The
Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Pag
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"Pretty gin cUd In the llflhtett and
fctrltit manner, dance about the woodland
gladea ilka nympha and dryada."
'HH faBfalon of Eheddlng superfluous
clothes, In order to get back to nature,
baa spread widely over this country
during the past Summer.
Our woods have revealed many a charming
archalo scene, suggesting the play of the
nymphs and fauns In Greek mythology. It
fclmply means that our social leaders and
debutantes are ''practicing the rhythms'' and
totting back to nature.
The great secret of acquiring a strong
and beautiful body, according to those who
teach "rhythms," la to move rhythmically.
The elementary way to acquire rhythm Is to
move naturally, like the animals. Tba most
perfect form of rhythm is obtained by a
beautiful dance.
Now you will understand what Is happen
ing when you see lightly clad young women
engaged In graceful dances, while others are
hopping about, running and leaping, grunting
and squealing like young animals.
All of them are as lightly dressed as
weather and the circumstaaces permit. They
usually wear a light, loose robe reaching
to about the knee. They go with feet,, ankla
and arms entirely uncovered. They wear
nothing to restrain their movements at the
throat or waist. When they want to walk
on the road they may wear sandals without
etocklngs, but as a rule they go completely
barefooted.
Have you ever watched n animal tit play
and realized how perfectly graceful and
rhythmical its movements are? Many per
sons have never thought of doing such a
simple thlng.i Then let them compare the
movements of the ordinary woman, bound
up In her corsets, her hiph-heeled shoes and
all the other paraphernalia of fashion and
civilisation.
Interesting Developments of Fashionable
Society's Newest Back-to-Nature Fad
That Seem to Get Almost as
Far Back as Possible
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Think how different from the ordinary
woman is the squirrel, gracefully leaping
from hough to bough of the tree and crack
ing a nut when he finds one. His move
ments are the embodiment of grace and
rhythm.
Even the common house cat gives us a
wonderful example of grace and rhythm. Ob
serve her as she chases a bird or stretches
luxuriously In the sun or balances herself
delicately on the back fence. The dog is
equally a model of rhythm, although bis
motions are different. In the country dogs
are often kept oft Old-fashioned wooden
bridges because the perfectly rhythmical
movement, of the dog when running Is liable
to shake down the bridge.
All animals have something to teach the
woman who wishes to be perfectly graceful.
It Is worth while sometimes to lie on your
stomach and, wriggle around like a seal.
There are even women who might take a
valuable hint from the. hippopotamus.
One of the places where the "rhythms"
have been taught Is conducted by Mrs. Flor
ence Fleming Noyes, at Peterboro, N. H.
In the depth of the Teterboro woods you
will nn4 the Greek god Pan, who ruled over
the animals, playing his pipes.
By learning to move rhythmically a per
son cultivates the mind as well as the body.
"When we cultivate the sympathetic ner
vous system through the right use of rhyth
mic movements we will be capable of great
things In creative art,'' explained Mrs.
Noyes, "since all the beauty which we feel
and to which we respond registers on the
train. No less an authority than G. Stanley
Hall, of Clark University, bears me out In
this theory and maintains that the cultiva
tion and appreciation of the beautiful has a
very definite scientific value in the develop
ment of the brain, and Influences Us output
to an extent little realized In materialis
tic age.
"Our garb here Is not so much to Imitate
the Greeks as It is to give the body perfect
freedom of movement and expression. To
attempt to express rhythmic emotions la
modern fashionable attire would be absurd.
Just the moment one throws aside ordinary
clothing and puts on this little costume one
gets Immediately into the atmosphere we
want. Not a muscle la bound or hampered,
not an articulation contracted. We are at
last natural and free to move and act and
be as God and nature Intended us to be. It
is positively amazing how quickly a pupil
becomes natural and rhythmic under the In
fluence of the costume and the closeness to
nature. ' -
"You see, It Isn't that we have so much
to learn to acquire rhythm; tt Is a matter of
laying aside all our stiff-necked Puritanism
and forgetting the artificialities which wrong
training and false Ideals have developed In
all of hs. We must get back to child move
ments and animal rhythms, to natural gs
:ures and. free motion.
