The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1859-06-16
GENIUS IN WOMEN

In favor Of health and of rational educa.
ton, and it is bearing good fruits. Even
one or two universities arc having gymna-
sia put up and teachers provided for the
bodily education Of their students. Excel.
lent works, by such writers AS Sedgwick,
Trail, Jacques, Miss Beecher, Walker, and
others, are being extensively read, while
cricket, baseball, swimming aud other cx-
erclses are enjoying unwonted popularity.
The fact that the young must be trained
and taught to be healthy is becoming
matter OF common discussion, and here
and there some writer, bolder than the
rest, ventures to hint that at boarding
schools the system is deficient which keeps
youth for eight or nine hours at books, and
Tor exercise sends them an hour on a fune-
ra-like walk, or permits them to be idle in
the house.
1t is principally for the enormous inAu-
ence which it exerts on the intellect, health
ana happiness OF woman, that such physi
cal culture should be matter of sacred Oh.
legation on parents rs regards their daugh-
ters. There is degree OF Ignorance and
carelessness extant on this subject which,
when examined, appears absolutely terrify-
ing and amazing. by far the greater ma
jority even Of American girls in the health
lest period OF life are scmi,invalitls, while
still greater proportion are constant suffer
crs when little advanced in life. All of
this is the direct consequence Of neglect.
There Is not one woman in \ thousand
who exercises rs she ought while young,
or who is educated with view to health.
Of late years this neglect of physical de-
velopment has been feariully increased by
the increased elegance Of dress. Little
girls are clothed in silks and crinolinc to a
degree and to cost which WIS never dream
ed of twenty years ago. The result of all
this is "Children behave yourselves and
keep quiet !" Exercise is wanting, and dis
ease follows languor.
One Of the worst results of continually
dcbarring women from proper exercise
and this has been done for thousands of
years in all civilized countries-has been
reduction Of mental force. Sedentary
lives have given women nervous power,
equivalent to occasional violent exertions,
but have deprived them Of The capacity
for long continued effort We do not con.
tend, as unreasonable people would, of
course, at once assert, that woman is nat
urally as strong as man. But we do believe,
and experience has abnndahty proved it,
that nothing would be easier than to make
all women stronger than tho average of
men in our Atlantic cities now are This
degree of strength was possessed by Greek
women and Roman ladies, and it involved |
with them 10 sacrifice of grace. We con-
sequently believe that the following ex-
tract from Charles Readc, is Ill absurdty,
if we regard it as setting forth radical
law:
Nothing is so hard to woman as a long
steady struggle. In matters physical, this
is the thing the muscles of ihe fair cannot
stand. In matters intellectual and moral,
the long strain it is that boats them dead.
DO not look for Bacona,a a Newtona, a
Handella, Victoria Haga. Some Amer
lean ladies tell us education has stopped
:he growth Of these. No! mesdames.
These are not in nature. They can bub-
BILE letters in ten minutes that you could no
more deliver 10 order in ten days than
river can play like fountain. They can
sparkle gems Of stories; they can flash
like diamonds of poems. The entire troupe !
has never produced one opera, nor one epic |
that man could tolerate Minute and |
why 9-these come by long, high strung
labor But weak rs they are in tile long
run of everything but affections, land there
they are giants,) they are all overpowering
willis tlieir gailop lasts. Fragecla shall
dance any two of you fiat on the floor be.
fore four o'clock, and then dance OH till
peep Of day. You trundle off to your bu
iness as usual, and could dance again the
next night, and 80 on through countless
ages. She who danced you into nothing |
Is In bed, human Jelly crowned with a
headache"
Even Under the present neglect; ladies
often show the falsehood of Roadss argu-
mcnt. Mary Cowden Clarke's sixteen
years of labor on her shakspereah Concor
dance was pretty long stfafh. Ruskin
as logical, steady rational writer on art,
il far inferior to Mrs: jathisson-he, in
fact, is the rhapsodical woman, and she
the reasoning man. Fhs instance Of a wo.
mans receiving high toned, substantial.
such "a most literary men who
are scholars have enjoyed, is as rare an
event as youths being bought up in
rat,;ooofa oud yht Maeto. Suo,.So:.l