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No. 1—The Neck, Bust and Shoulders
By Ruth St, Denis
T HIS newspaper presents to-day the first of a series of articles by the
most graceful woman in America. Miss Ruth St. Denis is the
foremost dancer in the United States. Her fame, not limited to
her own country, is worldwide.
Miss St. Denis has literally danced before kings, having been receiveo
and admired in the courts of Europe. She is a mistress of the art of ex
pression without words, pantomime, and is deeply learned in the grace and
beauty lore of the Orient. She advises her countrywomen upon a subject
in which every woman is interested, how to improve her figure, and tells
them in clear, forceful manner and careful detail how this can be done.
She does not hesitate to point to the faults in the figures and carriage of
tier countrywomen, but while she tells of the evil she also describes the
remedy.
Copyright, 1913. by the Star Company. Grout Britain Highlit Hcsurvea.
How Dancing Dev 1 n /,r ‘
First of an Instructive
Series of Articles by
the Well-Known
Dancer, Ruth
St Denis
Hatching Out Fish
Under Setting Hens
By Dr. Leonard Keene Hirshberg, A. B., M. A., M. D.,
(Johns Hopkins University)
O UT in the land where the
youngest republic is jus!
budding into the world’s
powers, in the land of Confucius,
China—no longer fhe Chinese Em
pire of the school books—tho
coolies that make their living as
fishermen and breeders of young
fish have discovered a simple way
of making roe or fish spawn de
veiop into young fish.
They search the small streams
and brooks of the country, wade
around in the shallow i aters or
row about in strange craft, and
take from the surface ail tin#
bunches of spawn that are found
floating there.
These multitudes of fish eggs
are then gently and without injury
placed in the shells of hens' eggs
from the end of which a bit of
shell has been removed to allow
the contents to be thrown out, and
then, when the shell is filled with
the roe, the end is carefully
plugged with absorbent cotton and
the egg shell, filled with the
spawn is placed Deneath a setting
hen.
After several days—the time, of
course, depends upon the species
of fish as well as I lie condition of
'ho setting chicken the egg shell,
filled with the fish eggs, is emptied
into fresh water, which has pre
viously been heated by the sun’s
rays. In a couple of more days all
of the small fry will have hatched
out, and thereafter for some time
.hey are |jep; in .roj.i v.-.nor until
ready for distributer. aid sal? to
the various aqua: la and small
streams of the land.
The Chinese have known for
thousands of yea.s hov to incu
bate artificially not only hen's
eggs but the eggs of fish, reptiles,
birds and other animals. It is.
therefore, in accord with their pre
vious history to find them in the
lead in inventing methods of
batching out young fish.
As the eggs of fish incubate
naturally in their native element
water—tile experience of the
Chinese in starting the process on
land, with the aid of a setting hen,
has taught them to he careful that
sufficient water is introduced into
the hen’s egg shell along with the
roe, to keep the latter from drying
up instead or hatching out young
.fish.
D ANCING is the only exercise that will har
moniously develop the human body. Swim
ming will develop the torso, golf the arpts,
rowing the back and walking the legs, but each
of these exercises trains one set of muscles at
the expense of the others. One part of the body
becomes overdeveloped. The body becomes, so
to speak, freakish.
Dancing, on the other hand, develops all of the
body. Every muscle, every fibre, every tissue in
It is nourished, strengthened and stimulated by
the dance, for dancing is not the movement of
one part of the body but of all. We do not want
to become a nation of athletes. What Americans
want is to become perfect human beings and
that dancing will bring about this consumma
tion I am profoundly convinced.
The dance Is not only life itself, but it is our
attitude toward life. I heard a great truth
lightly uttered In the course of an ordinary con
versation one day, and I have come to believe
that this truth will be a generally accepted prin
ciple. All erroneous thought—that is, all thought
unworthy of us—tends to downward and inward
motions. All worthy thoughts tend to upward
end outward motions.
Dwell, please, upon that idea before we go fur
ther, for it is absolutely primal. What do we
do when we are afraid? Our figures shrink
downward and inward. Have you not watched
a timid little girl sitting on the edge of a chair,
her little figure drawn backward as though she
feared a blow’, her head drooping, her eyes
averted?
Of course, you have. Perhaps you have been
such a little girl yourself. I was. At eighteen I
was the shyest, most awkw’ard, frightened crea
ture that ever came out of New’ Jersey. I w’as
flat chested and narrow shouldered. I had huge
“salt cellars” in my neck. I stooped and looked
from right to left with frightened glances. 1
was, indeed, a most ungainly young person. And
why? Because I was afraid. We fear for our
selves and we crouch and draw backward. We
fear for someone else and w’e lean downward
and forward in a protective attitude.
