Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1849-05-24
Letter to Country Girls.

Mrs. Swisshelm, in late number of the
Saturday Visitor has the following letter
to country girls. She talks fright out" to
them
You know l said that ! could quilt as fast
as two of you. The reason is, l take care
of my hands. One halfofyou are too proud
to do this. You would not be caught put
ting glove on to sweep, or hoe, or weed in
the garden, because you think il would look
as if YOU wanted to be fine ladies. If you
see any one take care of her hands, or care
full to wear a sun-bonnet to preserve her
complexion, you say she is" proud and stuck
up" But it is you who are proud. You
have an idea you look well enough at any
rate. So you ust make yourself as rough
and coarse as ever you can, by way OF be-
ing independent. Your hands grow as stiff
and hard as if you held plough and swung
a scythe, and when you take a 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 to be soft and pliable, and they should
be careful to keep them so, in order to make
them useful. Every woman who lives in
the country should knit herself pair of
woollen gloves, with long fingers closed at
the tops-not mits, to let the fingers get
hard. There should be piece of ribbed
work at the wrist to make them stay on.
When you use your rake, hoe. or broom, put
on your gloves-when you take hold OF
skillet, pot or ketlle-hande, take cloth to
keep your hands from being hardened. When
you wash clothes or dishes, do not have
water so hot as to feel unpleasant Many
girls scald their hands until they can put them
into water almost boiling. Such hands are
unfit to use a needle or "a pin. They are not
so good to hold a baby or dress wound.
Take care of your hands, and do not forget
your faces. | have seen many country girls
who at sixteen had compilations like alabaster
and at twenty-sx their faces would look like
a rennet bag that had hung six weeks in the
chimney corner.
One reason of this is, they do not wear
bonnet to protect them from the sun.
Another reason is, the habit Of baking their
faces before a wood fire. have seen women
stand before a great roasting fire and cook,
until | thought their brains were about as
well siewed as chickens; and they would
get SO used to it that they would make no
attempt to shield their heads from the heat.
: Nay, they will sit down in the evening and
bake their faces by the hour and this is one
of the reasons why American women grow
old withered and wrinkled fifteen years be-
fore their time. But another and the greatest
reason is, your diet. People in this country
, live too well and eat too much hot bread aud
) meat. Country people usually eat richer
tLap ,lo in hn nd
A that is the reason why, with all their fresh
t air, their average age is little greater than
a that of city folks. Thousands of beautiful
: blooming country girls, make old, sallow-
S faced women Of themselves before thirty, by
drinking coffee, smoking tobacco and eating
, hot bread. They shorten life by these prac-
t tees about as much as city ladies do with
their fashionable follies. do not know what
!, you think about it, but think it is as much
! of sin for women to get old brown withered
: faces, by eating too much, as 1t is for men
: to get red noses by drinking too much
: Very few people think il disgrace to have
: bilious fever but would just as leave
S the doctor would tell me that was drunk
as that was bilious. The one would come
o from drinking too much, and the other from
G eating too much and where is the differ
$ ence? All this is a serious matter, for II
b affects health and life aud the reason why
il ] talk about your compilations in speaking
r of it is, that everybody loves to look well,
u whether they will acknowledge it or not
o Now, people cannot look well unless they
e are well; and no one can be we'll very long
d who does not try to take care of herself
The woman who roasts her head at the lire,
: disorders her blood, brings on headaches
Injuries her health, aud makes her face look
e like piece ofleather; when she swallows
hot coffee, hot bread, greasy victuals and
e strong pickles, she destroys her stomach,
!, rots her teeth, shortens her life, and make:
d herself too ugly for any use, except soaring
i the crows off the corn. ]. q. S.