Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-22
THE GIRL YOU
WOULD LIKE TO BE
BY KATHERINE MORTON.

BY KATHERINE MORTON.
r" 1HAT the children call physical
Nv torture has been replaced by
M a deeper and more thorough
going system of mental and
physical training. The modern
man has found that he could develop his
physique twice as fast by putting his whole
mind into the business and by concentrate
ing mentally on those muscles which he
wished to develop. A prominent Yale pro-
fessor demonstrated this by instructing a
class of would be athletes to develop the
right arm by physical exercise without
mental concentration and the left arm by
physical exercise plus mental concentration
! on the muscles of that particular arm. In
a given time the left arm was far stronger
than the right arm.
Since this test innumerable teachers have
sprung up over the country who teach what
is called psyche physical culture. with or
without knowledge of the subject and l
must admit that some of the lessons / have
had by young and charming teachers of this
science have been sufficiently amusing to
pay for lack OF knowledge gained upon the
| subject. At other times l have not only
| been greatly benefited hut positively in
| spired by lesson which has aroused not
| only physical energy of the body, but as 1t
were. the vital energy of the soul, to great
| er health and aspiration. Psycho-physical
/ culture INSISTS on the DeduIIIui IN strength
and the grace of every voluntary muscular
| action. The development of the body along
/ these lines is always harmonious, revealing
/ the beautiful evolution of the spirit be-
| hind It.
| Psychological culture exercises when
| they are illustrated look like any other kind
| of exercises, but they are begun from an
entirely different point. Physical culture is
/ bodily motion according to prescribed rules.
/ The exercises we are describing today might
/ be called spiritual gymnastics, for without
| the spirit behind them they would be moth
| ing more than the ordinary movements of
| the gymnast. Psycho-physica culture In
| particular is adapted to the needs of the
| summer girl, for it enables her to repair the
! mental and physical ravages left by the ar
| duous winters work and lay in full sup
ply of health, both of body and mind.
There are two distinct classes of women
| those who are sluggish in body and mind
who give the impression of being half
/ awake, and the large majority who pre-
/ ternaturally wide awake and on the alert
and make one feel that even in sleep their
| bright eyes are wide open, ever on the
! lookout for some new impression to COM
/ municate to the tired brain and nerves OF
! these two kinds of women the last are the
most to be pitied. The sluggardS know
not that they sleep through life letting its
most precious possession slip through their
! listless fingers. These women need to be
awakened mentally and physically, and this
is what pSycho-phy steal culture can do for
them. On the other hand, there is the
nervous woman. like a violin whose strings
are never siaekened, and in time are bound
to snap.
1t sounds absurd to tell a woman tired
and worn out from days shopping, that
she can use the street cars to rest in. and
can feel in the crowded as thoroughly
relaxed In mind and body she would in
her own room at home; how with patience
and concentration this feeling OF rest may
be acquired, matter how harassing the
crowds around one may seem or how tired
one may be. There would be fewer cases
of nervous prostration II every woman were