Читать книгу Our Girls - Dio Lewis - Страница 13

Table of Contents

We arrived at the Morley House about two o'clock in the afternoon. It was my first visit to London. While in the dining-room, I made one of those table acquaintances so common among travellers.

He asked:—

"Shall you visit one of the theatres this evening?"

"I hadn't thought of it; what is there worth seeing?"

"Have you ever seen Mrs. Charles Kean, Ellen Tree that was?"

"No."

"Well, you'd better go and see her. She is the finest walker I ever saw."

"Glad you mentioned it. I shall certainly go."

It was one of Shakspeare's plays. When Mrs. Kean came in, she walked across the stage two or three times before uttering a word. I never saw anything so perfectly grand! The play had then run a hundred and fifty nights. I afterward met several persons who had witnessed it more than twenty nights, and most of them mentioned Mrs. Kean's walking, as the great attraction.

Girls, the Creator has not made you all handsome. He has not given you all fine faces, or noble proportions; but He has given every one of you the capacity to learn to walk well.

Why, even a little woman, weighing but a hundred pounds, can make herself grand by a certain style of walking.

How any of you who desire to appear well, to make a fine impression, can consent to crawl about, poking your chins out, shoulder-blades sticking out, and wiggling yourself along in that stubby, stumbling way, amazes me.

Why, girls, if you were to give one-twentieth part as much time to learning to walk, as you give to the piano, you would add immensely to your attractions. Everybody plays the piano. It really is refreshing to meet one who says, "I have never learned to play." Why not a few of you, instead of sitting four hours a day on piano stools, weakening and distorting your spines; why not just a few of you, by way of variety, cultivate this beautiful, elastic, queenly manner of walking? You have no idea how, to use a Yankee phrase, "it would pay," as an attraction.