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diff --git a/41498-0.txt b/41498-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0fb762 --- /dev/null +++ b/41498-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6772 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41498 *** + +Our Girls +by +Dio Lewis, A.M., M.D., +President of "The Normal Institute for Physical Education," +Physician in Chief to "a Swedish Movement Cure," Author of "New +Gymnastics for Men, Women, and Children," "Weak Lungs, and How to +Make Them Strong," "Talks About People's Stomachs," etc. + +That her hand may be given with dignity, she must be able to stand +alone.-Margaret Fuller +New York +Harper & Brothers, Publishers, Franklin Square, 1874. +Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1871, by +Dio Lewis. +In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + +To +My Girls +I dedicate this volume +In the School at Lexington they taught me how pure and noble life +may become. + +Will they listen to another of my "Talks about Health?" +The Author. + +Contents + + INTRODUCTION + GIRLS' BOOTS AND SHOES + Sure Way to get Broad Soles. + Beauty of Broad Soles. + Economy of Wide Soles. + Thickness of the Soles. + Of what shall the Uppers of Girls' Boots be composed? + Should the Shoes support the Ankle? + Rubber Boots and Shoes. + HOW GIRLS SHOULD WALK + Another Woman who Walked well. + Still another Woman who Walked well. + Important Help in Learning to Walk. + THE LANGUAGE OF DRESS + Low Neck and Short Sleeves + DESCRIPTION OF DRESS + Letter from Washington. + Excessive Ornamentation. + Earrings and other Trinkets. + Finger-rings, etc. + OUTRAGES UPON THE BODY + Fashionable Sufferings. + WOMAN TORTURES HER BODY + STOCKINGS SUPPORTERS + LARGE vs. SMALL WOMEN + Why are Women so Small? + IDLENESS AMONG GIRLS + A Family Counsel. + How it Terminated. + IDLENESS IS FASHIONABLE + WORK IS FOR THE POOR + Work for Rich Girls. + A true Love Story. + EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN + Amanuenses. + Bank Clerks. + Brokers. + Copyists. + Dentists. + Lawyers. + Lecturers. + Librarians. + Physicians. + Preachers. + Proof-Readers. + Publishers. + Teachers. + Teachers of Gymnastics and Dancing. + Teachers of Drawing and Painting. + Watches. + Pens. + Aquaria Makers. + Architects. + Engravers. + Photographers. + Schools of Design. + Gardening. + A Capital Investment. + Merchants. + Carpenters. + Other Occupations. + Employment Agencies. + FALSE TESTS OF GENTILITY + Conservatism is Fashionable. + "Woman's Rights" are Unfashionable. + The Social Evil. + A SHORT SERMON ABOUT MATRIMONY + My Text. + You Want Husbands. + Why Men do not Propose. + Beauty of Woman's Body. + This Dress Checks your Movements. + PIANO MUSIC + Vocal Music. + Bad Manners of Piano Players. + Vices of Modern Music. + Italian Opera. + STUDY OF FRENCH + Disciplinary Value of French. + Comparative Value of English and French. + English Classics. + Latin and Greek. + DANCING + THE THEATRE + SYMPATHY BETWEEN THE STOMACH AND THE SOUL + Bowels of Compassion. + Waists of Jolly Grandmothers. + ABOUT THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES + SUNSHINE AND HEALTH + A few Plain Words to my Little Pale-faced Friends. + Experiment upon a House-plant. + Experiment upon a Rose-bush. + Experiment upon a Rose Girl. + A WORD ABOUT BATHS + Oil Secretions of the Skin. + Importance of Soap. + Details of the Bath. + Bath-rooms. + Hot and Cold Baths. + Hair Gloves or Mittens. + HOME GYMNASIUM + WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT + Consequences. + Breakfast. + Dinner. + Jacob Schneider and his Doughnuts. + Wines and other Alcoholic Drinks + WHAT YOU SHOULD DRINK + ADDITIONAL HEALTH THOUGHTS + Noises in the Bowels. + How to Manage a Cold. + Fat and Thin Girls. + Recreation vs. Propriety. + Care of your Teeth. + Ventilation. + Flannels next the Skin. + AMUSEMENTS FOR GIRLS + TRUE EDUCATION FOR GIRLS + HEROIC WOMEN + + + +Introduction + +My Dear Public:-- + +I write about the girls because I want to, and because, after a good +deal of self-examination, I candidly believe I have something to say +about them. + +I have always been deeply interested in the girls; when a youngster +nothing so fascinated me; and, as I turn the corner, to go with the +old folks, I can't see that my interest in girls is a whit less +earnest. + + +When I was occupied with the practice of my profession, my interest +in the girls was so well-known, that I had an unusual number among +my patients. During the years of my public lecturing, half, at +least, of my audiences were composed exclusively of girls and women. +When I established the school at Lexington, it was a school for +girls, and, during four years, I lived in the midst of a large +family of fine girls. It was a sweet, a delightful experience. My +hopes of the future rest upon the girls. My patriotism clings to the +girls. I believe America's future pivots on this great woman +revolution. + +I am not a Yankee, but I believe in Yankees. This first great +success in self-government, is a success, because guided by Yankee +brains. I tremble lest the rudder should fall to hands, which, in +other lands, have been found utterly incompetent. The Yankee brain +has realized the brightest hopes of the political seer. The United +States Government must not, cannot part with its wise, prudent +helmsman. + +Is it not an alarming fact, that, among Yankees, marriage is +becoming unfashionable, and children still more unfashionable; that, +among the very few children born, so many die in infancy; and still +again, that, among the very small number who escape the perils of +childhood, so small a proportion are endowed with that vigorous +health on which alone can be planted a vigorous manhood. I am so +sure that I know where the trouble lies, and so strong is my +confidence that I can contribute something toward its removal, I +cannot refrain from speaking. May the Good Father help me to write +in a truly father-spirit to those dear, beautiful girls, upon whom +we are all so dependent for present happiness, and upon whom the +future America must rest. + +And if any thought shall appear in this volume worthy their +attention, may they listen, think, act. + +I have discussed many health topics, but this work, addressed to the +girls of America, I shall fill with my whole heart, and send out, +with a yearning for its success, which I have felt in connection +with no other literary venture. + + + +GIRLS' BOOTS AND SHOES. + +One evening, at Lexington, I was discussing before the assembled +school the subject of shoes for women, and had been remarking that +the soles were uniformly too narrow, when Miss B. spoke up:-- + +"Why, Doctor, my soles are perfectly immense. Why, they are twice as +broad as my foot." + +"Miss B., will you be kind enough to take off one of your shoes, and +send it forward?" It was cheerfully and quickly done. + +"Henry, please bring the rule? Now we will measure this sole. + +"Miss B., I find this sole is two and one-half inches wide; do you +think your foot is narrower than that?" + +"Oh! a great deal. That shoe sole is twice as wide as my foot." + +"Miss B., will you please come to the platform a moment?" So, +limping along, one shoe off and one shoe on, she presented herself. + +"Miss B., will you be kind enough to put your foot upon that sheet +of white paper? Now hold up the other foot, and let your full weight +press upon this one. There, now, hold still a minute, and let me +draw the pencil around your foot. There, that will do. Now we will +measure this mark, and see just how broad your foot is. Why, Miss +B., I find that your foot is three inches and three-quarters broad; +--no, stop, it is three inches and seven-eighths;--no, stop +again, it really is four inches broad. Now what do you think? You +may take the rule and measure yourself if you doubt it. The sole is +two inches and a half, and your foot is four inches broad!" + +"But, Doctor, it is four inches broad only when it is spread out by +standing my whole weight on this one foot." + +"Yes, Miss B., but that is exactly what takes place every time you +step. For example, when, in walking, you lift up the right foot and +push it forward, your whole weight is not only on the left foot, +but, pushing with the left foot in propelling the body forward, you +have, in addition to your weight upon that foot, the effort of +pushing forward with it, which makes the toes still broader, and +that takes place every time you step. So I presume when you are +walking briskly, that if your foot were at liberty to spread, it +would reach four inches and a quarter. + +"This shoe sole, which you think is immense, is two inches and a +half wide. Now what do you suppose becomes of the inch and a half of +foot which has no sole to rest upon? Either the upper leather holds +the foot, and prevents its spreading, or the foot spreads on either +side beyond the sole, and presses down upon the edge of the sole. + +"Very few girls walk in a firm, strong way. Notice one. You can see +that she is balancing upon a narrow sole. There is an unsteadiness, +a sidewise vibration. Besides, as she has not breadth of toe enough, +she cannot push her body forward in that elastic way which we all so +much admire. + +"Again, the pressure of the upper leather checks the circulation in +the foot and makes it cold. If you check the circulation in any +part, it becomes cold. The tight shoes, with an elastic worn about +the leg just below the knee, so check the circulation in the foot, +that the great majority of girls have cold feet. It would, indeed, +be rare to find one with warm feet like a boy." + +Miss B. took her shoe and limped back to her seat quite crest- +fallen. Now a dozen girls eagerly put up their hands. + +Selecting one, Miss R., I said, "What do you wish?" + +"My shoe is broader than my foot." + +"Well, send it forward and let me measure it." + +I found it two and a half inches, or, perhaps, a shade less. + +"Come, stand on the paper and let me measure your foot." + +I found it fully three and three quarter inches; one inch and a +quarter of foot with nothing to rest upon. + +Six or eight other girls insisted on having their shoes and feet +measured, but among them all we did not find one that had less than +an inch and a quarter of foot not matched by the sole. + +Miss S., a quiet, earnest girl, who was always on the _qui vive_ for +the _ought_ of life, rose and said:-- + +"I have always thought that shoes should have broad soles, and I +have tried for years to induce my shoemaker to give me broad +soles. He always says he will, but he never does. How can a young +lady get broad soles if the shoemaker won't make them? I am sure I +should be glad to have mine as broad as the widest spread of my +foot, but I cannot get them." + + + +SURE WAY TO GET BROAD SOLES. + +"Miss S., if I will tell you how to induce your shoemaker to make +the soles of your shoes as broad as your feet, will you try it?" + +"I will, and should be very thankful for the suggestion." + +"Go to him and say, 'Mr. Smith, please let me put my foot on a sheet +of paper, resting my whole weight upon one foot, and then, if you +please, mark around it with your pencil.' + +"Of course he will do it very cheerfully. Indeed, for some purpose, +which I am sure no man can explain, shoemakers are quite in the +habit of taking the size and shape of the foot. I am sure I never +saw any evidence that they paid the slightest attention to it in +making the shoes. + +"Then say to Mr. Smith, 'Please measure that and tell me just how +wide it is.' + +"Mr. Smith measures. You look on. He finds that the width is exactly +three inches and seven-eighths. + +"'But,' he will say, 'Miss S., what is all this for?' + +"'No matter. Now, Mr. Smith, will you please to make the soles of +this pair as broad as my feet?' + +"'Certainly, Miss S., I will make them all nice and broad.' + +"'Mr. Smith, please make the soles as broad as my feet this time.' + +"'Why, certainly, Miss, what is the trouble? I will give them to you +real nice and wide.' + +"'You always tell me so; but when they come home, they are always +those little narrow ones.' + +"'Miss S., you shouldn't say so. I always make the soles of my shoes +very broad. It will be all right.. You needn't worry about that.' + +"'Well, Mr. Smith, you need not send these shoes to me; I will come +for them. The width of my foot is three inches and seven-eighths. +Very well; when I come for these shoes, I shall measure the width of +the soles; if they are one-eighth of an inch less than three inches +and seven-eighths, I will not touch them.' + +"That struggle is all over. Mr. Smith will, for the first time in +his life, keep his broad-sole promise." + + + +BEAUTY OF BROAD SOLES. + +'Besides the advantages I have named, broad soles are much handsomer +than narrow ones. They make the foot look smaller. If one puts his +foot into a shoe too short, and too narrow, and the toes and sides +of the foot press out all around over the sole, it makes the foot +look big; but if the sole be large enough to let the foot rest in +its natural relations, it looks much smaller. We men wear boots, +often, with broad soles that project well on both sides. Such boots +are thought to be particularly stylish. + + + +ECONOMY OF WIDE SOLES. + +"Another advantage may be mentioned for the benefit of those who +study economy. Such shoes will not only keep in shape, but they will +last two or three times as long as those with narrow soles. The +uppers, not being stretched, as they are with narrow soles, will, if +of good stock, almost never wear out, while the soles will remain +square and even. + +"I have spoken of the advantage of a greatly improved circulation, +which would result from the introduction of the wide soles. I may +add that the change which would at once appear in the manner of +walking, would strike every beholder. + + + +THICKNESS OF THE SOLES. + +"The soles of girls' boots and shoes should be thick. They are not +always to remain upon carpets, but they must go out doors and walk +on the ground. + +"Some people seem, somehow, to suppose that girls do not really step +on the ground, but that, in some sort of spiritual way, they pass +along just above the damp, unclean earth. But, as a matter of fact, +girls do step on the ground just like boys. I have frequently walked +behind them to test this point, and have noticed that when the +ground is soft, they make tracks, and thus demonstrate the existence +of an actual, material body. + +"Now, while this is the case, and while it is indispensable to their +health that they go much in the open air, they must have thick +soles. Let these be made of the hardest and most impervious leather. +It is well, in addition, during eight months of the year, to have +the bottoms of the soles covered either with a sheet of rubber, or +simply covered with a spreading of some of the liquid rubber, which +will remain two or three weeks, and protect the sole from dampness. + + + +OF WHAT SHALL THE UPPERS OF GIRLS' BOOTS BE COMPOSED? + +"During the cold and damp months they should be made of thick, solid +leather. No matter about the name; some calfskin is very thin, while +morocco is often very thick. During the warm season they may wear +for uppers prunella, or other cloth." + +This much was spoken to my girls. I might leave the shape and width +of the heel to the intelligence of the reader; but as the most +preposterous heels have been recently introduced, it is perhaps +judicious to point out the physiological mischief. The heels of the +fashionable ladies' shoes at the present moment--quarter past +three, P.M., August 4th, 1870,--are two inches high, and at the +bottom not larger than an old-fashioned silver quarter of a dollar, +if anybody can remember how large that was. + +Need it be argued that this absurd fashion weakens the ankle, and +jams the toes into the sharp points of the boots? + +If a woman were to walk as much as her health requires, with those +most unphysiological heels, her feet would soon be crippled. The +ankle, the heel, the arch of the foot and the toes must all suffer. +It need hardly be said that heels should be broad, long and low. The +great advantage in elasticity and firmness which would come at once +in the manner of walking, would, even as to stylishness, more than +compensate for the absence of the fashionable Shanghai heels. + + + +SHOULD THE SHOE SUPPORT THE ANKLE? + +Shoes of a peculiar structure have been employed to support the +ankle. Medical men have even advised the introduction of brass, or +other metallic straps, to be laced in the shoe about the ankle, to +give support in walking. The ordinary shoe is made so as to fit the +ankle very closely, under the impression that thereby the ankle is +supported. This is an error. If the ankles were to be used but a day +or a week, such support might serve; but as no one intends to rely +permanently upon such artificial support, and as any pressure checks +the circulation and the development of the parts, so a lacing to the +ankle, as a lacing about the chest, may feel comfortable and give a +sense of support for the time being, but, in either case, will, in +the long run, only produce absorption and weakness. The ankle joint +should be left entirely without ligature, without any pressure, and +by exercise be developed into a self-supporting institution. + +If this were the place, I would give special directions for bathing +the ankle joints in cold water, morning and evening, and rubbing +them hard with the naked hands, if they are weak and need special +support. + + + +RUBBER BOOTS AND SHOES. + +On the subject of rubber boots and shoes much has been said, and +well said. There can be no doubt that india-rubber boots are +mischievous; but I have at length reached the conclusion that the +injury is less than the constant in-door life among girls and women +which would result from an abandonment of the rubber protections. +The prejudice against such leather boots as would, alone, prove +adequate to our climate, is so determined, that I think it my duty, +in discussing the subject of shoes for girls, to advise that, in +this climate, every girl should have a pair of india-rubber over- +shoes, of the arctic or sandal pattern, and a pair of large-sized, +long-legged rubber boots for the roughest weather. + +They should never be worn except when the streets are in a condition +absolutely requiring them, and should not be kept on, in the house. +If these rules be carefully observed, and, during the season of the +year when rubbers are worn, the feet are frequently washed in cold +water, and rubbed hard with rough towels, hair gloves and the naked +hand, they may be protected against the injurious influence of the +rubber boots and shoes. + + + +HOW GIRLS SHOULD WALK. + +A good many years ago,--let me look in the glass again,--never +use hair dye,--yes, a great many years ago, I was studying my +profession in a medical office with several other students. Just +below stood a book-bindery, and a little above, the residence of a +poor widow. A girl of twenty years passed backward and forward, from +one to the other, several times a day. Very rarely did she pass our +office without one or more of us observing her. Very natural, you +say. But you don't understand me. She was not a handsome girl. Her +dress was of the plainest calico, and, I suppose on account of her +occupation, it was not always clean. But, nevertheless, she was one +of our staple attractions. + +Our office was on the main street, and above us were the residences +of the rich. Hundreds of girls with handsome faces and rich dresses +passed every day, but we were not on the lookout for them. It was +only the book-binding girl that drew us to the window. + +One of our fellows would cry out, "Here she goes. Come quick, John; +quick, Henry." + +Curious, wasn't it? + +And what do you suppose so excited our interest? + +She walked well! Ah! I can see her now! What a queen! + +Queenly, we exclaim, with reference to a certain manner of walking. +We never say queenly mouth, or queenly eyes, or queenly nose. The +word is applied only to a certain style of personal carriage. When +we see a woman pass, carrying her head and shoulders in a peculiar +way, stepping off in a grand, elastic style, the word queenly leaps +to every lip. + +Our book-binding girl was a Methodist; and I do not mind telling you +that I used to go to the Methodist church pretty often, and always +sat in the gallery, that I might see her come in and go out. She +frequented a little social organization, in which young men and +women assembled for conversation, reading, singing, etc. I joined, +although there was no other attraction than our queen. + +You may think it very strange, but I was never introduced to her; I +never spoke with her. Indeed, I carefully avoided a personal +acquaintance, lest a lack of intelligence and sentiment might break +the charm of her peerless bearing. I think that nothing in any woman +has ever more deeply impressed my imagination than that young +woman's splendid mien. + + + +ANOTHER WOMAN WHO WALKED WELL. + +Calling upon a legal friend in a western city about twenty years +ago, he asked me, while we were sitting at his front window,-- + +"Have you ever seen Mrs. W----e?" + +"No. Who is she? what is she?" + +"She is a remarkable woman." + +"Actress?" + +"No." + +"Singer?" + +"No." + +"Authoress?" + +"No." + +"Well, do tell me what she is remarkable for." + +"Oh, she walks well." + +"And is it so rare for a woman to walk well, in your city, that one +who does, becomes famous?" + +"Ah, but when you see her walk, you won't ask that question. She +walks splendidly; and what is very wonderful, she knows it; and, +knowing it, what is perhaps still more wonderful, she walks a great +deal. She generally goes down town about this time. If we keep +watch, we shall see her." + +In a few minutes he exclaimed, "There she goes, there she goes!" + +"Indeed, and that is your wonderful Mrs. W----e? She don't handsome +much. Eyes sunken, complexion dark, nose--well, her nose is +preposterous, mouth coarse,--but, she does, yes, she does walk +splendidly." I pushed out my head and watched her as she went down +the street. + + + +STILL ANOTHER WOMAN WHO WALKED WELL. + +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. + + + +RULES FOR FINE WALKING. + +There are certain prerequisites. + +First, you must have low, wide heels, and broad soles, especially +about the toes, affording a secure surface, upon which, in taking +each step, you can push the body forward. + +Second, the body about the waist must be perfectly at liberty. The +corset is a deadly enemy to fine walking. + +But given perfect freedom at the middle of the body, through which +all the movements in walking must pass,--given this freedom of the +trunk, with good shoes, and you have the prerequisites on which this +general exercise of the body depends. + +Suppose, instead of a free body, that you press a corset into the +pit of the stomach, and press it in so as to make a scoop-shovel dip +in that part of the body, of course you draw the shoulders forward, +and push the bowels down out of their natural place. Then you walk +like a deformed person. + +With liberty of feet and liberty of body, you are ready to take your +first lesson. + +I once read a book about walking. It was a French book, and, if I +remember right, it contained about one hundred and twenty pages. In +it the most elaborate directions were given. We were told how to +hold our heels and toes, what part of the foot to bring down first, +how, when the foot had been brought down, it was to be moved during +the step, just what angle must be maintained between the two feet, +the style of movement in the ankle itself, management of the knees, +the hips, the shoulders, the head, the arms, the hands, the thumbs, +--the position of the thumbs was the subject of several pages. + +I have sometimes thought that I would write a book on walking. I am +sure I can write a better one than that French book, and my book +would contain only four words. Let us see, we must have two leaves, +and each leaf must be as large as your thumb nail. We have four +pages. + +Now we will proceed to print this book. On the first page we will +print one single word, "chin"; on the second a single word, "close"; +on the third page, "to"; now we approach the end of the volume; +turn over, and on the last page we print the word "neck." + +The volume is complete. No explanatory notes need be given, not +another word need be said. Whoever carries the "chin close to neck" +is all right from top to toe, and will walk well. Strange to say, +the chin is the pivot on which the whole body turns in walking. + +"Miss Howard, please stand here before us. Now push your chin +forward after the manner of most girls in walking. There, girls, +don't you see, her shoulders are wrong, hips wrong, wrong +everywhere? + +"Now, Miss Howard, draw your chin back close to your neck. See, she +has brought her shoulders into the right position, hips right, every +part is right. Now, please walk? Don't you see? Although, in this +first attempt, she seems a little stiff, and awkward, she exhibits +the elements of a fine, queenly bearing? If she were to keep it up a +few weeks, and make it easy, wherever she might go, people would +exclaim, 'Queenly! queenly!'" + +Oh, it is pitiable to see fine American girls poke along the street +with their chins away on in advance, hastening to inform the people +that the girl is coming. + +Come to this window with me, and look out a moment. There, there are +two girls passing. Now look at their chins. If these girls would +draw their chins back close to their necks, their whole appearance +would be changed in an instant. + +I have often said if my adopted daughter should come to me, and say: +-- + +"Father, I am going to Japan; I don't expect to see you again in +this world, and, now as I am about to leave you, tell me how to +preserve my health." I should say:-- + +"My daughter, I am glad you came to me about this. I have given my +life to the study of the laws of health, and I am sure I can give +you valuable suggestions. + +"Listen. I will give you five rules, and if you observe them, no +matter where you may live, you will be almost sure to maintain good +health." + +"Father, five rules; that's a great many. I am afraid I shall forget +some of them; give me one,--the most important one, and I promise +not to forget it." + +"My daughter, if I can give you but one rule, it is this: Stand up +straight, walk erect, sit erect, and even when you are in bed at +night, don't put three pillows under your head, and watch your toes +all night, but keep yourself straight. If you do this, your lungs, +heart, liver, stomach, and all the other organs in the body, will +have room for work. My dear child, if you observe this rule, you +will not only bear with you the air of a noble woman, but you will +contribute more than by any other single rule, to the vigor of your +body, and the maintenance of your health. + +"Why, my daughter, you cannot have a good voice even, unless you +stand erect. + +"The Creator has fitted this little vocal apparatus in the throat to +a certain attitude of the body. + +"The vocal apparatus of a cow is so fixed, that when her backbone is +horizontal, she can do her best bellowing. If she were to stand on her +hind legs, and stick her nose directly up towards the sky, she +couldn't half bellow. + +"The vocal apparatus in a girl's throat is fitted, not to a +horizontal spine, but to a perpendicular one. The portion of the +spine in the neck determines, mostly, the action of the music box in +the throat. + +"If you drop your-chin down on your chest, bending your neck, and +then try to sing, you will find at once that the vocal box is all +out of shape. Go to the opera and observe the singers. When they +wish to make a particularly loud or fine sound, they don't put the +chin down in the pit of the stomach, but they draw it back close to +the neck, and hold the upper part of the spine, and, indeed, every +part of the spine, in a noble, erect attitude. No, my dear Mary, you +can not even speak or sing well without attending to my volume on +the subject of the chin. Need I say again, that only in this upright +position of the body can your lungs and heart find room to do their +great and vital work? Need I say, that if you allow your head and +shoulders to fall forward, and the organs of the chest to fall down +on the organs of the abdomen, the stomach and liver and all the +other organs in your abdominal cavity will be displaced, crowded and +trammeled? My dear Japanese missionary, I have given you the most +important rule of health, and if you observe it during your life +among the Japs, it will do wonders in preserving your health and +strength. + + + +IMPORTANT HELP IN LEARNING TO WALK. + +You are in haste to become a queen? The ambition is a noble one. You +can hurry the change by another practice, which I will describe. + +A charming lady of the grand, old-fashioned pattern, bore herself +like an empress at eighty-six. I ventured to ask her:-- + +"Madam, what was the source of this remarkable carriage of your +person?" She replied:-- + +"During my young life I carried a large book on my head one or two +hours every day. My mother had been taught the practice in an +English school, and she transmitted it to her daughters." + +Some years ago there was devised a pretty iron crown, in three +parts, which has been much used for this purpose. The first part, +which rests upon the head, weighed nine pounds; when an iron ring +was placed inside of this, it weighed eighteen pounds, and when the +second one was added, the weight was twenty-seven pounds. This +device was ornamental and convenient. But, while the crown is the +best thing; any weight will do. A bag of corn or beans may be +employed, A book will answer very well. I have frequently seen books +used. You can use any large book of no value,--say a large law +book,--and you will find that the effort to retain it on the head +will secure a perfectly balanced, accurate movement of all the +muscles of the body. Whatever weight is employed, let it be carried +upon the top of the head, holding the chin close to the neck, thirty +minutes in the morning, and about the same time before lying down at +night. In this connection let me say that the use of thick pillows +tends to produce a curve in the neck. The pillows should be hard and +thin. I am glad to see that hair pillows of moderate size are being +generally introduced. + +Let me explain the way in which carrying a load upon the head helps +the spine into an erect posture. The spine is composed of twenty- +four separate bones, which do not lie upon one another, but are +separated by cushions of elastic cartilage. Suppose the thickness of +these cushions to be a quarter of an inch. When the spine is erect, +they are of the same thickness all around. When the spine is bent +sidewise, say towards the right, the elastic cushions become thinner +on that side, and if the bending is decided, the edges of the spinal +bones themselves will nearly touch, while the mass of elastic or +india-rubber substance will be pressed over to the left side. Now +suppose that one follows an occupation requiring this position of +the spine. After a time, unless pains are taken to counterbalance +the mischievous influence of the occupation, these india-rubber +cushions between the spinal bones will become fixed in this wedge- +like shape, being thin on the right side and thick on the left side. + +Now suppose, instead of bending sidewise, one bends forward, as nine +persons in ten do, exactly the same thing takes place in these +elastic, rubber cushions, only that the rubber is pushed backward, +and the spine bones come together in front. + +When the chin is drawn back close to the neck, and the cushions are +brought into their natural equality of thickness all around, if, at +the same moment, a considerable weight is placed upon the head to +press hard upon the spinal cushions, much will be done in a little +time, to fix them in this natural shape. It requires but a few +months of this management to induce a very striking change in the +attitude of the spine. + +Many years ago, when my wife was an invalid, we spent three winters +in the South. The plantation negro was a shambling, careless, +uncouth creature; but occasionally we saw a negro whose bearing +suggested a recent occupancy of one of the kingly thrones in Africa. +After a little we came to understand the source of this peculiarity. +These negroes, of the erect, lofty pattern, were engaged in "toting" +loads upon their heads. + +Everywhere, in certain large districts of Italy, one is struck with +the singular carriage of the water-carriers, who bring from the +mountain springs, great tubs of water on their heads. + +How often we see German girls bringing into town great loads of +sticks on their heads. And we never look at them, if we are +thoughtful, without contrasting their proud, erect carriage, with +the drooping shoulders, projecting shoulder blades, stuck-out chins, +and general slip-shoddiness of our wives and daughters. + + + +THE LANGUAGE OF DRESS. + +The dress of a French peasant tells you at once of his place in +society. Throughout Europe the dress may be taken as the exponent of +the wearer's position. This is as true of women as of men. For good +reasons, the language of dress is not so definite and explicit in +America. But even here we may judge very correctly, in most cases, +by the every-day dress, of the position of the wearer. + +The social character and relations of women, as a class, in any +country, may be clearly inferred from certain peculiarities of their +dress. + +For example, we are in Constantinople. If, in a moment, we could be +set down in that city, and not know where we were, would any of us +doubt the language of that veil over woman's face? Would anybody +suppose her to be a citizen? Would anybody suppose she belonged to +herself? + +Leaving Constantinople, let us visit an old-time fashionable social +gathering in Vienna. Women enter the ball-room. They are dressed in +gauze so thin that you can see their skins all over their persons. +Would any of us mistake the language of that kind of dress? Would +any of us be in doubt about their relations to men? + +Come to America to-day. We attend a social gathering. Women appear +with their vital organs squeezed down to one-half the natural size, +their arms and busts naked, while their trails are so long that, +whenever they turn round, they are obliged to use their hands to +push them out of the way. As we all comprehend, at a glance, the +meaning of the veils in Constantinople, and the nudity of the women +in Vienna, so we all infer the position of woman in America from +these peculiarities of her dress. + +I read thus: The compressed vital organs and the encumbered feet +mean, that women are dependent and helpless. Having but little use +for breath and locomotion, by a law of nature, they cramp the +instruments of breath and locomotion. While the nudity of the arms +and bust signifies a slavery to man's passions. No one supposes that +when woman becomes a citizen, and man's equal, she will compress her +lungs, fetter her legs, or appeal to his passions by any immodest +exposure of her person. + + + +LOW NECK AND SHORT SLEEVES. + +As I have said but little of the "low neck and short sleeves," I +want to add a word in this connection. Many a modest woman appears +at a party with her arms nude, and so much of her chest exposed that +you can see nearly half of the mammal gland. + +Many a modest mother permits her daughters to make this model-artist +exhibition of themselves. + +One beautiful woman said, in answer to my complaints, "You shouldn't +look." + +"But," I replied, "do you not adjust your dress in this way on +purpose to give us a chance to look?" + +She was greatly shocked at my way of putting it. + +"Well," I said, "this assurance is perfectly stunning. You strip +yourselves, go to a public party, parade yourselves for hours in a +glare of gas-light, saying to the crowd, 'Look here, gentlemen,' and +then you are shocked because we put your unmistakable actions into +words." + +In discussing this subject before an audience of ladies in this city +the other evening, I said:-- + +"Ladies, suppose I had entered this hall with my arms and bust bare, +what would you have done? You would have made a rush for the door, +and, as you jostled against each other in hurrying out, you would +have exclaimed to each other, 'Oh! the unconscionable scalawag!' May +I ask if it is not right that we should demand of you as much +modesty as you demand of us?" + +But you exclaim, "Custom! it is the custom, and fashion is +everything!" + +If you could know the history of the "low neck and short sleeves," +how, and for what purpose they were introduced, you would as soon +join the company of the "unfortunates," as to make this exhibition +of your persons. + +As much as I desire to live, so much do I long, by this book, to +help my country-women to a higher and purer life. Cherishing this +hope in my heart of hearts, and knowing that nothing but truth can, +in the long run, prevail, I have read this discussion of dress over +and over again, and asked myself, and asked my wife and my sister, +if the statements I have made are quite true, and if they are made +in the proper spirit. + +Upon reading the preceding pages upon "The Language of Dress" with +my wife and sister, they say: + +"These statements are just and true, and greatly need to be +uttered;" but my wife says, "I think you ought to say very plainly, +that a great many pure-minded women dress with 'low neck and short +sleeves,' without an impure thought, and simply because it is the +fashion." + +I have no doubt of it, and thought I had said as much. Indeed, have +I not been careful to state that I was discussing the language of +dress, and not the conscious purpose of each individual wearer. I +should never forgive myself if I thoughtlessly and unnecessarily +wounded the feelings of the thousands of young women who will, I +trust, read this volume. + +But let me add, that I could not pardon myself; and the brave, +earnest women who may read these pages would not pardon me, if I +discussed this vital subject in a shilly-shally, easy-going, +disengenuous manner. If I can effect a sure and permanent lodgment +of vital truths in your minds, and, in my manner of doing it, +should, for the time being, provoke your anger, I am content. + +This exposure of the naked bosom before men, in the most public +places, belongs not to the highest type of Christian civilization, +but to those dark ages when women