Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-01-28
From the January number of the KnloterbOcker.
Physical Decline of American Women.
BY AUGUSTUS <. GARDNER, n. D.
EVILS rHoueHrLEssLY PRODUCED.


sometimes from desire which may be laud.
able, not to produce children to inherit
constitutional diseases, induces many to
take precautionary measures against con
ception. We have heard clergymen state
that man should control the size of his
family as much as a farmer his focks !;
that he should not have a larger stock than
he conld house and feed that this was in
the power Of every one ; that the mind
was given 10 control the appetites that
the lower classes were over-run ming with
children, and the poorer the parents, the
more prolific they became Yes, and the
more healthy and vigorous Il is these
women who do not pretend to guide the
course of events, or make the laws of Ma.
ture conform to their wishes, who are in
health and actually doing the work Of the
world, while the wise in their own concelt
are sufferers, invalids, aud useless. The
laws Of nature and the necessities Of our
existence implanted by an over-rulng Pro-
videncc, cannot be contravened without
detriment TO the system. Local conges'
lions, nervous affections and dcbilities are
the direct aud indisputable results of the
cOitUS imperfect, tegumeHta eTtaria, aJt@-
tiones gelide, infuSiopeS astriugeHteS, etcetc-
ra, SO commonly employed by the commu-
nifty, who are so ignorant on all these mat
ters, and who are in fact substituting for
one imaginary difficulty in prospect, host
of ills that will leave no rest OF comfort TO
be found.
On this subject there is great ignorance
and great ills resulting. Inqury of any
gynecoogist will convince the most skeptic-
al that the general employment of any
means for the prevention of conception, is
fraught with injury to the female certainly,
If not to the other sex also. Exactly how
these evils are effected is not perhaps Of
easy explanation, physiological laws are
not fully known, but of this fact there is
no mistake and reasonably enough for
sexual congress is thus rendered but spe-
cies of self.abuse
We must leave this question thus imper-
fectly touched upon for your own reflections.
1t is one Of vast Importance to the physlc-
al wellbeng of the American woman, but
it cannot be discussed advantageolsly in
single article We could not in conscience
have omitted so important cause of the
physical decline Of the health of our wo.
men without alluding to it, and less could
scarcely he said In your reflections take
one guide to correct deductions. Start
with the firm belief that Gods laws can
not be discarded, superseded or neglected
with impunity,
INHERITED DISEASES.
1t may be remarked that we have not
allnded to either inherited or contracted
constitutional diseases which result from
immoralitieS, either Of ancestors, or from
the husbands criminalities, or from wo.
mans personal debasement. We have not
alluded to them principally because they
are far less common than some would fain
make it appear. With all their folIies, the
American women are virtuous those TO
the contrary, we are confident, being rare
exceptions This is almost as true of the
American husbands, the great majority of
whom are true TO their marriage-vows, and
in proportion, even in the tainted cities,
the hot-beds of vice far greater than any
other land of Christendom. That ruanY
women do thus suffer is true and where
this suffering arises from the sins of either
ancestors or husband, she can only have
our deepest sympathies, and surely none
can more deServedly claim them But
where moral sin has brought with it ply
steal disease, we can add nothing to the
teachings of the Holy Writ and of past
centuries. The way Of the transgreSsor is
hard even in this nineteenth century, for
the truths of time are the truths of etern-
ty. Women can still do something. They
have yet work to perform. Strip off
your foliies your prohigacieS. Live for
something better than dress and fashion,
and that ease and self-iudulgence which
like COY maiden, when courted most, fur
thest retires. Accept your earthly mis-
sion to elevate man, to lift him above the
peri>hing droSs and sickly vanities of this
world
Allure 10 brighter worlds and lead the gay
LoFTIER END FOR LIFE.
If the sins in the past can only be allcvi-
ated in the future they may be prevented
Be mother to your children be COM
panion for your boys and girls. The fol-
lies Of the young are too often only the
manifestation of the sins of the mother.
sins of OMISSION of neglect Of the chiId's
Thought, which instead of being trained,
as the gardener iuclines the twig, is allow
ed to be blown about by every passing
breeze. Fill your chld's thoughts full
stuff them to repletion with the good, and
there will be no room for the bad to get
in. You know how to satisfy the demands
of his stomach, yet you do not attempt to
cater for his nobler mental and moral ma
tire. BE a companion for your children.
Teach them that if weaned from your breast
they are not put away from your heart,
and from thence let them still draw their
spirit as they before found their lile's blood!
Be mother
My ear is panied,
Ny soul is sick with every days report
OF wrong aud outrage with which earth is filed
A mother The fashionable woman whom
we once met dancing wantonIy at a city
ball when her only child lay at home sick
ening with scarlet fever, is not the type we
urge you to copy. She was but an ostrich
who leaves its young on the desert sands
No, be true mother instinct with all the
holy attributes Of maternity There are
many Of you who eau, like Us, point to the
mansions of the blest for the type of