The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1908-01-17

heath-producng, ife-prolonging exercise, and bears 10 refer
ence whatsoever to artificial sprint walking, which is a sort of pacing
locomoton that is subject to the same physical tension and open to the
same criticism as all other heroic competitive sports.
Moderation in physical exercises is a necessity. Intemperance
in this direction carries with it the san risks and penalties as all other
forms OF lntemperance. The great value Of daily systematic walking,
which the American people seem to be neglecing more and more as the
years go by, lies mainly in the fact that it is a natural exercise; that it
must be done in the open air and nervenourishing sunshine. fortified by
the yitalning and invgoraing influence of a pure atmosphere.
The attitude, too, for proper walking is perfect, animated erectness
with shoulders held down and pushed well back. While the stomach is
the stride should be made from the hip, and the heel should meet the turf
before the toe. This, the best and only style of proper walking, can be
easily acquired, and the resultant benefits of its adoption both in the inn
proved air, health and physical symmetry of its supporters ire more
readily experienced than in any other known exercise.
Character is marked by evidence in the human form, and a manly
mans nobility is frequently exhibited in his poaures and strides. A
shuner in gait is apt to be a shufier in principle. There is poetry of
motion that is beauty indescribabe. and manly 0 womanly physical grace
fulness is generally associated with grace of spirit and loftiness of char
acter as vel.
There may be exceptions to this rule, Is there are usually exceptions
all rules, but the exceptions are ordinarily but examples of perverson,
for as beauty of character radaes from the human countenance, so Iofti-
ness Of purpose and strength of character may be seen stamped on the
movements of the human body For this reason, why should not grace
of motion be cultivated through a correct and pleasing style of walking
when the heathrgving properties of added strength, physical symmetry
and longer life accompany it?
AS proof of the value ola regular and correct system of walking
exercise, contrast the long, enduring physical power of a 69year-old long
distance pedestrian like Edward Payson Weston with the living and dead
examples of other forms of physical traits, from which the sharp risks of
heart LESSONS and nerve strains have not been eliminated.
No serious danger of heart strains from invigoratng walking excr-
ces are V in evidence The development of deep breathing lung
power and strengthened heart action move hand IN hand. With the soil
tary exception of breaststroke swimming, l know of no other one exercise
that can develop equal comeiness and physical symmetry, but daily oppor-
tunHies in this direction are within the reach of but few people, and even
at that, its spendidly identifying advantages are not comparable to those
furnished by systematic and regular open-air walking exercises.
You will observe that l speak of daily walking exercises in proper
form and in practice of proper judgment. To the great majority of peo-
Pile of both sexes such walking will prove a benefit, and to many a real
pleasure, though there 1T some others, largely in the minority, to whom
pedestranism in any form is hard work. l personally have known ah-
leic men who could row a mile with less exerion than they could walk
it at an ordinarily decent pace, but, as | say, they ar the exceptions who
do not appear to derive as much benefit from this as from some other form
of exercise.
In concluding this incomplete reply to the question: "Do We Walk
Enough Z" there is one suggestion | would make to that class of individuals
who dread enlargng waStcoats, and are anxious to keep their waist lines
hard and tight within reasonable bounds-I have never known a longdis-
lance walker who, after retiring from professional life, kept up reason.
able daily exercise, who suffered from abdominal enlargement. What is
true of these, men may be easily observed in my own case. And this is
due to the fact that, rain o. shine, walk eight miles regularly every day,
not because l like it, but because after the terribly hard training strains
Of my early life, this system of daily
met in no other way. 1911
1hffxua 7.A the pupils of a high