sought nothing higher than the +gratification of the passions of man, and were content to be mere +slaves and toys. + +Boston contains its proportion of the refined women of the country. +We have here a few score of the old families, inheriting culture and +wealth, and who can take rank with the best. A matron who knows +their habits, assures me that she never saw a member of one of these +families in "low neck and short sleeves." + +In the future free and Christian America, the very dress of woman +will proclaim a high, pure womanhood. And that dress will be an +American costume. We shall then discard the costumes devised by the +dissolute capitals of Europe. + +What a strange spectacle we witness in America to-day. Free, bravo, +American women hold out to the world the bible of social, political +and religious freedom; and, anon, we see them down on their knees +waiting the arrival of a steamer, from France, to learn how they +may dress their bodies for the next month. + + + +DESCRIPTIONS OF DRESS + +I wonder women's cheeks do not burn at the sly contempt for +themselves, displayed in this constant description of their dress. +It hardly needs an illustration, though just now one comes to hand, +of which a word. A beautiful, noble girl was married, last evening, +in a neighboring city, and the Boston newspapers, of this morning, +are full of the wedding. In the first place, we have a long +description of the young woman's underclothing. Every article, worn +upon every part of her person, is described in elaborate detail, +with the number, style, make, trimmings, etc., etc. Running over the +description of the trousseau, my eye falls upon: "French exquisitely +daintily invisible finest delicate exquisite princess elegant +coquettish grace jaunty lavender reliefs stylish coquettish Parisian +stylish pretty striking tea-rose bouffant Cluny graceful +Valenciennes jaunty nondescript becoming square broad high tiny +stunning tiny China silk finest Valenciennes rose elegant +beautifully lovely unique elegant heliotrope artistic perfection +grace delicate rose-buds lovely exquisite finest delicate gossamer +airy fairy. + + + +LETTER FROM WASHINGTON. + +Reception at the White House. From "Our Washington Correspondent." + +Senator A., General B., and Vice-President C. said and did so and +so. Mrs. A., Mrs. B., and Mrs. C. said nothing, did nothing; but +half the letter is devoted to gorgeous descriptions of their dress- +maker's spread. This silent contempt of the woman, and elaborate +detail of her dress-maker's style, must cut every proud, sensitive +woman to the very quick. It is another piece of what is called +"ladies' man," and "ladies' small talk." It is of a piece with this +taking off the hat, this excessive bowing and smirking to women, +while they are paid for equal services but one-third a man's salary. + +We had a capital illustration of this gallantry and injustice, in a +speech made by a leading member of the American Homoeopathic +Institute, at its great meeting in this city. + +A resolution was introduced inviting educated woman physicians of +the Homoeopathic school, to become members of the Institute. An old +and most respectable member of the Institute, from----, spoke very +warmly against the resolution. + +He said: "I am a ladies' man; I never pass a woman with whom I am +acquainted without raising my hat. I do not keep my seat in the cars +while ladies are standing, as I see gentlemen do in Boston. + +"Yes, I am the most obedient and devoted servant of the ladies, +gentlemen of the Convention, but when you would introduce them to +membership in the American Institute of Homoeopathy, I say no! +never!" + +It is this making woman the occasion for a display of man's +gallantries, with this contemptuous disregard of her claims to +common justice; it is this spirit which passes the woman, and +devotes itself to a description of her dress, to outlining her "low +corsage," her "magnificent bust," etc., etc. + +If I were a girl, and one of these besmeared, bescented, befaddled, +"ladies' man" puppies were to condescend to perform his whining and +barking for my special delectation, I should mildly suggest to him +the infinite wisdom of bestowing his precious slaver upon some +small, gentle poodle. + + + +EXCESSIVE ORNAMENTATION. + +The trimming mania is frightful. What do you think of one hundred +and twenty yards,--three hundred and sixty feet,--four thousand +three hundred and twenty inches of ribbon in the trimming of one +dress? + +I wish I could command for an hour the pen of a Jenkins, and give +the names of the various ribbons and shades of ribbons, of the +laces, their origin, style, and value. (Each kind of lace has a +history, which is dear to the heart of the devotee of fashion.) I +wish I could describe the hundred and one crimps and frills and +things. I wish I could command the pen of one of these amazing +writers about woman's dress. I would give you ten pages of it. + +I say again, that the trimming mania has become insufferable. Unless +a woman has a dressmaker, she must be the veriest slave. She must be +at it morning, noon and night. + +Gather in one place all the artists, authoresses, and women of +finest and highest culture, and how many of them do you suppose +could be bribed to go into the street all rigged out in ribbon, +gimp, frills, edgings, ruches, fringes, satins, velvets, buttons, +nail-heads, etc., etc., etc. + +I have met many of the women who may be classed as above, and I +cannot now recall one who was fashionably trimmed. + +This rage is, in essence, tawdry and vulgar. It is cheap in +everything but money. + + + +EAR RINGS AND OTHER TRINKETS. + +What a barbarism to bore a hole in the flesh, and stick in a +trinket. I have seen several ears in which the ring had cut its way +out, making a slit, and a new hole had been punched in one of the +pieces. + +Men have fallen into this vulgar barbarism. American savages offer +many instances of men with gold or silver trinkets in the ears. But +among lower savages in different parts of the world the custom is +quite general, and many of them add an ornament in the nose. + +My own wife, in her girlhood, had her ears pierced, but I have never +seen them embellished with trinkets. + + + +FINGER RINGS, ETC. + +What a vulgar show you sometimes see among the demi-monde,--a dozen +great gold and jeweled rings on the fingers, two large rings or +hoops about the wrists, a great buckle in the belt, a gold chain +about the neck, a gold watch, several charms, a locket or two, a +breast-pin,--what a barbarous, vulgar show; poor things, I suppose +they think it helps to advertise their unhappy trade. + +My dear girls, leave this trinket show to the Indians, and use no +other jewelry than a neat small pin to hold the collar, and a +delicate small chain to guard your watch. The watch should be in a +pocket, and not slipped under the belt. The belt must be +mischievously tight to hold the watch. To wear a watch pushed half +way under the belt, is to constantly expose it to accident, and, at +best, to make a vain announcement of the fact that you have one. + +In England it is a common remark, that you may know a nobleman by +his plain dress, and by the absence of all jewelry. And I will add, +that everywhere you may know a shoddy pretender by an excessive +display of jewelry. + +No person of really fine culture delights in an exhibition of +trinkets or gew-gaws of any kind. The refined soul cannot make an +ornamental parade. + + + +OUTRAGES UPON THE BODY. + +It is barbarous to tattoo the body. Among civilized men, only low +sailors, who spend their lives at sea, indulge in this barbarism; +and they confine the tattooing to a limited surface, "pricking in" +the figure of an anchor, or a ship. + +The nose, lips, teeth, ears, and other parts of the body, are cut or +distorted by some of the savages of Africa. + +Wherever we find among men the custom of tattooing, cutting or +distorting the body, we need make no further inquiry,--it is a land +of barbarians. + +Undeveloped peoples, in the service of false religions, maltreat +their bodies; and even followers of Christ have immured themselves +in dark cells, and caves, carried the accumulated filth of years, +scrupulously avoiding water, starved themselves, pinched and whipped +themselves, made long journeys on their knees or bellies, made +pilgrimages with peas in their shoes, and kicked, cuffed and +outraged themselves in many other ways. + +Among advanced Christian nations, even now we sometimes observe a +lingering reflection of this strange hallucination. + +For example, a great many people rather fancy a dyspeptic, ghostly +clergyman, and can hardly bring themselves to listen to a prayer +from a preacher with square shoulders, a big chest, a ruddy face, +and a moustache. The ghost, they seem to think, belongs in some way +to the spirit world; while the beef-eating, jolly fellow is +dreadfully at home in this world. + +The ghost exclaims:-- + + "Jerusalem, my happy home, + Oh! how I long for thee; + When will my sorrows have an end? + Thy joys when shall I see?" + +The other, like Mr. Beecher, enjoys a good dinner, a nimble-footed +horse, a big play with the children and the dogs, seems joyous in +the sunshine, and,--wretched sinner,--does not sigh to depart. + +So deep-seated is this old pagan prejudice, that a ringing shout of +laughter from a young woman is very suspicious to the deacons of her +church. + +Leaving the religious fanaticisms, we come upon another form of this +prejudice. + +The fragile, pale young woman with a lisp, is thought, by many silly +people, to be more of a lady, than another with ruddy cheeks, and +vigorous health. + +It is, perhaps, difficult to define it exactly, but there exists, +somehow, in the fashionable world, the notion that a pale and +sensitive woman is feminine and refined, while one in blooming +health is masculine and coarse. + +But every acute observer knows that the feminine soul, like the +masculine, utters its richest harmonies only through a perfect +instrument. + +While the languid, low voice, and deliberate manner of the invalid +lady may suggest refinement to the casual observer, the +discriminating physician who probes the soul, as well as the body, +finds a marvellous correspondence between them. + +Not only is it true that, in extreme cases of physical exhaustion, +the mind gives way with the body, but those keen, exquisite +sensibilities of the soul become weak and blunt. No physician of +large experience will fail to recal instances of extreme hemorrhagic +exhaustion, in which all sense of modesty disappears. + +Assuming that the highest possible health of the body is represented +by 100, and the lowest possible by the figure 1, and assuming, what +no physiologist or metaphysician will question, that the head and +heart keep step with the body, we shall not hesitate long in +determining the state of the mind and soul of the fashionable, +languid, nervous lady whom we meet in America at every turn, and who +ranges from 10 to 50 on our scale. + +It is but natural that she should be occupied with trimmings, and +feel no interest in the great social and moral movements of the day. + +Caeteris paribus, a young woman whose physical health is represented +by 80 on our scale, has twice as much feminine delicacy and +character as another whose health is represented by 40. If this is +not a logical deduction from the laws of physiology and metaphysics, +I know of nothing that is. While, as already suggested, every +discriminating physician is constantly called upon to listen to the +harmony between the body and the soul. + +The notion that delicacy of the body indicates delicacy of the body +indicates delicacy of the mind and heart, contributes more to the +fashion of delicacy than all other influences. + +Miss Leonora, observing that Bridget O'Flaherty, the scrub-girl, who +is ignorant and coarse, has a large waist and a powerful chest, and +that Miss Seraphina Flamingo, who is a perfect angel, has a fragile, +delicate form, draws the inference that a woman with a strong body +is ignorant and coarse, while a sylphlike form signifies the +spirituel. + +Besides this, a strong, muscular body is associated with work, with +a servant; while Miss Leonora is not long in discovering that the +mistresses,--the ladies,--are pale and sickly. + +Don't you see now how it is? To have a strong and muscular body is +to be suspected of work, of service; while a frail, delicate +personnel is a proof of position, of ladyhood. + +Go through the town and observe the women. Are any of the +fashionable ladies strong and muscular? Not one! Are any of them +able to perform hard work? Not one! But there are women who do hard +work, very hard work. They are not ladies, they are servants! The +ladies are delicate. The servants are strong. Don't you see what a +plain case it is? Miss Leonora desires, above all things, to be a +lady, and to be always, and everywhere, and immediately recognized +as a lady. How clear it is that the one, unmistakable, conclusive +proof is, that she should look and move like a lady. If she looks +strong, and moves with a will, she will be mistaken for a worker, +for a servant. If she looks delicate, and moves languidly, it will +be seen at once that she does not belong to the working class. + +It is true that many strong, muscular women are coarse and ignorant; +they have given their lives to hard work, and have been denied all +opportunities to cultivate their minds and manners. To compare such +with the petted, pampered daughters of social and intellectual +opportunity, and then to treat the strong body of the one as the +source of the coarseness and ignorance within, and, in the other +case, to treat the weak, delicate body as the source of the fine +culture, is to reason like an idiot. + +In order to arrive at anything like a fair illustration of the +influence of health upon the mind and temper, we must visit a family +in which there are daughters in sparkling health, and others who are +languid and delicate. + +We visited such a family, in a neighboring state, three summers +since, and shall never forget our observations and experiences. The +oldest daughter was delicate. The youngest two were likewise +sensitive and delicate. But there were two girls who were in fine +health. + +When the stage stopped at the gate, the girls, who were expecting +us, came out on the piazza, and the healthy ones came rushing down +to the gate, and threw their arms around one of us, nearly +smothering that one with kisses, (I shall not tell you whether it +was my wife, or myself,) while they shook hands most cordially with +the other one. They took hold of our hands and fairly danced us up +the walk. On reaching the piazza, we were very cordially and +languidly welcomed by the other girls. + +During our stay, the well girls ran over constantly. They devised +and executed scores of little plans for our amusement, while the +Misses Languid were the recipients of attentions from us all. The +Misses Vigorous ran over and flooded us all, while the Misses +Languid absorbed from us all. + +Never have I more fully realized the common saying, that "sickness +is selfish." The Misses Vigorous had enough for themselves and all +the rest of us. The Misses Languid had nothing to spare, and were +constant borrowers and beggars. Do you imagine the well girls were +less lovely, less beautiful in heart and soul, than the delicate +ones? + +Or, if you prefer, do you think a young lady who leaves the city in +June for the mountains, pale, nervous, unhappy, hardly able to take +care of herself, unable to even think of anything but her own +wretchedness, do you think her more lovely than when, returning in +October, she comes bounding in, all radiant with joy, and full of +sympathy and helpfulness? + + + +FASHIONABLE SUFFERINGS. + +So determined is the esprit du corps of the fashionables, that +ambitious young ladies secretly pride themselves upon the attainment +of womanly weaknesses. + +There are certain "female weaknesses" which one would think young +ladies might hesitate to mention; but so strong is this secret pride +in the signs of ladyhood, that many fashionable young ladies go over +the details with real pleasure. + +I once heard a conversation between an invalid aunt and four young +ladies. The young ladies were all unmarried, and the oldest not +above twenty-three. The aunt was a successful competitor in the race +for number and intensity of sufferings, and embraced every +opportunity to make a tabular statement. Her spine was the favorite +theme. The burning, the pain, the sharp and indescribable dartings +and excruciating tortures were something fearful to hear. But the +girls constantly interrupted her with saying, "That is just the way +I feel;" and, "I have exactly that pain;" and, "precisely, I have +had that pain for months." + +The aunt replied, "Now, girls, don't tell me that. It isn't possible +for you to have such afflictions at your age." But they declared, +with sparkling eyes, that every one of the sufferings she had +described,--every one of them,--they enjoyed in the most dreadful +way. The aunt enjoyed another class of affections, upon which she +lingered with real gusto. I do not feel at liberty to go into +particulars; but here again the young ladies were enough for her. +They declared, without flinching, that every one of her sufferings, +they had, and what was more, they had certain horrible variations +which they described, and which, in fact, I thought rather outdid +the poor aunt. Aunt spoke of her headache in the most brilliant +style; but here the girls were not to be beaten. In fact, it was +neck and neck to the end. + +I have heard conversations of another sort which are pertinent in +this discussion. A strong country woman, accustomed to work in the +garden, and to take long walks, mentions to a group of fashionable +young ladies, that she has just walked six miles. "Wonderful! +dreadful! is it possible? Why, I couldn't walk six miles to save my +life." Perhaps the country aunt says, "I finished a large washing +before leaving, and hung the clothes upon the line." Miss Araminta +exclaims, "I never washed anything in my life. Why, how is it done? +and how dreadful it looks to see all sorts of clothes hanging out in +a yard." + +The common affectation of ignorance of all useful work is another +illustration. A young lady sometimes knows how to make certain rare +and delicate cake, but she never knows how to make bread; she knows +how to make pink dogs in worsted, but not how to make a shirt. She +knows how to crochet, but not how to make garments for herself or +her brothers; and thus on through the whole list. She knows nothing +whatever of useful work, in which the body and heart may be brought +into earnest, womanly play. + +My dear girls, I could show you in this city a sight, which would +make you sick at heart. I know a home, in which you could see, on +any day, just before dinner, a pale, thin, overworked mother +hurrying to and fro in her kitchen, and in the parlor overhead four +daughters. One young lady is playing the piano (classical music), +and the others are crocheting, tatting, and feasting upon the "Awful +Secret of the Mysterious Milk-Maid," and one other thing--waiting to +be called to dinner. And, although the mother generally thinks it +very hard, I have known many cases where she joined in, and really +advocated this plan of bringing up daughters. + +You may hear such a mother exclaim, "Well, I don't care; my girls +shan't be worked to death as I have been. Let them have an easy time +while they can; their turn will come soon enough." + +So they screw up their waists, recline upon a couch, and ponder the +"Fearful Doom of the Mysterious Count," and thus get ready to take +their turn. Thousands of young ladies, in this city, are being +trained for wives and mothers by such means. + + + +WOMAN TORTURES HER BODY. + +Here I want to group the outrages which woman perpetrates upon her +beautiful body. + +To begin at the top, she almost never permits her hair an +opportunity to display its natural beauty. At the present moment, a +mass of Japanese bark, or false hair, or some other foreign stuff, +full of uncleanness, is piled upon the top of the head, while her +own natural hair is twisted, and turned, and pinned, and broken, and +ruined in doing subordinate, menial service to the dirty foreign +intruder. Besides this, her hair is bedaubed with nameless and dirty +greases and oils. + +I asked one of the largest retail druggists in this city, "What one +article, or line of goods, do you sell most of?" + +He replied, without a moment's hesitation, "Preparations for the +complexion." These preparations have for their bases three or four +deadly poisons. Thousands upon thousands of bottles and boxes are +used by the women of Boston every year. + +Those glands which, in the economy of nature, are appointed to the +most sacred and precious of maternal duties and privileges, are, by +the pressure and heat of large artificial pads, almost uniformly +ruined. A dressmaker assured me that she very rarely made a dress in +which the bust was not padded. The heat and pressure soon spoil the +glands. + +She bores holes in her ears, and hangs in various trinkets. + +In this place I shall not speak at length of that culminating +outrage upon woman's body, known as lacing; (not in your case, dear +reader, of course, but among your friends.) Look about you, and see +what a hideous distortion of the beautiful Greek Slave you see in +living figures. + +Below the waist there are enormous paddings, which heat and injure +the spine. + +Below the knee, a ligature, seriously checking the circulation of +the feet. + +Reaching the feet, we find in the fashionable shoe an ingenious +torture. What with the narrow soles and the high heels, the foot is +rendered almost helpless, while the ankles are made so weak, that +"turning the ankle" is a common occurrence. + +In this category I have by no means included all the body tortures +in which women indulge; but I have included all that can be properly +spoken of in a work which is designed for general reading. Modesty +forbids the mention of two or three methods of body torture, in +which fashionable women very generally indulge. + + + +STOCKING SUPPORTERS. + +Girls, I do not blame you for wishing to keep your stockings smooth. +Nothing looks more "shif'less" than stockings in wrinkles. How shall +they be kept smooth? The means usually employed, is to apply a +ligature just below the knee. If the calf of the leg be very large, +the knee small, and the circulation of the feet vigorous, I suppose +an elastic garter may be used, to keep the stocking smooth, without +serious injury. But, as most American girls have slender legs, as +there is but little enlargement at the calf, the pressure of the +garter required to keep the stocking in position, is very injurious. +It produces absorption of important muscles, and, therefore, +weakness of the legs; a lack of circulation, and, therefore, +coldness of the feet. The stocking must be drawn up and held. How +shall it be done? + +Let me illustrate. In attaching a horse to a load, we never draw a +strap about its body and attach to that for draft purposes, but we +seek some part of the body where the draft may come at right angles, +or nearly so. That we find at the shoulder, and it is the only part +of the animal upon which, without great harm, a considerable draft +may be made. + +When we wish to support the several pounds of skirts, the stockings, +or any other garment, we look over the woman's body, to determine at +what point such support, or draft, if you please, may be applied. To +apply it about her legs, or about her waist, is precisely the same +mistake that would be made if the draft were attached to the girth +of the harness. There is only one point of support, and that is her +shoulder. + +In another part of this work I have discussed, in detail, the straps +applied to the shoulder in supporting the skirts. + +In this place it is only necessary to say, that a strap should be +fastened to the skirt-band at the side, to run down over the hip, +and on the outside of the leg, above the knee to divide into two +straps, one of which is to be attached to the stocking on the front +of the knee, and the other on the back of the knee. + +Somewhere in the course of the single strap, a buckle may be +introduced to regulate the tension of the support. This sort of +support has been very much used for children's stockings. It has now +been adopted by thousands of women, many of whom have spoken to me +very warmly of its value. + + + +LARGE vs. SMALL WOMEN. + +Petite, applied to a woman, is a very dear word to the fashionables. +Ah, the dear, delicate, petite creature! Ah, my darling, sweet +petite! + +But oh, how dreadful and monstrous such words as--the great +creature!--She's as big as all out doors!--for mercy's sake, look at +that woman! why, she could lift an ox! Among fashionable simpletons +these words are applied to a woman who weighs, say, one hundred and +sixty pounds, who has a fine, noble physique, fully competent to the +labors and trials of motherhood and life. + +By a large woman, I mean one who weighs one hundred and forty to one +hundred and sixty pounds. A small woman is one weighing from ninety +to one hundred and ten pounds. + +The reason for this preference for little women, among men, is +simply this. Formerly, women were slaves to the passions of men. In +modern times they have, among our better classes, risen a little +above that, and have become the pets and toys of men. Now a pet or a +toy, say a black and tan, is valuable in proportion to its +diminutiveness. A man in selecting a wife that he intends to dress +in silks and laces, with trinkets hung in her ears, rings on her +fingers, and little ornaments stuck all over her, who is to sit in +his parlor while he is absent on business, to dress and redress +herself several times a day, to be ready to receive him, all +corseted, besilked, bejeweled and bescented, when he shall come from +his office,--a man who selects a wife as a pet, a toy, is very +likely to have the same sort of preference for a petite wife, that +he has for a petite black and tan. + +This is the source of the preference for little women. + +Whenever women shall rise to a true companionship with men, as their +equals, and not their toys, then a small woman will no more be +preferred than a small man. + +When the great ideas of use, of citizenship, of a true womanhood, of +a dignified motherhood, shall come to prevail over this Turkish +notion of toy women, then women of noble bearing and commanding +presence will be the style; and the little woman will suffer the +same disadvantage, in the matrimonial market, that a little man +does. + +I beg you will not misunderstand me. I am only speaking of the +source of a fashion, a prejudice, a false preference. Some of the +most lovely, delightful women, as well as the most useful women I +have ever met, were small. + +However, I am bound in truth to say that, during many years, I have +been on the qui vive with reference to the differences between the +large and the small, among women, and that I have reached the +conclusion that the average large-sized woman is, like the average +large-sized man, superior intellectually and otherwise, to the +small-sized one. + +Women of commanding height, average, so far as my observation has +been able to determine, a higher morale, a more dignified character, +and greater amiability than the petite ones. I think this statement +is true of both sexes. Little men are more irritable, nervous and +unreliable, as a class, than large ones. + +Some one says, "I don't believe it; it's no such thing; there's that +little Mr. R., who is the brightest, smartest man in town." This is +not at all improbable. + +But what do you think of this fact: At one time in the history of +our great Revolutionary War, about fifteen of the most prominent +actors in that memorable struggle happened to meet at West Point. +They were weighed, and a record made. I have that record. Of the +fifteen, only one weighed less than two hundred pounds. + +A small man weighs one hundred and twenty five pounds. How many men +of that size, or near that size, can you recall, who have figured +among the solid, great men in the world's history? We can recall two +or three brilliant poets, perhaps as many celebrated orators, who +were small men; but when we look among the men who have illustrated +the great, grand, solid, enduring traits of human character, in any +of the important departments of life, we find that, almost without +exception, they are above the average size. + +If women were prized for solidity of character, dignity of bearing, +strength and reliability of judgment and behavior,--if they were +prized as women and citizens, rather than as darlings and toys, +there cannot be a shadow of doubt, that women of good size would be +greatly preferred, as a class, to small ones. + + + +WHY ARE WOMEN SO SMALL? + +American women are becoming the smallest among the civilized +peoples, while the men are among the largest. Our army averaged +larger than the English, French or German. But look at the droves of +school girls, who, at eighteen or twenty years of age, are so small, +that it requires a stretch of the imagination to think of them as +wives or mothers. + +In a neighboring state I was trying to find the house of a friend, +and, meeting a little girl, I said:-- + +"My little girl, will you please tell me where Col. Grant's +residence is?" + +"Yes, my little boy; he resides in the second house on the right +hand, my little boy." + +Now, as the scales always allude to two hundred and odd whenever I +step on, her remark struck me as sarcastic. + +I said at once, lifting my hat, "I hope you will pardon me, I did +not intend any offence." + +"All right," said she, "but I thought you were making fun of me, by +calling me 'little girl.'" + +"I trust you will believe me when I assure you that nothing was +farther from my mind; but you were so small, I supposed you were a +little girl, and so, without thinking, I called you so; it is so +dark I could not see your face." + +"All right, sir; but my husband would have been very angry if he had +heard you call me a little girl." + +Born of the same parents, fed at the same table, educated at the +same school, why, in America, does a man weigh fifty pounds more +than a woman? + +I know a good many young ladies, very active in the matrimonial +market, who do not weigh more than ninety pounds, and, poor little +silly geese, are squeezing themselves as tight as possible with +corsets. + +This petite size can be accounted for. Nothing, to my mind, is +plainer. + +Exercise is the great law of development Our girls have no adequate +exercise. Besides, the organs on which growth depends, viz., the +lungs, stomach and liver, are reduced, by the corset, to half the +natural size and activity. These two causes, with living in the +shade, explain the alarming decrease in the size of the average +American woman. + + + +IDLENESS AMONG GIRLS. + +My friend Mr.---- has three daughters and two sons. The girls are +between eighteen and twenty-eight, one son is thirty-five perhaps, +the other is about fourteen. + +The father keeps a trimmings store. The oldest son is somewhere in +the West, the youngest son has already left school to assist his +father in the store. + +The three girls do nothing whatever but dress, play a little, make +calls, receive calls, and go a shopping, and, I should add, that +during the summer they visit the country, for their health. + +Twice the father has compromised with his creditors, and he told me +a week ago, that sleep, appetite, and hope had all left him, that he +had just borrowed two hundred dollars to enable his girls to go up +into New Hampshire, that he saw nothing but ruin before him, that he +was completely exhausted, that he had recently felt symptoms of +paralysis, and that I must tell him, as a friend, what he could do +to save himself from insanity. + +These ejaculations culminated in his covering his face with his +hands, and bursting into a flood of tears. + +"Why, sir," said he, "I owe everybody. Even that faithful creature +in my kitchen hasn't had twenty dollars in a year." + + + +A FAMILY COUNCIL. + +He went on: "The other day when the girls got ready to go into the +country, we held our first family council. My poor wife, who is all +worn out, couldn't bear to have the girls troubled with it. She +thought it wouldn't do any good, and that we had better keep it to +ourselves. But I said, 'no, for once we will have a fair +understanding.' + +"The girls were to go on Tuesday, so on Monday evening I said to +them, 'now, as you are going away to-morrow, let us spend the +evening, as a family, alone. I want to advise with you.' They were +very good about it; they sent, and broke an engagement with the +Browns, and we all got together in the parlor. I tell you it was +ticklish business, though. The fact is, we never had had a perfectly +frank talk about business with them. + +"Mattie was all curiosity, and began at once: 'What in the world is +it all about? Why, father, what makes you look so awful solemn; and, +dear mamma, why, you're as pale as a ghost.' + +"Well, I saw we were in for it, and so I just let right out. I said, +'Girls, mother and I have talked it over, night after night, and we +have concluded that we ought to tell you about our circumstances. +The fact is, not to be mealy-mouthed about it, we are all on the +brink of ruin. I am head over heels in debt, and can't see any way +of getting out. Your mother and I are nearly worn out; we can't last +much longer. And now, we both feel that we ought to have a plain +talk with you.' + +"Fanny went into regular hysterics. My wife said, 'Don't, father, +don't!' Fanny then began to cry and sob, and declared she shouldn't +sleep a minute all night, she was sure she shouldn't sleep a minute. + +"Mattie declared she had always lived like a beggar, never had a +sixpence to buy anything like other girls, and she wished she had +never, never been born. + +"Angie, who is always good and loving, said she was very sorry for +us. She always was a dear child. She didn't care what the the other +girls said, for her part, she was real sorry for us, and what was +more, she hoped that business would soon be first-rate again, so +that we could all have plenty of money. That child has always been a +real comfort to us. She wished we could have another war, it made +money so plenty. I tell you she is a sharp one. + +"Well, the whole thing ended just about as my wife said it would; it +really didn't do any good, but, you see, I was in hopes the girls +might help us to think of some way of cutting down. Of course I +don't blame them, for, you know, they can't help it. + +"Now, my dear friend, what can you say? I feel as if my hands were +slipping, as if I were letting go of everything. What shall I do? +If you can think of anything, do tell me, for God's sake." + +I replied: "My friend, I comprehend your difficulty; I believe I +understand it in all its bearings, and I am confident I can help you +out. + +"Send for your daughters to come home, at once. When they arrive, +call another family council. Say to them, 'My dear children, I sent +for you for imperative reasons. I am worn out, in debt, wretchedly +unhappy, disgraced.