Watch anyone with whom resentment, envy,
hatred are the keynotes of character, and we see
the same postures, the bent head, the eyes that
look sidewise, the lowered chin and drooping
body. Depression manifests Itself In the same
way. The habitually dejected person bends for
ward in body and in spirit. His muscles are as
dejected as himself. His mood is as flaccid as
his muscles.
The person of inward and downward thought
may be represented by a broken stick falling
earthward, the person of upward and outward
thought by a straight line.
Watch the movement of the person actuated
ibv thoughts of hope and joy, of love «nd faith.
That person’s head is upheld. The motions of
his arms describe a large, outward curve. In-
“The Cashier Presses Down a Lever
Near the Cash Drawer, and,
Preato! Mr. Burglar Walks on
Air.”
netted the thieves more than $1100,-
000 in diamonds, was to the credit
of professionals who knew that
vault so w’ell that they could at
tack its concrete exterior 'in the
one spot not protected by hidden
electric wires. If bank robbers
are generally as careful about their
preliminaries as this, probably
they would know all about that,
burglar trap, and carefully refrain
from springing it.
This Is the Downward and Inward Posture of
the Person Actuated by Fear. Miss St. Denis
is Shown Here in the Act of Screening a
Loved One Who is Aaleep and to Whom Sho
Fears Harm Will Come.
PHOTO ■ I3> W h its • HI V
“While Playing Bird You Think of a Bird and the
Chin Rises, the Eyes Turn Upward. Unconsciously
and Involuntarily Yod Have Been Filling Your
Lungs with Deep Draughts of Air. You Have Been
Breathing Deeply and Have Not Known it.”
"Think of the Oriental Habit of Saluting the
Dawn. The Eastern Salutation Is One of Hands
Extended, the Palms Turned Outward, In
stinctively, as You Think of the Rising of the
Sun and the Glory of a New Day, You Will
Lift Your Head and Smile.”
variably the person of
the other habit of mind
and character makes
inward, downward mo
tions, but his gestures
are small and re
stricted. Those of his
antipodes are large—
they sweep huge cir
cles.
The tendency of the
first is to fall to the
earth. The trend of the second is to move up
ward and onward—in a word, to dance.
We have there the foundation of the truth
about how to develop a beautiful neck, bust and
shoulders. Lead the person—be it yourself, some
awkward grown-up friend or a timorous chlid—
into a mood of courage, train him to make the
mood permanent.
One of the greatest sentences ever uttered, a
bugle call to humanity, was “Be not afraid."
Say that to yourself or to the other out of
whose flat chest and scrawny neck and thin
shoulders you would metamorphose a beautiful
setting for a well-poised head. Say it again and
again, and after a while the dulled spirit will
hear it and obey.
Coax this child, even the child, yourself, who,
cowered a while before but now stands with
head upraised, smiling, from the chair in the
corner, and say to him or her: “Play you are
a bird.” Natural and gradual will be the re
sponse. The arms will rise slowly from the
sides. Draw the hands together in front and
slowly move them backward until they nearly
meet. Do this slowly; if with music, to a six-
eight tempo; If to the accompaniment of a
voice, count slowly six. “Playing bird" the arms
slowly dip and rise and balance in the precise
motion you have observed in a bird’s wings.
This also is dancing.
While “playing bird” you think of a bird and
the chin rises, the eyes turn upward. The
muscles of the neck lift and strengthen. The
blood courses through the arms, feeding the
muscles impoverished by disuse and something
stranger still happens—your fallen chest has
risen and its new proportions surprise you. Un
consciously and involuntarily you have been fill
ing your lungs with deep draughts of air; you
have been breathing deeply, and have not
known it.
That is as it should be. I am tired of the sys
tems of deep breathing. They are mechanical,
laborious—in a word, a nuisance. The way to
teach a person to breathe deeply is not to teach
him. Get him into a joyous, hopeful, fearless
frame of mind and the deep breathing will take
care of itself.
The shallow breather is a timid, dejected, de
spairing person. To prove this, watch your own
breathing 'the next time you' permit yourself to
sink into a slough of despond. Probably you will
be startled by finding
that you are not breath
ing at all. Yon are “Play You Are a Bird.
holding your breath. In Playing Bird the
While “playing bird” Arms Slowly Dip and
dance. Dance any steps Rise and Balance with
you choose, provided the the Precise Motion You
tempo be long, for the Observed in a Bird’s
motion of bringing the Wings.”
“wings,” your arms,
back and front, should be a slow and graceful
one, and requires six beats. The waltz step,
then, would be a good one.
