STRAPHANGER ADVICE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 4, 5 July 1922, Page 16

STRAPHANGER ADVICE

An American journal of recent date states: — ! Although we are a nation of straphangers/few people know how to stand properly in % moving car. Y/atoh any crowd in a moving car and you will find that most people suffer no end of inconvenience through the faulty position of the feet. Passengers are jostled back and forth and from side to side with every motion of the car, bumping against one another and mor? or less seriously straining- many' muscles of the body, to say nothing of the nerves. , ' . Much of the nervous and physical strain can be avoided by correctly placing the feet. Moat passengers, in taking a position in a moving car, stand with their feet parallel'to the sides of the car, either facing backward or forward. 'Some think it best to ride one way, some another, but both are wrong. Such a position of the feet minimizes tho> lateral or Bwaying motion of the body, but it renders the passengers especially susceptible to jerking wh'>n the car starts or stops. Many straphangers, again, stand with their feet at right angles'to the side of the car, which keeps the arm in a more comfortable position in hanging to the strap. The position guards against the strains of stopping and starting, but rocks the passenger baok and forth as the car moves from sido to side.

The scientific position is to stand with th 3 feet at an angle of 45 degrees, pointed in the direction the car is moving. Take this diagonal position and you will find that you can resist the backward and forward jerks and the side motion and secure the maximum degree of comfort. ,The feet should be about eighteen inches apart,;thus affording a broad base for-the. body and guarding against upsete. Most people stand with their feet much too close together. Tho muscles of the body should, besides, be as loose and flexible as possible not fixed and rigid, so that your body will give to the motion of tho car.