--I can't live in this way any longer. You alone +can save me. I ask you to abandon, at once, the life you are +leading, and help your mother and myself to bear these burdens. I +ask you to go with me to-morrow morning to the store, let me +discharge both of the clerks, and you become my clerks. My +daughters, if you will do this, we shall all be independent and +happy. Believe me when I tell you, that these tortures are killing +me. While you are all asleep in your beds, your mother and I are +grieving and often weeping over the impending ruin. My children, +will you save us? Your large acquaintance, your education, your +manners, your devotion to our interests, will turn the current in +the right direction.' + +"Possibly," I said, "they may hesitate; but I don't believe it. In +any event, it is the right thing to do. If it should turn out that +they draw back, then stand up like an honest, christian man, and +declare, 'I will not live another day such a life of fraud; I will +not ask the jobbers to trust me with another penny's worth; I will +no longer obtain goods under false pretences. If worse comes to +worst, you, my daughters, must do what thousands of young women have +done before you,--go out into the world and earn your own bread.' + +"My friend, I have given you the plan, act at once. Your girls will +join you with a whole heart, and, within a year, they will be ten- +fold more happy, and you can live an honest, manly life." + + + +HOW IT TERMINATED. + +Of course you all wish to know how it came out. The reason for my +telling you this story, is, that I was made very happy yesterday, on +dropping in at my friend's store, to see, that he had three new +clerks, and, after a warn hand-shaking, I congratulated them, from +the bottom of my heart, on having gone into business. At this moment +the father called me to the rear of the store, where he wished to +consult me about a new window; but all he had to say, was, that I +must not drop a word of my acquaintance with the history of certain +changes. + +"All right, my good friend;" but the caution was quite unnecessary. +Of course the public must understand that it was of their own brave +hearts, that they have gone into this thing. + +The father dropped in last evening to tell me all about it. He wrung +my hand, laughed, cried, and, in fact, almost went into some of +Fanny's hysterics. + +"Oh!" said he, "it's all right. I can see the light. And you don't +know how happy we all are. The girls spend their time in singing +about the house, and asking my forgiveness. It seems to me that we +never knew each other before. Oh! I can see the light now, I can see +the light! Give me one year, and I can shout victory! + +"But you ought to have been concealed where you could have overheard +our council. It lasted till near morning, and the first half of it +was stormy enough. Fanny declared she would die first. Mattie said +she would put on an old dress, and go round begging cold victuals. +Angie proposed that they should go into the attic, and give their +rooms up to boarders, and have it understood that they had just +taken a few friends for company. But, before we retired, we were all +of one mind; we all saw that everything but the store was likely to +prove a weak, temporary dodge. + +"It is just as you told me,--that their life of indolence and +selfish indulgence had brought every mean trait to the surface; but +that when the depths were stirred I should find they were true +women. Yes, thank God, they are true women, as brave girls as ever +lived. I can't tell you how happy we all are. They kissed us on +coming to the breakfast table this morning for the first time in +their lives. We are entering a new life. They already begin to +wonder how they could have lived such a life of idleness and good- +for-nothingness. + +I can't thank you enough. When the girls are quite settled in their +new life, I will tell them all about it, and they will invite you +down to spend an evening, and then they will thank you themselves." + +"Save yourself that trouble," I replied. "The fact is, the idea is +not original with me; half the men in town feel just as I do about +this fashionable idleness among fashionable women. In thousands of +families it involves a system of studied, mean pretence, fraud, and +final ruin. + +"Besides, we all see that, under its baneful influence, women sadly +deteriorate. + +"Without a regular occupation, no person, male or female, can +preserve a sound mind in a sound body." + + + +IDLENESS IS FASHIONABLE. + +Nothing, perhaps, is more fashionable than idleness. We all agree, in +theory, at least, that the meaning of life is found in that little +word--use; that the happiness of life is found in--work; that to be +idle is to be miserable. + +Here, however, we must make a distinction. This law is supposed to +apply only to men. Men must have an occupation. If a man is without +one, we at once begin to suspect he must have some evil designs upon +society. The law adds to the punishment, if the culprit has "no +visible means of support." That alone is a strong fact against him. + +Not only the law, but public sentiment demands that every man shall +do something. + +"He is an idler," disgraces a man almost beyond any other statement. + +Now let us turn to the other side of the house. In America we have a +million young women without the slightest pretence of occupation. +They spend a portion of their time in visiting. Miss Blanche goes to +New York, in the winter, to spend three months with her very dear +friend, Miss Nellie, who, in turn, comes to spend three months with +Miss Blanche in the summer. This sort of exchange has become an +immense system. Blanche and Nellie, with this arrangement, work off +six months of the year, and, adding one or two other little affairs +of a similar kind, they fill up the residue of the time with the +dressmaker, piano practice, the theatre, working sickly-looking pink +dogs in worsted, lying late in the morning, dressing three times a +day, and reading a few novels. A million young women of the better +(?) classes, in America, are training themselves for the future by +these methods. + +A single year of such life would half ruin a young man. His mind +would become unsteady, his will weak and vacillating, his body soft +and delicate. Add a "glove-fitting corset" to his wardrobe, and in a +few years he would be utterly unfit for husband, father or citizen. + +Can any one give us a physiological or metaphysical reason why girls +should not suffer the same deterioration? Would you like direct +proof that they do? Listen to the conversation of young women,-- +educated young ladies!--Beaux, bows, engagements, lovely, Charley, +bonnets, Gus, parties, splendid fellow, ribbons, trails, engaged, +etc., etc., till midnight. + +Watch them as they walk past this window. Does that look like the +earnest pursuit of any object in life? If so, they certainly won't +catch it. Look at their bare arms,--candle-dips, No. 8. + +No "right" of women is so precious, so vital to their welfare, +present and future, as the right to work. + +Even if a girl had no other object in life than to get a husband, no +investment would pay like an occupation. It would give her +independence and dignity. Margaret Fuller says:-- + +"That the hand may be given with dignity, she must be able to stand +alone." + +Nothing disgusts young men like the undisguised eagerness with which +their advances are met. Is a young man a "catch?" send him to +Saratoga and watch a few days. The girls do not get down on their +knees at his feet, and implore him to take pity on them and marry +them, but they do everything else that can be conceived of. + +In order that women may marry generally, and without sacrificing +themselves, that their hearts may determine their choice; to the end +that marriage may be true marriage, and not a contract for board, +women must not be compelled to choose between marriage and +starvation. + +Of course you will say that men despise working-women, that they +pass them by on the other side, and seek ladies; by which you mean +such girls as have no regular occupation. For a consideration of +this point, the reader is referred to the article, "A Short Sermon +about Matrimony." + + + +WORK IS FOR THE POOR. + +We all know that happiness comes of occupation; and the work must +not be irregular and occasional, and such as we have to look up for +exercise, but it must be regular; and, to produce the best results, +it must not be optional, but imperative. + +What an ingenious device of the spirit of caste to represent that +work is a badge of the low class. How he cheats the possessors of +wealth out of all happiness by this mean lie. + +A man, or, if you please, a woman, comes into possession of wealth. +With this there come the picture gallery, the beautiful grounds, the +perfect house,--everything to gratify her taste, every external +good; but caste whispers in her ear, that rich people must not +work,--work is a badge of poverty. + +Caught with this trick, she soon has no palate for the delicious +fruits, no eye for beauty, no relish for the thousand sweet and +beautiful things which cluster about her; and, ere long, she would +fain change places with the jolly Irishwoman who sweats over her +wash-tub. + + + +WORK FOR RICH GIRLS. + +You understand all this, and you want to work; but the difficulty is +to find something to do. Housekeeping, with its thousand and one +duties, offers a useful and pleasant field; but I will suppose that +you have already been too much in the house, and greatly need to go +out into the air and sunshine. + +Now, dear girls, let me suggest something for you, something you +will like, and in which you will be, after a little, very happy. Go +to bed to-night early, say at half-past eight o'clock, and rise to- +morrow morning at six o'clock. I will suppose that you reside in a +large town, or a city. Go at once to the suburbs, and you will find +the abodes of poverty. March boldly up to one of them, and say:--- + +"Good morning; how de do, folkses? Thought I'd just come out and see +how the the morning air tasted!" + +If you are in right down earnest, it won't take you five minutes to +establish yourself in the confidence of Bridget O'Flaherty. And if +your voice and manner are of just the right sort, there will follow +such a wondrous disclosure of family secrets! You will be told all +about Michael's stone-bruise, and Patrick's sore toe; probably the +boys will be hauled out of bed to show you. But I must leave the +secrets to your imagination, or, what is better, to an actual trial. + +You find that the mother herself needs a new dress that she may +attend mass, and you make a note of it. The little girl needs a +dress, and a pair of shoes. The next morning you carry a bundle with +your own hands, and leave it with the promise that you will come +again in a few days. + +Put together all the soft, polite things that your fashionable +friends have ever said of you, and as the zephyr to the tornado, so +would they all be compared to the gratitude, the admiration, the +"God bless her," the "dear swate angel," the very worship which that +household would pour out upon you during the few days before the +next visit; and when you do go again, the shanty has been thoroughly +cleaned and white-washed, the children's feet have been soaked and +scrubbed, so that the actual skin has been brought into view; and +everything has become wonderfully smart. Tell them of the heart +pleasure which all this change gives you, and then speak warmly of +the great advantage of such cleanliness, of ventilation, and of such +other matters as you see they are ignorant of. + +And now you mustn't blame them for casting surreptitious glances at +your covered basket; they can't help it, poor things. They try not +to look that way, but their imaginations are very busy with the +contents of that basket. At length you open it, and taking out a +bowl, you say:-- + +"Mrs. O'Flaherty, I am really troubled about Katie's being so thin. +Here is some Scotch oat-meal, and if you will try her with some oat- +meal porridge, I am sure it will do her good. If you think, after a +little, that it's doing her good, I will bring you more of it. + +But oh, how the youngsters long to see what else there is in that +basket. After a moment, you put your hand in, and begin to take out +things. + +"Now, Mrs. O'Flaherty, you won't blame me, will you? I just brought +down a few little things; they are of no great value, but I thought +you might as well use them, as to have them lie idle. Here are a few +pairs of woolen stockings which I have mended all nicely for you. +And here is a lot of collars and handkerchiefs which, perhaps, you +may make some use of; if so, I am sure you are welcome to them." + +"And now, Katie, I have brought a picture for you. I saw it in a +shop window yesterday, and thought you might like it. There, do you +know what that is?" + +"Why, yes mum; that's a picture of the Blessed Virgin! Be's you a +Catholic, mum?" + +"No, Katie, I am not a Catholic; but I can't see any harm in a +picture of the dear Mother of Christ." + +"Oh, I thank you mum, I thank you with all my heart." + +"And now, Katie, can't you get a frame for this?" + +"Oh yes, mum, I can get a frame; I will get a frame in some way." + +When you go again, a week later, what a flutter in the neighborhood! +Eyes, eyes everywhere. All the neighboring shanties are alive to see +that "blessed, swate angel." + +As you approach the O'Flaherty's, they are all out, looking +wondrously smart, and the old man, for the first time, is without +his pipe. Your remark about tobacco seems to be working. Katie is +the first to reach you, and she holds up in her hands the picture, +in a nice little gilt frame. + +But how can I describe your reception? Talk of Jenny Lind at Castle +Garden,--that was a fashionable splurge. Talk of the reception of a +returning congressman,--that gives the Mayor and Aldermen a chance +to ride in barouches, make speeches, and dine at the expense of the +corporation. Your reception in Michael O'Flaherty's yard is more +hearty, grateful and earnest, than any of the fashionable welcomes. +It comes from their very hearts, and would be just as warm if they +knew you had come to bid them a final farewell. + +Suppose some rich old curmudgeon had given them a few dollars, with +which they had purchased the things you have given them. Would they +rush out to welcome him? would they clean up the cabin? would the +children's eyes sparkle with gratitude and love? No, oh no! It is +not the mended stockings, the bowl of oat-meal, or the picture which +has so touched them, but it is the gentle, loving spirit in which +you have visited them. The poor and lowly are strangely and +wonderfully susceptible to such treatment. + +A bright woman, residing in a small city in the state of New York, +who was a true follower of Christ, for, like him, she went about +doing good, happened to go into an Irish neighborhood where the +measles were raging, during October. She showed herself an angel of +mercy, though her health was so delicate that she could do nothing +more than to ride over in her carriage, and distribute gruel, soup, +and good counsel. + +After the election in November, it came to be known that about +fifteen Irish voters, from the neighborhood where Mrs. M---- had acted +the good Samaritan, had put in Republican votes, whereat the +Democratic managers of the ward were exceeding wroth. The +delinquents were visited and labored with. + +"What made you go and vote for that--nigger candidate?" + +At first they refused to divulge. But, at length, it came out that +the candidate's wife, Mrs. M--, had helped their families through +the measles. And although their Mrs. M----- was not, in fact, the wife +of the candidate, was not even acquainted with him, it was enough +for those grateful Irishmen that the name was the same. + + + +A TRUE LOVE STORY. + +For years I have advised idle young ladies, who were longing for +something to do, to look up poor, unhappy families, and minister to +their hungry bodies and hungry hearts. I could give you a great many +interesting cases, but one is such a pleasant little love story, I +must tell it to you. With the exception of the names, the story is a +true one. + +Twenty years ago I was practising my profession in a western city. +Among my patients was a Miss Dinsmore, a lady of nearly thirty +years. Her case was what she called the dumps. I thought it +indigestion and general debility. After two weeks, she began to ride +out again, and seemed to be doing well enough, when one day she +astonished me by exclaiming, "Oh! I wish I was dead!" After some +hesitation, she told me that she was perfectly disgusted with life, +etc., etc. + +I advised her to go out a mile on Marble Street and look up a poor +widow woman, a patient of mine, and see if she could not do +something to make her comfortable. She couldn't think of it; she had +troubles enough of her own; but, after a little urging, she +consented to ride that way in the morning, and see if she could do +anything. Before the next noon she was at my office with a most +pitiful story about "that poor sufferer." I rode out with her at +once, and found that Mrs. Ramsey needed some beef-soup and some +flannels. Miss Dinsmore volunteered to bring them within an hour. My +poor Mrs. Ramsey had pretty good times after that. + +I soon had about ten poor patients in Miss Dinsmore's hands. Her +sympathy and devotion were often more curative than my doctor- +stuffs. At length, she gave me carte blanche to send any poor, sick +ones, who needed help; and, from having been a slave to a round of +fashionable dissipations, she soon became the most devoted friend of +the sick and suffering. To those who have studied the causes of bad +health among the devotees of fashion, I need not say that Miss +Dinsmore soon became healthy and very happy. + +Charles Finlay, a young man of twenty-five years, came to our city, +from Philadelphia, to establish a large manufacturing business. He +was immediately successful, and quickly won his way to the +confidence of our business men. Possessed of noble person, fine +culture, and singularly sweet manners, he was soon regarded as the +greatest "catch" in town, and innumerable caps were accordingly set +for him. + +While trying an agricultural machine, one of his hands was seriously +hurt, and he sent for me. It was my first personal acquaintance with +him, though I had long known him by reputation. After amputating one +finger, I contrived to save the residue of his hand. Our daily +intercourse continued for several weeks, and we became very good +friends. Among other subjects, we discussed matrimony. + +I said, one evening, "Finlay, why don't you get a wife?" + +"Well, my friend," said he, "that's a long story. I will tell you +all about that, sometime." + +At my next visit he said:-- + +"Doctor, speaking of matrimony, did you know that I had purchased +the Temple estate on Bernard Street?" + +"No; and then you have concluded to establish a home of your own. +And who is the happy woman? for most sincerely I do regard her as +happy in such an union." + +"Ah, my friend, you are getting on too fast. I have no definite +purpose in regard to matrimony. Mrs. Oliver, on hearing that I had +purchased a house, sought me out directly, and exclaimed, 'Now you +have a cage, of course you must have a bird to put into it.' I +wonder if she thinks me silly enough to marry one of her daughters? +Why, I should infinitely prefer one of those show-figures in the +shop windows. They look full as well, have about as much heart, and +then they won't get sick. I don't want a bird for my cage. That's +just what fashionable wives are,--pretty birds, kept in beautiful +cages. I don't want, and I won't have anything of the kind. What I +want is a true wife, a real, substantial woman, a companion, an +adviser, a friend, one whose voice is not a mere echo of mine, but +who has a distinct individuality, with judgment, opinions and will +of her own. Of course I know that most fashionable ladies are better +than they seem, that this contemptible disguise which they wear,-- +this falsehood which they repeat in the hair, the skin, the shape +and form of each and every part of the body, is not deliberate +falsehood, but the result of a thoughtless compliance with fashion; +but it is very difficult for me to separate the woman from the lie. +And then their voices! how utterly affected! no matter what the +natural voice may be, every one learns exactly the same ridiculous +intonation." + +Here I interrupted him with:-- + +"Hold on, my friend, hold on! I really can't stand this any longer. +You greatly underrate fashionable ladies. They seem to you silly, +false and unworthy; but many of them are not a hundredth part as +false and silly as their dress and conversation. Many of these +ladies who now seem so preposterous and absurd, will, when married, +and fairly settled down, cast off this burlesque, and become sober, +solid women." + +"But, as they all dress and talk exactly alike, how am I to tell +which is which and who is who?" + +"Well, well, I must leave you; I have an engagement." + +On my rounds I kept thinking what a perfect couple Miss Dinsmore and +Mr. Finlay would make! I determined, without saying a word to +either, to give them an opportunity to see each other. Fortunately +for my plan, Miss Dinsmore had just begun to make her rounds early +in the morning, and on foot. I advised Mr. Finlay to take an early +ride, and that he might have company, I invited him to go with me in +my early morning round. I took him through Miss Dinsmore's parish, +and, as I had calculated, we met her with a basket on her arm. I +drew up to make some inquiries about several poor and sick ones, for +whom we were both interested. Just before we started on, I said, +"Mr. Finlay, this is my friend, Miss Dinsmore." Five mornings in +succession we rode in the same direction, and every morning but one +we met Miss Dinsmore. I was pleased to notice that, as we approached +one particular neighborhood, my friend became a little wandering in +his conversation, and used his eyes with a marked earnestness. + +It struck me as very curious that, although Finlay protracted the +conversation more and more each morning on meeting Miss Dinsmore, +making many inquiries about her proteges, and showing a singular +interest in her work, he did not allude to her during the subsequent +part of the ride, nor at any other time. + +After a week or so, he said, when I called for him, that he was +getting so well, he thought it his duty to attend to business. The +very next day, when calling upon the poor widow, to whom I had first +sent Miss Dinsmore, she asked, as I was about to leave,-- + +"Doctor, who was that gentleman that came here with Miss Swan +yesterday? He seemed a very nice man." (I will here state that, to +save the feelings of her fashionable friends, Miss Dinsmore +introduced herself as Miss Swan to all her beneficiaries.) + +"What kind of a looking man was he?" I asked. + +"A large, tall man, with a black beard, and he carried his right +hand in a sling. He carried Miss Swan's basket in his other hand." + +"Well," I said, "I suppose it's some friend of hers." + +"Oh!" exclaimed the poor widow, "I trembled for fear that it might +be some one who was going to marry her, and take her away from me. +If that dear, blessed angel should be taken away from me, I am sure +I should die." + +"Never you fear; I think I know all about him." + +So, so, Mr. Charles Finlay, Esq., you are knocking all my plans into +"pi." I had got it fixed in my mind that I should invite you to +spend an evening at my house, and then I would invite Miss Dinsmore +to drop in on some pretence, and so on, and so on, and in less than +half a year, I should have you head over ears in love, and then all +your lives you would think of me as the occasion of all your +happiness; and here you are, just off a sick bed, with only one +hand, carrying round a big provision basket before breakfast, at +Miss Dinsmore's very heels. So, so, Mr. Charles Finlay, Esq. + +Little Charley Finlay, during an attack of scarlatina, had a +convulsion. The fond parents urged me, as a special favor, to remain +during the night with them. As there was nothing to do but to wait +while the little one slept, we fell into a pleasant talk about old +times; and then I told them the part which I had played in their +first acquaintance, and the hearty laughs I had had over that tall, +black-whiskered porter, with one arm in a sling, following a quiet +lady, with a basket of provisions. And, although they had been so +very quiet about it all, and, although said porter had followed said +quiet lady about among the hovels every day for two or three months, +and, although both lady and porter saw me frequently, and always +kept profoundly mum about things, that I presumed I had heard all +about their doings and sayings among their parishoners, almost every +day, from the time I took the porter in my carriage down Marble +Street, one fine morning, on purpose to get him a situation, up to +the time when said black-whiskered porter came into my office one +evening, and revealed unto me as follows-- + +"My friend, do you remember that Miss Dinsmore, to whom you +introduced me one morning, down in the mud in Marble Street?" + +"Let me see; was she a tall blonde?" + +"Yes, that's the one." + +"Oh, certainly, I remember her very well. Where is she now, I +wonder? (I had had an interview with her that very afternoon.) + +And then the tall porter told me, with glistening eyes, that I would +receive, the very next day, an invitation card or cards inviting me +to attend, etc., etc. He was delighted at my surprise and +astonishment. + +Notwithstanding the occasion of our long night-watch, the mother +declared she would, as soon as Charley was well, box my ears, while +she did not forget, the next time she had occasion to rise to attend +to our little patient, to take a seat by the side of her noble +husband, and assure him, by a fond pressure of the hand, that the +memories were all very precious to her. + +Moral. Young women who desire the company and assistance of black- +whiskered porters, should go down Marble Street early in the +morning, with a basket of provisions for the widow Ramsey. + + + +EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN. + +In the "Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work,", by Virginia Penny, I find +invaluable suggestions. + +There are a great many occupations at present pursued exclusively by +men, which offer no considerable difficulties to women. Miss Penny +mentions more than five hundred employments in which there are no +insurmountable difficulties to women, but which are pursued almost +exclusively by men. I will mention some of these, without pursuing +the order which Miss Penny has chosen, or using her language. But it +must not be forgotten, that to this indefatigable woman I am +indebted for many of the hints given under this head. + + + +AMANUENSES. + +The phonographic amanuensis has become an absolute necessity to +literary men, and to business men of large correspondence. The art +of phonography is not a difficult one to learn; a moderate degree of +rapidity is easily acquired, and first-class rapidity is not beyond +the reach of many persons. I have conversed with professional +phonographers, and the general impression is, that women are +particularly well adapted to the art of phonography. The +compensation, turning, of course, upon the rapidity, would range +from five hundred to ten hundred dollars a year. The hours would not +be long. The occupation is, in many respect, a happy one for women. + + + +BANK CLERKS. + +The clerk services of a bank may be performed by women. Their +writing is as neat, their reckoning as reliable, their devotion to +business as certain, while they would not be tempted, by gambling, +fast horses, and other expensive forms of dissipation, to steal. It +is quite clear that vast sums of money would be saved to banks by +the employment of women as clerks. Cases of defalcation would, under +their hands, become exceedingly rare. + + + +BROKERS. + +Already we have firms of female brokers. This is wise and right. +Broker's establishments, whether conducted by men or women, must +have many clerks. What has been said about the employment of female +clerks in banks, is applicable to the establishments of brokers. + + + +COPYISTS. + +Already thousands of women are employed as copyists. Several hundred +find opportunity in Washington alone, and some of them receive +twelve hundred dollars a year. A great many lawyers in our cities +employ women as copyists. Indeed, in the thousand and one +institutions and business houses, lawyer's offices, and so on, women +are already employed as copyists. The occupation is a good one, well +adapted to women, and will engage a constantly increasing number. + + + +DENTISTS. + +Nothing has surprised me more, than that women have not engaged in +the profession of dentistry. Her gentle touch, the size and +flexibility of her fingers, her quick sympathies, her instinctive +sense of proportion and beauty, and her conscientiousness present, +altogether, singular qualifications for the dental profession. +Dentistry is a lucrative business, and the doors are wide open to +women. + + + +LAWYERS. + +Theodore Parker said: "As yet, I believe, no woman acts as a lawyer +but I see no reason why the profession of law might not be followed +by women as well as men. He must be rather an uncommon lawyer who +thinks that no feminine head could compete with him. Most lawyers +that I have known are rather mechanics at law, than attorneys or +scholars at law, and, in the mechanical part, woman could do as well +as man,--could be as good a conveyancer, could follow precedents as +carefully, and copy forms as nicely. I think her presence would mend +the manners of the court, of the bench not less than of the bar." + +Christina Pisani wrote a work, which was published in Paris in 1498. +It gives an account of the learned and famous Novella, the daughter +of a professor of law in the university of Bologna. She devoted +herself to the same studies, and was distinguished for her +scholarship. She conducted her father's cases, and, having as much +beauty as learning, was wont to appear in court, veiled. At twenty +six she took the degree of LL.D., and began publicly to expound the +laws of Justinian. At thirty she was elevated to a professor's +chair, and taught the law to a crowd of scholars from all nations. +Others of her sex have since filled professor's chairs in Bologna. + +I have seen a good deal of lawyers, and I am free to express the +opinion that women would inevitably cleanse and elevate that +profession. As a very large portion of legal business consists in +writing out deeds, mortgages, wills, indentures, and other kindred +documents, no one will doubt that, at least in these departments, +women would prove successful. And after listening, from time to +time, during the last twenty years, to female lecturers, especially +in connection with the reforms in laws advocated by the "woman's +rights" women, I cannot doubt that they would make successful +advocates at the bar. I should not urge young women to prepare +themselves for the legal profession, as I think it would be better +to leave the question of propriety to their keen instincts; but if +they decide to enter that profession, I shall, if possible, be there +to hear their first speech at the bar. + + + +LECTURERS. + +It seems unnecessary to comment on the fitness of woman for the +platform. She has exhibited a singular adaptation to this, the most +public of all possible lives, and knowing, as I do, personally, most +of the female lecturers in the country, I would add, that the +platform has not demoralized them. The leading female lecturers in +America are among the most womanly women whom I have the honor to +know. The field is immense, and would welcome many additions. + +Lectures upon health to women, by women, are very useful, and have +almost uniformly proved a success, pecuniarily and otherwise. I +should be rejoiced to see many hundreds added to the corps of woman +lecturers upon woman's health. It is a profession for which there +are now abundant opportunities to prepare. + + + +LIBRARIANS. + +A very large part of the work and remuneration incidental to the +management of libraries is in the hands of women. But many places +are still occupied by men, who might be spared for more muscular +forms of labor. + + + +PHYSICIANS. + +If I had been writing this work twenty years ago, it would have been +necessary to argue the fitness and propriety of women doctors. +Happily, such an argument is now unnecessary. All but such as live +in darkness welcome women to the medical profession. Already they +have become professors in medical colleges in this country, as they +were for many hundred years in Europe. + +Whether a woman has nerve enough to perform a grave surgical +operation, I do not care to inquire. + +No thoughtful man who has watched her in the character of nurse, +even when she is uneducated, will entertain a doubt about her happy +qualifications for the management of the sick. + +The most important responsibilities of a physician have reference to +ventilation, cleanliness, bathing, feeding,--in brief, to nursing; +and no one but a stupid, obstinate man would suggest her inferiority +for such services. + +I have no doubt that, finally, the medical profession will fall +almost exclusively into the hands of women, as its most important +part, nursing, already has. + +A very large part of our medical business grows out of the diseases +of women, as such, and I shall not insult my readers by gravely +considering the question whether men or women should examine, +manipulate, and treat such affections. When I hear men protesting +that women cannot understand and manage these affections, I declare, +some very ugly suspicions occur to me. Women and children are the +sick ones. Very few men have occasion to seek the doctor. + +If those who read these words understood as I do, how little brain +is used in the selection of drugs, how simple a routine is followed +by the doctor in selecting his medicines from day to day,--if those +who read this, knew as I do, how infinitely more important and +difficult are the duties devolving upon the nurse, who stands by, +and watches day and night, from moment to moment, the changes in the +condition of the patient, and who, without having been trained to +the profession, is entrusted with the responsibility of determining, +throughout all those trying hours, exactly what is to be done upon +the occurrence of this or that change; if those who read this, +understood, as I do, about these things, they would smile when asked +to consider the propriety or possibility of educating women for the +medical profession, so that, in addition to performing all the most +important services, they should be entrusted with the selection of +the drugs, if drugs must be given. + + + +PREACHERS. + +Female preachers have appeared among the most enlightened peoples, +and have risen to distinction and influence. In America, among the +Quakers, women have illustrated the finest pulpit oratory. + +It has always seemed to me that women were especially adapted to the +pulpit. Their natural eloquence, their sweet persuasive voices, +their characteristic unselfishness, purity and piety constitute +their unanswerable claim to a place in the pulpit. + +It is strange, how rapidly the prejudices of men against women +lecturers and women preachers have disappeared. These prejudices lie +on the surface; they do not rest upon organic instinct. So +completely has this prejudice disappeared from Boston, that a woman +is heard by many because she is a woman. If to-day one of our +churches should invite to its pulpit a woman of good capacity, of +fine pulpit manners, of a noble, sweet spirit, and of fine +personnel, its very aisles would be crowded. I should much prefer to +go there. + +A few hundred educated women would find employment, and good +compensation, in New England pulpits. + + + +PROOF-READING. + +This has become a distinct profession, and employs a great number of +persons. It is a profession to which women are perfectly adapted, +and in which a very considerable number could at once find +remunerative occupation. + + + +PUBLISHERS. + +I know of no good reason why women should not become publishers. Of +course they can do the work of a publishing house,--I mean the +correspondence, book-keeping, counting, making-up orders, and +packing books. But I know of no good reason why they should not +conduct the business, and receive the profits. Many authors, myself +among the number, would be especially gratified to have our works +placed before the public by women, because, when trained to +business, they have shown a singular exactness and honor; and, +secondly, because it would give assurance to the world that the new +book was fit to be read. + + + +TEACHERS. + +It seems unnecessary even to allude to the propriety of teaching as +a profession for women. It is, however, a modern notion. + +At present, in New England, an immense majority of the teachers are +women. + +I have had a good deal to do with schools during the last twenty- +five years. I was a member of the Boston School Board for some time, +was at the head of the Seminary at Lexington during four years, an +have always been interested in the question of woman as a teacher. + +I have interrogated, perhaps a hundred school committee men, in +different parts of the country. Their testimony, and my own, after +all this observation, is, that woman is a better teacher than man. I +think this is true even in the department of mathematics. I am sure +it is true in all those studies, in the teaching of which, the +social, moral or religious element is brought into play. + +The proportion of female teachers in American schools is very +rapidly increasing, and it is noteworthy that they are constantly +rising into schools of a higher grade. + +The state authorities in Massachusetts have recently placed a woman +at the head of one of our principal Normal schools. It is safe to +prophesy that, within fifty years, teaching, in the common schools, +High schools, and in the Normal schools, will be almost exclusively +in the hands of women. I think, within that time, a considerable +proportion of the professors in our colleges will be women. Already +several are doing themselves, and their sex, great honor, as +professors in colleges. + +The only dark spot in this bright picture is, that women are starved +while performing this valuable labor. + +I know a beautiful, bright young woman, in this city, who is +regarded as one of the best teachers in the city, who presides in +one of the most beautiful rooms in one of the grandest buildings in +Boston, but who, when out of the school palace, is obliged to crawl +away with her mother into a dingy, miserable garret, where they +spend their time in contriving how to make their pennies last +through the year. + +The schools known as Kindergarten have already become quite +numerous. They will rapidly multiply. Within a few years, children +three years old will be sent to these beautiful Kindergarten +schools, where, in each others society, and under the management of +bright, cheery, loving teachers, they will engage in a great variety +of pleasant games and infantile studies. + +The physical exercises which constitute a prominent feature of these +baby schools, are very fascinating and profitable to these little +ones. + +In these schools children of from three to five years of age will +not only be brighter and happier, but they will be much healthier, +than when left to the chances of the average home, without system, +times or seasons. + +It need hardly be said that such schools will fall into the hands of +women, and will, within a quarter of a century, employ a great +number of them. The hours will be short, the occupation perfectly +adapted to the finest girls, and, as these little ones are objects +of the tenderest love, the compensation for such persons as can +successfully manage them, will always be large. + +Lord Brougham gave it as his opinion, that a child learns more +during the first eighteen months of its life, than at any other +period, and that it settles, in fact, at this early age, its mental +capacity, and future well-being. + + + +TEACHERS OF GYMNASTICS AND DANCING. + +Here is a field, at once healthful, respectable and immense. In this +field women have already displayed a remarkable capacity, and I have +no doubt, as in the progress of civilization special physical +training and amusements come to occupy a larger place in our life, +that women will find in this service employment for a large number +of the intelligent and ambitious. + +I have known young women, neither beautiful nor educated, but with +devotion to their duties, to earn more than a thousand dollars a +year, in teaching gymnastics. Instructions in dancing have long been +given by ladies. So far as I have learned, they have been quite +successful. + + + +TEACHERS IN DRAWING AND PAINTING. + +The instruction of girls in drawing and painting has now so +generally fallen into the hands of female teachers that one need +hardly speak of it further than to say that it is an employment +entirely fit and proper for women, and one which usually affords a +generous remuneration. + + + +WATCHES. + +Let us speak first of watch-cleaning. What are the qualifications of +a good watch-cleaner? Nimble, sensitive fingers, neatness, and +carefulness. + +Now put your finger there, and let me show you a watch-cleaner. He +works in a window only two squares from my Boston residence. He +weighs about two hundred and twenty pounds, and has a fist big +enough to knock down an ox. The whole thing looked so comical to me, +I thought one day I would go in and plague him a little. So, after a +little chat about