There are certain prerequisites.
First, you must have low, wide heels, and broad soles, especially
about the toes, affording a secure surface, upon which, in taking
each step, you can push the body forward.
Second, the body about the waist must be perfectly at liberty. The
corset is a deadly enemy to fine walking.
But given perfect freedom at the middle of the body, through which
all the movements in walking must pass,--given this freedom of the
trunk, with good shoes, and you have the prerequisites on which this
general exercise of the body depends.
Suppose, instead of a free body, that you press a corset into the
pit of the stomach, and press it in so as to make a scoop-shovel dip
in that part of the body, of course you draw the shoulders forward,
and push the bowels down out of their natural place. Then you walk
like a deformed person.
With liberty of feet and liberty of body, you are ready to take your
first lesson.
I once read a book about walking. It was a French book, and, if I
remember right, it contained about one hundred and twenty pages. In
it the most elaborate directions were given. We were told how to
hold our heels and toes, what part of the foot to bring down first,
how, when the foot had been brought down, it was to be moved during
the step, just what angle must be maintained between the two feet,
the style of movement in the ankle itself, management of the knees,
the hips, the shoulders, the head, the arms, the hands, the thumbs,
--the position of the thumbs was the subject of several pages.
I have sometimes thought that I would write a book on walking. I am
sure I can write a better one than that French book, and my book
would contain only four words. Let us see, we must have two leaves,
and each leaf must be as large as your thumb nail. We have four
pages.
Now we will proceed to print this book. On the first page we will
print one single word, "chin"; on the second a single word, "close";
on the third page, "to"; now we approach the end of the volume;
turn over, and on the last page we print the word "neck."
The volume is complete. No explanatory notes need be given, not
another word need be said. Whoever carries the "chin close to neck"
is all right from top to toe, and will walk well. Strange to say,
the chin is the pivot on which the whole body turns in walking.
"Miss Howard, please stand here before us. Now push your chin
forward after the manner of most girls in walking. There, girls,
don't you see, her shoulders are wrong, hips wrong, wrong
everywhere?
"Now, Miss Howard, draw your chin back close to your neck. See, she
has brought her shoulders into the right position, hips right, every
part is right. Now, please walk? Don't you see? Although, in this
first attempt, she seems a little stiff, and awkward, she exhibits
the elements of a fine, queenly bearing? If she were to keep it up a
few weeks, and make it easy, wherever she might go, people would
exclaim, 'Queenly! queenly!'"
Oh, it is pitiable to see fine American girls poke along the street
with their chins away on in advance, hastening to inform the people
that the girl is coming.
Come to this window with me, and look out a moment. There, there are
two girls passing. Now look at their chins. If these girls would
draw their chins back close to their necks, their whole appearance
would be changed in an instant.
I have often said if my adopted daughter should come to me, and say:
--
"Father, I am going to Japan; I don't expect to see you again in
this world, and, now as I am about to leave you, tell me how to
preserve my health." I should say:--
"My daughter, I am glad you came to me about this. I have given my
life to the study of the laws of health, and I am sure I can give
you valuable suggestions.
"Listen. I will give you five rules, and if you observe them, no
matter where you may live, you will be almost sure to maintain good
health."
"Father, five rules; that's a great many. I am afraid I shall forget
some of them; give me one,--the most important one, and I promise
not to forget it."
"My daughter, if I can give you but one rule, it is this: Stand up
straight, walk erect, sit erect, and even when you are in bed at
night, don't put three pillows under your head, and watch your toes
all night, but keep yourself straight. If you do this, your lungs,
heart, liver, stomach, and all the other organs in the body, will
have room for work. My dear child, if you observe this rule, you
will not only bear with you the air of a noble woman, but you will
contribute more than by any other single rule, to the vigor of your
body, and the maintenance of your health.
"Why, my daughter, you cannot have a good voice even, unless you
stand erect.
"The Creator has fitted this little vocal apparatus in the throat to
a certain attitude of the body.
"The vocal apparatus of a cow is so fixed, that when her backbone is
horizontal, she can do her best bellowing. If she were to stand on her
hind legs, and stick her nose directly up towards the sky, she
couldn't half bellow.
"The vocal apparatus in a girl's throat is fitted, not to a
horizontal spine, but to a perpendicular one. The portion of the
spine in the neck determines, mostly, the action of the music box in
the throat.
"If you drop your-chin down on your chest, bending your neck, and
then try to sing, you will find at once that the vocal box is all
out of shape. Go to the opera and observe the singers. When they
wish to make a particularly loud or fine sound, they don't put the
chin down in the pit of the stomach, but they draw it back close to
the neck, and hold the upper part of the spine, and, indeed, every
part of the spine, in a noble, erect attitude. No, my dear Mary, you
can not even speak or sing well without attending to my volume on
the subject of the chin. Need I say again, that only in this upright
position of the body can your lungs and heart find room to do their
great and vital work? Need I say, that if you allow your head and
shoulders to fall forward, and the organs of the chest to fall down
on the organs of the abdomen, the stomach and liver and all the
other organs in your abdominal cavity will be displaced, crowded and
trammeled? My dear Japanese missionary, I have given you the most
important rule of health, and if you observe it during your life
among the Japs, it will do wonders in preserving your health and
strength.