A HINT TO THIN GIRLS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XXII, 20 November 1897, Page 697

A HINT TO THIN GIRLS.

A pretty neek is only a matter of muscle, said a young woman to her two chums, who were admiring the marble-hued softness of her shoulders as the three sat dressed for a dance. ‘1 never look at the pictures of Sandow or John L. Sullivan without thinking how lovely they would look in evening dress —1 mean girl’s evening dress, of course.’ ‘Oh, horrors! Virginia, what an absurdity! Think of a prize-fighter in low neck and short sleeves!’ ’I don’t wonder that you laugh; but you’ll be more surprised when I tell you that it was just that absurd idea that led me to try developing my neck. Xt was the summer before I came out. I was to be a debutante the next winter. My neck was so thin that my collar bones grinned at me every time 1 looked in the glass. Imagine a debutante with collarbones.’ The others looked the dismay that the speaker expected, anti she' went on. ‘Now this is all I did, and if you do the same for ten minutes night and morning you will notice a difference in a month. ‘lf you examine closely the pictures of Sullivan or any of those prizefighters you will notice that they usually carry their heads with the chin forced back close to the neek. If you try to do this you will find that your head straightens up as if you had a stiff neck and your chest rises an inch or so. Of course it will be mostly the bones that rise, but don’t be frightened at. the ghostly apparition. Just keep pushing your head back as far as possible without bending the neek, always keeping the chin in. ‘Then turn the head around to the right and left as far as it will go with the chin in the same position. The hardest exercise is to throw the head back and bring it forward with a jerk until the chin fairly slaps the chest. It is one of the prize-fighter’s favourite exercises to develop the muscles of his ueck, and 1 thought I might as well try to cover my bones in the same way. Anyway, it’s very simple; it certainly does no harm to try it, and in any case I have mv own experience as testimony to its efficacy. ‘ln taking the exercise it is a good plan to draw a deep breath and hold it as long as possible while turning the head from side to side or nushing it back. b Here are some of the military exercises which girls who want to reduce the waist without tight-lacing or who object to wearing corsets at all, may try to advantage, confident that if persisted in these are bound to make the waist longer and more slender. First, stand straight, with anus at sides and palms to the front; then raise the arms up over the top of the head till the thumbs touch, and drop slowly down again. Second, hold the arms straight out in front of you, palms down, and then move each around gradually to the side and back again, keeping them on the same level. Third, stand with the arms stretched as far apart as possible making a perfect cross with the body, and describe small circles with each arm, using the shoulder as centre. The exercise of slapping the backs of the hands together behind the back is good for both small waist and full neek, but it is so common that it is hardly worth mentioning.