Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1890 — EDMUND RUSSELL ABROAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDMUND RUSSELL ABROAD.

A Delsartean Student and Dress Reformer - Explains His Mission. Edmund Russell, the American lecturer on Delsartism, is now in London, after having completed a successful

lecturing tour in his own country, and is preparing to return to organize another course of lectures for the coming win-' ?ter. Delsarte discovered a system of gesture, a language of expression, which man in his wild state

uses naturally. But advanced eivilization has a tendency to destroy this art. of expression and substitute angularities for gracefulness in sitting, walking and speaking. Delsarte studied, what position and gestures meant, formulated the laws which govern expression, and arranged a system of gymnastics, which are practiced by public speakers and by those whowant to be natural and graceful in all l their movements. This is Delsartism, and it is this which Edmund Russell' and his brilliant wife teach, having.learned the secret from Delsarte himself. He carries on a campaign against tight waistcoats and shoes, high collars, top hats, and other excrescences-, of civilization, because, as he claims,, these things interfere with naturalnessof expression, and, consequently, Delsartism. Delsarte, in studying the mechanism of the human body, found that alf parts should move in harmony with each other, but how can movementsof the body be graceful and harmonious after passing through the hands of ’ the tailor? It is all straightened and stiffened up. Our clothes destroy themotion of the body. The ridiculoushigh collar ties up one of the most - important organs of expression, as theneck is the bridge which carries the expression begun at the head tothe body. The tightening of clothes on our chest interferes with expression and makes your soldiers look like mechanical automatons. Contrast the-.-manly and graceful form of the Oriental warrior, with his flowing bournous,. his dramatic ornaments, with your cramped and stiff soldiers, who givens a curious example of an active and passive nervous rigidity.

EDMUND RUSSELL.