watches in general, I said:-- + +"By the way, it has occurred to me that women might work at watch- +cleaning. + +"Women," said he, "why, they couldn't clean watches. They haven't +the skill, they haven't the mechanical genius for it, sir. I don't +go in for none of your 'woman's rights,' sir; I think women should +attend to their own business." + +"And, pray, what do you regard as their business?" + +"Why, staying at home in their own sphere, and attending to their +domestic concerns; taking care of their children, and keeping their +husband's clothes mended." + +I saw at once that the case was altogether too deep for me, and so I +simply remarked:-- + +"Yes, to be sure, of course; and is it not strange, that they should +not be willing to stay at home, and rock their babies, especially +the seventy thousand in the state of Massachusetts who can never +expect to have husbands?" + +Cleaning watches is a business that should at once pass into the +hands of women. The opinion that they have not the requisite +mechanical capacity to take a watch to pieces and put it together +again, is the opinion of a goose. They can do the work quicker and +better than men. It is an employment that naturally belongs to them. + +In the watch-making establishment at Waltham, several hundred +bright, intelligent young women find employment and good pay. + +"There is a manufactory in England, where five hundred women are +employed in making the interior chains for chronometers. They are +preferred to men on account of their being naturally more dexterous +with their fingers, and, therefore, being found to require less +training." + +It may be said, in one word, that, taking the world together, there +are many, many thousand women employed in manufacturing watches. +They do every part of the work, except what is called finishing, or +putting the pieces together, and in several establishments they do +even this, and finish the very best class of chronometer watches. + +The making of watch chains is a business adapted to the delicate +fingers, and to the patience of women. Accordingly thousands are +occupied in this specialty. + + + +PENS. + +The manufacturing of pens is an employment in which women can excel. +It requires patience and quick movements of the fingers. A certain +part of the manufacturing of gold pens, it has been objected, would +be too dirty for women. + +By the way, this very objection is made with reference to a great +many employments. It is said, they are too dirty for women. Now, +really, is not this a good joke? Why, there is not a dirty task in +house-keeping,--and I certainly know of no occupation in which there +are so many dirty tasks,--which is not done by women. If there is a +dirty thing which men would not touch with the ends of their +fingers, it is sure to be left to girls. + +The making of gold and steel pens should fall into the hands of +women. The making of gold pens is a profitable occupation, and, as +at present tending, bids fair, when women are fairly introduced, to +offer occupation for a great number of them. + + + +AQUARIA MAKERS. + +"One of the most innocent and pleasant amusements that has attracted +attention for some time, is the making of aquaria. The cases are +formed of plate glass, square, oblong, circular, or any other shape +to please the fancy of the owner. The glass is tightly sealed when +joined. The aquaria are of two kinds. One is formed of salt water, +and contains marine plants and animals; the other contains fresh +water, and such plants and animals as are found in rivers and +smaller streams. + +They form a beautiful addition to the garden, the conservatory, or +the drawing-room. Rocks form the foundation, and the soil on them +furnishes subsistence to the plants. Zoophytes, mollusca, and fish, +constitute the inhabitants of the aquarium. Insects also find a +place in this miniature ocean or river garden. The size for parlors +is from one foot to three feet in length." + +This is an occupation happily adapted to the graceful, elegant +tastes of cultured women. + + + +ARCHITECTS. + +"Propersia di Rossi, born in Bologna in 1490, furnished some +admirable plans in architecture. + +"Madame Steenwyck and Esther Juvenal, of Nuremberg, are mentioned as +eminent designers. + +"In the 17th century, Plantilla Brizio, of Rome, was a practical +architect, and left monuments of her excellence. + +"The wife of Erwin Steinbach materially assisted her husband in the +erection of the famous Strasburg Cathedral, and within its walls a +sculptured stone represents the husband and wife as consulting +together on the plan." + +The ordinary course of training given, as a basis, and I have no +doubt that women will submit, in response to public invitations, as +handsome designs for public and private buildings, as men. + + + +ENGRAVERS. + +In the course of my experience as an author, I have had occasion to +procure eight hundred engravings on wood. I never see men at work +upon them, without thinking what a perfect employment this would be +for women. It is not a difficult business to learn, but requires +mostly a quick sense of touch, keen vision, with a patient, careful +manipulation of the fingers. A very large part of the wood engraving +should be performed by women. + +What I have said of wood engraving is, perhaps, not less true of +copper and steel engraving. + + + +PHOTOGRAPHERS. + +Photography now employs many thousands in the country, and there is +no part of the business which may not be as successfully performed +by a woman as by a man. Already a very considerable percentage of +the operators and colorers are women. + + + +SCHOOLS OF DESIGN. + +Schools of design have long existed in Europe. There are quite a +number of them in Paris, some of them of prodigious proportions, and +about a third of them are for women. There are schools of design +scattered throughout the cities of the United States. + +The object of these schools is to give a knowledge of some of the +industrial branches of the fine arts. In some of these schools +drawing is taught with marked thoroughness. + +Designing for paper hangings, calico, wood engraving; designs for +carpets, silks, ribbons, furniture, laces, plated ware, silver, +jewelry, etc., are beginning to receive much attention. + +Just think of the absurdity of employing men to design calicos. As a +woman has a keener instinct for delicate forms, and beautiful, +harmonious combinations of colors, so it is certain that she would +succeed best in designing for calicos and similar fabrics. + +These schools of design are to open an unlimited field for the +remunerative employment of women. As our civilization is widened and +refined, this field will rapidly enlarge. + +Already, if there were some thousands of women educated,--and they +may be educated, generally without expense to themselves,--they +could find immediate and well-paid employment in the industrial +prosecution of various branches of the fine arts. + + + +GARDENING. + +This has long seemed to me an employment in which women would not +only gain health and strength, but in which the most modest and +retiring might find a congenial occupation, and the products of +which are never depreciated because raised by a woman. A peck of +peas has a certain market value, not dependant upon the hands which +raised them. A woman who works at making pants receives fifty cents +a day, not on account of the amount or quality of her work, but be +cause she is a woman. A man engaged upon the same garments receives +two dollars a day, not because of the amount or quality of his work, +but because he is a man. + +It is doubtless true that, in very many cases, the man does his work +better than the woman; but it is not less true that, in a majority +of cases, the difference in price grows out of the difference in +sex. + +So of the school. A male teacher receives a thousand dollars a year, +not because his moral influence is better, not because the pupils +learn more, but because he is a man. A woman teaches a similar +school, and receives four hundred dollars, not because of the +inferiority of her moral influence in the school, not because the +pupils learn less, but because she is a woman. + +Now, happily, all this is avoided in gardening. A man who would sell +a beet is not obliged to put on a label, "raised by a man, ten +cents," and upon another, "raised by a woman, four cents," but the +article brings its market value. This is a great advantage, and one +affording a special gratification to women of spirit. + +Besides, gardening is an occupation requiring very little capital, +and, except in the fancy departments, comparatively little training. +Near any of the cities a woman can earn more upon a half acre of +land, with four months' work, than she can earn by sewing twelve +months, saying nothing of the healthfulness of gardening, and the +unhealthfulness of sewing. A young woman, tired, disgusted with the +difficulties which hamper her on every side, asks:-- + +"What can I do to be saved?" + +I reply, "Cultivate a half acre of ground." + +You can sell the products of your garden to one of the market-men +who make it their business to purchase garden vegetables where they +are raised, and convey them to market. Nearly all of our men +gardeners sell at their doors, and have nothing to do with the +market. + +I do not know of another opening which women can enter so easily, +with so little wounding of their sensibilities, and which promises +such sure and generous remuneration. + +A year ago I urged some young women who were out of employment to +engage in gardening. They said they had no capital, no experience, +but would be willing to try if the way could be made smooth for +them. I spent a couple of days in driving about among the gardeners, +in the neighborhood of Boston, and asked the following questions of +some fifty of them:-- + +"Is there any part of your work that women can do?" + +"If so, what compensation would you give to attentive, quick- +fingered American girls?" + +The answer to the first question was uniformly,-- + +"A large part of the work of a garden, or 'truck' farm, can be done +as well by women as by men." + +To the second question, the answers ranged from five to eight +dollars per week. + + + +A CAPITAL INVESTMENT. + +Persons possessing capital, and interested in the welfare of women, +could hardly make a wiser or more beneficent investment of their +means, than in the purchase of small farms in the neighborhood of +cities, for the use of women. + +Dividing these into half-acre lots, they should rent them to girls +and women, either without rent, or for a sum which would simply meet +the interest on the capital invested. In every case, probably, the +investments would pay well, without any rent, by the natural +increase in the value of real estate in the neighborhood of cities, +and the improvement incidental to nice gardening; but the occupant +would not hesitate to pay a small rent. + +If entirely unacquainted with farming, three or four might join to +hire a gardener, and under his guidance they would all soon learn to +work advantageously in raising the common garden vegetables. + +A dozen or twenty of these girls could board in the old farm house, +and would make a pleasant family. Naturally they would "exchange +works" with each other, and thus secure social enjoyment. + +This is no dream, but only requires that one man or woman should +possess a few thousand dollars, which it is desired to invest in +property with sure returns, and given, besides, twenty girls who are +suffering the tortures of dyspepsia and hopelessness in city work, +and who desire a healthy, pleasant, remunerative employment. +Certainly, both these classes of persons are numerous. + +I know a great many persons in the neighborhood of Boston, (and with +our rapid railway communications they may be located at considerable +distances,) I say I know of many persons who have farms which are +really producing nothing but a little grass and a few flowers, but +which, changed into such half-acre gardens, would become sources of +considerable income to all concerned. Twenty acres of good land, and +a good-sized farmhouse, with an advance of two thousand dollars to +prepare the land, and feed the company until their crops begin to +return something, would give a home and independence to forty girls; +and more than this, would fairly open and illustrate the +possibilities in gardening as an employment for women. + +It need hardly be said that the cultivation of flowers is an +occupation perfectly adapted to the finest girls; and as flowers are +in constant demand, with regularly quoted prices, every day in the +year, this field bids fair to offer pleasant and profitable +occupation to many women. It is enough to say that women should at +once be introduced to this branch of industry. + +It is hardly necessary, in this place, to point out the practical +difficulties, which are accessible to every inquirer. Under the +auspices of the New England Woman's Club, at No. 3 Tremont Place, +Boston, a horticultural school has been opened a few miles out of +Boston, for the training of young women. + +As I said in the beginning, I do not know of another branch of +industry in which so many women could find immediate and +remunerative employment as in cultivating the land; and I cannot +doubt, now that the public mind has been awakened to the subject of +woman's employment, and as under the rapid spread of the social +evil, thousands not interested on the side of benevolence are +thoroughly awakened to the importance of multiplying occupations for +women, as a defence of public morals,--I cannot doubt that this most +promising field will soon be invaded by an army of American girls +and women. + +It seems to me that one special advantage will be found in the +intimate relations between a productive garden and the comfort of a +family. What a stimulus to a loving mother, that the products of her +garden not only gratify the palates of her loved ones, but make +important contributions to their health. It seems to me that, more +than any other occupation I can name, the cultivation of a garden in +connection with a family, would come in to afford special +gratification to the wife and mother. + +"Iowa has an Agricultural College on a plot of land of six hundred +and fifty acres, with over thirty young ladies and one hundred and +forty young men, whose tuition is free, and their daily work, which +all are to do, is credited towards their board. This year the +college building is to be enlarged to double its present capacity." + +It is hardly necessary to repeat the facts found every day in the +agricultural and other papers, illustrating woman's capacity for +practical farming. Some of the rarest successes in general farming, +have been achieved by women. I have personally known several of +these farmers, who were intelligent and refined. + + + +MERCHANTS. + +What an army of men, some of them big enough to carry an ox, are +engaged, in the United States, in selling silks, calicos, thread, +tape, needles and pins. Hundreds of thou sands of stalwart young +men, who might earn twice as much in more active, muscular, outdoor +occupations, are shut up in stores; while a corresponding number of +women; desperate for lack of bread, lie in wait at night, when these +men come out of their silken stores, to tempt them to vice and +disease, which may carry all into one common ruin. + + + +CARPENTERS. + +A "kit" of carpenter's tools, and a carpenter's bench, may be +purchased for a few dollars. Every house should have such +provisions. It is curious how universal is the passion for the use +of such tools. Nine persons in ten, including both sexes, would, if +they enjoyed facilities, indulge this natural passion for straight +lines, angles and curves. + +From my observation, I think girls possess this mechanical fancy and +tact quite as generally as boys. + +In several homes where I have met facilities for making boxes, +frames, rulers, etc., the girls have displayed more interest in the +use of the beautiful carpenter tools, than the boys. + +What a priceless knack of fingers, preparation and fancy for a +hundred different occupations, and healthful, muscular exercise +would thus be won. + +My friend, Capt. R--, purchased a "kit" of carpenter's tools and a +turning lathe, nearly twenty years ago, and encouraged his six +daughters to use them. Scores of cupboards, shelves, frames, book- +holders, towel-racks, etc., etc., scattered all over his house, +testify to the mechanical taste and skill of his girls. + +At the holiday season they send to friends many beautiful boxes and +book-shelves, made with their own hands. + +But for the wealth of the family, I have no doubt that these girls +would have sought mechanical occupations. + + + +OTHER OCCUPATIONS. + +Women would succeed well as engravers and chasers of gold and +silver, as etchers and stamp makers, herbarium makers, landscape +gardeners, lithographers, map makers, modellers, music engravers, +painters, picture restorers, piano tuners, painters of plates for +books, steel engravers, sculptors, telegraphic operators, wax +workers, book-keepers, book merchants, china merchants, keepers of +fancy stores, grocers, junk dealers, music sellers, sellers of +artists' materials, sellers of seeds, roots and herbs, small wares, +toys, in variety shops, as bird raisers, and bird and animal +preservers, fruit venders, dealers in pets, restaurant keepers, +thread makers, glove makers, makers of shawls, yarn, ribbons, sewing +silk, lace menders, makers of files, guns, hinges, nails, screws, +skates, shovels, wire, candle-sticks, hooks and eyes, lamps, pens, +rings, scales, buckles, needles, saws, scissors, spectacles, +surgical instruments, telescopes, thermometers, lanterns, thimbles, +gold and silver leaf, pencils, inkstands, paper cutters, porcelain +goods, beads, harnesses, pocket-books, trunks, whips, combs, piano +cases. They succeed well as pearl workers, tortoise-shell workers. +They succeed in manufacturing shoes of all kinds, and gutta-percha +goods. They succeed as hair workers, as artists, as merchants of all +kinds of goods. They succeed in manufacturing artificial flowers, +belts, bonnet ruches, dress trimmings, embroidery, feathers, +hoopskirts, parasols and umbrellas, and so on, and so on, to the +extent of several hundred occupations, with a large number of which +they have nothing whatever to do, and from which they are kept by +persistent, blind, stupid prejudice; the apology, explanation, or +whatever you may choose to call it, generally being, either that the +work is too dirty, too hard, requires too much patience, or, much +more frequently, that it requires too much skill. + +With all these occupations open to them, it is hard to believe that +New England girls will consent to starve, or for lack of bread, will +wander off into bye and forbidden paths. + + + +EMPLOYMENT AGENCY. + +Nothing is more simple or easy than to extend the field of woman's +industries. + +Let the young women and their friends call a meeting, and establish +an agency for the neighborhood. This meeting need not cost the girls +a penny. A committee of five intelligent ladies and gentlemen can +readily be found, who will undertake the management. + +The duty of the committee will be to seek new employments for girls, +and smooth the way. + + + +FALSE TESTS OF GENTILITY. + +Everywhere, among all peoples, we find the spirit of aristocracy-- +caste. The distinction between classes, in most countries, appears +in dress, intelligence and manners. + +In the United States the distinctions are not thus marked. + +In the cars, for example, you meet a gentleman, whose address and +conversation are very pleasing, and you are just in the act of +congratulating yourself upon the acquisition of a charming +acquaintance, when some one whispers in your ear the appalling fact +that he is nothing but a carpenter. + +You meet a lady, exquisitely attired, with a beautiful face, sweet +manners, and brilliant conversation, and you wonder who she can be. +She must be the daughter of a leisurely, cultured banker; but, after +taking pains to ask the conductor, and several gentlemen in the car, +you are at last informed by the brakeman:-- + +"Why, darn it, she is that Lizzie Brown, the dress-maker." + +The fact is, we cannot rely upon the European indications of high +and low classes, and so, in America, we have devised numerous +arbitrary, and often unreasonable and inconvenient habits, and +customs, which are learned and practised by "our set, you know," but +which are not generally caught up by the earnest, busy class. + +One of these, which will serve for present illustration, is a rule +that you must, at table, put everything into your mouth with a fork. + +In one of our most reputable monthlies, I read, a day or two since, +a chapter in a story, in which it was stated, as a shocking +exhibition of depraved vulgarity, that John Smith put his food into +his mouth with a knife,--the deplorable wretch! + +Last summer, at a sea-side house, I was remarking to an intelligent +lady, in an after-dinner chat, that of all the gentlemen on the +ground, I was most interested in that tall, reserved, scholarly- +looking man. + +She replied, with a toss of her head, "I can't bear him. Why, he +eats with his knife!" + +Of course nobody supposes that for most sorts of food a fork is +better than a knife; but unless some tests of what is called +gentility can be maintained, you see we shouldn't know who's who and +what's what. + +I learned somewhat early in life to use the fork almost exclusively; +but now that it is made a sign of gentility, I am learning to use +the knife. + +I always enjoyed the anecdote of that "first gentleman of Europe," a +certain King of England, who, on a state occasion, invited to his +table a Scotch nobleman, with his two daughters. The nobleman was +one of the truest friends of the king, and the daughters were most +intelligent, worthy girls; but, living very much out of society, +they had not learned all the rules of table etiquette. So upon +sipping their coffee, and finding it too hot, they poured from the +cup into the saucer, and drank from the saucer. The king, who was at +the head of the table, heard a derisive laugh from some of the pets +of the court, and looking over where his Scotch friends sat, he saw +the occasion of it. Immediately he lifted his own cup, poured into +the saucer, and set the cup down on the table with a great noise, +whereupon the exquisites colored, and hushed. + +Girls, I advise you to use the fork in eating such things as can be +eaten best with it, unless you wish to make issue with a false and +arbitrary test of gentility. + +There are table habits, vital in their importance. I may here name +the practice of eating only simple food, with great deliberation, +maintaining, during the meal, your legitimate share in the +conversation, and constantly watching for opportunities to assist +those about you. + + + +CONSERVATISM IS FASHIONABLE. + +Nothing is more fashionable than conservatism. Slavery--what a hot- +bed of sensualism! What a pandemonium of cruelty and crime! + +All over the North the merchant, the politician, and the clergyman +pledged each other to silence. It was the fashion. + +A few brave souls protested. Sneers and ridicule followed them. Ah, +can it be believed,--the blue-eyed daughters of New England joined +in the sneers. They drew aside their skirts as they passed the +champions of liberty and virtue. No other memory connected with the +antislavery revolution is so hard for me to bear. If only they, +hearing the cry of agony from their outraged sisters in the South, +had listened, sympathized, and, in their own gentle way, striven to +help the torn and bleeding ones, I could bear the memory of the +brutal indifference of men. + + + +"WOMAN'S RIGHTS" ARE UNFASHIONABLE. + +In most of the states women have no legal claim to their own +children. In several of them the father may, in his will, commit the +little ones to the care of strangers, and the mother can only weep +and moan. + +In many of the states the wife has no right to the property which +her father gave her, or to that which she has earned with her own +hands. + +In not one of the states can a woman express her opinion or wish at +the ballot box. Her person, her property, her claim to her children, +--everything she holds most dear in this life, is controlled by the +ballot box. The most ignorant foreigners are invited to it; our +mothers and wives are forbidden. + +Women and girls receive, for the same work, only half the +compensation of men and boys. + +The "woman's rights" movement seeks the mitigation, and final +removal, of these outrageous wrongs. + +My dear girls, think for yourselves this time. Don't simper and +giggle when the fools sneer at "woman's rights." They don't know +what they are talking about. + +A few days ago I heard a sort of jackanapes ridiculing "woman's +rights," and several very sweet girls were listening to his coarse +scurrilities; and, must I say it, smiling their approval. + +Wearing an unfashionable dress is not half so bad; going into the +street with the bonnet of two years ago, even, will not unsex you +like a smiling indifference to these desperate struggles of your +sisters. To avoid starvation on one hand, and crime on the other, +they plead with the world for justice. + +In this city of Boston there are twenty thousand women starving on +needle-work, and five thousand who live, or die, by crime. A few +brave ones, driven to the wall, hope, by calling attention to their +helplessness, to obtain sympathy and justice. This is essentially +the "woman's rights" movement. Suppose you don't like the mode in +which they agitate. When you hear criticisms, or ridicule, if you +haven't the heart to say a word in defence, at least you can keep +silence. + +I wish I dared to tell you how we men almost despise you, sometimes, +for this abandonment of each other. + + + +THE "SOCIAL EVIL." + +Men go prowling about, seeking to seduce and ruin girls, and will +stand by each other, even in this infamous business. When a poor +girl, overcome by the arts of an oily-tongued villain, perhaps by a +promise of marriage, consents to sin, how you drop her, and shun +her, and sneer at her. A hundred times I have heard chivalrous men +declare that, "women have no honor; they never stand by each other. +If one gets into trouble, the rest forsake her, and run away." +Girls, if you care to commend yourselves to men, stand by these +unfortunate ones, encourage them, help them. You needn't fear being +soiled; the spirit in which you would engage in this angelic +service, would serve as a perfect shield. + +I know something of men. I have lived in many countries. I have been +much in society, have been, to some extent, what is railed a man of +the world, and have talked with men about women, hundreds of times. + +I am confident that nothing would so elevate a young woman in the +estimation of all noble men, as the brave defence of an unfortunate +sister. It would thrill us all, and lift you into a heroine. + +If a few hundred of you would join hands around the social evil, +even in a city like this, where it has attained huge proportions, +you could bring it within easy reach of christian aid. + +Nothing, this side of God, do men revere, as they revere virtuous +women. Let it be known among men, that the victims of their lust +have been taken under your protection, and the whole aspect of the +question would instantly change. Instead of looking upon the unhappy +ones as fair game, men would suddenly become conscious that they +were dealing with your friends, and, therefore, with you. + + + +A SHORT SERMON ABOUT MATRIMONY. + +I would address those young women who want husbands. There are such; +I have noticed them. Girls, if any of you have really made up your +minds that you "wouldn't marry the best man that ever lived, there!" +skip this little sermon, because it really has no interest for you. + +Men will shut their ears if they have a spark of delicacy; for every +word of this is private and confidential. + + + +MY TEXT. + +The text, or rather the occasion for what I am about to say on the +subject of marriage, was this:-- + +About a week ago, a young woman of twenty-six (she said twenty-six, +so I am sure about her age,) came to me in regard to her health; and +after the professional conversation was finished, we fell into a +general and pleasant chat. + +She was delightfully frank, and said, while we were discussing the +ever fruitful subject of matrimony,-- + +"I wish I was little." + +"That is too bad," I replied; "I have been admiring your grand, +queenly proportions ever since you came in; and now you spoil it all +by showing that you are not grateful." + +"I can't help it; I wish I didn't weigh more than eighty pounds, and +wasn't more than four and a half feet high." + +"I am shocked! Do tell me what makes you wish so?" + +"To be frank with you, the reason is just this: Men are so fond of +saying, 'My little wife.'" + +I laughed, thinking it was intended as a bright speech; but her +flushed face assured me that, instead, she was uttering her very +heart. + +"Go on," I said, "tell me your thoughts." + +"My thoughts are just these; and I believe they are the thoughts of +all unmarried marriageable women. I long for nothing this side of +heaven as I do to bury all my uncertainties and anxieties in the +love of a husband. Eagerly would I make any sacrifice to secure this +precious treasure. But I fear there is nothing left for me but to be +sneered at as an old maid. So while I might otherwise be grateful +for what you choose to call my queenly proportions, I can only wish +I was one of the little women whom men seem to fancy." + +I shall not tell you any more of this conversation, and my friend +will excuse this much, as a text for my little sermon. Only she and +I will know to whom this refers. + +I wonder if it is improper to speak plainly about what so many are +thinking of. + +I will venture a little. Now don't take on airs and turn up your +noses. My hair is of a color which might introduce me to you in the +character of father. I shall speak very plainly. It cannot +compromise anybody, for, as I told you, this is all private and +confidential. + + + +YOU WANT HUSBANDS. + +Now don't deny it; it sounds silly in you. It is, all of a piece +with the earnest declaration of the mother who is managing her +daughters through Saratoga, Newport, and an endless round of +parties, but who constantly declares, in the most earnest way, that +she has no more girls than she wants, that she could not consent to +part with a single one of them, and who, at length, when pressed to +part with dear Arabella, gives a reluctant and painful assent, and +who may be seen on the wedding day penetrated with inconsolable +grief at parting with that dear child. Girls, don't join in this +farce; it is too thin. + +You want husbands. You think of them by day, and dream of them by +night. You talk of nothing else. Think on, and dream on; even if you +never get them, it will make you better and nobler to think about +them. + +On our side of the house we are all thinking and dreaming of you, +and, although we may never marry, our hearts will be the warmer and +purer for having been occupied with thoughts of you. + + + +WHY MEN DO NOT PROPOSE. + +In entering upon this most important and delightful relation, we men +are expected to take the overt initiative. You are perplexed and +grieved that so many of us hold back, and wander about, homeless +bachelors all our lives, leaving you to die old maids. + +Let me whisper in your ear. + +We are afraid of you! + +As I am out of the matrimonial market, I will let my friend Robert, +who is in said market, explain. + +Robert is a splendid fellow, and dying to have a home of his own. He +declared in my parlor the other evening, that he would prefer ten +years of happy married life to fifty years of this nothing and +nowhere. + +My wife said, "Well, Robert, if you cannot find a wife, you had +better give a commission to somebody who can." With a flushed face; +he replied:-- + +"Now see here, Mrs. Lewis, I am a banker; my salary is two thousand +dollars. I cannot marry a scrub. I must marry a wife with manners, +one who knows what's what. My mother and sisters, to say nothing of +myself, would break their hearts if my choice were below their idea. +Just tell me how, with such a wife, I could pull through on two +thousand a year? Why, her dress alone would cost half of it. Board +for the two would cost at least fifty dollars a week, and even with +that, you know, we should not get first-class board. + +"And then there are the extras,--the little trips, the lectures, +the concerts, the operas, etc.; one cannot live in society without a +little of such things. + +"Oh no, unless I first make up my mind to rob the bank, I cannot +think of matrimony. If I had five thousand a year I would venture; +but with two thousand,--well, I am not quite a madman, and so I +stay where I can pay my debts. + +"My lady friends think I am so much in love with the--Club that I +have no time for them. One of them said to me the other day, when we +were discussing this matter,-- + +"'Why, what you spend in that miserable club, would support a wife, +easy.' + +"'It wouldn't pay for her bonnets,' I replied." + +Now ladies, Robert is getting extravagant, so we will let him +retire, and I will go on with my little sermon. I do not often +preach, but in this case, nothing but a sermon will do. + + + +BEAUTY OF WOMAN'S BODY. + +Firstly, you are perfect idiots to go on in this way. Your bodies +are the most beautiful of God's creation. In the continental +galleries I constantly saw groups of people, gathered about the +pictures of women. It was not passion; the gazers were quite as +likely to be women, as men. It was the wondrous beauty of woman's +body. + +Now stand with me at my office window, and see a lady pass. There +goes one! Now isn't that a pretty looking object? A big hump, three +big humps, a wilderness of crimps and frills, a hauling up of the +dress here and there, an enormous hideous mass of false hair or bark +piled on the top of her head, and on the very top of that, a little +nondescript thing, ornamented with bits of lace, birds' tails, etc.; +while the shop windows tell us all day long, of the paddings, +whalebones, and springs, which occupy most of the space within that +outside rig. + +In the name of all the simple, sweet sentiments which cluster about +a home, I would ask, how is a man to fall in love with such a +compound, doubled and twisted, starched, comical, artificial, touch- +me-not, wiggling curiosity? + + + +THIS DRESS CHECKS YOUR MOVEMENTS. + +Secondly, with that wasp waist, your lungs, stomach, liver, and +other organs squeezed down out of their place, and into one half +their natural size, and with that long trail dragging on the ground, +how can any man of sense, who knows that life is made up of use, of +service, of work; how can he take such partner? He must be desperate +to unite himself for life with such a deformed, fettered, half +breathing ornament. + +If I were in the matrimonial market, I might marry a woman that had +but one arm, or one eye, or no eyes at all, if she suited me +otherwise; but so long as God permitted me to retain my senses, I +could never join my fortunes with those of a woman with a small +waist. + +A small waist! I am a physiologist, and know what a small waist +means. It means the organs of the abdomen jammed down into the +pelvis; it means the organs of the chest stuffed up into the throat; +it means a weak back; it means a delicate, nervous invalid; it means +a suffering patient, and not a vigorous helpmate. + +Thousands of men dare not venture, because they wisely fear that, +instead of a helpmate, they will get an invalid to take care of. +Besides, this bad health in you, just as in men, made the mind, as +well as the body, faddled and effeminate. + +You have no power, no magnetism. I know you giggle freely, and use +big words, such as splendid, awful, etc.; but then, this does not +deceive us; we see through all that sort of thing. The fact is, you +are superficial, affected, silly. You have none of that womanly +strength and warmth which are so assuring and attractive to men. + +Why you have actually become so childish, that you refuse to wear +decent names even, and insist upon little baby names. + +Instead of Helen, Margaret and Elizabeth you affect Nellie, Maggie +and Lizzie. + +When your brothers were babies, you called them Bobbie, Dickie and +Johnnie; but when they grow up to manhood, no more of that silly +trash, if you please. + +I know a woman, twenty-five years old, and as big as both my +grandmothers put together, who insists upon being called Kittie, and +her real name is Catherine; her brain is big enough to conduct +affairs of State, she does nothing but giggle, cover up her face +with her fan, and exclaim, "Don't now, you are real mean." How can a +sensible man propose a life partnership to such a silly goose? + +My dear girls, if you would get husbands, and sensible ones, dress +in plain, neat, becoming garments, and talk like sensible, earnest +sisters. + +You say you don't care, you won't dress to please men, etc. Then, as +I said in opening this sermon, I am not speaking to you. I am +speaking to such girls as want husbands, and would like to know how +to get them. + +You say that the most sensible men are crazy after these butterflies +of fashion. I beg your pardon, it is not so. Occasionally, even a +brilliant man may marry a silly, weak woman. But to say, as I have +heard women say a hundred times, that the most sensible men marry +women without sense, is simply absurd. Nineteen times in twenty +sensible men choose sensible women. + +I grant you that in company men are very likely to gabble and toy +with these over-dressed and forward creatures; but as to going to +the altar with them, they beg to be excused. + +Thirdly, among the men in the matrimonial market, only a very small +number are rich; and in America very rarely make good husbands. But +the number of those who are beginning in life, who are filled with a +noble ambition, who have a future, is very large. These are worth +having. But such will not, they dare not, ask you to join them, +while they see you so idle, silly, and so gorgeously attired. + +Let them see that you are industrious, economical, with habits that +secure health and strength, that your life is earnest and real, that +you are willing to begin at the beginning in life with the man you +would consent to marry, then marriage will become the rule, and not +as now, among certain classes, the exception. + +Ah, if ever the time