MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1929, Page 8

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OFj INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

WOMEN’S LEGS.

HINTS FOR SHAPELINESS

Many unkind things have been said about the prevailing fashion amongst ladies of. going about in short skirts and bare legs, but to the interested observer it has one very considerable advantage (writes Dr Harold Dearden, in an English journal). It simplifies to an enormous extent the diagnosis of varicose veins and knock knees. I was recently dining at a fashionable restaurant in the South of France, where almost all the ladies, irrespective of age or shape, appeared in evening dress with their legs or, at any rate, the seven-eighths of them which were visible, covered in nothing but sunburn. The quantitiy of varicose veins which met my sympathetic gaze was really remarkable. This being so, it seems to me opportune to say one er two words in this connection. In the first place, one of the chief causes of varicose veins is some degree of back pressure in the blood stream, which interferes to some extent with the return of the blood to the heart. Obviously the legs are most likely to be affected by this condition, since the blood, as it were, tends to stagnate in the lower extremities, but there is one additional factor which is very commonly present. A 'chronically overloaded bowel does .more than anything else to impede ■tile return of the blood from the extremities, and it was reasonable to suppose from the complexions of most of the. dancers on the. occasion to which 1 refer that most, of them wore suffering from this condition.

If, therefore, on your return from an evening’s gaiety you scutinise your ankles, and are compelled to admit the presence of varicose veins, and if still further inspection compels you to recognise that all is not well with your bowel either, you will know at least what to do in your dilemma. If, however, your varicose condition is at all advanced, not all the salads or aperients in Christendom will avail you much. You are faced with a structural weakness which you can only remedy with toil. The muscles of the leg have a very profound influence on the healthy tone of the veins. In the first place, if the muscles are in good condition, their mere support is of •considerable value in preventing a distension of the' veins. But in increasing this muscular tone care must, be taken, or the results will be disastrous. If exercise be taken in the ■normal position, with the body weight •supported on the feet, all that "will happen is that blood will collect in the distended veins, and the contraction of the muscles will do little more than still further to distend them.

The following procedure is well worth adopting in order to rid yourself of this distressing condition, First thing in the morning, before pulling your feet to the floor at all. throw the bed clothes off you and elevate your feet in the air. In this position and at this time the veins in your legs will be. more empty than at any other 'period in the day, and any exercise taken under these conditions will increase the tone of your muscles, whilst the veins themselves are in an .ideal state for the purpose in view. PROFITABLE EXERCISES. . Keeping your legs, then, raised in the air, proceed to go through all such movements as are calculated to exercise the muscles of the thigh’ and calf. Go through the action of pedalling a bicycle upside down, and continue to do this briskly until you are tired. If you are prepared to attach to your feet, two stout pieces of indigrubber, and hold the other ends in your hands, the increased resistance will be well worth the trouble involved. Next, proceed to exercise the small muscles of the. calf by alternately flexing and extending the foot at the ankle, and then describe with the toes as wide a circle as possible in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions, keeping the leg motionless. If you persist in these exercises every morning in the manner described, you may hope to excite less interest amongst the spectators at your next appearance in a ballroom. It need scarcely be said that those who have to wear an elastic stocking should put this support on the leg after the exercise, and before lowering the limb to the ground. With regard to knock knees and bow legs, the matter is not quite so simple. Nature, as part of her purpose, has seen fit to construct all women on a somewhat knock-kneed plan, but while this cannot be avoided, its drawbacks can be minimised very considerably by reducing what may be called the “knobbly” outline as far as possible. Whatever opinions you may hold as to the respective intellectual powers of men and women, one glance at the spectacle afforded by the present short skirt will, at any rate, convince you that, in courage at least, woman is in no way inferior. I have a vivid recollection during the tva.r of the agony of mind suffered by some officers in kilted battalions, when,, for the first time since boyhcrod, they were compelled to show their knees to the world at large. They were aware in many cases that, however admirable as joints, these structures could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as beautiful, and it is probable that only that access of gallantry peculiar to the • time supported them in this ordeal.

