The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-09
How to Secure a
Graceful Carriage.
THE beginning of attractiveness IS
to walk well. Many American


! to walk well. Many American
- women and even American girls
are lamentably lacking in this grace
because, unlike the ladies of Europe.
| they have never been instructed in
walking. To know what training in the
simple matter of walking will do for a
| human being contrast the carriage of
drilled soldier with that of the ordi-
nary man. who walks anyhow, slump
ing down into his knees. jerking his
hips throwing his feet this way and
| that.
Well, just as ungracefully as the un-
drilled ordinary man walks, just that
badly walk most women who have new
er paid attention to their gait, even
worse indeed, only that their long skirts
conceal the unsightliness. And every
one of them, short or tall, stout or thin,
can secure walk SO graceful that peo-
pie will turn to look after her as they
do after couple of trained soldiers in
a crowd of ordinary men.
Certainly the regular military drill is
the best of all exercises for securing
graceful carriage. Some of the Euro
pean society beauties famed for their
grace admit they owe it to having TAX
en- course in physical culture from a
regimental drill sergeant. Famous ac-
tresses haveg had themselves put
through the same training in order to
secure that noble and imposing pres
ence which is one of their drawing
cards.
To begin. there is nothing better than
that goose step" which Rudyard Kip
ling has immortalized in one of his
poems It consists in merely crooking
the leg at the knee and then raising it
/ thus bent at an angle as far as possible
/ toward the waist. Do this first with
one leg, then the other, alternately. If
! you have never tried it, you will be
surprised to find what drawing, loos-
ening effect it has on the muscles of the
I back of the thigh and those of the lower
hack, where women are notedly weak
! Rise five minutes earlier in the morn
| ing if you have not much time, and be-
fore you put on your skirts and your
corset. if you wear one, do this goose
STEP first with one lower limb then
with the other, for the full five minutes.
You cannot do it properly in corset and
skirts.
Now. next time you see any soldiers
notice particularly how differently from
the ordinary man they move their
| knees. The knees of the man who
| does not care how he walks are often
even crooked and bob unsteadily this
way and that, as though they might
tary man throws his leg out straight
and graceful before him without ap-
| parently bending his knees at all. He
| gives the main motion from his hips
| and not from his knees. This is Of
| the chief secrets of graceful walk.
Next, there is the perfectly erect car
| riage. This does no mean "th1 owing
| the shoulders back as we are so often
| wrongly told. 1t means holding the
chest up and holding the abdomen in
| rather, if you hold your chest up and
| draw deep, slow breaths your stomach
of itself will sink in. Many women de-
| velop large stomaehs simply from let
ting the muscles of the chest slump
| down upon the stomach and become
| weak and lax. At the same time that
| the chest hops down and inward the
points of the shoulders begin to bow
outward and round till they sometimes
make a woman look as if she were
turned the other side foremost. None
| of this is necessary to a woman at any
age. Finally hold your head up per-
sistently and keep your spine in a
straight line so far as possible.
To recapitulate. hold your chest and
! head up with determination and take
deep, slow breaths. Don't let your
knees wabble and don't make the main
motion of walking from the knee joints.
| This gives a mincing, extremely un-
| graceful gait. Walk from your hips,
! hold the knees firm and reach out with
a long. steady forward swing. Keep it
up. MARY GOULD LYLE.