The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1858-03-04
How aro Boys and Girls Reared.
TO PARENTS.

TO PARENTS,
An article by Dr. Dixon, published in
"Tho Scalpol" some years ago, is just
now attracting some attention in the
English papers. 1t is on the early de-
cay of American women.
We give (says the doctor) the girl
two years start Of the boy, to make her
condition equal to his at the outset
Both have endured the torture of ban
daging, pinning, and tight dress at
birth; both have been rocked, jounced
upon the knee; papp'd, laudanum'd,
paregorio'd, castor oil'd, and sufTocated
with a blanket over the head, sweltered
with cap and feathers, roasted by FIRE
of anthracite, and poisoned with the
foul air of an unventilated chamber, ao-
oording to. the universal formula of
some superannuated doctor or inexper-
fenced nurse; probably both, for these
people usually hunt in couples, and are
very gracious to each other. We give
the girl enough start to make up for the
benefit the boy has derived from chas-
ing the cat, and an occasional tumble
in the hall or yard, and the torture she
endured from her sampler, and being
compelled to "sit up straight" and not
be a "hoyden."
Our couple start to school with such a
minimum of lung, or lungs as the un-
natural life they have led will allow,
and stomach that is yet fresh enough
to endure bad bread, plum cake, can
dies, and diseased milk. The reader
will remember that Nature is benefcent
and will endure much abuse before she
succumbs. Well, they are off for schools
observe how circumspectly my little
Miss walks. Soon she chides her broth.
er for being Crude" He, nothing
daunted, starts full tilt after a stray
dog or pig; and though he often tum-
bles in the mud, and his clothes are
soiled, the result is soon visible in the
increase Of lungs and ruddy checks
He cannot run without more breath; he
cannot continue to run without increas.
ed dimension and power of lungs; he
cannot have large lungs without good
digestion; he will feel well, and thrive
apace.
They are now at school, seated on q
bench without a back, and often with
their legs hanging down, so that tho
poor back bone has no earthly support
Thus sits the wretched child, with book
in hand, from nine till twelve oolock
and sometimes until three. The boy
with the aid of sticking a pin, now anc
then, in his neighbor, and occasionally
falling, from pure nervous exhaustion
to the great relief of his half-stagnant
blood-vessels and torpid nerves, onduref
it, until another pig or dog chase makes
him feel that he is alive
But our unfortunate little Miss is in
distressed condition. She is charged
to "walk straight home" where she is
allowed to select her dinner from those
articles that afford the least nutrition
such as pastry, cake, rich puddings, and
apples. This, by the way, is the sec
ond meal of the same character, having
taken one other at breakfast or lunch.
After dinner, she either sits down
at her sampler or piano, and in all pro
bability finishes the days feeding with
tea and preserves She is then posted
off to a feather-bed, in an unventilated
chamber, with the door shut, for fear
the little darling will catch cold. A
Motifs stove or furnace keeps the mp
per chamber at from So to 1902, the
feather-beds and blankets retaining the
heat Of the body, and sweltering the
Wretohed little creature till morning.
What wonder she gets spinal curvature.
or that there are actual deposits Of tu-
bercles in the body Of her vortebr@ OF
lungs2