The Monitor-register., 1896-08-21
How Women and Men Can Make
Their Figures Good and
Health Giving.

Inc following interesting article is
taken in the main from the New York
Sun:
" Hold up your shoulders! Hold up
your shoulders is what l hear on all
Sides" exclaimed tall young woman
impatiently to friend. 81 never was so
weary of anything in my life."
"You poor girl % said the other, in a
sympathetic voice. 81 know just how
to feel for you, for l had to endure that
for over three years, and it is the most
aggravating thing that a human being
was ever called on to suffer. My family
began at me first, then my friends took
up the cry, and the next thing knew
absolute strangers were saying to me,
Hold up your shoulders.
''You ?" exclaimed the tall girl, who
had decided stoop, which made her a
sight to behold. "Why, you are as
straight as an arrow, my dear, and always
have been since l have known you. Why
should people make such remarks to
you ?'
'Oh, used to have the worst case of
round shoulders that you ever saw, but
was cured"
How" asked the und.shouldered
one, eagerly. "By braces?"
mo, indeed. l tried one brace after
another until was almost mad, and the
only difference that l ever noticed from
wearing any of them was severe pain in
my back, even after removing them, and
generally uncomfortable feeling. No
woman, or man either, for that matter,
should ever be conscious of having on a
garment. The minute you feel this
pressing, or that binding, or the other
cutting, take it off, for it will injure you,
perhaps very slightly; but a series of
little injuries can bring on great one.
| was about eighteen before 1 really
began to feel dreadful over being so
stopped. You see, it was nearly time for
me to come out, and l knew that a good
figure had great charms, so | set at work
to improve mine. l took physical culture,
rode horseback, played tennis, and, as
said, wore braces. There was slight
Improvement, but it was not marked.
Finally l got desperate, and every real
straight man or woman l met with an
excellent figure l asked how he or she
came to be SO straight. One day got a
satisfactory answer. A young woman
with positively one Of the loveliest fig
ures | ever saw, said to me:
"'You want TO know what ails your
shoulders, don't you? Well, l can tell
you. You sleep in wrong position, and
probably on very downs couch
"'I do sleep on downy couch
"'That's the trouble, then. When
one thinks of it, the place and position in
which one spends third of every twenty
four hours must have an effect on the
figure, mustn't it?'
eyes, murmured, and great light
broke over me. l had been undoing at
night what l had been doing toward i'm
proving my figure during the day. Well,
she sent me to the doctor who had set
her straight literally, and here I am now
with just as good a figure as she ever
dreamed of having, if do say it myself" "
and she drew herself up proudly to her
full height.
SIT is lovely! So symmetrical! And
your back is beautiful" half soliloquized
the other, critically; "not the sign of a
stoop ia it. And your bust is thrown
forward, and there is grace in every
movement
''You can have just as good figure as
mine if you are heroic enough to take
the treatment" remarked she of the
straight shoulders, amiably. "What
women do we find having the prettiest
figures in the world? The women of
hot countries. And it comes from the
fact that compels them to sleep on hard
beds, with light covering A hard bed is
Que of the best preventives Of bad
figures, and if narrow, so much the
! better.
"My doctor told me as a rule, people
assumed wrong position in sleeping,
inasmueh as they sleep on their backs.
This is very bad, for the reason that it
causes a gravitation of blood to the
spinal column and base of the brain,
causing bad dreams and a tendency to
nightmare. 1t also throws the palate in
such a position that mouth breathing is
necessary, and you know the horrible
result of that"
"No, what is it ?''
Snoring" in horror stricken voice,
%hd the act of snoring is by no means
harmless. for one who snores is more
than ant to have throat trouble, because
there is no chance for the air which
enters the lungs to be moistened, warmed
and purified by passing through the
nostrils, between the turbinate bones,
when the mouth is wide open is there !?
A person cannot snore when the mouth
is closed"
"No.o," answered Miss Stoop, Shoulder,
hesitatingly: "but what has that to do
with good or bad figures ?"
"Nothing whatever. I merely want to
impress upon you all Of the evils that
result from sleeping in wrong position,
the greatest of which, in the eyes Of the
average woman, not to speak of men, is
bad fgure-double chins, crooked
shoulders and few other such eyesores
If you can forego pillows the result is
much more satisfactory. While resting
the head on a high pillow is pleasant to
most persons, it throws the head forward,
and this makes round shoulders even
more prominent. 1t is easy to get in the
habit of sleeping on high pillow, for ii
throws the head above the rest OF the
body, favoring an@mia of the brain,
which is Sleep
"My goodness! But where did you
get your terms ?" questioned the
thoroughly interested, would-be straight
girl.
"Oh, from the doctor Everything
that he said to me is iDdelibly impressed
on my memory, for it has literally made a
new woman of me in looks and feeling,
All animals sleep upon the chest as near ly
as possible, with their backs up, and
animals are pretty generally right in such
matters. The thick muscles of the back
and shoulder blade protect the lungs and
abdominal regions from atmospheric
changes. Perhaps the most common
position assumed by people during sleep.
j 10 thu sida NTH h