BICYCLING.
For our young American girl of fourteen or fifteen is a tall young creature, who seems for the most part to need only a little widening, and sometimes a little straightening, to give her a fine figure, and the systematic exercise and wholesome food and sleep, that are part of real training, to make her healthy.
Training does not mean exercise only, as many seem to think. It means the best sort of treatment of the body to develop and beautify and strengthen it. It means plenty of good food for bone and muscle and blood, it means plenty of sleep to keep the nerves calm and strong, plenty of pure air, and regular activity and exercise which shall be felt all over the body.
Now if this girl of fifteen or thereabouts is in earnest in wishing to develop herself into a fine specimen of womanhood, she must follow a few rules, which may be the text of her training. She can have them printed on the type-writer and hung up over her looking-glass, where she will be likely to see them often. They should include the following, and others may be added from time to time.
1. Sleep nine hours every night, beginning as early as 9.30 p.m. The beauty sleep is in the first part of the night. When thoroughly awake in the morning do not lounge in bed, but rise at once. Bathe first, or exercise before bathing as you prefer. In any case,
2. Take a sponge-bath every morning in water as it runs from the cold-water faucet. If you begin the practice in warm weather you will not notice the gradually lowered temperature of winter. Rub the skin well with a coarse towel until it is reddened. This will give you a fine sense of freshness, and prevent your catching cold easily.
3. Exercise for ten minutes at least before breakfast, if strong and hearty, in the way suggested later; if delicate, take five minutes' exercise, and the remainder two hours after breakfast or at five o'clock in the afternoon.
4. Wear no tight clothing of any kind. Tight bands about the limbs interfere with the circulation, change the natural curves of the part into ugly ones, and restrain the muscles unnaturally. About the waist, as a corset, they interfere with the lungs, with the stomach, and with other abdominal organs, and when all these are unnaturally cramped health and grace are impossible. The most graceful of actresses wear no stays, for they know that perfect ease and grace are impossible in tight clothing.
Also, if you would walk gracefully, never wear tight shoes, French heels, or pointed toes. The graceful Greek girl wore a broad sandal, and had the use of her toes, which our modern girls cannot have in the fashionable shoe, but which is essential for a dignified and graceful step.