Women In Motion

If you carefully observe a throng of women walking on the stréet, you will be struck by the fact that nearly every woman walks far too rapidly for thing like grace to enter into her ' ments. Tall women for some reason ; walk more slowly than little ones. ! hap8 the short woman gets into the habit of hurrying from trying to keep up with her willowy Bister. Then there is the jerky woman, and there is unfortunately only too many of her. Her elbows, gboulders and hips move from side to side with every movementof her f eet. If you are acquainted with her, you will find that sbe has usually a nervous temperament. Some women have agait 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 larly 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 is, are left to chanoe. An easy, gracef ui 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 ft most ungainly 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 ha3 ever seen her on the stage nefed 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 minee 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 imperativo "don'ts" that are well to remember. Don't, for instance, look at your feet when walking, but hold your head well np in the air. Don't 6huffle 3'our feet. A little thoughtfuln,ess and a little practico 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 as round shoulders. FmaLy, üon't allow yourself to walk "pigeon toed" - that is, with the toes turned in or straight. You can never be gracef ui in movenient while you do. An ideal place in which to practice walking would bo a long room with a mirror at each end. Though this is nsually 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 will 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 teil what to do with the hands. It is said that no woman under 25 has ever learned how to carry these offending members. But tliis, 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 wointn try to obvíate the difficulty by carrying something in the hands. It does 6eem strange that the most useful members of the body should be so unpleasantly ia evidence when they are not in use. But however you elect to carry them, romember that the first and last rule in