Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-22
8@N~@%1%3&1&AW~~~%~H~~%% How To Make
 the Body 1.-the
 and Graceful
I@%~~~~@A~%@%HwHM~M~@AwAw]

KN infancy begins the training of the
 B Japanese acrobat or the oriental
 ~ dancing girl who comes among western nations and astonishes them With feats of physical agility and grace
 In early childhood should begin the education of every little girls body It
 is then that physical exercises of all
 kinds are delight. A girl from infan- cy to sixteen can perform with ease
 gymnastics that will be impossible
 without some training even to young
 woman of twenty.
 The really up to date mother dresses
 her little daughters very simply and in
 such way as not to obstruct at all the
 free motion of the frisky young mus. cles. There are some plain and not
 dlfHcult exercises for securing Timber.
 active body that suit equally any mem
 Der of the feminine sex from ten to
 eighty. If certain former famous ex-
 pounder of so called Delsartism had at
 tended to these as consistently as she
 sought to obtain pupils at high prices.
 then at public entertainments she would not have shown herself off as an
 awful example of all that a woman
 should not be physically. She had classic poses enough in a way, but she showed to her audiences a keglike body draped in white, and it is doubtful if
 she could have tied her own shoes or if when in standing posture she could
 have seen her own toes.
 Now, let us say mother has a little girl of ten and that she wishes to keen the daughters body 1.-the and wiIIowv
 and to make her own so. The two to-
 gether can take the exercises here giy-
 en. Let all obstructing clothing be re- moved Then let the two lie flat upon their backs, full length, upon the floor | arms crossed upon the breast. Next. without moving the arms let each fry | to raise herself to sitting posture. The act must be accomplished with the l muscles of the back, body and lower limbs, without any assistance whatever from the hands or arms. It is well for l this exercise, as in rising from or sit | ting down in chair, to imagine for the 1 time that one has no hands or arms. | ply the little girl will be able easily to rise from the fiat of her back | to the sitting posture without releasing | her hands and arms from the crossed position upon her breast. Probably her | mother will not be able to do it at all at l first. But let them keep it up. Let mamma leave her daughters new frocIr l untucked and without catstitching-it will look quite asspretty andin fully as l good taste for child's frock-and at-
 tend to this physical exercise at least | once day for, say, ten minutes It | will pay them both.
 | After the mother has made her body and leg muscles Timber enough to rise from the flat of the back to a sitting posture easily without the help of her arms let the next step be taken That l is to rise upon her feet, get straight up 1 from the floor and stand erect without l the help of hands or arms Again the 1 mother will find difficulty; again the daughter will do it easily. It may be
 mentioned that this rising from the flat l of one's back straight up upon the feet without using the arms is one of the exercises policemen use in their gyn- | nastic training.
 l After this feat has been practiced till | it is easily accomplished take another
 That is to lie upon the back, as before, | and raise the legs and bend them over
 forward till the toes touch the floor at
 the top of the head as it lies upon the floor. Do this many times, the arms l folded across the breast, as before.
 The feat is really not so difficult as it
 looks to be. Any woman can perform l it with practice and perseverance. Ly- l ing across a chair, the head if possible. touching the floor on one side, the feet
 on the other, and extending the arms beyond the top of the head till the
 hands touch the floor is strengthening
 and strengthening to the back. Glory | in a strong back.
 Let matron and maid remember this:
 Fixing the mind calmly and firmly
 upon the task during a gymnastic exer-
 else, keeping always before you the per-
 fected act as you wish to perform it, goes far toward accomplishing athletic
 culture as well as other things.
 MARY COULD LYTLE.