shall come, when young women have occupations, +and can sustain a healthy, dignified attitude toward men,--if ever +the time shall come when women are not such pitiful dependents, then +marriage will become universal, and we shall all be happier, better, +nobler. + +I hear some plucky, spirited young woman exclaiming:-- + +"This is all very well. No doubt your sermon, as you call it, +contains a good deal of truth; but how about these young men who +spend their time drinking, smoking, loafing about club-houses, and +running after strange women? I suppose you think they are perfect +angels." + +My dear friend, have I said anything in this sermon, or do I say +anything in this book, which leads you to suppose that I think men +better than women? + +It is because I believe that, in the constitution of the race, you +are the fountain-head of social, moral and religious influence, that +I come directly to you. + +My mother taught me, long ago, the great moral superiority of woman. +She taught me that most of the good and pure in this world comes +from woman. + +So far from thinking that man is an angel, and woman a nothing, and +a bad nothing, the strongest article in my religious creed is, that +when woman has been redeemed from the shilly-shally, lace, ribbon, +and feather life, into which she has so unhappily drifted,--when +woman shall be restored to herself, she will be strong enough in +soul to take us men in her arms, and carry us to heaven. + +I beg you will not suppose that, in my criticisms upon woman, I am +prompted by the belief that she needs special exhortation on her own +account. I appeal to her on account of us all, believing that the +most direct and effective way to redeem the race, is to induce woman +to lay aside every weight and the special sins that so beset her, +and to run the race with the highest womanly heroism. + + + +PIANO MUSIC. + +Nothing so constantly troubled and pained me during the progress of +the school at Lexington, as the strange passion for the piano. Of +the one hundred and forty girls present during the third year, I +cannot recall more than three or four who possessed any decided +musical capacity, while nearly a hundred studied music. Fifteen +pianos were going constantly. + +Take any one of sixty or seventy who were studying music, simply +because it was fashionable, and consider the waste. One hundred and +fifty to three hundred dollars a year for instruction, with two to +five hours' exhaustive daily practice. I cannot bear to think that +this foolish waste, and worse than waste, was going on for years, in +an institution under my management. But there are influences at work +stronger than the will of the teachers. Those influences come from +established prejudices. + +Although the money and time given to the piano, among a large +proportion of the girls in our school, was worse than wasted, I soon +found that three out of four of them would refuse to enter the +school, or remain in it, if they were urged not to study music. + +After a young woman has studied music for five years, and has +twisted her spine all out of shape in practicing upon the piano, she +marries, plays a little on the splendid "Grand" which "Dear Aunt" +gives her as a wedding present, and then drops it forever. If there +is decided talent, she may continue; but I speak of the results as I +have seen them. + + + +IMPORTANCE OF VOCAL MUSIC. + +If the voice be cultivated, and the piano used as an accompaniment, +the music in a girl's education would prove ten-fold more valuable. +Indeed, vocal music might prove, with many girls, the most valuable +part of education. It is more likely to be continued, because of the +greater pleasure it affords; while social singing serves more than +any other influence to bind the inmates of a home together. As a +source of general health, it stands unrivalled. + +In this country of consumptives, it is especially valuable in +fortifying the pulmonary apparatus. + +Let us, by every means, foster social singing. Its influence is, in +many ways, most precious. How interesting the group of sisters and +brothers gathered about the piano, and how blessed the home where +the evening is welcomed by family song. + +Contrast this with the average mechanical execution of classical +music, by one of the girls, or with the fashionable operatic singing +by one of them. + +And just here I wish to speak of a fashion which should be +deprecated. It is another piece of that growing vice, which would +remove music from the social sphere, and make it, like some +peculiarity of dress, a mere show. Suppose we have singing. Instead +of four persons performing the several parts of some rich melody, +Miss Arabella is invited to "give us that exquisite Aria," and we +all sit by, and wonder at her execution. + +The great service of music is one of the heart, and not of the head. + +There are departments of music, there are possibilities in this +divinest of the arts, which appeal to the subtlest appreciations of +the intellect, and the most exalted conceptions of the imagination; +but still it is true that the greatest service which music renders +to man is in the social sphere, is one of the heart When our voices +blend, our hearts will not long be kept asunder. + +The whole tendency of the times is to deprive music of this, its +most precious influence. Indeed, so far has this gone, that even +that natural and most happy of all the harmonies of music,--that +between the male and female voice, is well-nigh lost. It is rare in +what is called the better class of music to hear them together. A +woman executes for awhile, then a man executes, then the woman +executes again, then the man executes a little, so they execute by +turns. + +The great heart-service of music is subordinated to imagination and +vanity. + + + +BAD MANNERS OF PIANO PLAYERS. + +It is a mistake to suppose that, even as an accomplishment, piano +playing is so very highly prized. + +I dropped in to spend an hour with an intelligent friend. I was +particularly interested in the Franco-Prussian war, and, as he had +lived much, both in Paris and Berlin, I hoped to learn about some +things not discussed in the newspapers. His youngest daughter, a +beautiful girl, had just arrived, fresh from the glories of the +closing exercises of a seminary. + +We were in the midst of our discussions, and he was repeating some +conversations with Bismark, in which I was intensely interested, +when the fond, proud mother said:-- + +"Now, if you will listen, Gertie will play the piece which she +played last Thursday evening at Madame--'s." Gertie began, alas, +and she kept on, and on, and on. + +There were four of us gentlemen, three were callers, one the editor +of a city paper. We were all eager to listen to our host, of Bismark +and Napoleon. + +That unhappy child kept at it. We sat there with a hypocritical +smile on our faces but, internally, as mad as we could be. When at +length, the sixteen pages had been finished, and the girl turned +around for the prescribed adulation, all but one of us exclaimed, +"wonderful, exquisite, delightful!" and the editor, (who, when +coming down in the car an hour later, emphasized his disgust with an +awful big word,) declared he had never heard anything so wonderful, +and added, that she really ought to go abroad to study with the +great masters. The lying executed by some of us was perfect. I have +forgotten whether this kind of falsehood is mentioned in the works +upon white lying, but if I ever write upon "white lies," I shall +give this kind a prominent place. + +Girls, if you ever obtrude an average piano performance upon a +company of intelligent people, engaged in conversation, nine in ten +of them will secretly regard you as a nuisance, no matter how much +they exclaim "exquisite, delicious, wonderful!" Of course your +parents will be gratified with your performance; mamma will be +pleased and proud with the show-off, and papa will smile. How else +could he do, after paying $2,000 piano bills? It is a pretty picture +to their eyes--the loved one seated at a splendid, great +instrument, executing one of the grandest compositions of one of the +immortal masters. And, although you are not inspired with the +passion of the heaven-born composer, and your performance is a +mechanical, soulless hum-drum, that matters not to your father and +mother, their loving imaginations will supply all that is needed to +make the picture complete. But the rest of us will heartily wish +that you had not interrupted our conversation. + +It is an amazing blindness on the part of parents. It always +astonishes me that they don't see the impertinence of the thing. +They certainly wouldn't think of asking the company to cease their +conversation to hear you speak your piece, or perform a dance. The +piano alone is licensed to say to everybody, "cease your +conversation, and listen to me; I am about to make a big noise!" + +But the fashion has never imposed upon people of sense and real +politeness. When the piano has started up without even a notice, I +have seen such people flush with indignation. + + + +VICES IN MODERN MUSIC. + +It may be mentioned as illustrating still further, the false +tendencies in music, that it takes a brave man to ask for a sweet, +simple song. I tried it the other night. I asked a Flora McFlimsey +to give us "Way down upon the Swanee River." The words, it will be +remembered, are singularly pure, sweet and pathetic. + +Many of the Italian songs just now so fashionable, are couched in +language, listened to by pure-minded people, only because they don't +understand it. + +When I said, "Please sing 'Way down upon the Swanee River,'" Miss +McFlimsey replied, "Excuse me, I never sing that class of music. I +haven't sung one of those simple airs, I don't know when." I know, +by the way the girls looked at me, that their respect for my musical +taste vanished at once and forever. If I had asked her for "Ah, que +j'aime les militaire," or "Une Paule sur la mur," insufferable +trash, both as to music and words, utterly beneath contempt, she +would have eagerly screamed the bald bosh, and the weak ones would +have declared it ineffably exquisite.* + + + +ITALIAN OPERA. + +If you understand Italian, I need not explain; and if you do not, +purchase a libretto, with English translation, of almost any of the +operas, and read. + +Among those most popular on the American stage, I cannot recall more +than two, that I should be willing to have my daughter read. But the +music pupil must study every word, often every syllable of a word. + +The lascivious suggestion, the sly innuendo, the bold challenge,-- +they are all exhausted in the language of the opera. + +One of the charms of much of this class of music is similar to that +of a new dance introduced into this country last winter; and it +came, too, from the land of Italian opera. Of this dance I will only +say that I overheard a buxom lass telling her lady friends "that the +new dance was perfectly glorious; but," said she, "it's of no use to +put flowers or bows in your bosom, for they get pressed flat enough, +long before the first dance is over." + +Is it not a simple fact that operatic songs are popular just in +proportion as they are indelicate? I have asked this question of +more than a score of devotees of the opera. Half of them, perhaps, +have said yes, the other half have said that the finest music +happened to be associated with naughty words. Read the words of "Un +mari sage" without the music. Where, outside of a brothel, could +there be found a company of girls, who, with men present, would keep +their faces uncovered, and listen. + +I wish you would go to the opera with me; I will show you something +which will impress you more deeply than any words I can write. + +Here we are, so placed, that we can look into the faces of a part of +the audience. Let us select a couple, and, with our glasses, watch +them. + +There is a beautiful black-eyed girl,--the one with that fat, red- +faced gentleman. She is about sixteen, and he about thirty. I know +him. He is a regular roue, although he has the entree of many of our +best homes. His companion seems a modest, sweet girl. + +The opera is "Faust," one of the most unclean of the whole unclean +batch. + +They are both using one and the same libretto, with an English +translation. This gives him an opportunity to put his arm behind +her, but of course he is careful not to touch her shoulder. But we +shall see, when we come to certain parts of the opera. + +Now look at them. See the red spots on her cheeks; they tell us of +struggling modesty and innocence. The story proceeds; the lascivious +gestures, the lecherous gaze of the men and half-naked women on the +stage, are beginning to tell upon the whole audience. See our girl. +That arm is pressing her against his side, and her eyes are busy +with the words, as if she were completely absorbed. When she returns +to her home to-night, her mind will be filled with thoughts, of +which she will not speak to her mother. + +God alone knows the number of pure souls that have been ruined by +the insidious poison of the opera. + + + +THE STUDY OF FRENCH. + +All American girls of the rich class, and a very large number of the +poor class, study French. + +The reasons given for this immense investment in time and money, +are:-- + +1st. That French words and sentences are common in our literature. + +2nd. That educated people must speak French; for it is the language +of polite society everywhere. + +3rd. Without a knowledge of French, you must forego the science and +literature locked up in that language. + +4th. The study of the French language involves a peculiar mental +discipline of great value. + +I am quite ready to admit that a knowledge of French is not only +convenient, but indispensable to a liberal education. + +But, nevertheless, nineteen in every twenty girls, who study French, +simply waste their time and money. + +It is not even intended, when they enter upon it, that they shall do +anything beyond a little grammar, and one or two readers. It is not +expected that they will speak the language, beyond the class +conversations. + +So whatever may be justly said of the value of French, in view of +the considerations I have named, its value, as managed in our +schools, cannot be seriously discussed. + +As to the words and sentences which occur so frequently in our books +and papers, it would be easy for any one to learn the meaning of all +such as have been domesticated, in a few hours. + +As to French being the language of polite society everywhere; in the +first place, it isn't true; and, in the second place, if it were +true, the fact would hardly be pertinent in this discussion. I think +this will be fully appreciated, when I state that, during my own +residence in Paris, I did not hear of more than two or three +American girls who could be said to really enjoy a social existence +among the French-speaking population. And yet, the American girls +residing in Paris had, generally, I presume, made special +preparations in the language. + +As to the "science and literature locked up in the French language," +I can only say, that those of us who know how much science and +literature our girls get through their knowledge of French, smile, +when we hear this claim mentioned. + +As to the peculiar mental discipline involved in the study of the +French tongue, it is very easy to put forward this claim, but +difficult to defend it. That the study of this language is valuable, +as a mental discipline, I believe; but that it is peculiar, or if +peculiar, particularly valuable, I do not believe. + +I have no doubt that nine-tenths of the money and precious time +given to the study of French, in our ladies' seminaries, is, in +great part, wasted. + +French is studied, in most cases, for the same reason that the piano +is,--it is fashionable. + +A gentleman without education outside of his store, takes his +daughter to a school, when about the following conversation might be +heard:-- + +"I wish to place my daughter in your school." + +"What studies would you have her pursue?" + +"Well, she has finished the English studies, and I reckon she had +better take up music, French and Italian." + +"Why do you select these studies?" + +"Well, my daughter thinks she would like to finish off with these." + +"Does she know anything of these languages?" + +"No, I believe not." + +"How much longer do you intend to keep her in school?" + +"Only this year. I can't afford to send her more than one year +longer." + +At this stage of the conversation the daughter is brought in; and +the teacher sees a pale, round-shouldered, sickly-looking young +woman, and, upon a little conversation, finds, judging from her +voice, manners and intelligence, that she greatly needs a thorough +course of physical and vocal training, with simple, rudimentary, +English studies. + +The teacher asks her to go into an adjoining room, and write him a +letter, giving a brief account of her journey from home. In this +note she makes several mistakes in spelling and grammar, while the +chirography is very bad. If the teacher is a true educator, he +advises a course, which leads the father and daughter to consult a +little aside, after which they leave, with the promise that they +will think of it, and if he concludes to have her come, he will drop +a line. + +Wouldn't they like to look at some rooms? + +No, not just now; they would think of it, and drop a line. + +In passing, let me say, that I can hardly think of a more trying +position, than that of the Principal of a private school, when he is +assisting parents to determine upon a course of studies for their +daughters. + +Perhaps his institution is financially weak. He must be full, or +stop. He advertises in the papers and sends out circulars. The +pupils come in slowly, and the Principal is anxious. + +Most of the pupils of private schools are backward in the rudiments. +The young ladies, in a great many cases, seek private schools, +because they are ashamed to go to the public schools, where there is +no mercy for bad spellers and readers. They know that, although they +are grown women, and wear silks and gold watches, if they read badly +and don't know the multiplication table, they will have to stand up +with a row of small boys and girls. So it happens that many of the +patrons of private schools are singularly backward in the rudiments. + +The Principal is dying for the patronage, and the young ladies are +resolved upon French and music. When he sits down to talk with them +and their parents, the temptation to acquiesce in their choice of +studies is very strong. Only in this way is he likely to get them at +all; besides, the departments of French and music are the most +profitable. + +After having been at the head of a large private school for years, I +can truly say that I heartily sympathize with managers of similar +institutions, exposed to this temptation. + +Believing, as I do, that the study of languages, as such, has been +pushed to a most unfortunate, not to say absurd extent, and that, in +the case of the particular language under discussion, the waste has +become enormous, I will simply express the hope that soon, only +those who have the time, capacity and means to really accomplish +something, will undertake the French language; and that the millions +in our country who now waste months and much money in the "little +smattering," will turn their attention into other very important and +greatly neglected departments of education. + +Perhaps I should add, that what I have said of the French, as +generally pursued in our schools, is applicable to the German, +Spanish and Italian languages. + + + +DISCIPLINARY VALUE OF FRENCH. + +But we are told that many studies are pursued in all schools, which +have no direct practical use; that they are introduced for their +disciplinary value, and that French is one of them. Twenty years ago +this statement would have ended the argument; but now the best +educators, on both continents, have something more to say. + +A small proportion of the people have the means, leisure and wish to +devote their lives to self-culture. These may embrace the broadest +curriculum. But the million cannot give themselves up to such +indulgences. We must make our school education a means. + +Let me illustrate. Learning to spell the words of our language is a +valuable discipline; besides, it has a direct, practical value. For +the disciplinary service, the Russian language might be added, with +great profit. But I should advise the million to forego the +intellectual drill involved in the study of Russian orthography, +and, in this department, to confine themselves to English words. I +should do this,-- + +1st. Because of the direct, important practical use; and,-- + +2nd. Because, in the case of the million, all the time which can be +afforded for orthographic studies, with reference to mental +discipline, may be very profitably devoted to our own language. + + + +COMPARATIVE VALUE OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH. + +Our language is as superior to the French, as is our civilization. +The language of a people keeps pace with its mental and soul growth. +It would require more than a Lamartine to express our ideas of home, +and of civil and religious liberty with the French tongue. + + + +ENGLISH CLASSICS. + +For us, for our times, the "English classics" are infinitely above +the classics of any other language--of all other languages. + +Our classics are laden with the richest, ripest, christian thought +and sentiment. They are indissolubly interwoven with all the great +intellectual and spiritual forces, which, at this hour, are marching +on "conquering and to conquer." + +How utterly inexplicable that American educators should conduct +their pupils away from the vast, rich storehouses of the English +classics, radiant all over as the diadem of a queen, to wander amid +the lingual mysteries of the classics, of undeveloped, and even +pagan peoples. + + + +LATIN AND GREEK. + +With regard to the legitimate place of these languages in American +education, I can only refer my readers to the numerous and able +papers and books which have recently appeared in Great Britain and +America. Of these, Grimke's is one of the most philosophical and +convincing. + +A great number of educators and thinkers have reached the conclusion +that the present prominence of the ancient classics in our system, +is not only a barbarism transmitted from the dark ages, but that, +unlike most anachronisms which generally surprise and amuse us, this +emasculates and paralyzes us. This carries us from the real, living +present, way back into the dark past. + +In the pursuit of the ancient classics we immure ourselves in a +cloister, we shut out things, facts, society, nature, and ponder +over the fancies and philosophies of peoples who treated woman as a +slave, and who never enjoyed the first glimmering of the true social +or religious light. + +I speak feelingly on this subject. When a young man, I spent several +years almost exclusively upon Latin and Greek; first as a student, +and then as a teacher. + +One of my sincere regrets in life is, that I prepared about fifty +young men for college. + +But for a painful and rapidly deepening conviction, that the +profession of a teacher, which I had embraced with all my heart, +would, in the higher departments, bring me into constant collision +with my idea of use as the aim and purpose of a manly life,--but +for this, I should never have turned to the profession of medicine. + +Gladly would I exchange all that the classics gave me, for a +familiarity with any one of several natural sciences, which I had +but little time to examine during my school days. + +The colleges and universities are rapidly emerging from this +darkness of the past. + + + +DANCING. + +During the years of our school in Lexington, we danced from two to +four evenings a week. Beginning about half past seven o'clock, we +danced till half past eight, which was always our bed-time. In our +school family there were several gentlemen, among them the revered +Theodore Weld,--our most inveterate dancer. + +The round dances were not admitted, for the following reasons:-- + +1st. The rotary motion is injurious to the brain and spinal marrow. + +2nd. The peculiar contact between the man and the woman, may suggest +impure thoughts. + +I have many times asked young men what they thought of it, and after +saying it was jolly, that they liked it first-rate, they have +generally, when urged to tell me seriously their convictions, +confessed that, knowing how men feel and sometimes talk about it, if +they were women, they should not indulge. I never talked with one +father or mother who was not gratified with my rule against round +dances, while a number of them wrote me the warmest commendation. I +wish I was at liberty to publish a letter on this subject, which I +received from a well-known lady,--giving the letter entire, with +the writer's name. I have requested her to allow me to publish it; +but she says the sneers at Puritanism are too much for her. + +I ask my reader, if a mother, whether, if her daughter were away +from home, and attending dancing parties, dancing now with Lieut. +S., and then with Capt. W.; in brief, with such gentlemen as the +managers choose to introduce to her; whether she would like to know +that her daughter was being hugged up, and whisked about in the +German? Very few mothers would answer yes, to this question. + +The square dances are certainly very beautiful, graceful, chaste, +and healthful. Besides, in a large and interesting way they are +social. A large company may join in these dances. + +The round dance is another illustration of the tendency toward +individual display, so strikingly exhibited in the department of +music. How constantly we see at dancing parties a single young lady +and gentleman start out alone for a dizzy whirl about the hall. I +will not comment upon the wild whirligig of her skirts, for I don't +think a girl need be ashamed to show her legs. I only say that her +contact with her partner is not a modest one. + +Let a couple stand, in the presence of a company, with their arms +about each other, and their persons in contact as for the "German," +let them stand, thus intertwined, and what should we think? The +dance is made the excuse for what, without it, would be a gross +indelicacy. It is as with much of the opera, in which the fine music +is made the apology for words that could not be spoken without it. + + + +THE THEATRE. + +Girls, I advise you not to go to the theatre. I know how much can be +said in its favor. I know that, at one time in the history of the +world, it really served the cause of morality and religion. + +But how can we study Shakspeare so advantageously as in the +impersonations of the stage?" + +I confess I do not know where the great master can be studied so +advantageously as in the best impersonations of the stage, but, +nevertheless, I strongly advise that you should stay away from the +theatre. + +My first objection to the theatre is, that it is never well +ventilated. You must breathe, three or four hours, a vitiated +atmosphere, which unfits you for the best physical and mental labor +during the whole of the next day, perhaps even longer. + +My second objection, likewise physiological, is, that it keeps you +up till midnight. + +My third objection is that which we all make to the yellow-covered +literature. While there may be a good thing here and there, the +general tone is morbid, not to say impure. + +The managers are opening their theatres once or twice a week for a +matinee, and, knowing that women and children are likely to +constitute a large part of the audience, they present the most +decent representations. I advise that, if you attend the theatre at +all, you should attend the matinees. + + + +SYMPATHY BETWEEN THE STOMACH AND THE SOUL. + +Conceding the extremest views cherished by the Christian believer, +in regard to the influence of the Holy Spirit, in the redemption of +man's soul, we cannot shut our eyes to the intimate sympathy between +the stomach and the moral nature. + +The moral sentiments and sympathies are bewildered and lost when the +intellect is deranged. No matter though the coronal portion of the +brain is grandly developed, if the intellect be insane, or if the +digestive function be insane, pure and noble moral impulses are no +longer possible. Man is one,--body, mind and heart. These are not +three distinct individual partners in a firm, but they are +interlinked and interwoven so completely that they are one and not +three. My highest conceptions of the Trinitarian idea find +illustration in this trinity in man. + +The great function of digestion--assimilation--underlies, as a +foundation, the intellectual superstructure, while high above all, +rising into the very heavens, the moral nature lifts up its sublime +heights. + + + +BOWELS OF COMPASSION. + +When a phrenologist is examining a man's head, and wishes to know +about his heart, he feels of the stomach. There's where the heart +lies. + +The sacred writer understood it, when he spoke of the "bowels of +compassion." + +A man utters wiser than he knows, often, when, in a crowd +surrounding some object appealing to the heart, he cries out,-- + +"Gentlemen, have you no bowels?" + +The dear Christ suggests the intimate relations between the soul and +the stomach, when, before appealing to the hearts of the multitude, +he filled their stomachs with good food. + +In the Bible there are scores of expressions and phrases which point +to the stomach as the seat of the sympathies. + +All the bright ones, with subscription papers in their hands, wait +till after dinner. + +If they catch a man with a perfectly satisfied stomach, they are +likely to get a good round sum, even for the Hottentot-red- +flannel-shirt-fund. + +The fact that the bumps of the heart are in the upper part of the +brain, matters little, if the condition of the digestive apparatus +controls their action. When I remark that the heart is located in +the stomach, it will, of course, be understood in a practical, +rather than in an anatomical sense. + +The condition of the stomach determines the action of the emotions +to an extent which cannot be predicated of the intellectual +faculties. When one is dyspeptic, he may multiply and divide; he may +not disgrace himself even in the role of a logician; but if you +appeal to his sympathies,--to any of his emotions,--you will wake up +a pig, a porcupine, or, possibly, a tiger. + +Leaving out the Bible intimations and statements, and the +illustrations which abound in English and German biography, no +observing person will fail to recall numerous illustrations in his +own experience. + + + +THE WAISTS OF JOLLY GRANDMOTHERS. + +What sort of a waist has the grandmother who comes in from the +country to take care of you through a typhoid fever? + +When nine o'clock comes, she drives the young ladies off to bed. She +may not speak it out, but she thinks, "trash! trash! Oh, do get out +of my way, and lie down carefully on a soft couch, where you can +rest, or I shall soon have you too on my hands." + +Has she one of these wasp-waists? No indeed; hers is a jolly one! + +Who ever saw a happy, helpful grandmother with an hour-glass waist? + +Is a grandmother full of tickle? Can she join with the young people +in laughter and sports? Can she? Then I know, without seeing her, +the style of her form. + +You see all the tickle comes from that part of the body. + +The conditions of the organs within that part of the body known as +the waist, decide whether you shall be happy or unhappy; jolly or +blue. One condition, and the most important one, is that those vital +organs shall have room to work in. If you squeeze them, you squeeze +and strangle all the jolly in you. + +Tie a cord about a child's arms and legs, and then say, "Now, my +dear, you may run and play." + +Ah, I used to know a grandmother, and, although she has been among +the angels thirty years or more, I can't think of her even now, +without a sigh of regret that she could not have lived forever in +this world, she was such a joy to us all. + +She is happier in heaven, I suppose, but I don't see how she could +be happier anywhere, than she used to be here. + +When her loving, laughing face appeared at the door, how we small +chaps did tickle and squirm all over. But I must stop writing of +her, or I shall have to lay down my pen. Never have I seen a girl of +eighteen who was half so lovely. + +But let me think; why did I bring forward this treasure of my heart? +Oh, I remember; it was to speak of her waist. How we used to laugh +at her shape. We insisted that she was bigger around the waist than +anywhere else. + +"Well, perhaps so, boys, but there is where all my jolly comes from. +Look at your little slender things, they aint jolly; they can't +laugh; they only give little giggles." + +Ah, the dear, beautiful, blessed soul! What a jolly angel she must +make. Oh, I do hope, if I ever reach there, I may be a little angel, +so that she can take me into her arms, and press me into her warm, +loving bosom just as she used to. When I hear her laugh I am sure I +shall feel at home, no matter how grand and dazzling the great White +Throne may be. + + + +ABOUT THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. + +Dear girls, bye and bye you will be wives and mothers, and will have +occasion to consider the treatment of various diseases. Not that +diseases are inevitable, but we must consider things as they are, +and not as they might be. + +The mother, if she be wise, has the selection of the doctor, and the +management of the sick ones. This supervision of the health of the +household falls so naturally into the hands of women, the nursing +and other duties incidental to sickness, are so universally hers, +that even among peoples and tribes where women are but slaves, their +authority in all that concerns the management of the sick is +unquestioned. + +En passant it may be remarked that nothing but the blind, stupid +prejudice of men would oppose the introduction of women to the +medical profession. + +It is a profession which belongs to them. Nature herself has decreed +it, and when the hard, selfish, overbearing tyranny of men shall +permit things to take their natural course, we shall have very few +men in the medical profession. + +But my object in this chapter is to speak of a fundamental +misapprehension underlying the profession of medicine. This +misapprehension is, that diseases are local. + +Let me give an illustration or two. + +A doctor attempts a case of catarrh. He opens the nostril with his +speculum, turns in a strong light, takes a long, careful look, then +examines, perhaps with a microscope, some of the fluid which the +patient blows out of his nose, and then the doctor says, "Ahem! +ahem! this is a case of sick nose. It is a case of nasal catarrh. +The pituitary membrane is congested, and is secreting a morbid +mucus. Ahem! you really should have called upon me before." + +Then the doctor proceeds to inject various stimulating caustic +fluids into the nostrils. He gives a snuff. He introduces a crooked +tube into the man's mouth, and turns the end up back of his palate, +and, getting into the back opening of the nostrils, he blows in +certain medicated powders. The nose is better at once, the treatment +is continued, the patient is soon cured; with the first cold or +stomach derangement the symptoms return, the second cure is more +difficult, the third is very difficult, and then the patient goes to +another doctor, who tells him he is very sorry that he has been so +quacked, but he will make a sure cure this time. He goes through +with the same performance, with similar results. The patient now +abandons hope, and goes snuffling about, to the great discomfort of +himself and friends. In just this way a hundred maladies are +treated,--an inflamed eye, a noise in the ear, a rheumatic knee, a +gouty toe, a pain in the liver or spine, a sore throat, and so on +through the whole list. The doctor finds the sick place, and then +proceeds to attack it. + +The idea that the disease is in a certain part of the system, and +that the artillery must be directed to that precise spot, is not +only common among the doctors, but is so plausible that the people +all adopt it. This is the fundamental misapprehension underlying the +disastrous failure in medicine. + +The catarrh is not of the nose, but of the man, showing itself in +the nose. The bronchitis is not a disease of the throat, but of the +man, showing itself in the throat. The sore eye is not a disease of +the eye, but of the man, showing itself in the eye. + +A local disease is impossible. The organism is one and not many. +Even a gun-shot wound is not a local trouble. Suppose a man's little +finger is shot away. The man is not in the condition of a table with +a corner shot off; he is not even in the condition of a steam engine +with a valve or screw destroyed. Neither approaches the case of the +man with the maimed hand. The table is, except the small point +touched by the bullet, exactly as before. Feel of it. There is no +unusual warmth, no trembling, no sympathy with the wounded corner. +In fact, the table is quite well, thank you, except where it was +hit. Now examine the man with the hurt finger. Look at his face. How +pale and excited. Feel his pulse. It is 120 instead of 75. The skin +of his toes is in a peculiar condition. What is the matter with this +man's toes? They are suffering from a wound in his little finger. + +While no doctor fails to talk much of the vis medicatrix naturae, +while the condition of the general system is constantly invoked to +explain this and that, the treatment of most local affections is +conducted on the plan of repairing the wound in the corner of the +table. + +Here comes a man with a limping gait. He shows an ulcer upon his +ankle. The disease, sir, is not of your ankle, but of your system. I +will direct you how to improve your general health, so that this +ulcer will disappear, with no other local treatment than +cleanliness. You can't be cured by any doctor stuff put upon the +sore. This is the flag of distress which nature hangs out to give +notice of trouble within. + +We are at sea and descry a vessel with a flag of distress. Our +captain believes in the doctrine of local diseases, and sends a +boat's crew to cut down the flag; whereupon he struts about the deck +exclaiming, "We've done it! we've done it! we have cured them!" The +doctor who treats the ulcer, salt rheum, catarrh, or any other local +manifestation, as the disease itself, is about equally bright. + +But here comes a bad case. How pale