Another variation of the dance that will build
anew the neck, the bust and the shoulders is
that after “playing bird" you dance about with
arms behind you and hands clasped.
This is a natural posture into which the body
adjusts itself to the mood of courage and joyous-
uess and hope. The mood is one of gentle,
friendly defiance of all fear. With that the chest
again rises and the deep rhythmic breathing
upon which a full chest and firm bust are built
comes as naturally as sunrise follows dawn. At
the same time the chin rises, the throat is made
firm and the shoulders rise.
Think of freedom. Think “I am free,” and
there will follow an instinctive loosening of
every tightened muscle, an untying of tangled
sinews. Movements to emphasize that freedom
will follow. One arm will be flung above the
head, then another, and, while the fingers meet,
dance.
Think of the Oriental habit of saluting the
dawn. The Eastern salutation is one of hands
extended, the palms turned outward. Instinct
ively, as you think of the rising of the sun and
the glory of a new day, you will lift your head
and smile. Dance the salutation of the dawft.
Invent your own steps, always keeping in mind
the salutation.
Invent and practise movements of your own,
to make round and firm that scrawny neck, to
raise the drooping shoulders, and to restore the ^
chest that is most like a “caved in” cellar.
Exercises that develop one develop all.
First get your right mood. Then comes the
deep breathing. Then the rise of the chest and
the renewing of the bust, the filling out of the
neck and the enlarging of the shoulders. The
dancing follows, and in many cases need not be
taught. I am untaught, save toy myself.
Stage Traps to Catch Thieves Like Rats
T HE burglar’s lot is not a hap
py one—to paraphrase W.
S. Gilbert’s comic opera re
mark about the policeman. The
Ingenuity commanded by the in
terests of law and order is forever
devising some new and insidious
means of keeping him from making
a dishonest living.
This latest bugaboo which the
prudent burglar must learn to
sidestep is the invention of an
Englishman, William Norreys, of
Yatitendon Road, Horley, Surrey.
The fundamental advantage of this
burglar trap lies in the fact that
It Is never in evidence to the
marauder until he is caught in it.
It springs itself automatically
when the burglar gets into range
of its jaws, or can be operated by
a lever by the bank cashier or
tradesman behind his counter.
Suppose, for instance, a suspicious
looking person appears at the
cashier’s window and, with draw’n
revolver, attempts to enforce bis
demand for a few thousand dol
lars out of the stack of banknotes
at the cashier’s window.
“Why, certainly,” says the
cashier, promptly selecting a fat
package from the stack.
But while he does this w’ith his
left hand, with his right he presses
down a lever near the cash drawer,
and, presto! Mr, Burglar walks on
air. A section of the tessellated
floor has dropped from under him.
He lands on his back in the base
ment on a sort of spring mattress,
so he won’t be killed, and before
he can move he sees a sliding door
close over the mouth of the trap
he has fallen into. There’s nothing
for him to do but wait patiently
for “’the policeman who will be
along presently to conduct him to
the police station.
The accompanying diagram
shows how the mechanism works.
Without any indication to that ef
fect on its surface, a section of
the floor in front of the counter—
or wherever the marauder will he
most likely to stand wdiile reveal
ing his unlawful intentions—is
hinged on one side and supported
on the other side by sliding bolts.
The lever near the cashier’s hand
cpntrols the operation of these
bolts. And when they are drawn,
and the thief is through the floor
into the pit, his weight landing on
springs at. I lie bottom slides a
section of false floor over ilia
opening and locks it.
It will be seen that the private
offices of financial magnates, cap
tains of industry, and other people
who are in constant fear that some
visitor will turn out to be a crank
with a pistol or an anarchist witli
a bomb, could be equipped with
the new burglar trap, which, when
the intended victim pressed a but
ton, would solve the whole dis
tressing problem.
If the late Russell Sage’s office
had been thus equipped lie would
not have had to use the faithful
How the New "Thief Trap’’ Work*—When a Lever Behind the Counter I*
Pressed, or the Robber’s Weight Releases the Section of Floor Upon
Which He Stands, It Swings Downward, Dropping Him Into a Pit.
There, His Weight on a Spring Mechanism Slides Forward a Sec
tion of False Floor, Making His Cscape Impossible.
“With Drawn Revolver He At
tempts to Enforce His Demand
for a Few Thousand Dollars.”
Laidlaw for a shield and Laidlaw
would have had no occasion for
vain efforts in the courts to com
pel the multi-millionaire to recom
pense him for permanently disa
bling injuries received when the
crank’s bomb exploded.
As applied to the case of th»
safe cracker, the device shows a
weak point. The recent New York j
pawnbroker's sale robbery, which .<