THE PERFECT BALANCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 19 September 1911, Page 6

THE PERFECT BALANCE.

The art of “the perfect balance” has been practised by some ladies in London during the past three or four years, and a few months ago a school of instruction in the art was established in the metropolis. The promoter of the schools is Mrs He riot, an American lady, whose mission appears to be to teach her sox to grow younger and more graceful. Mrs Heriot is 56 years of age. and she confessed to a representative of the “Pall Mall Gazette” recently that when she was between 40 and 50 §ho “lost grace of posture, turned grey, and added years to her appearance.” She set herself to acquire the art of perfect body balance, and now she is 20 years younger, and her hair has resumed its normal colour. She discovered tho perfect balance by watching an American Indian chief as he walked with all the grace of Lis people. His height was six feet, and his weight sixteen stone, yet when he walked in wet sand the only mark ho loft on it was the impress of tho ball of his foot. Mrs Horiof tried to do the same thing, and sank deeply into the soft sand. Afterwards she went to Samoa to study the natives’ posture and balance, and finally she learnt that for graceful walking “the whole weight of the body must he carried forward at the same time as tho advancing foot, in order to secure beauty and rythm.” The balance is attained, she says, by flexibility and relaxation. The heel of the foot is of no consequence, since the base of the centre of gravity is the ball of the foot, and to work with perfect balance tho heel ol the foot must be always :and inch and a half from tho ground. Mrs Heriot says she has walked fifteen miles without using her heels, and has suffered no inconvenience. She claims that the importance of proper balanc is found iu health and long life. The secret of health is to maintain all the organs of the body in harmony, and the balance assures their free action in their proper positions. If Mrs Heriot is right tho art she advocates is worth striving for.