their backs, and practically break their bodies into two pieces, with a narrow isthmus between.

I hope I am not taking up too much space, but I have been much interested in what I have seen of the Delsartean gymnastics. I am told that in America they are extensively used in public and private schools. Can you tell me if you know of and approve of them? Do they resemble the Swedish gymnastics? Are they suited for schools? C. G. W.

Yours faithfully,

The letter we publish from our correspondent, C. G. W., opens up another aspect of the stay question, which will perhaps appeal to some of our readers more powerfully than the question of health. Mr. Russell is the apostle of the Delsartean philosophy, which takes for its basis the triple nature of man-moral, mental, and physical-and asks the question of every department of nature, art, and life how it stands related to man in respect to these three divisions of his being. It thus affords an analysis of immense practical importance that is capable of being brought to bear on questions of the most varied character.

Brought to this test, Mr. Russell tells us that corsets are injurious in more respects than that of health. They destroy the beauty and the harmony of the figure; they damage, to an immense extent, its power as an instrument of expression;

they rob it of the power of expressing its emo tions; and the result of all this is to react unfavorably on the mind and character of their unfortunate prisoners.

Of course all this has a very decided bearing on health, as Mr. Russell would be the first to allow. "A sound heart and a sound mind in a sound body" is the very essence of the teaching of Delsarte and his disciples; but if either the body, or the mind, or the heart is ill-treated, the whole being will suffer loss. This is self-evident on the face of it, and we trust that the consideration of it will rouse up those most interested to enter into the practical difficulties with which the question is beset.

It is a question of the morals as well as of the manners of expression. Mr. Russell says, "A beautiful woman is on her lowest plane in a tightfitting dress; an ugly woman on her highest in drapery.

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Further, a woman may not lace to the extent of lapping her ribs together, but most dresses are fitted to the smallest breath instead of the largest. Revealed form is always vulgar, especially when distorted and robbed of its power to move in harmonious expression with the rest of the body; and tight lacing, even without speaking of it from a physiological standpoint in its relation to health, makes the body no longer a harmony of line in itself, robs it of proper rela

tion to dress, which should radiate from its points of support, and completely kills it as an agent of expression by giving no freedom or range of motion.

"Beautiful sentiments and manners can only be expressed by high harmonies in motion. Low, vulgar, every-day, commonplace things express themselves in harsh, quick, broken angles and lines. Modern dress is fast killing out our capability of the expression of feeling; soon the feeling will go too.

"The German-soldier man and Noah's-ark woman seem to be our ideals."

In answer to our correspondent of last month, we can emphatically recommend the Delsartean exercises for schools. We have seen the very greatest benefits ensue from their use, their greatest drawback being such rapid improvement in shape and increase in girth of chest as to make new clothes a necessity. Compared with Ling's exercises, we think they are more philosophic, more fundamental, and more interesting. A competent and wise instructor is a sine qua non. If badly taught, like every other good thing they may do harm.

CORSET-WEARING.-Professor V. A. Manassier, a distinguished scientist of St. Petersburg, has been investigating corsets. The professor is not the first man by any means who has turned his attention to this momentous subject, but he goes about the business in such a cold-blooded, critical manner as to deserve attention. In the first place, the professor

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finds that the corset-wearer has a decreased vital capacity of lung; that while expiration is not impeded, inspiration is deficient. In other words, the ordinary corset-wearer receives into the lungs one-third less air than the person whose thorax is untrammelled by the contrivance. He also finds that the respirations are shortened and the breathing is rapid. While the non-corset-wearer is breathing five times the corset-wearer will breathe seven times. A hurried respiration means a more rapid pulse, and hence, heart troubles. The learned professor also declares that the corset-wearer suffers from chronic oxygen starvation; that there circulates through the tissues of the unfortunate individual who squeezes the ribs together a large amount of carbonic dioxide-much to the detriment of the health. He also asserts that the arterial tension is chronically low. This means that the person is apt to be in an anæmic, or bloodless, condition. He further states that the lungs of such a person are inviting abodes for Koch's bacillus. In fact, that when a Koch's bacillus sees a person wearing a corset, it, so to speak, laughs for joy, and straightway makes for the home so admirably fitted for its use. He says that out of twenty-eight persons wearing tight corsets who were examined, he found that six presented morbid processes in the apices of their lungs.

WHO INVENTED SMILING ?-By some accounts this facial spasm is itself an innovation, and was a trick of fashion set so little time ago as at the beginning of the last century; and the mode, said to have originated at Vienna, coming to Paris, was there, it is reported, called La Viennoise, and from that centre, so rapid is the spread of absurdity, extended to the ends of Europe. And surely this unmirthful smile that we all employ, this grin that is only of the lips, is an absurd thing, neither natural nor decorous; for why should I smile inanely and endeavor to seem glad when I meet an acquaintance? Why should he return this conventional salutation with a corresponding contraction of the muscles of his face when he sees me? How is he to know that I am not weighed down by some secret sorrow which my smile of greeting but thinly conceals? How am I to be sure that my own smile should not rather be a groan of sympathy or a silent tear? We smile in concert, hypocrites that we are, while perhaps our very hearts are torn asunder! How much wiser is the courteous gravity of the Portuguese peasant, or the stern salutation of the Oriental, who has not yet caught this European trick of the lips, and who meets and greets his acquaintance with the grave sympathy of one wayfarer meeting another on this rugged, tortuous path of life that has its ending only in the mysterious grave !—Oswald Crawfurd.

"Begin with children at five years to teach them to breathe well, speak well, walk well. "Ungraceful movements are a violation of the law of economy.

"Repression in American manners is a Puritan idea; it ends in ugliness of motion.

"Once, to be ladylike was to be negative and still. "Quiet persons move in angles when they do

move.

"Movements which show effort do not express dignity and grace.

Flexibility gives grace."-Henrietta Russell.

CHAPTER IX.

A WOMAN ON WALKING.

The faulty carriage of belles of Broadway and Fifth Avenue- -Walking up-stairs-A society girl's lament— Walking naturally not necessarily walking beautifully-The anxiety and strain of the shopperNervousness versus dignity-Some suggestions as to the cure of certain natural defects.

THIS expression fell upon my ear the other day: "Oh, dear! I wish I could walk like some people that I see! Sometimes, on the street, I imagine I am walking with great dignity and elegance, but when I catch a sight of myself in the big windows I am simply a fright. I look stiff, strained, and awkward. I don't know what is the matter." This, from the lips of a well-made, nicelooking, ambitious American society girl, led to a chat upon this topic with Mrs. Edmund Russell, the Delsartean representative in New York, in