Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1856-06-18
.sWanted--A Healthy Wife,

DER vi IlurperS hus5uZie, anu 10, vi itSoiii "of'
more than double the price of the whole num-
Der. The article commences with statement
that it is o very prevalent delusion among young
men, that when they marry young woman,
they get acompanion for life, whereas in truth,
a man in tb;, country can only be married by
''nstalr.ents,n and must lead two or three brides
to tine altar before he can realize the ditiniton
that marriage is perpetual union." This fact,
is of course, attributable to the short-livedness
of our "woman kind" as Monkbarus most un-
gallantly termed the fairer portion of creation,
and this short-livedness, the writer most clearly
demonstrates, is caused by unhealthy habits Of
dress, diet, &c. As regards dress and diet, the
writer says ys:-Petersburg Int.
Sour women have not very wisely, we think,
concentrated their attentions upon the COM
plexion. They make over their bodies to that
ingenious French woman, Madame Crinone,
who, with her cunning art i'll the proper dispOsi-
tion of padding and hair-cloth, can supply any
degree of pump rotiindity in demand, as the
Partisan butcher swells out, with puff of his
vigorous lungs, the carcass of scraggy sheep
to the fullness of well fed mutton. Whether to
wear oneer dozen skirts, to be lean to-day or
fat tomorrow, our beauties leave to the decision
of fashion but their compilations they take un-
der their own special charge, and the result, we
must say, is not very creditable to their taste
and skill. We confess our preference for the
complexion of "sun-burnt daughter of labor"
to the chalky face of fashion. Our climate tends
to produce brunettes rather than blondes, but
the rich mellowness of beauty of the former, it
interfered with by art, is easily changed into a
dingy, opaque white, which shocks q wholesome
taste like an appartion ofdeath. Thecomplexi-'
on of many OF our women is as paid as white
petticoats, and they seem proud OF it, if we may
judge by the care they take in banching their
faces from wearing wells, drawing the curtains,
shading themselves with "flars" and parsols and
other CONSTITUENCIES for excluding the light. The
doctors tell us that there is no tonic in the phar-
macop9ia equal to that of the suns rays. AT
the Founding Hospital in Paris they have
large inclined plane, exposed directly to the
light. Upon this, when the sun is out,the nurses
arrange their little charges as naked as when
they came into the world, in rows, that they
may bask in the solar rays, and absorb their
healthful influence at every pore. The inclined
plane is found to be, next to mothers milk-of
which luxury the little innocents are no more
conscious than Of a silver spoon-the most in
vigorating regimen Where pap fails to tatten,
and rhubarb and ipecac to purify the forlorn
babies Of the hospital vivity in the sun like so
many drowned flies. We recommend the inclin-
ed plane treatment to our ladies, as infinitely
preferable to the sick room with the shutters
closed or the sofa in the parlor with the curtains
drawn. Send away the doctor, and all the pills
and potons with him, and call in the sum-"
Again the writer says:
The circumference ofour ladiess dresses is
increasing inversely as their figures. AS their
bodies collapse, their skirts dilatea and we would
as soon expect to find substantial woman, with
in the expensiveness of modern female dress, as
to dine heartily upon an 0metette Soufe. Ii we
were satirfcally disposed, we might quote, for
the benefit of our female readers, Addison's pa
per on hoops, aside, see Spectator, No. 1919 or
we might repeat the scandal, rife among the
scandal mongers, which attributes the prevailing
portions of female dress to the fashion set by the
Empress Eugenie, for which, however, nature is
more responsible than art We have no desire,
God forbid, for the perpetuty of Louis Napole-
on's dynasty but if the settlement of that ques-
ton is to reduce the periphery Of our ladies'
dresses and to bring into the world more ra-
tional fashion,we sincerely hope that the French
tyrant may soon be dangling an infantile Ma
poleon, prince or princess as it may be upon his
imperial knee.
Our objection to the ladies' skirts; however,
is not upon the score of taste but on the ground,
if the doctors are to be believed, of the i'll effect
of so much weight of dress upon the health of
woman. The ladies themselves confess, that
they feel as if they had only struggled through
millstone and had to bear its weight upon
their hips To dsrobe lady of fashion costs
more labor than it did Belzoni to unwrap a
mummy; and to discover nature hid in such an
involved complexity of art, is as difficult as it
was for Layard to find the remains OF the Assy-
rian queen concealed beneath the accumulated
rubbish of centuries "Ma Joi!" exclaims the
bright-eyed French soubrette, "c'est dc trop," as
she breathlessly mites the tenth skirt, and re-
duces her mistress to her natural proportions
And the knowing jade, with cunning smile,
half in contented satisfaction at her own health
fu, fulncss of person, and half in disguised con-
tempt at her ladies meagreness, counts upon her
ten fingers 1st, the robe of the moire antique
Snd the laced petticoat; 3d. the whalehones
ditto: 4th the crinoline; 9th, moreen skirt; 9th,
the cotton ditto; 7th, and 9th, the two corded
ditto; 9th, flannel petticoat; and then, and then
-mais prainlent c'est de to1p."
On the subject of diet the article says:
"As a dinner on meringueS a la creme, at
Thompson's, varied with courses of chocolate
d6ps. and succeeded by dessert of Stewards
candy. is By no means wholesome substitute
for beef and pudding, 1t is proper to protest a.
gainst the ordinary diet Of many OF our ladies'.
The elements of food-water, sugar, albumen,
and oil-necessary to wholesome aliment, are
hest obtained in well ordered dinner OF soup,
fish meat. vegetables, and dessert. Any waste
of opnetite upon innutritious diet is waste OF
health. strength and life. Dinner should be
treated with more respect than it is and should
be always substantial and regular. 1t is poor
economy to content ourselves with any make
shifts for that great event of the day. 1t IS as
we'll to inform the ladies that, when, after satls-
fying themselves with sugar-candy in the morn-
ing they come to melancholy dinner OF tea;
apple-pie, and buckwheat cakes (their husbands
in the mean time fattening at Delmonicos,) that
although they be satisfying their appetites, they
are by no means satisfying the demands of health
and life. Let the family dinner be regarded
with proper dignity, and the social board as the
gathering-pont daily for all members OF the
family. The husbands would be more in their
place at the head of their table at home than
hob-nobbing with convivial stock jobbers over
their Champagne at Delmonicos or their Ma
deria at the Club. Let the wife, too, eschew
the prison of the confectioners, and keep in re-
serve a hearty appetite for wholesome beef at
home"
Beecher, of Sharps rifle notoriety, was taken
off in New York the other day, after this fash
ion:
'Tom, where shall we go to church do day."
''Don;t know, Dick-suppose we 60 to hear
Ward Beecher."
ssWhat, on Sundayl"
Prentice, of the Louisville Journal once said
that he would give any money to have cast OF
F. p Blairs countenance transferred to his and