The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1859-06-25
Ganius In Women.

In every direction, N the Eastern and
Middle States, we at present hear Of
physical education. There has been a
revival in favor of health and of rational
education, and it is bearing good fruits
Even one or two universities are having
gymnasiums put up and teachers provided
for the bodily education of their students
Excellent works. by such writers as Sedg-
wick, Trail, Jacques, Miss Beecher,
Walker, and others, are being extensive
ly read, while cricket, baseball, SWIM
ming and other exercises are enjoying nm
wf.nted popularity. The fact thst the
young must be trained and taught to be
healthy is becoming matter of common
discussion, and here and there some
writer, holder 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 for exercise
sends them an hour on a funeral-like
walk, or permits them to be idle in the
house.
It is principally for the enormous influ-
ence which it exerts on the intellect,
health and happiness of woman, that such
physical culture should be a matter Of
sacred obligation on parents as regards
their daughters. There is degree of ig-
norance and carelessness extant on this
subject which, when examined, appears
absolutely terrifying and amazing. By
far the greater majority even of American
girls in the healthiest period of life are
semi-invalids, while still greater proper
ton are constant sufferers when little
advanced in life. All of this is the direct
consequence of neglect. There is not one
woman in thousand who exercises as she
ought while young, or who is educated
with view to health. Of late years this
neglect of physical development has been
fearfully increased by the increased ele-
gance of dress. Little girls are clothed
in silks and crinoline to degree and to a
cost which was never dreamed of twenty
years ago. The result of all this is "Chil-
dren behave yourselves and keep quiet !'
Exercise is wanting, and disease follows
languor.
One of the worst results of continually
declaring 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 exertion,
but have deprived them of the capacity
for long continued effort. We do not
contend, as unreasoning people would, OF
course, at once assert, that woman is natu-
rally as strong as man. But we do be-
lieve, and experience has abundantly
proved It, that nothing would be easie,
than to make all women stronger than the
average of men in our Atlantic cities now
are. This degree of strength was pos
sessed by Greek women and Roman la
dies; and it involved with. them no sacri-
fee of grace. We consequently believe
that the following extract from Charles
Reade is an absurdity, if we regard it a,
setting forth radical law fa-
Nothing is so hard to women as long
steady struggle. In matters physical, this
is the thing the muscles of the fair cannot
stand. In matters intellectual and moral
the long strain it is that beats them dead
Do not look for Bacona, a Newtona, q
Handella, Victoria Haga. Some Amer
lean ladies tell US education has stopped
the growth of these. No mesdames
These are not in nature. They can bub
BILE letters in ten minutes that You could
no more deliver to 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; mol
one epic that man could tolerate a minute
and why these come by long, high.
strung labor. But weak as they are il
the long run of everything but affections
(and there they are giants), they are al
overpowering while their gallop lasts
Fragella shall dance any two of you lat
on the floor before four O'Clock, and ther
dance on till peep of day. You trundlt
off to your business as usual, and could
dance again the next night, and so OF
through countless ages. She who danced
you into nothing is in bed, human jelly
crowned with headache"
Even under the present neglect, ladie;
often show the falsehood of Reade's argu
ment. Mary Cowden Clarke's sixteen
years of labor on her Shaksperean Concor
dance was pretty long strain. Ruskin
as logical, steady, rational writer on art
is far inferior to Mrs. Jamieson--he, il
fact. is the rhapsodical woman, and sh,
the reasoning man. The instance of I
woman's receiving high-toned, substan
tial education, such as most literary mel
who are scholars have enjoyed, is as rar,
an event as youths being brought up il
petticoats, and yet Master Superficial
Reade, who never had an idea above
light comedy, undertakes to say tina
genius is not in woman's nature Whel
woman is educated with joint view t,
physical strength, permanent health ant
mental vigor and earnestness, we shall
see genius developed rapidly enough.
is only one man in many thousand, anon,
the educated, who shows genius, while
is only one woman in many Thousand VIII
gets an education.-Plz. Bulletin.