New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-21
GETTING BACK TO VENUS
Mrs. James J. StOrroW Tells
How to Do 1t.
FIRST AID FOR THE HEFTY
If You Can Imagine Yourself
Hanging by Hook Your
Figures Perfect.

Girls, you who are called "our very best
slrls''-yes, you-do you know what you
are doing nowadays? You. are making
perfectly pitiful exhibitions OF yourselves
as regards posture. You don't know
any more how TO stand, walk or run
gracefully than a young calf does.
And fathers mothers, uncles and aunts,
do YOU know that your vision is abso-
Iutely askew? Do you know that your
ideas of what is beautiful are grotesque.
insomuch that If the Venus di Milo called
on YOU and stood beside your own young
feminine fry-the latter with their heads
stuck forward and their feet squeezed IN
pointed shoes and that curious modern
wigcle-waggIe in their movements-you
would admire them and think Venus
rather too husky looking for woman?
It's so. Mrs James J. StorrOw, Of Bos-
ton. chairman OF the committee on folk
dancing OF the National Fairgrounds AS
ISOLATION, told a big roomful Of women all
that and a lot more al a conference in the
meeting house Of the Ethical Culture So
ciety. No. West 6ith street, yesterday
afternoon. The conference was called by
the Federation for child Study and the
Committee on Amusement Resources OF
Working Girls Jointly and the women
who went certainly heard enough to make
them ashamed.
But, cheer up. Mrs StOTrow also said
that II was never too late to learn. She
introduced herself as one whose mission
IL was 20 show what an old woman could
do-not that she was old she said she
never intended to be old but some OF her
contemporaries were! Then she put on a
bloomer costume and did the liveliest irish
Jig you ever saw; also some high kicking.
And between breaths she recommended
these little diversions 10 the old and the
fat and the young and the thin-but espe-
ciaIly the fat and old-women before her.
And Everybody Did II.
And would you believe II? They were
willing 10 try. and they did right there.
After Mrs. Storrow had done a Highland
Ming and Miss Bertha Schneider, who looked
ridiculously young for the Wellesley
r. A. the card said she was, had fitted
out in a flame colored gown and done
some exquisite dancing In which she
looked like an autumn leaf borne along
by the wind, and after quartet or dear
little girls had gone through some Morris
dances, then Mrs. Storrow called on the
audience severally to come out on the
floor and be taught And ever so many
responded. They surely were game, those
women. But do you suppose fat woman
who never tried II before knows how she
looks when she does the mountain sylph
dance? That was one dance the volun-
teers attempted under Mrs. Storrow's d.
rection. But not Just at first. She began
mildly. by showing them how abominally
they stood.
Hardly anybody knows how TO stand
straight she said. "Have you ever
watched a group OF people when they are
suddenly told to straighten up? How
ugly their attitudes are-and not one OF
them knows they're not doing it nicely.
when a child is naughty we take It 10
the doctor, and the doctor removes some
aderoids or does something like that. and
often works wonders with the child's
manners and morals. But we don't think
OF consulting experts for bad postures-
and yet fatfoot, bad nervous troubles
and many other ills are frequently due to
bad postures.
Now" added Mrs. Storrow with an
encouraging smile, don't some OF you
want to 90 through few exercises with
me?'
They were a bit bashful at first, but a
Young woman in lavender broke the Ice
by rising, and then plump girl came
forward. and then a middle aged person,