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Mrs. Watts in the Position of the
Goddess Fortuna, Drawn Up on
the Extreme Point of Her Toes,
Ihe “Very Essence of Force, Able
to Rise Above Things Earthly.”
HAS the secret of perfection
of body and soul held by the
Greeks been found? Is It
within the power of a modern woman
to equal the beauty ascribed to the
HAS the secret of perfection
of body and soul held by the
Greeks been found? Is It
within the power of a modern woman
to equal the beauty ascribed to the
goddesses of the Greeks and realized
by their women, if she will work in
the light of this secret?
Mrs. Diana Watts, an accomplished
English woman, claims that she has
not only found this secret but real
ized it in herself. She has much
proof on her side and is about to
publish a large volume, with hun
dreds of pictures illustrating her
How Wild Beasts Kill More Human Beings Than War
WE are not yet civilized. The
world hag not freed Itself
from the savage beasts'that
prey upon human beings. Statistics
prove that thousands are destroyed
annually by tigers, lions, snakes,
crocodiles, etc. Man must still de
fend himself from the hordes of wild
beasts that range the forests of the
•world.
India is perhaps the greatest suf
ferer. for, ccording to statistics of
the year 1011, the latest collated,
tigers on the peninsula of Hindustan
devoured seven hundred and sixty
seven human beings. But this is a
small part of all the victims of wild
beasts and venomous serpents, for
t they reached tbe awful total of
twenty-six thousand, two hundred
and forty-two iu that year.
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method of attaining this Ideal
of the ancient Greeks. This
w6rk will appear almost as
once from the press of Fred
erick A. Stokes Company, New
York.
All the world admits, after
studying the sculpture and vase
paintings of ancient Greece,
that the Greeks were undoubt
edly the physical superiors of
of all races that ' existed
before or since. There was
some great principle by which the
Greeks were guided and Mrs. Watts
believes that this secret consists in
a condition of the muscles totally
different from any realized by ath
letes since the time of the Greeks, a
condition of tension, which trans
forms dead weight Into a living
forc9, and which made the Greek as
different from the modern human
being as a stretched hand differs
from a slack one.
While the Greek child did not go
to the gymnasium until It was five
years old, the training of the babies
began in the home. The two most
Important things with which the
Greek child began Its physical train
ing were: The cultivation In Its
The records of the last ten years,
from 1002 to 1011, show that the
wild beasts of India exacted the ter
rible toll of 243,314 human lives. Of
course, during this same period more
than a million domestic cattle have
been killed by these beasts of prey in
India.
But India-has no monopoly In
this slaughter. There are no avail
able statistics of the enormous num
ber of natives that are slain by these
beasts In Africa every year, but there
Is enough to Indicate that the num
ber of the victims of lions, leopards
and buffalo are fens of thousands.
These figures have no relation to
the Immense number of natives not
employed by Europeans, and an of
ficer of the Narobl estimates the loss
there at five hundred a year.
Besides, fifteen Europeans were
torn or trample, b;. i” In. as or
Mow to be -ay Beautiful
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Sir Frederick Leighton’s Master
piece, “Greek Girls Flaying Ball,”
the Action of Whose Figure and Its
Lines Illustrate Perfectly Mrs.
Watts’s Theory of Tension.
muscles of a condition that
made possible the maximum
amount of activity, and tha
mastering of the laws of
balance, which enabled that
activity to be controlled with
the smallest expenditure of
force.
The weight was thrown
chiefly upon the twill of the
foot, the heel being almost en
tirely dispensed with, and this
helped to give the Greek foot
its perfect form. This helps
to give that appearance of fly
ing to the Greek, and he
really Is possessed of a won
derful elasticity in_ this way.
Mrs. Watts claims that the
modern foot can be brought
back to something of this
Greek perfection if proper
shoes are worn. All shoes
should have thin, pliable
soles, to enable the springs
of the foot to work freely,
the movement thus pro
moted, together with a soft
felt inside sole for cold
weather, ensures more
warmth than a thick hard sole
can ever do. The heel need not he
more than three-quarters of an inch
high, nor need the shoe be square
and ugly, but it should have the
graceful curves of the natural foot.
elephants, and thirty-two natives
met death by the same beasts.
In 1007 the Rhodesian lions killed
one hundred and nineteen, and
Portuguese East Africa chronicled
itho loss of two hundred persons,
among whom were three European
hunters.
