Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1849-06-20
LETTER TO COUNTRY GIRLS.

letter to country girls. She talks fright
oul" TO them.
You know / said that could quilt
almost as fast as two of you. The rea-
son is, | take care OF my hands. One
| half of you are too proud to do this.
You would not be caught putting glove
on to sweep or hoe, or weed in the gar
den, because you think it would look as
if you wanted 10 be fine ladies, If yon
see any one taking cafe Of her hands,
or careful 10 wear sun-bonnet TO pre-.
serve her complexion, you say she is
"proud and stuck up" But it is you
who are proud-too proud 10 think You
require any care to look nice: You have
an idea you look we'll enough a, any
rate. So you jus, make yourself as
rough and coarse as ever you can, by
way of being independent. Your hands
grow as stiff and hard as if you held a
pillow and swung scy,he, and when you
take needle you Can scarcely feel it
in your fingers. This is wrong. There
are many things which women ought TO
do. which require their hands 10 be soft
and pliable, aud they should be careful
to keep them so, in order to make them
useful. Every woman who lives in the
country should kni, herself pair Of
vooIen gloves, with long fingers closed
al the tops-no miIs, 10 let the fingers
get hard. There should be piece Of
ribbed work at The wrist 10 make them
stay on.
When you use your hoe, rake, or
broom put on your gIoves-whcn you
take hold ofa skillet, pot or kettle han
die, take a cloth to keep your hands
from being scared and hardened. When
you wash clothes or dishes, do not have
water so hot as to feel unpleasant. Many
girls scald their hands unsil they can put
them into water almost bciing.-Sucl
hands are unfit TO use needle or pin.
They are not so good TO hold baby or
wound. Take care Of your hands,
and do not forget your faces. l have
seen so many country girls who, at six
teen, had compilations like alabaster,
and a, lwenty-sx, their faces would look
like runnel bag that had hung six weeks
in the chimney corner.-OGe reason Of
this is they don't wear bonnet 10 pro-
tect them from the sun. Another rea-
son is, the habit they have Of baking
their faces before a wood fire. I have
seen women stand before great casting
fire and cook, until ,honsht their brains
were us we'll stewed as the chickens;
and they would get so used to it they
would make no altemrt to shield their
heads fiom The heat. Nay, they would
sit down in the evening and bake their
faces by the hour; ard this is one Of The
reasons why American women grow old,
willered and. wrinkled, fifteen years
before their time.
But another, and the greatest reason
is your diet. People. in this country
live too we'll, and eat too much hot
bread and meat. Country people usu-
ally eat richer food than those WHO live
in the cities. and thai is reason why,
with all their fresh air, their average is
little greater than that OF city folks.
Thousands Of beautiful blooming coun.
try girls make old, sallow-faced women
OF themselves before they are thirty, by
drinking coffee, smoking tobacco, and
eating hot bread. They shorten their
lives by these practices about as much
as city ladies with their fashionable fol.
lies. | do not know what IoU think
about it,FgIrls, but I think it is abou, as
much sin for woman 10 get old,
brown, and wilhered faces, by eating
too much, as it is for men TO get red no.
ses by drinking too much. Very few
people think it a disgrace to have bill
lious fever; but I would just as lieve the
doctor would tell me that | was drunk
as that was bilious. The one would
come from drinking loo much, The other
from eating too much; and where is the
difference ? All this is very serious
matter, for it affects health and life; and
the reason why / talk about your COM
plexion in speaking Of il, is, that every
body loves 10 LOOK we'll whether they
will acknowledge it or not. Now peo-
pie cannot look WELL unless they are
well, and no one can be we'll very long
who does not Try to take care of herself.
The woman who roasts her head at the
fire, disorders her blood, brings on head
aches, Injuries her health, and makes her
face look like piece of leather; when
she swallows hot. coffee, hot bread, i,
greasy vietuals and strong pickles, she
destroys her stomach, rols her teeth,
shorters her life, and makes herself TOO
ugly for any use, except soaring the
Crows off the corn. }. q. 5.
A country preenhorn, after being Join