IS IT TOO LATE FOR WOMEN TO BEGIN?
a three-mile walk to a well-built, healthy women? If Madame Anderson walked 2700 quarters of a mile in 2700 consecutive quarters of an hour; why should a trifling three miles once in twenty-four hours disturb you?
To her who does not labor so long, but has her evenings to herself, unless already broken by disease, there need he no trouble about getting strong and healthy. Let her do the little exercise above mentioned till evening; then, first eating a hearty supper, beginning an hour later with such distance as she can walk easily, add to the distance gradually, until she finds herself equal to four or five miles at a smart pace for her—say three and a half miles to the hour. (The professional masculine pedestrians do eight miles an hour, to be sure; but Miss Von Hillern, for instance, has done about six.) This, taken either every evening; or, say, four evenings a week; will soon give tone, and make the woman feel strong instead of weak; will enable her to digest what she eats; and will visibly improve her appetite. Let her give five or ten minutes for exercising the arms and chest before retiring (see pages 193 et seq.), and she has had abundant exercise for that day; while any trouble she has had in the past about sleeping is at an end.
But sufficient as the evening walk is; of course if it can be had in daylight and in the sunshine, it is all the better. Few mothers are so placed that they cannot each day, by good management, get an hour for the care of their health. Let them be sure to take a quick, lively walk for the whole time, not with arms held motionless, but swinging easily as men's do—of course, for the first month taking less distances, but working steadily on; and—an important thing—with the chest always held high, as near the chin as you can get it, and
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