Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1886 — Stand Erect. [ARTICLE]

Stand Erect.

A stooping figure is not only a familiar expression of weakness or old age, bujt it is, when caused by careless habits, a direct cause of contracted chest and defective breathing. Unless you rid yourself of this crook while at school, you will probably go bent to the grave. There is one good way to cure it. Shoulder-braces will not help. One needs, not an artificial substitute, but some means to develop the muscles whose duty it is to hold the head and shoulders erect. I know of but one bull's-eye shot. It is' to carry a weight on the head. A sheepskin or other strong bag, filled with twenty to eighty pounds of sand is a good weight. When engaged ip your morning studies, either before or after breakfast, put this bag of sand on your head, hold your head erect, draw your chin close, to your neck, and walk slowly about the room, coming back, if you please, every minute or two to your book, or carrying the book as you walk. The muscles whose duty it is to hold the head and shoulders erect are hit, not with scattering shot, but with a rffle ball. The bones of the spine and the interverbral substance will soon accommodate themselves to the new attitude. One year

i’ * ' of dafly practice with the hag, half an honr morning and evening, will give yon a noble carriage, without interfering a moment with your studies. —Dio Lewis.