"Children and animals are absolutely lack
ing in self-consclousnCBs. It Is that child
like simplicity for which we are striving,
and while there is the greatest opportunity
for Individuality In lyric-rhythmic expres
sion, there is no room In It for personality.
Drama develops personality. This art sub
mergea it. There Is no reason why the hu
man body cannot bo made as undulating as
a serpent, ae capable of as perfect rhythmic
rotary movements as a wasp, as relaxed and
as responsive as a cat.
"To acquire rhythm one must cultivate
one'a second brain. Celow the breast and
just above the waist are two distiuct and
separate articulations and
two others at either side.
The Greeks developed these, an
that accounts for the grace of the
figures found in all Greek friezes
figures walking
or dancing, ap
parently stratght
ahead, but the
body curved back
above the waist
line.
"I remember a
musician who used
to say at certain
passages: 'Now I
am thinking with
my knees.' This
only sounded like
foollBhnesa to foolish people, who know noth
ing of the body-brain; but this second brain
Is so necessary to musicians that It Is some
times called the "musical brain,' and no one
can be a really great performer who does
not posseBSi something of it."
Young women from all over the country
have been practicing this new method of be
coming beautiful, and it is hoped that we
shall see soma interesting results in society
this Winter.
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Miss Mildred
Anderson, of
Washington, D.
0., ai "Pan"
Playing the Shep
herd'! Pipes in the
Depth! of the Forest
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: Miss Margaret King as "Bacchus"
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and Mis9 Winifred Lawrence
'Bacchante."
We Waste One-Fifth of Our Babies
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Another Picture af "Pan.
AMERICAN doctors have lately
pointed out that one-fifth of
all the babies born in the
United States die In their infancy
from ipreventtble diseases.
Dr- Joseph Pattee Cobb, dean of
the Hahnemann Medical College of
Chicago, in an address before tho
Bureau of Pedology on "Infant
Feeding,' startled hU hearers when
he declared: "There are born In the
United States two-and a half million
babies each year; talf a million, or
one-fifth of this ntmber die before
they are a year old. One-fourth of
al, deaths from all causes are of in
fants during their first year of life;
of these 60 per Cent are due to
gastrointestinal diseases, while at
least 20 per cent more have diges
tive disturbances as contributory
factors ia their ill ttealth. In other
words, one-fifth of all deaths from
ell causea are of infants under one
year of age and these are due to one
preventable cause.
"Can we point with pride to the
methods employed In the average
household during the second and
third year of life ? Summer morbid
ity is due to improper feeding and if
the resistance of the child in the
HBcond year was as low as it was
during the first, the mortality would
le higher In the second year.. Neither
the profession nor the laity have been
generally aroused to the importance
of systematic feeding for the second
and third year."
Dr- Anson Cameron, of Chicago,
chairman of the Bureau of Pedology,
outlined Infant welfare work of the
present time. "This is the golden
age of the child," he eald. "Our
largest national asset Is the sound
young human unit. Each baby is a
living factory of possibilities. The
expense of saving 8,000 babies who
needlessly die every year In New
York City Is no greater than the' ex-
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"Baeohus" Surprises "Bacchante."
penses of burying them."
The statements of these two doe
tors appear to be a contradiction, but
they are not really so- The possi
bilities of saving infant life Are far
greater than they ever were before,
hat they are not put fully into use
among the poorer people and In the
crowded parts of our great elites.
"It seems unreasonable that re
formers should oom plain of the fall
ing birthrate when the Uvea of vast
numbers of tha children born aiw
needlessly wasted," ssys Dr- C. Holt
Lambert, the well known specialist
on children's diseases. "Why should
poor people bring more children Into
tho world, when it seems certain that
Copyright llt, by the Star Company. Qrsat Brittle Right Rtir4.
many af them will lose their lives
from preventable causes?7 We must
first see that this shocking waste of
child life is stopped and then discuss
tha question of larger famlllaa. In
tha meantime, tho duty of increasing
the population rasta primarily on tba
well-to-do, who era alone able to ob
tain proper care for their children.'