OUR BOYS' PHYSIQUE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14099, 19 July 1911, Page 6

OUR BOYS' PHYSIQUE.

to the Bpr_cm of "thi: -KES3." Si r> ___l was asking; mum yesterday what I could do to make myself grow bigger; I've boon a bit -worried because scTmany New Zenlaiiders wero rejected for the navy on account of their poor physique. 1 am twelve- years old, and 7 want dreadfully to bo an officer when I grow up, so I want to be big ana strong and straight. Mum said I had better write to the papers, as all tho other people do. Then Aunt Julia started in and said, why didn't mum tell nve herself, so mum said sho didn't know, and would bo very glad if Aunt Julia would give mc tho recipe. Aunt Julia is an old —oh, I forgot; mum says I am to call her a spinster, because "the other name is rude, nut she is it all tho same. Mum says sho is very wise, because she has no husband or children: to take up all her time, so she has gone on. learning things until now. Aunt Julia says it is very easy to see why the young men here are so 6mall and thin and bandy-logged. She says you get bandy-legs from always riding*bicycles, and they make you havo a round back and a narrow chest. AU those things are bad physique, and she says this Ls the age of suction, and if wo don't change our habits we will all be just like snipe.

I asked her what was a snipo, and ! she said it was a bird that fives by suction, and it has a tremendous long; beak and no physique at all to speak; of. She said that tvhen a New Zealand baby is born, it has to always suck a bottlo tube, because its mother hasn't timo to feed it. They used to feed them with a spoon when they were three or four months old, but now they have to keep on suckino; because spoons are such slow work. "Then." she said, "they have to suck dummies to keep them quiet till they are three or four years old, but they get lollies too, and when thoy are done with dummies they go on sucking lollies." She says the number of sweet shops will show you how lollies are consumed here; it is simply appalling. And soon they start sucking cigars, and then pipes, and — I can't spell the long word she used— it means spitting away all the gastric juice, which was given us to digest onr food, and so we can't half digest it, and it does us no good, and we can't grow, and our faces get very narrow and pharp, and very often crooked. Girls don't smoke or spit, and that's why they are bigger -than boys. Then sho started about tho sort of food wo eat, but first she said onr teeth were so bad from tho dummies and the sweets that we conld not eat good hard food, so we must have everything cooked soft, and we mostly swallowed it whole. Soon, sho says, wo shall have no teeth, like snipe; they used to have them, but as they were not wanted, they simply didn't grow. "When sho was a girl sho and her brothers were not allowed to have butter and jam on their bread at tho same time, and they wero all big and tall, because jam is good for your health if you have it on bread by itsolf, but butter prevents it doing you any good, so you have to take medicine. Annt Julia is very good at explaining things. She says you can't grow tall if you are only a short timo in bed, and if you have to get up early, yon should be sure to go to bed early, and always lie as straight as you can. She has known several cases of yottng people who had to lie in bed for a few monthis oh account of broken legs, and so on, and the way they grew was amazing. Sho also says we work too hard at our games while we are prowing.

I shall be sorry not to go to the theatre or the pictures any more till I am big, but mum and dad say if I make up my mind not to go. they will put the money I don't spend into the bank for mc, to use by and by. Mum says I'll have a good start," because Aunt Julia—sho is_ mum's aunt—never would let her giv© mc a dummy to suck. Do you think she is right, and would it be any good to follow her advice? Dad and mum both say yes, b-nt it will require some self-denial.— iouts, etc., BERT.