The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-10
MEN ROUND sHoULDERED.
Careless Office Habits to Blame, the
 Doctor Says.
rrnr, Inc New York Sun.

From the New York Sun
 Were it not for the vacation habit am inclined to think that the average New York man would be even more round shouldered than he is." said New York physician.
 For that reason I am more careful to emphasize the importance of taking a va cation to the young men than the young women; for after middle age round shoulders are nearly always there to stay. If a man reaches the age Of 40 or 50 without acquiring a stoop the chances are. provided his health IS good, that he will be perfectly erect at 50 or 70.
 When I was travelling in Europe last summer an Englishman who seemed to be more observing than most of his coun- trymen whom have met put this ques- ton to me:
 Why is 1t hat the American women put up so much better appearance than the men in figure and carrage?'
 This Englishman, I found, had never crossed the Atlantic, and was passing his conclusions on the appearance Of the Americans he met In Europe.
 After that I kept my eyes open and took few notes on my own behalf. l had to admit that compared with the av- craze Englishman thu American man ap- peared hollow chested and stoop should cred whereas the American woman held her own every time with the English woman.
 What said to the Englshman was this:
 Perhaps American men work harder than you do over here. With us even the well to do. the almost rich, sit long hours every day at desk, evidently caring less about the shape of their shoulders than the size of their bank account
 He got back at me with: But don't many women work long hours, too?'
 This acknowledged. thinking of the thousands of typewriters, stenographers, telegraphers and bookkeepers in the huge New York office buildings, and hastened to change the subject.
 When I got back to New York be- gan to study the matter, and now were to meet that observing Englishman I might satisfy his curiosity. For instance. l have discovered that men of all classes, the educated as well as the illiterate. are mighty careless about the figure they cut when at work. whereas women wage earners care just as much about the set of their sfirtwaists when at the office as when at home-more, in fact.
 Dropping into a typewriter place one day in search of a stenographer, l mo- ticed that nearly every young woman In the room sat erect, shoulders back, chest out, and I have observed the same thing at the telephone exchanges. in telegraph offices and even in restaurants where young women eat at ne lunch hour
 Now. most men who sit at a desk are quite different My office backs up against a building in which several arch itects have quarters. One of these men l have observed particularly of late be- cause of the long hours he keeps. Evil dently he is on rush job. At any rate, from early morning until past midnight with only the briefest stops, have seen him lowering over his table, and all that time bent nearly double, his nose almost touching the paper It is possible a wo- man architect might take the same pose. but I don't believe 1t.
 'I have come to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to run across man who does not sprawl over his desk when he writes If any one wants to prove this let him 80 some night. as I did. to the office of one of the big New York newspapers and look into the reporters quarters at about the time when they are working for all they are worth.
 ''On the occasion I mention there were twenty or thirty men, maybe more, seat ed at desks. and I failed to discover one who sat up in the fashion prescribed to youngsters by all good schoolma ans.
 ''Is there an office boy in New York