Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1881 — A Constitutional Walk. [ARTICLE]

A Constitutional Walk.

Few people walk enough in winter, yet it is precisely at that season which people of close sedentary habits should walk. How grateful the crisp air is to the lungs. How clear and sweet it is to the nostrils. How it inspires and sustains one in a swinging gait of four or five miles in an hour. How the cheeks glow and the eyes shine, and the muscles tingle with delightful vigor, after such a walk through the winter sunshine. A sleigh-ride is not half so good, for it robs the trip of the necessary exercise. Try it, if you would seek health and strength. Winter walking, as a “nervine,” is a million times better than medicine, and for the complexion it is worth a whole harbor full of lotions and washes. It will put an edge on appetite that you can’t buy at the doctor’s, and in prompting digestion is better than a corner drug store’s entire stock of bitters and pills. If you have never tried it, take a walk. Keep your mouth closed, your shoulders well thrown your head

up, and remember that your legs—and especially your hips—were given you to walk with. Some people walk with their knees, bodies and shoulders—and no wonder they don't like it. We don’t like to see them. There is an art in walking, as in other things. If you don’t believe it, observe the motion of some shapely woman who knows how to move, or study the gait of the man who has some spring and litheness in him. It is never too late to learn to walk by walking. ■