With women, however, the matter ‘appears to arouse no tremors whatever. . Knees are visible in our land to-day which would do justice to any advertisement to attract, subscriptions for an Indian famine fund. Every ligament can be seen stark and ghastly on either-side of an angular and distorted joint, or, on the othef hand, the joint itself is buried from view beneath layers of superfluous fat. Whilst giving full credit for the courage which permits of these spectacles, I am-prompted to believe that, in giving a fevz hints for their amelioration, I shall be at least doing a service to the average male beholder. Here, again, exercise is the only hope. It may be said that since most of these sufferers spend the bulk of their rime upon a dance floor, they are surely obtaining all the exercise either nece srry or desirable. But this is far from being the truth. The modern dance is conducted almost entirely on the flat, feet, which no doubt accounts for the fact that most of the best male ■exponents are almost indistinguishable from waiters. A straight knee is

also, I am assured, essential if smoothness is to be allied to jazz, and beautyresult from both. Under these conditions it is plain that the muscles which -are responsible for the outline of the knee joint must be almost neglected. In ballet dancing, on the other hand, precisely the opposite condition prevails, and the effects of this upon the shapeliness of the limb are so obvious as to require no emphasis.

THE RUMANIAN WOMAN. (By Roma Lobel). The first impression you receive on meeting a typical Rumanian woman is one of intense vividness. In statute she is somewhat small, but her figure is usually broad and ample. She is dark-skinned and dark-haired, and her face also tends towards broadness and plumpness, with full lips which move freely and, incidentally, very, very frequently! It is, however, in her eyes that most of the fire lies, in spite of the fact that they are small. But they are of such depth and blackness, so sparkling and so expressive! When she speaks, a world of intensity gleams through them and is accentuated by the strong teeth flashing white through the open lips. Her voice increases the effect. It rings out brightly and clearly, rising and falling with the emotions expressed, while words tumble easily and fast. As is to be expected, the Rumanian woman loves dash and brightness in her dress which, taken on the whole is inclined to be rather cheap. But cheap or “good,” she carries it with the air of a queen and the attraction of a siren. For she is chic and full of charm, and she uses her feminine powers to their full extent. In her character, apart from being intense and emotional, she is strong and and displays a great deal of self-possession. Her intelligence is very marked indeed, though in culture she is still behind the Western woman.

In spite of all her vehement characteristics, there is in her a decided strain of indolence. The Rumanian woman does not care overmuch for work, nor does she care to hurry. It is in these directions that her indolence is chiefly displayed. Such is the picture of a typical Rumanian woman belonging to the middle or upper classes. The peasant woman leads a. far harder life, and so quickly loses her looks and becomes coarsened. In intelligence too, she is very much below her more fortunate countrywoman. But the warm nature abounds equally in both.

JOHN WESLEY’S RECIPES Not long ago a large sum of money was paid for a copy of a quaint volume called Primitive Physic, by John \\ esley. This little book contains some queer recipes. Here are a few of them. For ague, take six middling pills ot cobwebs, or apply to each wrist a plaster of treacle and soot. For a cold in the head, pare very thin the yellow rind of an orange, roll it up inside out, and thrust a roll into each nostril. For hoarseness, rub the soles of the feet before the fire with garlic and lard well beaten together. For toothache, lay roasted parings of turnips, as hot as may be, behind the ear. That in some respects John Wesley was in advance of his days is proved bv the advice he gave. Fresh air, cold baths, and plenty of exercise are strongly recommended; and sound advice is given in such passages as “The fewer clothes anyone uses, by day or night, the harder he will be.” John Wesley’s preface to this little volume concludes with this paragraph: “The love of God, as it is the sovereign remedy of all miseries, so prevents all. the bodily disorders the passions introduce by keeping the passions themselves within due bounds. And by the unspeakable joy and perfect calm, serenity, and tranquility it gives the mind, it becomes the most powerful of all the means of health and long life.” MEN AND THEIR WAYS. A manicurist has been detailing innocent confidences of the men who visit her beauty parlour. “Some of the things a man will pride himself upon are really quaint; as, for instance, that he can light a fire without wood, or that he once wrote the Lord’s Prayer within the compass of a threepenny bit, or that his wife always gets him to buy the fish. Sometimes he will make the queerest little confidences about himself. He may dislike using a fountain pen, or he doesn’t eat figs, or he can’t wear wool next liis skin, or perhaps he brushes a.new suit every day for a few weeks to take off the new look of the cloth before wearing it.”