and weak he seems. His pulse is +110, he is distressingly emaciated, and seems ready for the grave. +His cough and labored breathing suggest consumption, and we apply +the stethoscope to the chest. Ah, it's all of a piece. His lungs are +terribly ulcerated. "Now," says some wise doctor, "here it is. We've +found his trouble. We must bring our medicines to bear upon these +ulcers." "Yes, Doctor, that's it," gasps the patient; "just fix me +there, and I shall be all right." Then the wise doctor proceeds with +his inhalations, and keeps up the pitiful, suffocating farce, until +the patient, notwithstanding this most skillful treatment, sinks and +dies. + +As a matter of fact, this man's system, from some inherited taint, +or from some vicious habit, unhealthy mode of life, or some other +cause, was sick all through and through for months or years before +the malady was localized in his lungs. The ulcers in his lungs, like +his rapid pulse, emaciation, and sickening perspiration, are simply +manifestations of the disease. The real disease is systemic, like +all others, and must be treated like all other diseases, by lifting +up the general vitality. + +This must be done through sunshine, fresh air, exercise, +cleanliness, much sleep, cheerful society, and a wise diet. To give +such a patient medicated vapors, drugs for his stomach, or whiskey, +is a barbarism, that must soon give way before the advancing light +of our civilization. + + + +SUNSHINE AND HEALTH. + +Five or six years ago, when "Our Young Folks" was first published, +Messrs. Ticknor & Fields asked me to write some articles for that +magazine, about the management of children. One of those articles +was the following. It was published in the September number of the +year 1865:-- + +A Few Plain Words to My Little Pale-Faced Friends. + +Three years ago I visited my dear young friend, Susie. Although she +lives in the country, in the midst of splendid grounds, I found her +with a very pale face, and blue semi-circles under the eyes. Her +lips were as white as if she had just risen from a sick-bed; and yet +her mother told me she was as well as usual. Susie was seven years +old, and a most wonderful child. + +I said to her, "Well, my little chick, what makes you so pale?" + +She replied, "Oh, I was always pale. Annie says it is pretty." + +When we were all sitting around the dinner-table, I introduced the +subject again, for it was very sad to find this beautiful and +promising child so fragile. Before I left, I took little Susie's +hand and we walked into the garden. "And now," said I, "my little +one, you must show me your favorite flower." + +She took me to a beautiful moss-rose, and exclaimed, "Oh, that is +the most beautiful flower in the world; don't you think it lovely, +sir?" + +I said, "Now, Susie, I shall come here again in two weeks. I wish +you would dress up that rose-bush in a suit of your own clothes, and +allow the dress to remain till I return." + +She laughed, and said, "Why, how queer! why do you want me to do +that?" + +I replied, "Never mind, but run and get the clothes, and I will help +you dress it up, and see if it looks like you." + +So off she ran with loud shouts to ask mamma for a suit of her +clothes. Of course, mamma had to come and ask if I was serious, and +what were my reasons. I said, "I cannot give you my reasons today, +but I assure you they are good ones, and when I come again I will +explain it all to you." + +So a specimen of each and every kind of garment that Susie was in +the habit of wearing was brought forward, and Susie and I spent some +time in rigging out the rose-bush. First came the little shirt, +which made it look very funny; then came the little waist and skirt, +then the frock, then the apron, and, finally, over all, a little +Shaker sun-bonnet. When we had reached this point, Susie cried out, +"Now, how can you put on stockings and shoes?" I said, "We will cut +open the stockings and tie them around; the shoes we cannot use." Of +course we all laughed, and Susie thought I was the funniest man in +the world. She could hardly wait for me to come again, to tell her +why I had done such a funny thing. + +In two weeks, according to my promise, I was at my friend's house +again. Susie had watched her little rose-bush, or, rather, the +clothes which covered it, and longed for my coming. But when we took +the bonnet, gown, skirt, shirt and stockings away, lo and behold, +the beautiful rose-bush had lost its rich green, the flower had lost +its beautiful color,--had become, like its mistress, pale and +sickly. + +"Oh!" she cried, "what made you do so? why, you have spoiled my +beautiful rose-bush." + +I said, "Now, my dear little one, you must not blame me, for I did +this that you might remember something of great importance to you. +You and this rose-bush live out here in the broad, genial sunshine +together. You are pale and sickly; the rose-bush has been healthy +and beautiful. I put your clothes on this rose-bush to show you why +you are so white and weak. If we had kept these clothes upon the +bush for a month or two, it would have entirely lost its color and +health." + +"But would you have me go naked, sir?" + +"No, not altogether; but I would have you healthy and happy. And now +I am going to ask your papa to build out here in the garden a little +yard, with a close fence, and when the sun shines you must come out +into the yard with your nurse, and take off all your clothes, and +play in the sunshine for half an hour, or until your skin looks +pretty red." + +After a hearty laugh, the good papa asked if I was serious about it. +I told him, never more so, and that when I should come to them +again, a month hence, if Susie had such a baptism in the sunshine +four or five times a week, I could promise that the headache and +sleeplessness from which she suffered so much would be lessened, and +perhaps removed. + +The carpenter was set at work, and in two days the enclosure +surrounding a bed of flowers was completed. At eleven o'clock the +next morning, a naked little girl, with a very white skin, might +have been seen running about within the pen; papa, mamma, and the +nurse clapping their hands and shouting. I had been careful to say +that her head should be well protected for the first few days with a +large damp towel, then with a little flat hat, and, finally, the +head must be exposed like the body. + +I looked forward with a good deal of interest to my next visit. +Susie met me with, "Oh, I am as black as an Indian." + +"Well, but how is your health?" + +The good mother said, "She certainly has greatly improved; her +appetite is better, and I never knew her to sleep so well before." + +There were four children in the family, and all of them greatly +needed sun-baths. As there were two boys and two girls, it came to +pass soon that another pen was built, and four naked children +received a daily baptism in the blessed sunshine. And these children +all improved in health, as much as that rose-bush did after we +removed its funny dress. The good Lord has so made children that +they are as dependent upon the sun for their life and health as +plants are. When you try to make a house-plant grow far removed from +the window, where the direct rays of the sun cannot fall upon it, +you know it is small, pale and sickly; it will not long survive. If, +in addition to keeping it from the window, you dress it with the +clothes which a child wears, it will very soon sicken and die. If +you keep within doors, and do not go into the sunshine, or if, when +you do go out, you wear a Shaker bonnet and gloves, you must, like +the house-plant, become pale and sickly. + +Our young folks will ask me, "What is to be done? Are we to go +naked?" + +Oh no, not naked, but it would add greatly to your health and +strength, and your ability to work with both mind and body, if every +part of your body could be exposed to the sunshine a little time +every day. And if you are pale and feeble, the victim of throat, +lung, nerve, or other affection, you must seek a new life in this +exposure of your whole body to the sun-bath. But if you go a great +deal in the open air, and expose your face and hands to the direct +rays of the sun, you will probably do very well. + +Just think of it, your whole body under the clothes, always in the +dark, like a potato-vine trying to grow in a dark cellar. When you +take off your dress and look at your skin, are you not sometimes +almost frightened to see how white and ghastly it seems? How +elastic, tough and cheerful our young folks would become, could this +white, sickly skin be exposed every day to the sunshine! In no other +way could they spend an hour which would contribute so much to their +welfare. Carry that white, sickly potato-vine from the cellar out +into the blessed sunshine, and immediately it begins to get color, +health and strength. Carry that pale little girl from the dark +parlor, where she is nervous, irritable and unhappy, into the +sunshine, and immediately the blood starts anew; soon the skin takes +on a beautiful tinge, the little one digests better, her tongue +wears a better color, she sleeps better, her nerves are quiet, and +many happy changes come. + +Twenty years ago I saw a dear, sweet child, of two years, die of +croup. More than thirty hours we stood around its bed, working, +weeping, praying, hoping, despairing; but about one o'clock in the +morning the last painful struggle for breath gave way to the +peaceful sleep of death. + +On the following Sunday we gathered at the sad home to attend the +funeral. The little coffin was brought out under a shade-tree, and +placed upon a chair, just under the window of the bedroom where the +little one had always slept, and there the heart-broken mother and +father, with many neighbors, and the kind-hearted minister, all wept +together. And then we all walked to the graveyard, only a little +distance away, and buried the little one in the cold ground. + +On the very evening of that day, the brother of Charlie, who was +about two years older, was taken with the same disease. I was called +in to see him. Oh, how pitiful, how very touching, were the moanings +and groanings of that mother! When the sun rose the next morning, +the sufferer was better; as night came on he was much worse again, +but on the following day was able to ride out. + +Within a few days I sought an opportunity to speak with the parents +about the management of their little son. It was painful to tell +them that I thought they might have prevented the death of Charlie. +But I said what I thought was true, and then advised a new policy in +the case of the remaining child. I said to them, "Your son who has +been taken from you, was carefully screened from the sunshine. When +he rode out in the baby-wagon, it was always under cover. And he +slept always in that bedroom, into which the direct rays of the sun +never come; that great tree makes it impossible. A child cannot live +where a plant will not grow; and if you doubt what I am telling you, +try a pot of flowers in Charlie's bedroom. You will find that, in a +single month, the leaves will fall, and the plant will die. Charlie +spent three quarters of his life in that bedroom." + +The mother, at length, when convinced, cried out in very anguish of +soul, "What shall we do? what shall we do?" + +"Well," I said, "my dear friend, if you would save this child, and +that is the only available sleeping-room for it, I advise that you +have the trees which shade that part of the house cut down. Trees +should never be allowed to shade human dwellings. They are very +beautiful and noble objects, to my own fancy more beautiful and +noble than any other productions of our planet, and I would have +them multiplied, but would not have them near our houses." + +The trees were cut down, the blessed sunshine came in to dry, +sweeten and purify the bedroom. Its atmosphere was so changed that +no one could fail to observe it. The child was kept much in the open +air, and when taking his midday nap, he was occasionally laid naked +upon a mattress, near a window, in the direct rays of the sun, his +head protected, but the rest of the body exposed to the sunshine. +The little fellow's health greatly improved. I believe he never had +another attack of croup. + +Our young folks should never sleep in bedrooms that have not the +direct sunshine. They should never sleep in bedrooms the windows of +which are shaded by a piazza or a tree; and if they would have the +very best health, they must live as constantly as possible in the +sunshine. And all who have delicate health must, with their clothes +removed, take daily sun-baths during the summer season. Such a bath +will give them very little trouble, and they have no idea how much +it will add to their health and happiness. One good bath in the +sunshine is worth more than many baths in water, valuable as these +are. Some people admire pale girls. They make very good ghosts, but +are not worth much as girls. God hung up that great sun in the +heavens as the fountain of light, health, beauty and glory for our +earth. Our young folks, by living in houses with piazzas, shade- +trees, close blinds and curtains, and by using in their walks broad- +brimmed hats, gloves, parasols and veils deprive themselves, in +great part, of the many blessings which our Heavenly Father would +confer on them through the great sun. + +The above was widely circulated in "Our Young Folks," and has been +copied into other magazines and papers. I can but trust it has been +productive of good. + +For many years I have advised, in the case of a weak, emaciated +child, the sun-bath. These little, frail, half-baked creatures that +die of marasmus, would, in hundreds of cases recover, if they could +be thoroughly cooked, or baked over in the sun. With what magical +rapidity I have seen little, ghostly, dying things recover, by two +or three hours daily sleeping and rolling about naked in the +sunshine. + +We all know that hot fomentations, sharp friction, mustard +poultices, blisters, and other counter-irritants constitute the most +effective part of medical treatment; it is the only feature which +has continued from age to age in the art of medicine. In everything +else there has been constant change, revolution, contradiction. But +the practice of counter-irritation has continued, without essential +modifications, from time immemorial to the present hour. In exposing +the skin to a burning sun, we get more of counter-irritation than by +all other means; it reaches every part of the surface, and more than +all this, there is, in the sun's rays, a vitalizing power which +comes from no other source. Plants soon die in any other light. The +strongest gas-light will not help them; but they reflect the +gorgeous beauty of the sun, and send up a fragrance of thanksgiving. +Men would become ghastly in the concentrated light of a thousand +gas-burners; it is only in the sun-light that they can live. If this +vitalizing power could flood the entire skin of a pale girl two or +three hours a day, in a few months she would astonish us with her +abounding vitality and spirit. + + + +EXPERIMENT UPON A HOUSE-PLANT. + +I made an experiment upon a house-plant. It had been standing for +several weeks in a southern window, and was just beginning to +blossom. The flowers and leaves were particularly rich and +beautiful. I removed the plant to a shelf on the rear wall of the +room, and then holding the newspaper near it, found every word quite +legible. + +In forty-eight hours the delicate tints began to grow a little dim. +In six days, flower and leaf were drooping; in two days more, the +petals began to fall away; in two weeks from the beginning of the +experiment, the leaves were yellow, and many of them had fallen. + + + +EXPERIMENT UPON A ROSE-BUSH. + +I want to tell you of another experiment. In my friend's garden +there stood a beautiful rose-bush. It had just begun to bloom, and +it gladdened our eyes with twelve full blossoms and eighty-six buds. +I directed my carpenter to build a little shanty over it. The bush +was thus closed in on every side except the north. But it was light +enough inside to read the finest print without difficulty. The +little shanty closed over our beautiful roses on Wednesday evening. +On the following Sunday afternoon we visited the poor prisoner, and +found that already it was beginning to look sad. + +On the following Sunday our beautiful rose-bush was in a pitiful +condition. All the exquisite tints and shades were beginning to fade +into a common dullness, while the whole expression was weak and +sick. + +Buds that would have displayed their full beauty in two days were +still hesitating. + +After watching our sweet, patient, and dying prisoner for awhile, +and wondering that with so much light it could not see its way, we +tore away the envious, cruel boards, and let in a flood of sunshine. + +The following Sunday we paid another visit to our rose-bush, and I +cannot tell you what a glad sight it was. Although the neighboring +bushes were much more advanced, nevertheless ours had become +brilliant and joyous again. + + + +ANOTHER ROSE-BUSH. + +We selected another vigorous bush, and simply put a board cover over +it, leaving the sides open; and then we removed even this cover one +hour in the middle of each day. When this treatment had been +continued for eleven days, we took away the cover, and asked a few +lady friends to visit the garden with us. On coming to the clump of +rose-bushes, they exclaimed:-- + +"Oh! how beautiful; how very beautiful." + +"Young ladies, which of all these rose-bushes do you most admire? I +must first tell you that, some days since, I asked the Deacon which +he thought the most fresh and beautiful, and he selected this one." + +"What, that one?" + +"Yes, he thought this one looked the strongest, and had the richest +colors." + +"Now, is that really so?" + +"Yes, I brought him out here on purpose to ask him, and he selected +this one at once." + +"Well, he must have queer eyes. That's just like these men, they +don't seem to know anything; why, that is really the meanest one in +the whole lot. It looks as if it had a fit of the dumps." + +Then I had to tell them that the Deacon was right, and that, in his +selection, he had shown the characteristic discrimination and taste +of men! but that, during a number of days, the great solar artist +had been partially interrupted in his exquisite touches upon this +particular bush,--in fact, I gave them a little lecture, then and +there, upon the relations between sunshine and beauty. + + + +EXPERIMENT UPON A ROSE-GIRL. + +One of my neighbors, Major P----, has a daughter, whom we will name +Rose. The Major not having a rose-bush, tried an experiment on his +Rose-girl. This was his method:-- + +In the first place, he sent her up into New Hampshire in June, and +kept her there, living out in the sunshine, till the last of +September. Then he brought her in town, and we all had a chance to +examine her. She was really in a very strange condition. In the +first place, her manner of walking was singular. I cannot describe +it better than to say that she seemed to go by jerk. In putting one +foot forward to take a step, the foot behind gave a sudden and +vigorous push. + +My opinion, as a medical man, was not asked; but my diagnosis, +before a medical class, would have been this:-- + +"Gentlemen, in the case of Miss Rose P---- there is considerable +physical vigor, which seems to show itself by an extraordinary +activity and strength of muscle, and an unusual ebullition of animal +spirits. And, gentlemen, although these manifestations are +extraordinary, and very rare among young ladies, I do not regard the +case as immediately alarming. Indeed, gentlemen, it is my opinion +that this remarkable malady will disappear without active treatment, +if the patient be confined in a strait jacket, and kept quiet in a +dark room. + +"That peculiar sparkle of the young lady's eyes will, likewise, soon +disappear, under this treatment." + +Without asking my opinion, or a prescription, the Major did exactly +what I have suggested. The daughter was laced in a strait jacket, or +a corset, (which squeezes a good deal harder,) and she remained in a +dark parlor and curtained bedroom all but about an hour a day; and +then, unless it was particularly bright and pleasant, she rode +during that one hour in a covered carriage. + +In two months the experiment was a complete success. As in the case +of the rose-bush, so in the case of the Rose-girl, the absence of +sunshine had produced a limp, weak, sick state. + +Miss Rose had lost all the elastic bound in her manner of walking, +all the hearty ring in her laugh, all the color in her face, all the +shine of her eyes, all her power of diffusing joy about her. + +There are other experiments of a similar kind in progress, and +persons who are interested in this sort of scientific observation, +will, by calling at their next door neighbor's, find very +interesting opportunities to prosecute such studies. + +Shade-trees, piazzas, blinds, curtains, carriage-tops and parasols +produce weak eyes, weak nerves, weak digestion, weak spines, weak +muscles, weak volition, and, in brief, weak women. + +As argued in my recent work, "Talks about People's Stomachs," the +function of digestion is powerfully affected by the light. + +Place the richest earth and plenty of water about a potato-vine in +the cellar; it can't digest its food, and must remain pale and weak. + +Go up stairs into the drawing-room, and you will find girls, (excuse +me, I mean young ladies,) who look so exactly like the potato-vine +in the cellar, that you are not at all surprised to find them under +the same roof, for they are clearly members of the same family,-- +the anti-solar family. + +The next system of treatment for invalids will be the "Sun-Cure." +Institutions will be established, to which patients will flock for +the cure of chronic maladies. Affections of the stomach and liver, +will, by the "Sun-Cure," be relieved almost as if by a miracle. One, +two or three hours a day, patients will be exposed nude, to the sun, +either in part,--for example, the abdomen or back, or over the entire +person, when the fault is one of digestion and assimilation. Young +ladies in the matrimonial market, who are such ghosts that the men +shudder and run away front them, will spend three months in one of +these institutions, and return as brown and sweet as their admirers +could wish. In the coming "sun-cure," diseases which are now +regarded as well-nigh incurable, for example, some forms of +neuralgia, will be quickly relieved. + +Whether the banks pay specie or not, whether trade flourishes or +languishes, whatever may be our success or failure in life, let us +keep wide open the flood-gates of life; let us be true children of +the sun, worshipping, not with prostrate forms, but, standing +upright in the image of God, express our gratitude by baptismal +evolutions in the all-glorious light. + + + +A WORD ABOUT BATHS. + +My dear girls, I want to speak to you very plainly about baths. + +The clearness of the mind, the brightness of the spirits, the beauty +of the skin,--in one word, the purity of the whole system, depends +upon the free escape of the worn-out matter. You all know about this +economy of nature. + +Look at this dish of fruit,--grapes, peaches, pears; how beautiful, +how fragrant, how delicious. How lusciously they melt in the mouth! + +Transfer them to the stomach. If we could watch the interior +processes, we should find, in a few hours, these exquisite fruits +changed into filthy, poisonous liquids and gases. How shall +we get rid of this stuff? The most simple avenue of escape is found +in millions of small holes through the skin. Out of these the effete, +poisonous matter passes away. + + + +OILY SECRETIONS OF THE SKIN. + +The skin is constantly secreting oil. It oozes out and lies on the +surface. + +We live in an atmosphere filled with dust, besides, there is +constantly escaping from our clothes, dust and dirt of various +kinds. These things, with the oil of the skin, plug up a portion of +the pores, so that the effete, dirty matter cannot escape. + +Keeping these poisons in the system, not only produces pimples upon +the face, and discoloration of the skin, but dullness and heaviness +of the whole system. The mind becomes foggy, the spirits low, the +muscles stiff and sore, the breath and perspiration offensive, the +whole system unclean. + +Those portions of our skins that we cover with clothes are somewhat +difficult to keep clean. Roll up your sleeve when your arm is +perspiring, and rub the skin hard with your naked hand. You will be +surprised at the rolls of dirt which the rubbing will bring away. +You may rub some minutes in the same place, before the little rolls +will stop coming. This dirt is held by the oil of the skin. + + + +IMPORTANCE OF SOAP. + +Nothing cleans the skin like soap. Wetting the skin every morning +with simple water, and wiping it off, will not keep it clean. Such +simple water baths contribute to cleanliness, and are useful; but +the cleanest condition of the surface cannot be secured by such +means. + + + +DETAILS OF THE BATH. + +Let me tell you just how to manage your daily baths. You must have a +bathing mat, which you can procure at any rubber store. It consists of +a circular, thin rubber sheet, four or five feet in diameter, with the +edge turned up two inches. This, during the day, has been folded up +and thrown aside. When you want to bathe, spread it out, and you +have a tub four feet in diameter, and just as good as though the +sides were two feet high. This is all the bath-tub you need. Perhaps +I ought to say, that if it is not convenient to purchase one of +these at a rubber store, you can make one with a large piece of +oil-cloth, by sewing a rope into its edge. Of course you must have a +wash-bowl with two or three quarts of water. Next, a pair of bathing +mittens,--simple bags,--loosely fitting your hands. These are made +of the ends of a worn-out crass or Turkish towel, though any thick +linen will do. + +Now with a piece of good soap,--it matters little what kind,--you +are ready. + +You have removed your night-dress, you are standing upon the centre +of your bathing mat, with your mittens or bags upon your hands. +Seize the soap, make abundant soap-suds, and go over every part of +the skin. Rub the soap several times, that every portion of the skin +may be thoroughly covered with soap-suds. Now, dipping your hands +into the water, rinse off the soap, although if it is winter, and +the free use of water chills you, you may apply very little water, +and wipe the soap-suds from your skin. Indeed, with many persons, it +is an excellent practice to leave a certain portion of the soap on +the skin. It will continue the process of neutralizing the oil. I +have myself derived advantage and satisfaction, during the cold +season, by the free use of soap, with very limited quantities of +water. + + + +BATH-ROOMS. + +The ordinary bath-tub is a humbug. That zinc coffin, in which you +lie down, put your head upon a strap at one end, to keep yourself +from drowning, and then balance yourself for a while in a sort of +floating condition, is simply a stupid absurdity. You can't even rub +yourself to advantage; and if you are determined to rub your body, +you are sure to bruise your elbows against the sides of the coffin. + +With the exception of those baths which are given for some special +remedial purpose, all baths should be hand baths. The bather should +apply the soap and water to her own skin, and that she may use it +freely and in her own comfortable bedroom, the bath-mat, which I +have described, is indispensable. It never wears out, gives no care, +and is on the whole, a most happy device. + + + +HOT AND COLD BATHS. + +The application of cold or hot water to the skin, produces two +effects,--a primary and a secondary,--action and reaction. + +If the water be _cold_, the _primary_ effect is to make the skin +cold. When the _secondary_ effect or reaction comes on, the skin +becomes _warm_. If _hot_ water be applied to the skin, the _primary_ +effect is to make the skin hot; the _secondary_ effect, or +reaction, leaves it cold. + +The first effect is a momentary one; the second effect, or reaction, +continues a long time. + +Timid girls exclaim:-- + +"_Cold_ water! of course you don't mean _cold_ water! What, _cold_ +water, right _on_ me and _all over_ me? Why, Doctor, I couldn't +stand it! it would kill me!" + +"Do you think you could take a hot bath?" + +"Oh, certainly; I could take a hot bath easy enough." This +conversation occurs in January. + +My dear child, you are entirely mistaken. Everybody can take a cold +bath, if properly managed, every day of the year; but, during the +cold weather, it takes a strong constitution to bear a hot bath; for +although the first, or momentary effect, is to make the skin warm +and comfortable, the secondary effect, or reaction, which comes on +very soon and lasts a long time, is to make the surface very cold. + +During the warm weather, the hot bath is a great luxury. For the +moment it makes you warm, but the secondary effect, or reaction, +which will continue for a long time, leaves you in a cool, +comfortable state. + +Foot baths afford a happy illustration of this Homoeopathic law, +"_Similia Similibus Curantur_,"--"_like are cured by like_." + +You are troubled with cold feet. Dip the bottoms of your feet in +cold water. Let the water be half an inch deep. Hold the feet there +four or five minutes, and then give them a good rubbing. Perhaps +stand on the carpet with your naked feet, and twist from side to +side, until your feet are burning. Not only will your feet remain +warm all night, but after practicing this two or three weeks, unless +your digestion is _very_ weak, your feet will become warm as a +habit. + +On the contrary, if you are troubled with burning feet, a frequent +hot foot bath will cure you. + +But in every case the employment of hot foot baths will give +tendency to cold in the head. + +But you say again that you like cold baths well enough in warm +weather; but if you use the cold bath in the winter, it makes you +cold and shivery, it gives you headache and depresses you. + +Ah, I see you haven't taken the bath in the right way. If you take +it in the way I suggest, no such effects will follow. Apply soap to +every part of your skin rapidly with your bathing mittens. That is +the most important part of the bath. Now put on just as much or just +as little water as your comfort may suggest. If you can bear a good +deal, you may put it on; but if you are sensitive to the cold, +manage in the way I have suggested,--put on the soap, follow with a +damp mitten, and do it all just as rapidly as your hands can move, +so that from the time you take off your night dress, until the soap +has been applied to every part of the body, and followed by the damp +mitten and dry towels, will not be more than one to two minutes. If +this is done in your bedroom, instead of a cold bath-room, you will +hardly be chilled or depressed by it. If you are so exceedingly +sensitive that even this momentary exposure with a moist skin +produces an unpleasant chilliness, then follow the soap bath by the +most vigorous use of a pair of hair gloves. + + + +HAIR GLOVES OR MITTENS. + +For three thousand years, hair mittens have been in use. Hippocrates +rubbed himself with a pair. + +Girls, you should all have a pair of hair mittens. Buy Lawrence's +English patent. They are the best in the market. At night, when you +are about to retire, rub every part of the skin till it is as red as +a boiled lobster. Ah, how sweet it makes the sleep, how sure to +remove all tendency to morning headache. I have seen this practice +entirely break up unpleasant dreams. Your skins are always in the +dark. They become pale and bloodless. The blood which should +circulate in the skin, retires within the body, producing congestion +of the liver, with bad complexion; congestion of the stomach, with +dyspepsia; congestion of the heart and lungs, with short and labored +breath, and congestion of the brain, with headache. + +If the skin, which has so many blood-vessels, and is designed to +hold so large a quantity of blood,--if the skin enjoyed a constant, +free, vigorous circulation, it would relieve the organs within the +body of most of their sufferings. I know of no other simple or +single means, by which such circulation can be established and +maintained in the skin, as by the constant and spirited use of the +hair mittens. Besides, it will do wonders for the beauty of your +face. Giving the skin of the residue of the body a free circulation, +the skin of the face is not likely to be called upon to do more than +its share of removing the effete matter in the system, and, +therefore, is not likely to take on pimples and other evidences of +impurities in the blood. + + + +HOME GYMNASIUM. + +The effeminacy of our civilized life, with the employment of +machinery for the hard work, necessitates a resort to artificial +physical exercise. + +Every home, especially where there are children, should have a room +devoted altogether, or, on occasions, to gymnastic exercises. + +Happily, Schreber, the most eminent of the German school of physical +training, has devised a complete apparatus for family use, to which +he has given the name of "Pangymnastikon," (which may be translated +as meaning all exercises upon one piece of apparatus). + +This piece of apparatus weighs not more than ten pounds, may be put +into a small box, can be hung up in any room or hall, a parlor, for +example, in a minute, and offers complete facilities for a greater +variety of fascinating and effective physical exercises than can be +found in a gymnastic hall a hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and +filled with the ordinary gymnastic apparatus. + +When no longer needed, it may be taken down and put away in a +moment. + +This piece of apparatus is pretty, inexpensive, and perfectly safe. +The manufacturers furnish with it six little wall maps, on which are +represented, in engravings, one hundred different exercises, +arranged in six groups, and adapted to the varying strength and +capacity of the pupils. A very considerable number of the best of +these can be performed by girls and women in their ordinary long +skirts. + +But if I had daughters in my own family, and we were using the +Pangymnastikon, I should urge them to drop their long skirts at the +hour of exercise, and wear a pair of loose pants and a jacket. Such +a dress would permit many profitable exercises for the legs and +hips, which women greatly need. + +They seem now, except, perhaps, in the case of dancing girls, to be +almost as helpless, in any extraordinary circumstances, as our +wooden-legged soldiers. + +For example, if a woman undertakes to step upon a street car when it +is motion, she is sure to lose her balance; and if she steps off the +car when it is in motion, though the horses are only walking, down +she goes. An hour's exercise each day with the Pangymnastikon would +soon cure her of this awkward helplessness, and, at the same time, +would develop the muscles about the lower part of her body, and thus +save her numberless weaknesses and sufferings. + + + +WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT + +In all countries where food is plenty and cheap, excessive eating is +well-nigh universal. + +The parents indulge in excesses, the father inflames his appetite +with narcotics, the children inherit an unnatural craving; during +the nursing period they are fed constantly; during childhood they +are bated with cakes, candies and other sweetmeats, and afterwards +they are tempted with a variety of condimented meats, and these are +followed with appetizing desserts, fruits, and other tit-bits. + + + +CONSEQUENCES. + +The results are seen on every hand, in almost every individual. The +stomach becomes weak and deranged, the body heavy and in-elastic, +the mind foggy and sluggish, the temper irritable. + +In no other department of American life do we so much need a +thorough reform. Fashionable people hate the word _reform_, but in +this connection no other word will answer; we must set about a +thorough, earnest, radical _reform._ + +The Creator has so contrived our bodies, He has made them so +resistant and elastic, that an occasional abuse seems to make little +impression. + +For example, a man may get drunk once a month, and at the end of a +dozen years he seems scarcely touched by the vice; although, as the +physiologist has shown us, upon each indulgence the lining coat of +the stomach is strangely inflamed, and changed in appearance; +indeed, for three or four days after each debauch the mucous lining +of the stomach continues to exude a matter which closely resembles +pus. Besides these marked and apparently alarming effects, it is +well known that alcohol is a powerful poison to every tissue of the +body, especially to the nerve; and yet the alcohol is not digested, +but goes, bodily and unchanged, creeping through every atom of the +brain itself; nevertheless, after hours of deep, death-like +lethargy, the man awakens, and his wonderful mechanism is ready to +grapple again with the duties of life. + +A child takes into its mouth a bit of tobacco. It is followed by a +pale face, cold sweat, alarming palpitations, and violent vomiting. +And yet, after a little practice, the human system may be deluged +with this powerful, narcotic poison,--a man's mouth may be kept +swimming, month after month, with the strongest juice of the +strongest tobacco,--his very perspiration may be so filled with +this intense poison, that, falling on the battle-field, the most +loathsome beast of prey will not touch his body. Yet so complete is +his facility of adaptation, so immense his power of resistance, +that, for a life-time, his bodily, mental and moral machinery will +struggle on in the midst of this sea of poison. + +And so it is with this almost universal vice of improper and +excessive eating. The stomach and liver are clogged and deranged, +the blood is filled with crudities and impurities, the brain is +crowded with this vicious blood, and yet the Good Father has given +us such an immense reserve, that we can bear all this, and still +have force enough left to move about, to think, to feel, and +sometimes to have hours of real enjoyment. + +Our Father gives us "signs;" he hangs out "flags of distress,"-- +pimples, and blotches, and sores, a red nose, inflamed eyelids, +etc.; besides, he gives us rheumatism, gout, and numerous other +aches, but he lets us live on for years, apparently in the hope that +we may learn something. + +Our