•China, which has tried to annihi
late wild beasts from Its territories
these many centuries, still loses at
least a thousand inhabitants a year
by the claws of fjgcrs, wolves and
bears. Even little Corea has not
succeeded In exterminating the long
haired ferocious tigers with which
flint country is Infested, more than
two thosnnd of its Inhabitants dls
appearing through their agency every
yea r.
The most formidable type of tigers
is the majestic Siberian tiger (Tigris
Amiri nC.-i, and no exact statistics
of Ids ... eg.- ore available, but he
ar a vareek ijodde./y.
A Woman’s Interesting New Theory
of (( Tensions,” That Enables You
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The Statue of the Youth of Suhiaco, Showing the Spring*.
Held in Abeyance, a Striking Instance of Perfect Balance. '
The word tension, according to
this author, means “elasticity,” t.he
condition of “stretch” being tho pre
liminary essential for the muscles tn
all exercises of training performed
ranges the forests of the Amur River,
where Russia Is only nominally s>v
eHgn, and during three months of
l!Kif» the tigers if one province killed
twelve natives and twenty-seven Rus
sian subjects. #? whom two were of
ficers and eight were soldiers, and
one hundred and thirty-two Chinese
immigrants, or a total of one hun
dred and sevmty-ono victims. This
province Is only otic-fifth of the ter
ritory where these tigers rang*, so
their victims must, run Into the thou
sands annually.
The bears and wolves of Siberia
help the tigers In their war against
,nan, and, according to the figures
of the Department of Whiter and
Forests >f Siberia 5,234 persons, na
tives and convicts, were killed by
wild beasts In one yonr.
On the Russian steppes bears and
wolves tight for possession, slaying
ns many as one hundred and twenty-
Copyright, 1814, by the Star Company. Oreat Britain Itlghts Reserved.
to Remodel Your Own
Body into the Like
's ness of the Ancient
I Masterpieces
yiJte of Classic Art
by the Greeks. It Is only when there
is complete connection, through
“stretch” of a!i the muscles wlih
the centre of gravity, that any move
ments can he executed without strain.
human -being n yonr. The wild
beasts of Europe, not, counting
snakes, cause the death of some 1,200
human beings each year.
The man-eater Is usually an old,
more or less desereplt, lion or tiger,
that Is too slow or weak to get
the usual wild game, anil, having
once tasted human flesh, finds It
easier to slink around a settlement
and grab Its prey, than to hunt.
One of these tigers has the bloouy
recor 1 of having eaten thirty-two
human beings in forty-live days, be
ing killed at last by an English of
ficer. In another district not far re
moved a man-eater terrorized a dozen
villages for more than three months,
and although hunted by the two
thousand natives nil this time, he
managed to kill and devour fifty of
them. He finally killed himself,
Jumping over a picket fence and Ini
tialing himself on the pickets.
It Is a connection of the farthest
outposts # wltih headquarters, the cen
tre of the main weight. If any part
of the body is slack it means just so
much dead weight to be carried and
just by so much drag upon the
movement will the rhythm be dislo
cated. Dislocation means strain and
fatigue owing to the disturbance of
proportion of the forces in activity.
The slimness of the hips of the
. Greeks In men and women was due
to this condition of tension. The
waist muscles having been properly
developed as well as those of the
back, the upper part of the body was
lifted from the socket of the pelvis
and did not sag down on it.
Tilio preliminary position noce»
sary to attaining this full stretch is
thus defined by Mrs. Watts.
"Begin by placing the feet close
together so that, ihe heels and the
whole of the inside line of the feet
are touching, tho weight of the body
well forward over the ball of the
feet. Although the heels may just
touch the ground, there must be no
weight upon them.
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“The arms should he drawn down
to their full length at the sides, with
fingers pressed together but fully
extended. Now, lift the chin (but
without pushing the neck too far
back on the spine), and raise tho
head well up from the shoulders by
drawing the neck muscles up to their
full stretch.
"This movement is followed by the
pulling up of the watst muscles with
a simultaneous downward stretch of
'he arms to prevent hunching up the
shoulders. Great care must be taken
not to contract the diaphragm un
naturally by holding the breath while
si retching It.
“The pulling up of Ihe waist, mus
cles really constitutes a drawing up
of the body away from the legs, as It
were, which should make tho coun
ter stretch downwards.”
The middle of the diaphragm Is
held to be tho centre of gravity and
from it all the currents of tension
should go out to the rest of the body.
