Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-19
ROUND SHOULDERED
CARELESS OFFICE HABITS TO
BLAME, DOCTOR SAYS.
Women Sit Straightsr ct Desks and
Take More Pride in
Appearance.

From the New York sun.
Were 1t not for the vacation habit am
inclined to think that the average New
York man would be even more round Shout
dered than he u.s. said a New York physi-
scian. Fer that reason am more careful
to emphasize the Importance OF taking
vacation to the young men than to the
young women: for after middle age round
shoulders are nearly always there to stay.
II man reaches the age of forty-five or
fifty without acquiring a stoop the chances
are. provided his health is good, that he
will be perfectly erect at sixty or seventy.
when l was travelling In Europe last
summer an Englishman who seemed to be
more observing than most Of his country
men whom have met put this question to
me: why is it that the American wom-
en- put up so much better an appearance
than the men In figure and carriage"
This Englshman, I found, had never
crossed the Atlantic and was basiRg his
conclusion on the appearance OF the Ameri-
cans he met in Europe.
The Englishman Right.
after that 1 kept my eyes open and took
few notes on my own behalf. l had to
admit that compared with the average Eng
llshman the American man appeared hollow
chested and stoop shouldered. whereas the
American woman held her own every time
with the English woman.
What l said to the Englishman 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 with: But don't
many women work long hours, too"
This 1 acknowledged. thinking of the
thousands of typewriters, stenographers.
telegraphers and b0okkeepers in the huge
New York Office buildings. and fastened
to change the subject
when 1 got back to New York l began
to study the matter. and now were l to
meet that observing Englishman l might
satisfy his curiosity. For instance. have
discovered that men of all classes, the edu-
Gated as well as the illiterate, are mighty
careless about the figure they cut when at
just as much about the set of their shirt
waists when at the Office as when at home
more, in fact.
Dropping into a typewriter place one
day in search of stenographer. noticed
that nearly every young woman In the
rCcm sat erect, shoulders back, chest out
and | have observed the same thing at the
telephone exchanges. in telegraph offices.
and even in restaurants where young wo-
men eat at the lunch hour.
Men Careless.
Now. most men who sit at 4 desk are
quite different. My office backs up against
a building in which several architects have
quarters. One of these men l have OBJ
served par ticularly Of late because of the
long hours be keeps. Evidently he Is on a
rush job. At any rate, from early morning
until past midnight, with only the brlefest
stops, 1 have seen him lowering over his
table, and all that time bent nearly dou-
BILE, his nose almost touching the paper. 1t
is possible woman architect might take
the same pose. but don't believe it.
Il have come to the conclusion that 1t Is
almost impossible to run across a man who
does not sprawl over his desk when he
writes. If any one wants TO prove this let
Hill. go some night, as 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. .;< 5rsG
ION the occasion 1 mention there were
twenty thirty ICen, maybe more seated
a. desks. and failed to discover one who
sat up in the fashion prescribed to young
sters by all good schoolma' ams.
rs there an office boy in New York who
doesn't almost lie down on the desk every
time he puts pen to paper?
New York has developed an undesirably
larg crop of round-shouldered men due al
most solely to the careless habits of these
same men in business hours.
MY advice to all my young men pa
tents and friends is something like this
Take at least two weeks vacation in the
summer. making a practice of walking sew
eral miles every day in the open air, Shout
ders back, head erect, and instead Of loung-
ing In a hammock when tired-an indul-
gence which tends to make round shoulders
lie fiat on your back on the grass"