-mile stint on an indoor bicycle
It's the pedal work that begins to pull
flesh off the hips. and as any one can
see, provided woman has sufficient
space in her room for an elastic exer-
else and home bicycle, she can carry
on her course of reduction at home. But
she must work at the movements every
morning, and at least one hour In the