American system of diet is altogether bad. There is too great +variety, the food is too rich, the cooking is often very bad, we eat +too frequently, and we eat at the wrong times. + +I confess to a deep personal interest in this subject. It is my sad, +but most deliberate conviction, that I have wasted a large part of +my life-force by taking too much food. I have not made this mistake +for some years; but the gray hairs began to make their appearance +before I learned about it. + +Ah, my dear young friends, how deeply do I yearn to help you in this +vital department of your life! + +Will you permit me a little of my own experience? I believe that, in +this way, I can speak more acceptably and more effectively, than by +giving the deductions of physiology. + +For nearly thirty years I have been in the habit of visiting one +dear woman, in the State of New York, once or twice a year. (She +does not seem any older to me now, than she did when, from the front +window, she watched me on my way to Sunday-school, on a beautiful +Sabbath morning, forty years ago. + +On my visits at the old home for these thirty years, I have been +tempted by those dishes which no one but a mother can make, and have +eaten more than usual; and, although the visit was, otherwise, such +as freshens and invigorates the faculties, I constantly observed +that, upon my return, my lectures were duller rather than +sprightlier as they should have been after such a pleasant rest. At +length, I came to suspect that visiting, even with my own mother, +did not agree with me. But it occurred to me, a few years ago, to +deny myself the custard pie so thick and luscious, to refuse the +chicken pie, with its rich crust, to deny myself all the desserts +and other tit-bits, and live on a moderate quantity of plain beef +and bread. Since then, my pilgrimages to the home-shrine have +greatly refreshed both body and soul, and I return home to resume my +duties with new pleasure and new strength. Why will people, (I trust +my mother will pardon the question,) why will people prepare such +elaborate and tempting dishes for their friends? If one has a keen +appetite, and sits at the table in a social spirit, and takes even a +little of each article urged upon him, the variety and quantity must +derange his digestion, and then his capacity for enjoyment is at an +end. + +I was invited, a few months ago, to dine at the house of a lady, who +is recognized as standing at the head of the intellectual +aristocracy of a most intellectual and refined city. The lady is +noted, likewise, as the best of housekeepers, and as a most charming +hostess. The plate and crockery were the finest I have ever seen at +a private table. We had four courses: 1st, a small glass of +lemonade, 2nd, a bit of melon, 3rd, roast beef and sweet potatoes, +4th, ice-cream. + +Our hostess, with her fine conceptions of life, could no more have +given us soup, fish, meat, game, puddings, pies, raisins, nuts, +fruits and ice-creams, than she could have offered us whiskey, rum, +gin, brandy and all the rest of them. All this sort of thing, +whether of foods or drinks, belongs to the vulgar and barbarous. + +Some time since an august Medical Association assembled for its +annual meeting in Boston. The city government voted a large sum of +money to the entertainment of the "distinguished visitors." It was a +precious opportunity for the homoepathic physicians of the city, +under whose management the money was to be spent, to show what a +generous and refined hospitality could do. + +Boston has a peculiar reputation. In some respects it stands alone +among American cities. And this was a peculiar occasion. Several +hundred representatives of a dominant school of medicine, one which +now commands the intelligence of the country, were to convene in +Boston. The strangers stopped at hotels and with the brethren, and, +it may be fairly presumed, got enough to eat. + +What do you suppose our doctors did? I will tell you. The evening +before the convention, the delegates were invited to attend a +preparatory meeting, at which meeting the _preparation_ consisted in +eating, in the evening after supper, sundry salads, cold chickens, +cakes, oysters, creams, &c. + +The convention adjourned next day at twelve o'clock, for a +collation, although it may be supposed that the members had all been +to breakfast. After the collation, many of them went to dinner, then +came the afternoon session, then another stuffing, then an evening +session, then a surfeit, and even when the entertainment was given +in Music Hall, which was really fine, the members were invited to +another hall to fill up their stomachs before they went to bed. + +If this meeting had occurred in some frontier town, where they had +nothing but victuals, it would have been tolerable, as a good- +natured back-woods hospitality; but in Boston, something better was +expected. + +If I had been a member of that convention, I could have said: + +"Gentlemen, we can get cold turkey and chicken salad at home, but if +you will permit us to assemble in the art gallery of your splendid +Atheneum, and your artists who have made this gallery a special +study, will give us their bright thoughts in connection with the +works of the great masters there collected; if you will allow us to +spend a half day in your 'Natural History Building,' and give us +Prof. Agassiz to explain things; if you will permit us to assemble +in that crowning glory of New England Education--'The Institute of +Technology,' and give us President Rogers for a brief explanation; +yes, gentlemen, if you will show us any of twenty Boston +institutions with the assistance of intelligent guides, we shall be +most grateful. Gentlemen, don't be afraid of us, we shall not be +offended if you happen to appeal to something above our stomachs. +Gentlemen, we have come from the West to Boston, imagining that your +two hundred years of uninterrupted growth and accumulations, have +enriched you with something besides chicken salad, but here we find, +that nothing is thoroughly organized and placed within our reach, +except another dinner, exactly such as we get at home at any of our +village taverns. Gentlemen, you think we can't appreciate anything +else, and so you kindly condescend to our condition and feed us, but +really we could appreciate your finest music, and best dramas, your +great pictures, und your matchless educational institutions. At any +rate you should have given us a chance at some of these things, +under the guidance of your eminent specialists, and if we had shown +that lack of appreciation which Red-Cloud and Spotted-Tail--the +Indian chiefs--exhibited when taken through the Patent Buildings in +Washington, then you could have fallen back on victuals again; but +until we had shown that utter lack of sense seen in R. Cloud, Esq., +and S. Tail, Esq., it was hardly fair to deny us all opportunity to +examine the treasures of your city. + +Two or three years ago, while visiting a dear friend in the country, +in a neighborhood where I knew many of the people, my friend +proposed to invite in my acquaintances for an evening's chat. I +replied that I should be most happy, should feel myself honored, but +could not consent to such a gathering on my account if there was to +be any eating. Mrs. L. was already overwhelmed with cares; if these +were to be increased by the re-union, I should be obliged to +decline; besides, on principle I was opposed to evening suppers. +Mrs. L. couldn't think of such an omission for a moment, it would be +the talk of the town for months; but I insisted, and finally she +consented if I would take the responsibility, and explain it to the +company. I did explain it, and gave my reasons for it. Most of them +thought it was the right thing to do, several wished with all their +hearts that the practice could become general, but one embryotic +clergyman said he thought it well enough, perhaps, but it was +pleasant, and he did not think it hurtful, to take refreshments in +the evening; since that time, however, under the lash of dyspepsia, +he has changed his opinion. + +If people have beautiful homes and wealth, and desire to make the +party a _recherche_ affair, are there not professional players, +singers, actors, readers, florists etc., etc.? Something grand could +be given for half the expense of an elaborate supper. + +I need hardly hint to bright people of a less pretentious class, +that social singing, dancing, charades, and a hundred beautiful +games are all open to them. These are ten-fold more enjoyable than +the more stately methods of the rich. + +The time will soon come when people of really fine culture will not +think of giving their guests a late supper; indeed, of the twenty +most intellectual and refined homes to which I have been invited in +America and Europe, not one gave any refreshments at an evening +party, with perhaps the exception of wine in France, and lemonade in +this country. + +If people have no brains, but have good stomachs, then I advise +eating on all occasions; in fact it is the only thing left. Such +people may have already eaten three meals, but when they assemble in +the evening at a sociable, they had better feed again, and feed +hearty; what else is there to do? They can't sit and stare at each +other by the hour, and it wouldn't be good manners to lie down on +the floor and go to sleep. After they finish the more substantial +meats and things, they can fill up the rest of the evening with +nuts, doughnuts, apples, cider, and other trifling things. + +But if people happen to have a love of music, paintings, +conversation, (the finest of the fine arts,) bright games, charades, +dramatics, or any other of twenty amusements; if they happen to have +a love for anything above cold pork, then I advise them, when +assembled in a social way, to give their brains a chance, and not +stuff their stomachs; the former is human, the latter is piggish. + +Few changes in our social life have afforded me such genuine +satisfaction as the recent changes, among a few of our best people, +in the forms and methods of hospitality. Only a few years ago, even +among the intelligent class, the first question was: + +"Will you have something to eat?" + +Now you frequently hear such questions as: + +"Have you seen those new stereoscopic views of the Yosemite?" + +"No!" + +"Please come this way and I will show you one of the most beautiful +series you ever saw!" + +Or: "Do let me read you, or you read to me, three of the funniest +anecdotes I have seen for months!" Or: "Have you seen that +remarkable statement in the papers this morning, in the circular +letter from Bismark? He affirms that in twenty wars between Prussia +and France, France has been the aggressor every time! If this be +true, our sympathy for the French would seem to be thrown away; for +after such a history, Prussia can hardly be blamed for wishing to so +cripple France that she shall be unable for half a century, at +least, to trouble her neighbors." + +The change from "Will you have a glass of whiskey?" which was +addressed to callers fifty years ago, to the question, "Will you +have something to eat?" which was addressed to them twenty-five +years ago, was, on the whole, a great improvement. The change which +has now been inaugurated of addressing your hospitality to something +above the stomach, is a still greater improvement. + +When this has been fairly established, housekeepers can entertain +company, in the evening, with real pleasure and profit to all +concerned. When an evening sociable means a "big feed," it involves +a great sacrifice; there is roasting, baking and fussing for two or +three days, and the expense is such as only a few can well afford. +And what is it all for? Why, I can't think of anything, unless it is +to make the company sick. Does anyone doubt that eating late in the +evening is injurious? And does any one doubt that the preparation +and cost of the supper involve a sacrifice to the housekeeper? If +these are admitted, I can't imagine any decent apology for the +custom. + +What shall be done? Every important movement must be inaugurated by +individual action. Let those who have the idea, and the moral +courage, excuse themselves from all evening refreshments, and the +fashion will soon become general. It is a real pleasure to say, that +already thousands have determined upon this course, so that now it +is quite safe to entertain company without refreshments. + +Well, after all this about what and how you should _not_ eat, now I +will tell you what and how you _should_ eat. + +To secure a clear, fresh skin, bright eye, active limbs, a quick +brain, and a cheerful, pleasant temper, and if you would enjoy a +long life, you should live about as follows:-- + + + +BREAKFAST. + +Oatmeal porridge with milk and sugar. Or, Graham mush with a little +good syrup. Or, cracked wheat, with milk and sugar. Or, baked +potatoes with bread and butter. Or, beef-steak or mutton-chop with +baked potatoes, and bread and butter. + +If you are thin, and need fat, use the first three, if you are too +fat, use the last named two. Drink cold water or a little weak +coffee. + + + +DINNER. + +Beef or mutton, roasted, or stewed, with any vegetables you may +like, (though tomatoes should be used very sparingly,) good bread +and butter, and, close the meal with a glass of weak lemonade. Eat +no dessert, unless it be a little fruit, and eat nothing more till +the next morning. + +There is no rule in regard to diet about which I am so fixed in my +convictions as, that nothing should be eaten after dinner, and I +think that the dinner should be taken early in the day; not later, +if it can be so managed, than two o'clock. In regard to the precise +hour for the dinner, I am not so clear, though for myself one +o'clock is the best hour; but in reference to the omission of the +third meal, I have, after long observation, _no doubt whatever_. + +Hundreds of persons have come to me with indigestion in some of its +many forms, and have experienced such relief in a single week from +omitting the supper, that I have, for a number of years, depended +upon this point in the diet as the best item in my prescriptions for +indigestion. I have never met one person suffering from indigestion, +who was not greatly relieved at once, by omitting the third meal. + +Eat nothing between meals, not even an apple or peach. If you eat +fruit, let it be with the breakfast and dinner. Cooked fruit is best +for persons of weak digestion. I have met hundreds of people who +could digest a large beefsteak without a pang, but who could not +manage a single uncooked apple. I think certain dietetic reformers +have somewhat overrated the value of fruit. + +_Avoid cake, pie, all sweetmeats, nuts, raisins and candies_. + +Manage your stomach as above, and at the end of ten years you will +look back upon these table habits as the source of great advantages, +and happiness. + +For thirty years I have been a constant and careful observer, (I +have no hobbies about diet,) and in the light of my own experience +and these long observations, I assure you that the table habits I +have advised, are vital to your health and happiness. + +Pimples, blotches, yellow spots, nasal catarrh, biliousness, liver +torpidity, constipation, sleepiness, dullness, low-spirits, and many +other common affections would generally disappear with the adoption +of these rules. + + + +JACOB SCHNEIDER AND HIS DOUGHNUTS. + +I cannot close this subject better than with a "little story" about +my friend Jacob. + +I called upon him about nine o'clock in the evening, and found him +alone, and very seriously occupied with a big wooden bowl of +doughnuts. I asked him: + +"How many, so far?" + +"Oh, eight or ten, perhaps." + +"Did you have supper?" + +"Oh, yes; I ate supper, and I shouldn't touched these, but somehow I +didn't feel very well, and was sorter lonesome, and these doughnuts +are kinder company for me, ye know. The old woman always fries them +in the evening, and when they are nice and hot I sometimes eat more +'n twenty on 'em, just to sorter pass away the time, ye know." + + + +WINES AND OTHER ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. + +Woman rules in the social sphere, and is responsible for its vices. +If women would expressly disapprove of wine-drinking, soon, among +the decent classes, it would become obsolete. + +Clara P. came from Portsmouth to Boston about twenty years ago, to +seek her fortune as a teacher of the piano. Wholesome in person, and +interesting in manners, she not only won pupils, but social +recognition. + +At a reception in Somerset St., she was asked to join in a glass of +wine. Hinting at a shadow in her family history, she quietly +declined, and fell into a sad, thoughtful mood. + +A month later, at a similar gathering in the same house, she was +confidentially told by the lady of the house, that two gentlemen who +were present at the previous reception, had just requested her not +to offer wines, as Miss. P. was made unhappy by it. The wines were +not brought out, and no farther allusion was made to the subject. At +several other social gatherings, when Miss P. was present, the same +respectful deference was paid to her feelings; and yet this young +woman did not belong to the most influential class. + +Mrs. F. was married two years, when rum turned her little quiet home +into a hell. Broken-hearted and sick, she left her baby son with her +sister, and came to Boston to rest her aching head and sore heart, +and to earn a living. She advertised for a place as housekeeper, and +had several interviews with ladies and gentlemen who were in pursuit +of a housekeeper. She told her story to each one in turn, and was +quickly dropped by one and another, until her last dollar had been +paid for bread and shelter; and then came a manly man who was +touched by her sad recital, and said at once: + +"Come, work and rest with us." + +He took her to a beautiful house in Mt. Vernon St. and left her in +charge of a fashionable, helpless family. Mrs. F. soon established +herself in the confidence of the household. In a few days there came +a party, and the housekeeper was busy enough. Among other duties was +the delivery to the waiters of bottles of wine. Mrs. F. called the +gentleman of the house, and said: + +"You have been very kind to me, and I will do anything for you, but +I hope you will excuse me from this; my hands refuse." The Colonel +called one of the colored boys, and gave him the key of the wine- +cellar, and the entertainment went on as usual. Up stairs the +housekeeper's notion was mentioned, and one of the young men cried +out: + +"Come gentlemen, fill up, fill up; here's to the health of the brave +housekeeper, and long may she wave." + +The lady of the house thought it very queer, and next day sought an +explanation. It was, after some reluctance, given with tears and +passionate ejaculations. The lady thought there might be danger; +indeed her husband and oldest son had of late seemed too fond of +wine. Several conversations followed between the two mothers, and +the lady, just previous to the next social gathering, said to her +husband at the breakfast table, in the presence of her sons: + +"What do you say to having no wine tonight? That story of Mrs. F.'s +has really frightened me?" + +"Now," said the husband, "don't _you_ go to preaching temperance; +it's enough to have one woman in the house teaching morals." + +"But," said the anxious wife and mother, "I was not preaching; I was +just asking what you thought of it; and if you were willing, I had +made up my mind to turn over a new leaf in our receptions." + +_Husband_,--"Well, then I shall go in for abandoning coffee and tea. +I think they do a great deal more harm than wine!" + +_Herbert_,--"Yes, and how it would sound with all our fellows here, +to tell them with solemn faces, that we were afraid they would all +become drunkards, and so we must deny them. Oh, pshaw! I should +never hear the last of it." + +_Mother_,--"I can only say that when they were here last, several of +them, including my own dear Herbert, drank too much." + +_Herbert_,--"I think we had better turn it into a prayer-meeting at +once." + +_Father_,--"Oh well, mother, let us eat our breakfast in peace. We +will speak of it some other time." + +During the day the two mothers held a long conversation, in which +Mrs. F described the beautiful, fresh face and spirit of Charles, +before the dreadful thirst took possession of him, and the horrible, +brutal oaths and passion which followed. + +The two sad ones closed their long conversation, as women are wont +to when in real trouble, by earnest, tearful prayer. + +The lady of the house said to herself, "My husband is always +declaring that I am the queen of his castle; that he attends to +everything in his business outside, and never wants me to interfere; +but that he leaves everything at home to me,--that here I am +mistress of all. I wonder if this is so. God helping me, I will try +my authority, this very night." + +John was ordered to bring round the carriage, and soon after, a lady +might have been seen down in Kilby St., in earnest conversation with +a certain well-known wine merchant; and just before dark, two men, +with a wagon at the back door, were very busy up in the rear of Mt. +Vernon St. + +About eleven o'clock that evening, the Colonel rang the bell for +Richard, when the good wife interrupted him by saying: + +"Gentlemen, will you not join me in a cup of coffee to-night, +instead of the wine?" + +"Certainly, madam, most certainly! while we are your guests, we +place ourselves at your disposal!" + +The bright urn was brought in, and placed upon the side-board, and +the waiters, who had received special instructions, acquitted +themselves with marked success. + +If you could have placed your ear at a certain keyhole, after the +family had retired that night, you would have heard a very earnest +conversation. + +A woman is heard to say, "But, husband, what do you mean, when you +say that I rule here, just as you rule in your business? Do you mean +to say that when I see my own darling son entering the path that +leads to a drunkard's grave in our own house, I have nothing to say +or do, but must wait for you to determine the details of our social +entertainments? What do I rule over in our home, if not over the +entertainment of our guests? What would you say if I were to go down +to your counting room to-morrow, and attempt to over-rule your +decisions? You are always saying that I am supreme here in our home, +and now when I alter a little the details of our social +entertainments, you say that I have assumed to determine what you +shall eat and drink, that you won't be henpecked, and that you won't +stand it, and all that sort of thing. Will you be kind enough to +tell me which portion of the housekeeping you intend to leave to me, +and exactly, in detail, what I may attend to here in our home, +without asking your permission. It's of no use for you to say that I +may attend to everything else but this one thing; God has given me a +yearning for our boy, and, if you will force me to say it, for my +own dear misguided husband, which forbids my abandonment of my +duties and rights in this matter. In the light of this poor woman's +dreadful history, God has shown me my duty, and, my dear husband, I +shall perform it in His fear. No more wine will be served in our +house, on any occasion, with my consent." + +_Husband_,--"I will turn that meddlesome woman into the street to- +morrow morning before breakfast, bag and baggage!" + +"You will do nothing of the kind, for I have determined to keep +her." + +"Well, we'll see; I will hustle her off as soon as I am out of my +bed." + +Of course she was not sent away; and when, a year after, that family +was earnestly pushing the interests of the cause of Temperance, the +Colonel went himself with Mrs. F., the housekeeper, to bring her +little son to the city, where in the beautiful home on Mt. Vernon +St. he soon became not only a pet, but, as usual, a king and tyrant. + +These events occurred about twenty-seven years ago. To-day Herbert, +--the oldest son--and Mr. F., the housekeeper's husband, are partners +in one of the largest concerns in this city. + +If women knew how complete is their dominion in the social sphere, +and would exercise their power, rum and tobacco would quickly +disappear from the better classes, throughout the civilized world. + +An effort among a few young women in the neighborhood of this city, +induced more than fifty young men to abandon cigars. One young +fellow swore by all the gods that he would smoke as long as he +pleased, and so he did; but he did not _please_ to continue very +long after several of the young ladies had had interviews with him. + +In Dixon, Ill., fifty good women called at every rum-hole in town. +There were forty nine of them. In each place they read a touching +"Appeal from the Women of Dixon to the Venders of Intoxicating +Drinks in Dixon," joined in a brief prayer, sang a verse, and went +on to the next "rum-hole." This they repeated every day for a week, +when there were no places left to visit. + +The women of Battle Creek, Mich., tried the same thing. One hundred +of them went, without parade or notice, to all the "rum-holes" in +the city every day, till there was not one that dared open its +doors. I was there at the time, and could tell you thrilling stories +of the encounters of these noble, brave women with the venders of +what a clergyman--a friend of mine--calls "liquid hell-fire." + +But I hasten on to give you a very interesting illustration of the +power of woman in the summary abatement of social nuisances. +Although in lecturing upon "Woman's Influence in the Cause of +Temperance," I have frequently given the facts entire, with the +names of the parties, it has occurred to me that in writing it out +for a book, it would be only just to avoid mentioning names, as many +members of the families involved, are now most respectable people, +and earnest advocates of Temperance. + +Well, this is the story:--In a small factory village (say in +Pennsylvania) with a thousand inhabitants, there were five "rum- +holes." The men of the little community spent their time in the +drinking places, while their children earned the family bread by +long hours in the mills. The mothers were busy in caring for their +children and drunken husbands, and many of them strove to add to the +comforts of the family, by the use of the needle. + +At length, on a Saturday night, several boys, coaxed by a scamp, +drank freely of whiskey, and were taken home helplessly intoxicated; +two of them came near dying. The good mothers were on fire. They had +long since abandoned all hope for their husbands, but they would +never, _never_ consent that their boys should become drunkards. By a +common impulse they gathered in the little church on the hill, and +held a meeting for prayer and weeping. After three hours of +passionate ejaculation, tears and heart-breaking agony, they +resolved as follows: + +"We will make a banner with our own hands. On one side it shall bear +the figure of a child drinking from a bucket, that beverage, which +God has prepared for his creatures. On the other side we will work +this sentiment, 'Mothers will sacrifice all for their Children.' +When it is done, we will go to these men with our banner for the +rallying flag, pray with them, plead with them, and never give up +till they stop." + +In two weeks they were ready, and eighty-four women (all mothers but +four) with their little silken banner at their head, marched down to +the first of the "rum-holes," and were met by the _landlord_ +(curious misnomer) and told that they could pass on; that if they +came in there, they would be sorry for it, &c. They had had no +experience, did not know their power, were frightened, and hurried +on. The second _landlord_ was a younger man, not so hard, and said, +after looking over the company: + +"Why, is it possible that all the good women in town are after me in +this way? Why, of course I will stop, if they all wish it; that is +to say, I will stop if the rest will." + +"Mr. Warner, here is our paper; put down your name and say exactly +what you will do; we are here on no idle errand." + +So he put down his name with the words: + +"I will stop if the rest will." + +"John Warner." + +They went on to the next one, who kept a bowling and billiard saloon +as well as a drinking "hole," and laid their case before him. + +He was a young man, and enjoyed a prodigious reputation as a "ladies +man," and of course put down his name under John Warner's, and was +careful to prefix the words, + +"Ladies, I am your most obedient servant. + +Henry Hinkle." + +To make the story as short as possible, I will simply state that all +but the first one on whom the ladies called--Hank Otis--stopped at +once (doubtless at first to see how the thing would turn out) and +then the ladies went down early in the morning and crowded into +Hank's den. He came in, just out of bed, and was astonished to find +his "grocery" crowded full of women. He had sworn to his cronies +that if he ever caught "them women here, I will pitch 'em all into +the street;" but on that morning, looking into the earnest faces of +the crowd gathered about him, it occurred to him that pitching them +into the street might not be a popular neighborhood movement, and so +he did the next best thing--sent for his big easy chair, had a +pillow brought for his head, another chair and pillow for his heels, +and then cried out: + +"Ladies, I am glad to see you; I an always glad to see my neighbors, +especially the ladies. Now, ladies, do take seats (there was not +another chair in the room) and go on; I shall be delighted to hear +you." + +They did go on; they cried, begged, plead, argued, reasoned and +expostulated; they read from the Bible, they prayed, sang, and kept +it up till twelve o'clock. A relative and very dear friend of mine +was one of the company, and she has told me that she never witnessed +such a scene,--it was enough to break a heart of stone. + +About twelve o'clock, they said: + +"Good morning, Mr. Otis; we will come again to-morrow morning." + +"Do come, ladies, and come early; I hope you will never pass without +dropping in. I am always glad to see my neighbors, especially the +ladies." + +The women went next morning before Hank was out of bed; as soon as +he came in and took his chair, they began with singing and prayer. +Pretty soon Otis pretended to be asleep, and snored prodigiously; +but they knew he was awfully wide awake. During the whole forenoon +they sang, prayed, begged, plead, expostulated, and then sang and +prayed again. + +About noon Otis noticed that they suddenly ceased, and he wondered +what was to come next. He opened one eye a little, and saw they were +pulling out their luncheons. He groaned in spirit, but comforted +himself with the reflection, that he could sit as long as they could +stand. Soon they began again with prayer, and after another hour +they closed with a song, and saying: + +"Good afternoon, Mr. Otis; we will come again to-morrow morning," +they left him. + +Hank had nothing to say, for he felt that soon he must give way. But +the next morning he was up early, and ready to receive them. + +They began, and when they came to the part where they said, "we will +support your family with our needles; we should be proud and happy +to do so, if you will only close your place," he could stand it no +longer, and springing to his feet, cried out: + +"There is one thing I want to know, and that is, how long is this +infernal business going to last?" + +One of the earnest mothers replied: + +"What God has in reserve for us we can't say, but if He permits us +to live, we shall come here every day till this place is closed. Mr. +Otis, you think we are joking, that it is a foolish whim of ours; +but, sir, we have entered into a solemn vow to struggle against this +curse, which threatens to engulf our all, as long as God gives us +the breath of life." + +"Ladies, how long will you give me to stop?" + +"You will have to take your own time." + +"Well, in ten days I will stop, and on my honor as a gentleman, I +will never begin again, in this town!" + +"Oh, Mr. Otis," exclaimed one poor sufferer, "don't go on ten days; +my poor Sam may become a drunkard in that time; stop now, and God +will bless you." + +"Well, ladies, I will pour out my liquors to-morrow morning at nine +o'clock, and that shall be the last of it." + +The next morning the whole village was there to see; the liquors +were brought out with a great flourish, poured into the gutter, and +they ran down into the stream below. + +Although that village was so situated as to be peculiarly exposed to +the evils of intemperance, and although this happened many years +ago, I believe that not one glass of strong drink has been sold +within its precincts, from that day to this. Those brave women have +ever stood ready to attack, with their own peculiar weapons, the +enemy who would open a pitfall for their sons. + +Here and there, throughout the country, earnest mothers, wives, +sisters and daughters have undertaken to exterminate the +neighborhood grog-shops; and while men have constantly failed, these +determined women have rarely failed to achieve a complete victory. + +_Women rule in the social sphere, and are responsible for its +vices._ + +In all this world, there is no other spectacle so bewildering and so +sad, as this queen of the social sphere, living in the midst of +drunken howls, the sickening fumes of tobacco, and in a hot-bed of +licentiousness, and hiding the magic wand with which she might +dispel every social iniquity, and then standing before a mirror, +paint her cheeks and eyebrows, and adjust her curls, and ribbons, +and flowers, and bows and jewelry. + +It is no mere figure of speech, to say that God will hold her +responsible for all this silly, shameless abandonment and betrayal +of her high and sacred trusts! + + + +WHAT YOU SHOULD DRINK. + +I am astonished that a young woman who is ambitious of a clear, fine +skin should drink tea. It is a great enemy to a fair complexion. +Wine, coffee and cocoa may be used without tinging the skin; but as +soon as tea drinking becomes a regular habit, the eye of the +discriminating observer detects it in the skin. Tea compromises the +complexion, probably, by deranging the liver. + +Weak tea or coffee may be used occasionally, in moderate quantity, +without harm; and those who live much in the open air, and are +occupied with hard work, may drink either, in considerable +quantities, without noticeable harm; but I advise all young women +who would preserve a soft, clear skin and quiet nerves, to avoid all +drinks but cold water. + +_It is an excellent practice to drink one or two glasses of cold +water on lying down at night, and on rising in the morning._ + +If you have good teeth, and can help the food into your stomach +without using any fluid, except the saliva, it will, in the long +run, contribute much to your health. + + + +ADDITIONAL HEALTH THOUGHTS. + +It is impossible in preparing a work of this size, upon the broad +and inexhaustible subject of Education, to maintain a logical +continuity. + +If my hopes in reference to the favor which this book will receive, +are half realized, the reader will, perhaps, seek some of my works +which are exclusively devoted to physical health. I take the liberty +to name "_Weak Lungs, and How to make them Strong_," and "_Talks +About People's Stomachs_;" both of which are published by Fields, +Osgood, & Co., of this city (Boston). + + + +NOISES IN THE BOWELS. + +What a mortification it is, when a lady is in company, to hear, from +her bowels, that gurgling, glug-glug noise. A great many women have +these peculiar sounds. And, generally, they are produced by tight +stays. A portion of the small intestine is compressed so that its +size is reduced. The contents of the intestine are constantly moving +on, and when they come to the portion of the bowel under the +whalebone bodice, they find it contracted; and in pressing through, +the noise is produced. The cure for these peculiar and disagreeable +noises, as well as for many other affections in the organs of the +abdomen, including frequently torpid liver, constipation, and some +peculiar forms of indigestion, is to be found in removing all +pressure, and giving the entire abdominal viscera perfect liberty. + +If, after removing all pressure, and giving those wonderful organs +in the abdominal cavity full opportunity to perform their vital +functions, the mischievous effects of the long continued pressure do +not at once disappear, you may percuss and knead the abdomen a few +minutes, morning and evening. Weak digestion, torpid liver and +constipation are, by this simple means, frequently cured, and +invariably relieved. + + + +HOW TO MANAGE A COLD. + +In the first place, you mustn't catch it. If you keep your +extremities warm by substantial flannels, exercise much in the open +air, eat the right quantity of plain food, sleep with open windows +and shun hot drinks, you will avoid colds. + +But, suppose you have a cold? Eat nothing but a piece of toast; +drink freely of cold water; walk twice a day till you are in a +gentle perspiration, and go to bed early. These rules observed, and +colds, which produce so much mischief, would be shorn of their power +of harm. + + + +FAT AND THIN GIRLS. + +_Are you too fat?_ Eat less food, with a larger proportion of meat; +rise early in the morning and exercise much. This will reduce your +weight. Even diminishing the quantity of food alone, without any +other change, will be sure to do it. It is impossible that excessive +fat, either in horse or man, can hold out against a persistent +reduction in the quantity of food. And if the reduction be gradual +and judicious, the strength is not lessened, but is steadily +increased, until the _excess_ in fat is all gone. + +And I will add, that after two or three days, there will be no sense +of hunger until the _excess_ has been removed. + +_Are you too thin?_ Sleep more by going to bed earlier; do not +overwork; eat freely of oatmeal porridge, Graham mush, cracked +wheat, and hulled corn; and all with milk and sugar. Cultivate a +cheerful, happy temper. + + + +RECREATION _VS._ PROPRIETY. + +The noblest women I have personally known, were "regular tom-boys" +in their girlhood. I have made many inquiries about the women who +figured conspicuously in the "Sanitary Commission," the "Christian +Commission," and in the hospitals, and so far as I have been able to +learn from them, and their friends, not one began with being a +"_proper_" _young lady!