HOUSEWORK AND GRACE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1443, 18 May 1912, Page 11

HOUSEWORK AND GRACE.

Every woman loves to retain her slim and youthful figure as long as possible, and the woman who is forced by circumstances to do her own housework will find consolation in tho words of Dr. Sartrent in the "Ladies' Homo Journal." Where a woman does her own housework, with ; its manifold varieties of physical requirements, nearly every muscle in the body may be brought into action during the day. Nothing is better for tho development of the large muscles of the hips, or for the reduction of fat about this region, than running up and down stairs. No better method can be devised'for strengthening tho chest and straightening the spine than in scrubbing floors on the hands and knees, especially if the left am as well as the right is Used.

Sweeping ivith a long-handled broom, if tho broom is used on both sides so that both arras may be used in the same way, furnishes an admirable means of developing the chest aiul .shoulders. If a carpet-sweeper is used tho abdominal muscles as well as the muscles at the back are brought into action, and the extensor and flexor muscles, of the arm nro much used. Working a lawnmower brings the same groups of muscles into still more powerful action. Kneading bread is a • specific for a finely-shaped forearm, and an hour's work at the washboard is equal to similar efforts with the chest-weiglifs as a developer of the upper arras, back and shoulders. The tugging and lugging, twisting and turning, bending and stretching that one is frequently called upon to do in general housework does not lenv© many parts of the trunk and limbs inactive."

Of course, there should be moderation in housework, as in all other forms of exercise, and the woman who has not been accustomed to much physical effort in her youth should adopt these methods very carefully and gradually, if she is noaring middle-age. But the housewife who has long been accustomed to performing all these household tasks may console herself with tho thought that sho will probnbly keep her girlish figure much longer than her richer sister who has always bad things done for her.