The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-02-28
BY Marian Martineau.
Chicago Tribune.)

| not only walks as she should walk, Dul
one who rests as she should rest.
One of the most important of all
things is the resting properly. No one
but yourself knows how many hours a
| day you devote to resting, and no one
| knows as well as yourself whether you
do this in the right way or not.
A statistician, tireless in his efforts
! to investigate. the habits of women,
| computes that the average woman can
remain on her feet at most only three
hours a day, and that all the rest of
the time she either sits or sleeps.
| He includes in the resting business
all the time when a woman is seated;
! all the hours in which she reclines in a
| rocking chair; all the time during
which she lounges upon the couch; and
the patient hours during which she sits
and sews, seated comfortably or I'M
comfortably.
1t is likely that the statistician is
nearly correct in his estimate, and
that the average woman can walk or
stand not more than three whole hours
day. Certainly few women ever walk
more than an hour at time, and even
during the long, tiresome shopping
hours she sits whenever she can.
The woman who does her own
work. may be on her feet more than
the average, but for some reason it is
not thought hygienic or healthful to
stand; and so every contrivance is in
vented by which woman can work
seated
Really, aside from the strain upon
the feet, there is no reason why a
healthy woman is not just as well off
standing as seated. And, if comforta-
Bile shoes be worn, a woman will tell
you that she is more at ease upon her
feet part Of the time than seated in the
cramped position necessitated by mod
ern chairs.
Many Of the troubles which harass
the body are caused, not by walking or
by standing, but by sitting in cramped
positions, doubled UP for hours at a
time, and getting twisted and tired,
when standing up and Strengthening
out would have made one quite com
Portable again.
Shop girls who happen to have we'll
aired quarters, and women who stand
in the open air, or in well-ventilated
apartments. are usually vigorous and
healthy, while those who sit eternally
are the ones who are uncomfortable
most of the time.
The average woman who has been
seated all her life, and whose shoes are
size too small and whose waist is an
inch too tight, cannot begin by stand
ing half of the day. She will drop in
an hour and will be put to bed in raving
delirium If compelled to stand half a
day. 1t is her feet that give out first,
then her knees, and so the fatigue trav-
els on upward until even the brain sue
cumbs
Now, actually, there is no reason why
one should drop if compelled TO be on
ones feet for a short time, and no
sense in the fact that she cannot walk
True, she will have a million reasons.
but all begin and end with the fact that
it lays her up and makes her sick in
bed If on her feet few hours.
The reason for it lies in its unaccus-
tomedness and in nothing else. 1t is
because women get out of the habit of
using their feet, and the legs become so
weak that it is difficult for them to
support the body.
In going upstairs a woman's weight
comes in a bad place, upon the calves
of her legs, so that she is compelled to
throw herself forward Thus, throw
ing her body up the stairs after her
feet, she manages laboriously to reach
the top step, there to stand putting and
gasping until the agony is subsidized.
o
The cure for this, or for a great part
of this, lies in resting as one should
great part Of the day, because of habit
or because of necessity There is the
sewing position and the position for
reading. So, too, there is the lounging
position, and the position which one
takes for resting.
A woman should know half a dozen
ways to rest herself, and she should
practice them, one after one, when COM
PEELED to sit along time.
The girl who sits lopsided, who COM
pels one shoulder to do the work of
supporting the neck and head, and who
gets in the habit of throwing her head
to one side, in her effort to keep it from
dropping upon her shoulders or back
ward, is the girl who is, slowly but |
surely, steadily but truly, destroying
her lines.
There are women who succeed in |
holding time at bay admirably well. |
They keep young in figure. And it is
the figure, after all, which counts. The |
woman who is erect and almost 1.-THE, |
the one who does not show a hump in |
her back, is not lopsided, nor thin |
chested, is the one who will look young, |
no matter what her features may be.
1t is not the homely woman who ages
early, but the woman who sits badly, |
who carries loose, uncertain poise of |
shoulder, whose back is round, and I'M
middle-a ged-she is the one
whose face admits every year of her |
age
1t is said that contented spirit keeps |
its possessor young. Certainly no CON |
tented spirit could dwell in a body |
which is not shaped as well as nature |
designed it.
A woman who cannot sit properly
without getting tired should take meas
ures to correct her pose. She should |
invigorate her body with bath in
vinegar. She should use
scented toilet water and should keep I
sharply sweet scents about her, work /
ing upon the same principle with which |
physicians revive their patients with |
the fumes of ammonia. A horse that |
has fallen unconscious will revive if |
spirits be held to his nostrils.
And the woman who feels sick and
faint, weak and all of a heap will
come to" if she will sniff sweet odors.
Dr. sharp ones, and if she will battle in
water made refreshing with the proper
vinegars. Then, after this course of
treatment, she will find that she can
sit up and keep her position nicely, and
when tired that she will be we'll enough
to stand erect upon her feet.
Irish Laces.
1t is gratifying to me to read from
time to time extracts from subscrip-
lions and business letters that come to
this office, thanking for suggestions of
tered in this department. One just to
hand is profuse in thanks for receiving
aces ordered from Ireland, taken from
The advertisement in our columns. Onel