Mrs. Watts has developed series
of movements, starting from this
first position, by which the body acts
easily, gracefully arid In perfect ac
cord. In order to secure diagrams
of the precise course of the action
of the body she has had a largs num
ber of rnovlng-plctures taken of her
self while exercising, and these ap
pear In the hook explaining her sys
tem. In order to show how the feet
describe certain mathematical fig
ures on the floor she had electric
lamps attached to her heels, and
then with a camera suspended over
her heud, the room being darkened,
exact diagrams of each exercise
were made.
Taking, for example, Exercise
Vfll., of which the diagram appears,
the preliminary position having been
A Photograph of a “Tension” Pat
tern Traced by Electric Lights
on the Feet of Mrs. Watts and.
Below It,, the Same Pattern in
Geometrical Form.
taken, a short step back with the
left foot. Is the first move, the toe of
tho right foot touching the floor, both
knees perfectly straight. Carry the
uplifted arms and shoulders round
to the left until the arms form a
right angle to the direction of the
feet.
Then the right foot comes around
and back In a sweeping inward curve,
until in line with the left foot. Aa
tho right foot touches the ground, tho
knee should bend, lowering the body
about live inches. The left foot
should now be touching the ground
with the extreme point of the big
toe, and although the heel will bo
well raised, the direction of the
whole foot should be exactly the
same as it was when having taken
the first step backward.
The diagram makes It easy to carry
out what would otherwise appear a
complicated movement, but It is by
this and the other exercises that the
author has succeeded in obtaining
this tension of the body which Is tho
secret of It all.
Mrs. Watts claims that when per
fectly tense the body Is In conscious
connection with some external force,
to which It responds by vibration. She
asserts that it is even possible for a
human being In tho highest state of
tension to lose all consciousness of
bodily weight, having as It were,
come In touch with some other force,
and become pnrt of It, to the extent
of being ahlo to make use of Its
power.
When thug attuned we realize life
at its maximum, and gain an insight
Into the almost limitless possibilities
of a perfectly trained will power, and
to visualize the result of a brain
mechanism so perfect structurally
that It neither distorts nor obstructs
the stream of consciousness which
flows through each human mind from
the "Mother Sea.”
To the old Greeks the training of
that, particular muscle which was ‘of
all possessions the highest,” formed
the secret of the marvellous unity of
their development.
Mrs. Watts says “The definite re
action of this diaphragm upon the
spirit Is proved In moments of Joy
when one takes deep, expanding
breaths which lift, one up; while in
depression ones head falls forward,
one’s ‘heart sinks,’ us the saying ts,
and there Is a general feeling of col
lapse.”
By the practice of tense uplifting
movements, you may Induce its cor
responding state of mind, It Is this
which explains how the basic prin
ciples of aesthetic law are Indis
solubly connected with the dynamlo
Insttnet, for In finely balanced, tense
movement lies the solution of the
problem of this law, and a clear
answer is given to the reason ‘‘why’*
of our perception of beauty In what
ever form it may be expressed,
either through music or painting or
sculpture.
This answer Is the power of life,
physical and mental, and, rightly
understood, the exhortation of the
Psalmist, In the words "Lift up your
hearts” comes to have a literal more
than a figurative meaning.
It. Is the contention that "On the
strength of the diaphragm depends
the strength of the spirit, that un
quenchable flame of conscious will
power, the energising fire that Aris
totle culled ‘the reality, onergeln’
In contradistinction to the tempor
ality of mere hraln mechanism.
"The power to % respond Is the
highest desire of the human being.
Without it man Is lost; with this
power developed to its utmost limits,
Ibe road Is clear, and nothing can ob
struct or discourage."
To the human being whose organ
ism has been trained to recognize and
respond to the highest laws comes
reward In the shape of a power to
discern and accept the Inevitable
without wasting energy and strength
In useless combat, at the same time
realizing how few conditions are In
evitable with a will strong enough to
overcome and dominate circum
stance rntber than be moulded by It.
This result, once achieved, Is for
ever; there Is no slipping back, no
growing stiffness of knee-joints to be
remedied, no slackening muscles to
be, worked up, no aching spine that
requires longer hours of couch repose
each month or year, no nervoua
strain or Irritability or uncertainty,
only calm confidence In The powor to
envisage unshaken every eventuality.
Everything work* in harmony, and
the physical disintegration, inevitable
under tho lgw, becomes almost Im
perceptible from Its unity of change
The Position
of the
Statue
Reproduced
by
Mrs. Watts,
Proving
Tension
and
Balance
as Its
Secrets.