_ I venture the opinion that not one of the +women who has risen to literary distinction in America, was a +"_proper_" _young lady!_ + +In brief, I don't believe proper young ladies amount to much. As +with a colt and a boy, neither of which, if quiet and staid, is +likely to accomplish anything very grand in this world; so if a girl +is prim and nice and proper, it is easy to write out the story of +her life in five lines; and without waiting for her to live it. + +But, if a young woman, of fair mental capacity, breaks through the +trammels of propriety, rides the saddle astride, climbs fences and +trees, joins a base-ball club, or acquires distinction in any +roystering game which demands pluck and endurance, you may expect +something; she possesses the elements of a strong womanhood. I would +prefer one such woman, either in the hospitals at Gettysburg, or at +the head of a family of children, to a dozen women who were chiefly +distinguished in girlhood for immaculate collars and bows. + + + +CARE OF YOUR TEETH. + +"What a fine face!" I exclaimed; "What a very beautiful girl!" By +and bye I whispered to my wife, to ask who that young lady was?-- +pointing to the left. While she was looking, I remarked, "What a +very plain face she has!" My better two-thirds replied, with the +slightest possible sneer: + +"It seems to me that you men haven't five grains of common sense +about women. Now you don't pretend that you have forgotten that +_very beautiful girl!_" + +"But you don't mean to say that that is the same one I was +admiring?" + +"The same," quietly observed my better three-quarters. In a moment a +bit of humor came from the platform; the large mouth flew open, and +thirty magnificent pearls darted into view. + +"Oh, yes, to be sure; why of course, who couldn't tell that?" I +remarked, as brave as a sheep. + +"My better seven-eighths quietly suggested, from behind her fan, +"Now, suppose you attend to the lecture, and stop looking at the +girls; how would you like it if you were lecturing, and one of your +auditors should be looking all over the house?" + +From that moment I kept my eyes on the speaker, but the _points_ in +the lecture were very few, and between them I had time to think +"what a magic there is in fine teeth!" If a young woman has a +mouthful of beautiful teeth, I don't care how long her nose is, nor +what the color of her eyes; she looks sweet, wholesome, handsome! + +On the other hand, no matter how exquisitely moulded the face, if, +when the mouth is opened, decayed, blackened teeth appear; you cease +to admire, and exclaim, "poor thing! poor thing!" + +Besides this, if you lose your teeth, you can no longer speak +plainly. + +But more than both of these considerations put together and +multiplied by a hundred, if you lose your teeth, you can no longer +grind your food well; and then comes indigestion with its train of +horrors. + +How may the teeth be preserved? + +Simply, by keeping them clean! A clean tooth cannot decay. You may +eat sweet things, acids, take hot drinks, ice creams,--you may abuse +your teeth in a hundred ways,--if you will keep them clean, they +will not decay. I will show you as many white blackbirds, as you +will show me clean white teeth beginning to decay. + +How shall they be kept clean? I answer with a tooth-pick, used +thoroughly after eating, and followed by rinsing the mouth, and the +morning and evening use of a tooth-brush with a powder composed of +pulverized soap and prepared chalk. + +In addition to this, cultivate the habit of sleeping with your mouth +shut. That dryness and bad taste in the mouth which come of sleeping +with it open, is always injurious to everything within the mouth, +including the teeth. + +And, perhaps, this is the best place to speak of the error or +misfortune of sleeping with the mouth open, in its influence upon +the respiratory apparatus. + +I cannot agree with the famous Catlin, who attributes so much to +this bad habit. But really it is difficult to read his remarkable +little work, without being convinced that sleeping with the mouth +open is a most unfortunate habit. The most obvious mischief is the +introduction through the open mouth and wind-pipe of dust and other +minute objects, which the nose would strain out. The opening in the +nose through which the air must pass, is only a narrow fissure, and +its sides are armed with numerous hairs, which reach over and +intertwine with those of the opposite wall, thus making it very +difficult for particles of dust to pass through into the lungs. This +point in Mr. Catlin's argument is too obviously true to need any +special proofs; and perhaps another point of less moment is +sufficiently obvious; viz., if the air be allowed to pass directly +through the wide-open mouth into the lungs, its temperature when +permeating the lung tissue is too low, and thus injury to that +delicate tissue results; but if the air passes through the tortuous +and contracted nasal passages, it is brought into such immediate +contact with the blood in the lining membrane of those passages, +that it is modified, and the lungs themselves are saved from the +rude shock of a raw cold breath. + +I have now given the more patent of the reasons for keeping the +mouth shut while sleeping, and will only add that the habit of +sleeping with the mouth shut, may be formed by a careful clearing of +the nasal passages on lying down, and by going to sleep with a +determination to keep the lips closed. Observing these rules, and +being careful not to sleep with the head too low, you will soon +awaken in the morning with the lips closed, and with the mouth moist +and sweet. + + + +VENTILATION. + +If the air of the bed-room be impure, the complexion, eyes and +nerves must soon suffer. The hours of sleep are hours of +recuperation. But that the building-up work may go on, pure air is +indispensable. During the night the doors are not opened; there is +no moving about; all is at a stand-still. Now the windows must be +wide open. Unless there be a storm or the weather be intensely cold, +the upper sash must come half way down, and the lower sash go half +way up. If your ears are cold cover them, but give your lungs and +blood pure oxygen, and plenty of it. + +If you would have beauty of skin and eyes, if you would enjoy a +cheerful temper, and retain a youthful bloom, you must breathe a +pure air all night, and all day, and always. No other law of health, +no condition of beauty, is so imperative as this. + +When you go into the street, don't wear a veil and keep the air away +from your lungs. Let it come in freely; it is your best friend. + + + +FLANNELS NEXT THE SKIN. + +Young ladies take pride in the fact that their skins are so +delicate, they can't wear flannels. + +"Why, I couldn't live in flannels, my skin is so delicate." + +It is to be deeply regretted that this passion for delicacy and +debility has taken such strong hold of young ladies. + +"Miss Fitznoodle, you must wear flannels next the skin, they will +save you from colds, and keep up a fine, healthy circulation." + +"Oh, my! I couldn't wear flannels next my skin; it would set me +crazy; my skin is so delicate!" + +"Miss Fitznoodle, you must rise early in the morning, take a bath, +and go out for the fresh air." + +"Oh, my! I couldn't think of it; I should be sick in bed all day, I +am so delicate!" + +"Miss Fitznoodle, you must sleep with your windows open." + +"Oh, my! I can't, I am so delicate!" + +I am always sorry to meet a young lady with weak, delicate morals; +but rejoice to meet one with steady, fixed, determined morals. I am +always sorry to meet a young lady with weak, delicate mind; but +rejoice to meet one with clear, sharp, sturdy mind. And so I am +sorry to meet a young lady with weak, delicate body; but rejoice to +meet one with plump, elastic, sturdy body. + +If your skin be so sensitive that you can't wear flannels, use a +pair of hair gloves morning and evening; put on strong flannels, be +patient, and in two weeks you will have conquered your delicacy, and +be able to enjoy what, in this climate, is an immense advantage in +many ways. + + + +AMUSEMENTS FOR GIRLS. + +_Croquet_ is fashionable and useful, certainly better than nothing; +but any game which can be played in a tight corset and long skirt +cannot serve the muscles much; but it keeps the players out-doors, +and so far is useful. + +_Skating_ is fashionable, and better than nothing; but the finest +skating may be performed with arms folded; showing that the upper +half of the body, which needs exercise ten-fold more than the lower +half, receives little or nothing in this amusement. In addition to +this, the sudden change from the furnace heat of our close houses to +the piercing winds of the frozen pond, is often very damaging. + +_Dancing_ is beautiful and profitable. But the profit depends upon +certain conditions, not always observed, viz., seasonable hours, +healthy dress, and a pure atmosphere. Without these conditions +dancing may be seriously mischievous. + +Besides, it may be observed that dancing only brings into play the +muscles of the legs and hips; while the arms and chest, which are +dying for motion, are not even _invited_ to join in the fun. + +_Walking_ might be spoken of as an amusement among those who walk +with real gusto; but this snail pace, with the two hands crossed in +front, can hardly be regarded as an amusement except to those who +are amused with a funeral procession. + +While _walking_ is the best possible single exercise for reasons +mentioned in another place, it is defective in the same particular +mentioned in skating and dancing; viz., it brings into play +principally the lower extremities, which already are well developed, +and neglects the arms, shoulders and chest, which are starving for +work. But I must not forget to speak very earnestly of the great +value of walking when it is of a vigorous sort, and the arms are +freely swung. In this way even the shoulders and chest perform a +good deal of work. + +I have spoken in a separate chapter of the great SCHREBER's +invention for home exercise--the Pangymnastikon--which is not only +the best means of training the upper part of the body that I have +ever seen, but is really one of the most fascinating of amusements. +The reader is referred to the chapter "THE PANGYMNASTIKON, OR HOME +GYMNASIUM." + +_Battledoor_, and _Graces_ or _Grace-Hoop_, are capital amusements; +and bring into varied and vigorous play the muscles of the upper +part of the body; besides, the interest is permanent and constantly +increases as the skill increases. + +_Base-ball clubs_ have been organized among young women, with the +happiest results to their health, spirits, activity and grace. They +look very pretty in their gymnastic costume, and really they play +wonderfully well. + +The great physiological need of our artificial life is something to +save the upper part of the body from falling into weakness and +deformity. Our exercises fall almost exclusively upon the lower half +of the body--we walk, dance and skate; but women of the better +class do nothing with their upper limbs except to dress and feed +themselves. The result is that their arms become consumptively +emaciated, their shoulder-blades project, their chests become thin, +flat, concave, and the vital organs within are correspondingly weak +and uncertain. + + + +TRUE EDUCATION FOR GIRLS. + +The School at Lexington, up to the time the buildings were burned, +was the truest exponent of education for girls, which has been seen +in our country. I say in _our_ country, because my acquaintance with +the German methods is not sufficiently complete to justify any +comparison between them and the school under consideration. + +And yet, as has been shown in other chapters in this work, the +curriculum at Lexington was far from philosophical or wise. + +The waste of time and money on music and the languages, was +immense; the thought of it, even now, awakens in my mind the +keenest regrets. + +But in this respect, it was no worse than other first-class schools, +while in several important particulars, it was greatly superior. + +1_st_.--It was a school for _girls_ and _young women_, and not for +_young ladies_. This is a very important distinction. + +2_nd_.--It had a very strong corps of resident teachers, who mingled +with the pupils in all their many amusements. In this way a +vigilant, earnest public sentiment was developed, which made the +trammels and friction of school government quite unnecessary. The +girls bore themselves precisely as they would in a drawing-room, in +the presence of men and women of dignified manners and fine culture. +Indeed, such were the persons constantly mingling with them. They +could not escape the feeling that they were placed on their honor. +What is called school government, or discipline, we had little or no +occasion to think of. If I had space I could tell you some really +very touching stories, illustrating the experiences of girls who, +for the first time, were in a school where they were not _told_, but +were _expected_ to behave their best. + +In so large a company, definite rules were indispensable to concert +of action. We had as many rules as other schools, but the spirit in +which they were observed, was the distinctive feature of which I +have spoken. + +I will venture to give one little anecdote, which will serve to +illustrate the point under consideration. + +One of our bright girls, Mary----, retired on the ringing of the +first bell, at half-past eight o'clock; but when the watchman made +his nine o'clock round, he found a light burning in Mary's room, and +at once left his beat, to report to me. I sent hint to ask if Mary +was sick. He returned to say that the light was now out, and that +the young woman said she was not sick. He had hardly reported, +before Mary appeared at my door in her morning-gown, and said that +she was sorry for having failed to observe the hour for turning out +the light, but that she had just received a letter from her mother +which she wanted very much to answer; that she hoped I would excuse +her. + +I said, "all right," and she was turning to go back, when, looking +very earnestly at me, she said: + +"If you knew how much better I behave here, than I ever did at any +other school, I am sure you would not blame me for this. When I was +at the ---- Seminary, we girls spent nearly half our time in +devising tricks and dodges. We liked to come it over them, because +they were always watching us. Lots of us corresponded with young +men, and we left our letters for each other in the crevices of the +garden wall; I used to say that if we were half as much interested +in our studies, as were in cheating our teachers, we should become +as wise as Solomon. But here--why, sir, during all these months that +I have been here, I have never heard a word from any girl, which +looked like deception. You trust us so completely, and treat us with +such respect, that I don't see how the worst girl that ever lived, +could even think of doing wrong. It really seems to me, that this +spirit in your school is worth more to us than every thing that we +could possibly get in our studies." + +My own horror of these seminaries, where girls study (under the +suggestions and example of the worst among them,) every species of +deception and trick, is such, that I would prefer that my daughter +should never learn to read the name of the God who made her, rather +than acquire all learning and accomplishments, under such +demoralizing influences. Thousands of young women while learning a +little music and French, acquire a habit of concealment and +indirection, which marks all their subsequent career. + +In discussing the peculiarities of the Lexington School, I would +mention: + +3_rd_.--The physical exercises and amusements. The "New Gymnatics" +were taught to every member of the school, and practised daily by +all, from half an hour to an hour and a half, while dancing was +introduced three or four evenings of each week. Besides these, we +indulged in many amusing games. + +Physical education constituted a part of the regular system, and +nothing was left to chance, or to individual proclivity. + +In most seminaries, physical exercise is optional with the pupil. If +arithmetic were treated in the same way, necessary as it is to +civilized life, I fear but little progress would be made. + +The average American girl has a delicate body, with numerous aches +and weaknesses. The School which does not provide in its curriculum +for this average and fundamental condition, seems to me strangely +deficient in its educational provisions. + +The graduate of a Woman's Seminary, should, like the graduate of a +German University, be as much improved in body as in mind. + +Young women, on completing the prescribed course, should be fitted +for the active duties of life. This involves, as primary and +fundamental, a healthy and vigorous body. + +Girls came to our school with the stipulation that they should not +room above the second story, not being able to climb higher, who +within five months, walked ten miles in three hours, without +fatigue. + +I was asked to visit a Female Seminary, some miles out of Boston, to +witness the exercises of a "Commencement." Seated on the platform +with the Principal, she called my attention to the graduating class. +Covering her lips with a book, she whispered to me, that "that class +of young ladies seated by the organ is the graduating class." + +"And they have finished their education?" I asked. She nodded +assent. + +I gave them a good long look, and felt the wrong so deeply, that I +could not resist the temptation to whisper back: + +If you had said the _girls themselves_ were _finished_, I should +have understood you; but if you mean that their _education_ is +_finished_, I can only say that it seems to me they have not laid +the first stone In the foundation of a true education. + +Pale, thin, bent--they had been outrageously humbugged. What amount +of languages and music could compensate for this outrage upon the +very foundations of their being? + +In the Lexington school the course in physical training was very +complete. The muscle training was varied and abundant, the pupils +retired at half-past eight o'clock, wore no corsets or close dress, +kept their extremities warm with flannels and strong shoes, ate +plain food, and enjoyed many amusing games and much hearty laughter. + +We measured them about the chest, under the arms, on entering the +school, and again on leaving, and found that a common increase in +eight months was three inches. There was a still more remarkable +enlargement of the arms and shoulders, while the change in their +manner of walking never failed to impress us all. Female weaknesses, +which, in some form, nearly all of them brought to the school, were +quickly relieved; and headaches, after the first month of the school +year, were almost unknown among us. + +I do not wish to protract this discussion of the possibilities in +physical development in our girls' schools; but I will say, after +such opportunities for observation as no other man on either +continent has enjoyed, that it is my deliberate conviction that +ninety-nine in every hundred girls, may be so developed, physically, +in two years of school life, that they can walk ten miles without +fatigue, be free from aches and weaknesses, and be nobly fitted for +the grave responsibilities of citizenship and motherhood. + +4_th._--I would add that the true school will magnify nature--will +make conspicuous in its programme the natural sciences, will push +very far the rudimentary English training, will give the most +emphatic and determined attention to composition and conversation, +and will watch over the manners of the pupil with a truly parental +interest. + +I have seen coarse, unmannerly boors engaged in teaching girls Latin +and Trigonometry. It seems to be thought if they understand the +technics of the books, that is enough. Of course they must +comprehend what they attempt to teach; but the rare and precious +graces in a teacher, are fine manners and conversational powers. +More is learned in an hour's conversation with refined, cultured +people upon almost any topic, than can be learned in a day from +books, even with the assistance of an unrefined, mechanical teacher. + +I shall be happy to correspond with parents about the schools of New +England, which are earnest in regard to physical education. + + + +HEROIC WOMEN. + +Without pursuing any special order, I will mention Hypasia, the much +calumniated Aspasia, and the Athenian courtezan Leaena, who, when +put to the torture to make her betray her friends and accomplices in +a political conspiracy, bit out her tongue, and spat it in the face +of her tormentor. + +In more modern times, as education is placed within the reach of +all, these "burning and shining lights" become less conspicuous, +set, as they are, amid a galaxy of scarcely less brilliant +luminaries. Instances might be cited by the dozen of women who have +taken degrees in theology, who have lectured in public, and been +celebrated as _savans_ and philosophers. + +As for those who have received the dignity of canonization, the +Roman calendar alone is capable of keeping any account of them. + +Yet amongst them, let us give one word of admiration to that brave +Irish Abbess,--Ebba of Coldingham, who, to preserve herself from +the brutality of the Danish soldiers, cut off her nose and lips. Her +nuns followed her example, and the enraged barbarians burnt them +all, together with their convent. + +To whom do we owe the preservation of the New Testament but to the +heroic girl-martyrs among the first Christians, who, under the Roman +persecutors, endured unheard-of tortures, rather than betray the +hiding place of the Sacred Writings? + +_En passant_ I may mention the first woman who used her literary +abilities to support her household, was Christine Castel, a French +woman by education, though by birth a Venetian. She lived in the +reign of the English king Henry IV. + +Have you ever heard of Arnande de Rocas? She must have been a brave, +high-minded girl! When her native town was taken by the Turks,-- +somewhere in the clark sixteenth century, when Turks were not the +civilized gentlemen that many of them now are,--she and a number of +her young and beautiful companions were placed in a vessel bound for +Constantinople,--their destination the Sultan's seraglio. In the +dead of night, she gained access to the powder magazine, and blew up +the ship, with her innocent companions and their captors. + +Now let us come nearer home, and recal the name of Martha Bratton. +She was a woman for any country to be proud of, for she helped, hand +and heart, in establishing the freedom of her native country. Her +husband was a Colonel in the first army of America, and in his +absence she took charge of, and defended the ammunition and +supplies. Think of her courage in blowing up the powder, rather than +suffer it to fall into the enemy's hands! Think of her nobility +avowing the act that no one else might suffer for it. Threats of +instant death had no power to make her betray a trust. And she was a +womanly woman too, for she saved the life of an English officer, who +had rescued her by his intervention, and kept him concealed in her +house till he was exchanged. + +Grizel Cochrane! It's not a romantic name, but what a romance in her +life. + +Her father lay a prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, condemned to +death for high treason. Her grandfather, the Earl of Dundonald; was +moving heaven and earth to obtain his son's pardon. But it was known +that the warrant for his execution was on its way from London. + +Grizel was only eighteen. But she was strong and resolute. She rode +on her own fleet horse two days on the road to England, where a +trusty friend lent her a suit of man's clothes and a pair of +pistols. Thus armed, she attacked the postman, robbed him of the +mail bags, and destroyed her father's death warrant. The time thus +gained saved his life. + +A better Grizel this, I think, than the celebrated Grizel who is so +often held up as a model of womanly virtues. + +Think of the peasant girl, inspired by spirit voices, throwing aside +the timidity of her country breeding, her youth, and her sex, +adopting the costume of a soldier, heading the armies of France, +leading them to victory, and placing the national crown upon the +head of the feeble Dauphin, much more of a girl than herself. Then +change the scene, and behold the bigoted and fanatical priests +conspiring against her; see her abandoned by her friends; abandoned +even by the English whom she had conquered; see her at last led +forth to the fatal pile, and her ashes cast into the Seine. + +How different, yet how grand, is the gentle Heloise, more remarkable +for her faithful affection, than for her learning and talents, +choosing rather to be dishonored in the world's estimation, than to +injure her craven husband by avowing their marriage. + +What Roman or Spartan mother excelled in heroism that Lady Seton, +who, while she saw from the beleagured tower the preparations of the +brutal English king to put her two sons to death, urged her wavering +husband rather to let them die for their country, than to save their +lives by ignoble surrender of his great trust. Her sons were +murdered, but her husband was not dishonored, and the town was +saved. + +Who has not heard of the heroic Maid of Saragossa? No matter that +she was really the wife of one of the soldiers engaged in defending +the city, that she had come upon the ramparts to carry some +refreshments to her husband the story is not the less thrilling that +it was from _his_ hand that she snatched the burning fuse, and fired +the cannon near which he had fallen. Calling on the shrinking +soldiers to reload the gun, she avowed her resolution to stand by +it, and fire on the French enemy till they were beaten, or she was +dead. She turned the tide of battle, and will be remembered as long +as the world lasts. + +Charlotte Corday! The name alone is enough to conjure up a moving +panorama before one's eyes. We see the beautiful, heroic girl, +nursing in the depths of her heart the project which, she fondly +hopes, will free her country from a hideous tyrant. It is not murder +that she contemplates, for she will give her own pure life for that +of the savage steeped in every crime. We see her on her journey to +Paris, gentle and affable, rousing no suspicion of the terrible +errand on which she is bound. We see her when the deed is done, +sitting calmly in the outer room, and thoughtfully passing her hand +across her brow. We see her before her judges, "Serene, and +resolute, and still, and calm, and self-possessed." We see her on +her way to the guillotine, unconsciously inspiring such a strange +and sudden passion, as surely never man felt before, and yet a true +love, as poor Adam Luz proved by writing her defence, and dying for +it and her. We may all join with the royalist lady, who fell on her +knees and called her _saint_, when she heard what she had done. +Alas! that it was done in vain! The tyranny that crushed France was +hydra-like, and for one head that was struck off, a hundred more +appeared. + +"The mother of the country." Is not that a name that any queen be +proud to gain? + +She lived in Saxony three hundred years ago, and is still remembered +by the peasantry as _Mother Anna_. What had she done to deserve the +title? She studied several sciences, and applied her knowledge to +promote the good of her people. She multiplied schools, and +encouraged education. She incited the people to redeem waste lands, +taking a spade in her own honest, busy hands, to encourage the +workers when the ground looked particularly unpromising. She +fostered trade and manufactures, and when she and her husband +travelled about, they took with them supplies of the best seeds for +raising fruit, and distributed them among the people. The good soul +was a careful housewife, and more than all, a self-sacrificing +Christian, teaching more by example than precept. + +Amid all this hard work, public and private, she became the mother +of fifteen children. I have heard of ladies who complained being +fearfully overburdened with two or three. + +The end of this noble woman was worthy of her life. She died of the +plague, caught while attending on the sick, like a true Christian +and _Mother_. + +You may never be called upon to perform such acts of heroism as +distinguished many American women during the struggle for +independence; but it will be good for you to imbibe, from their +contemplation, a touch of the spirit which prompted them. Who would +not wish to resemble Mrs. Motte, when her large new house was +garrisoned by the English. The American generals, loth to destroy +the widow's home, hesitated to expel them by fire. She presented to +them the Indian bow with its apparatus for igniting the shingle +roof, counting ruin as nothing in the scale against patriotism. +Then, again, the gentlewoman succeeds the patriot as she receives +the vanquished foes in her poor termporary home, entertains them +hospitably, and, womanlike, endeavors to soothe the mortification of +defeat. + +Picture to yourselves a group of despairing wretches, clinging all +night to a fragment of a wreck, and to the remorseless rock on which +it had been dashed. All through the stormy Autumn night they had +clung there, amid rain, and wind, and darkness, holding on still, +yet without hope; they are miles from the shore, and they know that, +as the tide rises, they must be swallowed up, one by one, or all +swept off at once by the hungry waves. + +Far away, during that terrible night, they had seen a faint, +twinkling light. It was from a lighthouse--a sailor who was among +the group of miserable creatures, told them it was the Longstone +Lighthouse,--a mile away, too far for any one to see them down there +on a level with the sea; and even if they were seen, there was no +life-boat there, and no person but an old man and woman, with their +son and daughter. _They _could never bring a boat to their +deliverance. + +There were fewer people than he supposed at that time in the +lighthouse, for the son was absent,--the only one, it would seem, +who might have had the strength and courage to venture to their +assistance. Besides, what chance was there that they would be +discovered? + +Yet, at that very moment, clear, bright eye, looking through a +telescope for signs of the storm's cruel havoc, lights on them, and +takes in at once all the perils of their position. It is the eye of +a girl of eighteen; she has the courage of a Roman, the compassion +of a Christian. Calling to her father to accompany her, she hastens +to their boat. Remonstrance is in vain. She will not listen to her +parents, she will not wait a moment; all she thinks of, is those +unhappy sufferers, for the returning tide _must_ wash them off. If +her father will not go, she will go alone, and, live or die, make +the attempt to save them. + +Her energy bears down all doubts; the boat is launched,--even the +poor wife and mother helping. And, ah! think of _her_, as she sees +it leave the rock to which it may never return. Think what _she_ +gives to the service of mercy. She must have been a worthy mother of +such a daughter. Father and child, each take an oar, and pull, not +for their lives, but for the lives of others. + +Ah! what a struggle that was, through a mile of angry, tumbling +waters, now from the crest of a wave catching a glimpse of thosethey +go to rescue, now sunk in a deep hollow that threatens to engulf +them. Through all, the little frail boat goes on its errand of +mercy. Can we not imagine how the wife and mother watched it through +the lighthouse glass? Let us take our post by her, and try to feel +for a moment as she felt. From her lofty post she can mark the +progress of the boat. It is slow but sure. When first it sank out of +her sight in the trough of a great billow, her heart sank too; but +see, rises again, and with it a prayer and thanksgiving ascend from +the mother's heart. The daughter rows with a manly strength,--no +signs of fatigue. Will they reach the wreck in time? Oh! the boat +goes so slowly, though those two devoted ones work so hard. On, on, +still on, nearer and nearer. Now comes the moment of greatest +danger. Ah! they are too eager to get in,--they will swamp the boat. +No, their very weakness prevents that. The stronger help the more +feeble; they are all in now; all safe so far; nine human beings +saved so _far_; but can eleven come safe to land? Once more the boat +mounts on the creasts of the waves, once more she sinks into the +hollows, and nearer, nearer, nearer she creeps on. + +Other duties now claim the attention of the anxious watcher. Fires +must be kindled, and food must be prepared, or the good work will be +left unfinished; and from time to time she runs to the window to +watch their progress. + +The keel grates upon the beach,--voices are heard; they are all +safely housed, and the loved girl comes up smiling, happy in the +success of her good deed, and all unconscious that her name is +henceforth famous through the world. + +England need not envy France her Charlotte Corday, while the name of +Grace Darling shines, in letters of gold, upon the pages of her own +history. + +The renowned Hugh Grotius had a wife who ought to be called the +renowned Mary Grotius. + +When he was condemned for his political writings, to be imprisoned +for life, she accompanied him, though the hard condition was, that +she too was to remain a prisoner. After a while she was allowed to +go out occasionally. She borrowed books for him, which were carried +to and fro, with his linen, in a chest. When long custom had made +the guards careless in examining this chest, she packed her husband +in it one fine day, and sent him to the wash, staying in the prison +herself, and pretending that he was ill in bed. + +She was let out too, after some severe treatment. + +There was a woman who never performed any grand, heroic action, who +lived a quiet, domestic life; did nothing brilliant, wrote no poems, +suffered no martyrdom. For thirty-eight years she was a ministering +angel to her husband; and he was not an invalid, whose caprices +tried her temper, and made her life a lasting trial. On the +contrary, his health was good, and his spirits ever equal. + +Yet the world is much indebted to that woman. She was to her husband +what the cipher is after the figure one. Alone, it is a unit; with +the cipher by its side, it becomes ten. + +She was the wife of John Flaxman, the Sculptor. + +"Down with the Austrian woman," shouted the infuriated mob of Paris, +supposing that they saw before them the ill-fated Marie Antoinette. +An officer corrected their mistake, and the lady, just rescued from +the most terrible of deaths,--that of being torn to pieces by +savages,--said to him, "Why undeceive them? You might have spared +them a greater crime." + +She was the same, who, when asked her name and rank before the +revolutionary tribunal, replied, with dignity, "I am Elizabeth of +France, the aunt of your king." + +She was compelled to witness the execution of twenty-four of her +fellow-prisoners, and then met her own death without a complaint. + +Among savage nations what could be more terrific than a volcano? And +when, in addition to its natural mysteries, a cunning priesthood has +invested it with the attributes of a malignant and revengeful deity, +who but an enlightened and civilized person would dare to approach +it? It was _tabooed_, and whoever insulted it, would be destroyed by +its shower of liquid fire. + +It is hard to shake off the prejudices and superstitions of a life- +time. Yet Kapiolani, a woman of Hawaii, who had already done much to +raise the character of her countrymen, set the heathen priests at +defiance, declared the volcano to be the work of a merciful God, and +boldly descended some distance into its crater. There she composedly +praised the Lord in the midst of one of His wonderful works. The +effect of her faith upon the minds of her countrymen was wonderful. + +"In all that is known of Assyria, the most ancient empire of the +earth, every extant fragment, moral or material, bears evidence of a +sex to which that land of wonders owes the immortality of its +grandeur. The name of Semiramis has preserved (what Sardanapalus +could not destroy, nor Cyrus bury under the ruins of Babylon,) the +memory of the greatest combination of wealth, power, art, and +magnificence, which the world had till then witnessed, or has since +conceived. For the greatest capitals of the most powerful and +refined of modern states, supposed to have reached the acme of +civilization, have but one epithet to mark their supereminence; and +Rome and London (in boast, or in reproach,) have each been called +the Babylon of their own proudest times. + +"Babylon, with its hundred gates and towers, was founded by a woman +of low origin and destitute youth, who attained to supreme power by +her genius alone; and though all that has been ascribed to her may +not be strictly true, though Diodorous Siculus in his enthusiasm may +have exaggerated, and Ctesias may have too vividly colored his +brilliant delineations of her greatness, yet that such a woman lived +and reigned in Assyria, that she founded its capital, and influenced +her age by her works and her talents, that she built cities, raised +aqueducts, constructed roads, commanded great armies in person, and, +both as conqueror and legislator, was among the earliest agents of +Asiatic civilization, there remains no room for historic doubt. + +"Her passage over the Indus, her conquests on its shores, the +brilliant triumphs she obtained abroad, the astute wisdom with which +she met conspiracy at home, and the bold confidence she expressed in +the decisions of posterity, are stubborn facts. These obtained for +her the sympathy of the greatest character and conqueror of a nearer +antiquity; but Alexander, taking Semiramis for his model, vainly +tried to restore her gorgeous city, on her own plans, and with her +own views. + +"Posterity has nobly ratified the appeal of Semiramis to its +verdict. At the end of three thousand years, her life and character +have been taken as the inspiration of its genius, and the spell of +its attraction. Semiramis, however, has paid the penalty of her +sex's superiority, and has been the mark of calumnious pedantry +through succeeding ages." + +*Since the above was in type, Mlle. Nilsson has several times sung +"Way down upon the Swanee River" at her concerts. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Girls, by Dio Lewis + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41498 *** |