WOMEN IN MOTION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1373, 20 August 1895, Page 6

WOMEN IN MOTION.

The First and Last Buie In Graceful Walk* Inu Is Not to Hurry. If you carefully observe a throng of women walking on the street, you will be struck by the fact that nearly every woman walks far too rapidly for anything like grace to enter into her movements. Tall women for some reason walk more slowly than little ones. Perhaps the short woman gets into the habit of hurrying from trying to keep up with her willowy sister. Then there is the jerky woman, and there is unfortunately only too many of her. Her elbows, shoulders and hips move from side to side with every movement of her feet. If you are acquainted with her, you will find that she has usually a nervous temperament. Some women have a gait that is hard to describe. If they were to walk in the snow or some place where their footsteps would be visible, there would be two tracks parallel to each other and about a foot apart. This is a particularly ugly walk, though not nearly so common as the jerky variety. These are by no means exceptional cases. Put these same women in a ballroom, and their every movement in dancing would be full of grace and spring. It is because they have been taught to dance, while the ordinary means of locomotion, complex though it ia, are left to chance. An easy, graceful walk is not impossible of acquirement, though, like all things that are worth having; it takes time and patience-. Julia Marlowe, when about 15 years Of age, was afflicted with a most ungainly hj walk. To cure herself of this she used to walk for miles along the seashore every day, with her hands on her hips to keep them motionless. Whether she succeeded, no one who has ever seen her on the stage need ask. 'One of the most graceful women I have ever seen told me the other day when I asked for her secret: “I have no secret. When I was a child, my mother impressed on me most firmly that I was always to turn my toes out. This keeps the knees straight, so that all the movement comes from the hips. I keep my chest and chin well up and make it a rule never to hurry, though as I never mince my steps I get over the ground more rapidly perhaps than those who seem to walk faster.” In learning to walk it is best to begin, as Herbert Spencer says about style, with a knowledge of what constitutes a beauty and what a blemish. A good walk is, however, about as elusive and hard to define as a good style. Still there are some very imperative “don’ts” that are well to remember. Don’t, for instance, look at your feet when walking, hut hold your head well up in the air. Don’t shuffle your feet. A little thoughtfulness and a little practice in high stepping will soon, break up this ugly habit. Don’t bend back at the waist under the impression that you are thereby walking erectly. It throws the Stomach forward and is almost as inimical to grace aa round shoulders. Finally, don’t allow yourself to walk “pigeon toed” —that is, with the toes turned in or straight. You can never he graceful in movement while yon do. An ideal place in which to practice walking would he a long room with a mirror at each end. Though this is usually impracticable, you should by all means-practice in front of a mirror, or you may only accentuate bad habits. It is unnecessary to say that heavy skirts and tight corsets are quite incompatible with freedom of motion. Do not bother about the shoulders. Hold the chest well forward, and they mil take care of themselves. ’Then, with the chin well up and the toes turned out, you may literally “walk a chalk line.” It is always hard to tell what to do with the hands. It is said that no woman under 25 has ever learned how to carry these offending members. But this, I think, was written of English women. The natural way—to have them hanging at the sides or loosely clasped in front —is not considered elegant. And to have them glued to the sides as far as the waist line, and then bent in at the elbow, is not only awkward in itself, but it elevates the shoulders in the most unlovely way. Therefore most women try to obviate the difficulty by carrying something in the hands. It does seem strange that the most useful members of the body should be so unpleasantly in evidence when they are not in use. But however you elect to carry them, remember that the first and last rule in good walking is not to hurry.—Philadelphia Record.

The Hunt Memorial library. Mrs. Mary A. Hunt and Miss A. Hunt, her daughter, have given notice that they will bring suit against the city of Nashua, N. H., to recover $50,000 which they presented to the city for the foundation of the Hunt Memorial library, on the ground that the conditions of the gift have not been complied with within a reasonable time. The gift was made over a year ago, and apparently the citizens and the city government have done nothing but wrangle ineffectively over the site for the building.—Nashua Letter. Nellie Grant Sn.rtorls. “I had to learn of my daughter’s misery,” says Mrs. U. S. Grant, in an interview in Chicago, “through the American press.” The stories about Mrs. Sartoris’ unhappy domestic life are, according to her mother, in a frank statement of which the sentence quoted is the prelude, without foundation in fact. Mrs. Grant is certainly qualified to speak with authority, and her statement should be accepted as final.—Exchange. A Jewess Physician. About two years ago Mile. Felicie Mendelssohn, a Jewish lady, who hold# the diploma of the medical faculty Paris, established herself at Cairo. cently Dr. Mendelssohn was called tomb tend on the mother of the khedive, and bo excellent was her treatment of the pe riant that hi* ftlghneu Imm appointed ’ doctor to th® jjguae*.

A Dcs Moines woman who has been troubled with frequent colds, concluded to try an old remedy in a new way, and accordingly took a’tablespoonful (four timos the usual dose) of Chamberlain’s Cough Ilemedy just before going to bed. The next morning she found that her cold bad almost entirely disappeared. During the. day she took a feu doses of the remedy (one teaspoonful at a time) and at night again took a tablespoonful before going to> bed, and on tbe following morning awokefree from all symptoms of the cold. Since then she has, on several occasions, used this, remedy in like manner, with the same good results, and is much elated over her discovery of so quick a way of curing a cold. For sale by H. Hotop. >