The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-27
.NGRESS VENUS Of TODAY
SOUTH CAROLINA PHYSICIAN saws
HER FORM is NEAREST
PERFECTION
THEIR TOLL AND MODE OF LIFE
Explains the System of UnsconseiOus
Delsarteism by Which They
Keep Themselves liz
Physical Health.

Hospital attendants and physicians
whose duties bring them into contact
with negroes who come here to have in
juries treated marvel at the recuperative
power of these people, says the Charles
ton IS. Co. correspondent of the New
York Sun. The negroes often recover al
most with ease from what appear to be
mortal wounds and injuries which would
mean certain death to white patients
This quality physicians attribute large
ly to the mode of life of the negroes
More especially among the women the
physicians See the effects of what may
be described as a course of elementary
Delsarteism, as thorough for all prae-
teal purposes as it is unconscious. Much
study of late has been given to this Del
sarteism among the negroes of the South
The absence of all spinal diseases is t.
tributed to the outdoor life of the ne
groes, but this is only one of the ailments
which they escape
1t may not be commonly known, said
a physician to the Sun correspondent,
but the perfection of the human form
divine is seen best in the negress living
in this part of the country. These women
conform more nearly to the Greeks than
to any other existing race. A careful
examination of their forms will prove
this to be the case. Their bodies are
not warped by any of the modern inven-
lions of society. Their shoulders are
broad, the bust developed; the arms and
fingers are graceful and tapering, and
even their finger nails are perfect. The
throat is rounded and flexible and will
lowy to a remarkable degree. Only in
the feet of the negresses do you find the
rough, heavy and uncouth part of their
makeup, and this is due to the fact that
they wear old shoes which do not fit
when they wear shoes, at all. Yet In the
foot of negro baby you will find a per-
feet shape and form These women are
healthy. Their blood is not tainted, ana
while you find coarseness about them
you can also pick out the delicate and
beautiful features, a smooth firm and
porous skin which does not wrinkle until
late in life The suffering that these
people can bear is remarkable and chas-
tisement which would send a white wom-
an to her grave is passed over with little
notice by the negress.
81 am a great believer in what you call
the unconscious Delsartei sm among ne
groes. These ignorant people have been
forced by the exigencies of their labo
to the employment of principles which
were a religion with the Greeks, and
which today are fad with women s-riv-
ing to do away in their own bodies with
the effect of centuries Of violated natural
laws. Now this perfect poisa Of the hea
and the heXibflity of the throat and neck
head while the body is in motion. This
practice was compulsory with the Greeks.
I have seen a woman, scores of them
for that matter, walking rapidly with
one pail of water on her head while in
each hand she carried a bar on which
two buckets were suspended, carrying
in all five buckets of water, and moving
as easily and as gracefully as a juggler.
when woman beats clothes with a
paddle, which is the primitive form of
laundering all the chest and abdominal
muscles are brought into play just as
they are by the club exercise of Del
sarteiSm. The movement is naturally
cruder, but in it's elementary requisites
it is the same. The position of vulgar
case which every stage trainer so abhors
the hands and hips, thumbs outward
is favorite one with the negress. The
physical culture matrons embrace a Sc
ries of exercises in which. with arms
placed in the position referred to, the
body is swung from one side to the othe',
the weight of the body resting entirely
on one hip the other hip, in culture pa
lance, being entirely given up. This mo-
ton induces a beautiful carriage of the
body and a perfect control of pofse, but
is forbidden to actresses outside of the
training room. The motion is conducive
to grace, but is supposed to be not grace
full as a pose. But negress sWaylng TO
and fro in this position is as sinuous AMI
willowy as a panther In his native Jungle
1t rests them, they say.
sThe bread makers and the cake beat
ers have tie NEST perfect pllancy and
control of the wrist and fingers. In such
work the upper arm never moves from
the side of the body and all the power is
concentrated at the wrist and commune
Gated thence to the fingers. Of course 1t
is not alone such exercises as these which
- -. I,.,A
give to the females of the race the
strength and hardihood that characterize
them Their adherence to the deep-rooted
principles of muscular hygiene extends
even further than this and embraces prin-
ciples advocated by dress reformers and
physicians, Their dress is simple.
1.-THE cold food they eat may also bear
greatly on the soundness of their digestive
organs and may be the cause of the in
variable perfection OF their teeth and the
cheerful disposition which as a race dis
tinguishes them. They are hardy, exist on
simple food, mostly vegetables, and have
an enormous capacity for sleep. Take ~,
able-bodied man, a negro, and let him be
ri6dled with buckshot or bullets, but I'M
less a vital organ is punctured the
chances are that he will get well. A
v hite man, receiving iden tically the same
wounds, could not possibly get we'll. Ne
grces who have been seriously cut with
razors and knives, and who are given up
for dead, have pulled through until now
we never show any surprise when a negro
in this condition RECEIVERS. 1t is one of
those things not easily explained, the case
being the same with women as with men,
although with the women I believe that
unconscious Delsarteism has a great deal
to do with fitting them to stand the or
deals through which SO many Of them
have to pass"