Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-06-02
s ~ Vol. 10, NO. 50.
The danger of Depopulation.

Once, say fifty or one hundred
years ago, nearly all New England
girls were trained up to domestic Ia
Dor, commencing early, and continu-
ing year after year. Few domestics
We're then employed, aud what were,
belonged generally to our own stock.
But, unfortunately, the practice has
not been continued. Domestic sers
vice began to be discarded by the
last generation. and at the present
day it has become still more unfash-
ionable. Girls are sent to school at
five or six years of age, and kept
there most of the time till fifteen or
sixteen years of age. When at home
and grown up they are called upon,
if at all, to do only the lightest parts
OF work all that is laborious must
be performed by their mothers, or
domcstics employed for this purpose.
1t il scarcely necessary 10 state here
that nearly all the help now employ
ed in the domestic service is of for
eign origin. The number belonging
10 our native stock thus employed
has for a long time been diminish>
ing every year. And in the iami-
lies where there are daughters, AMI
not means 10 procure help. it is found
too generally that the mothers do all
the honsework or the hardest parts
oft, and let the daughters do the
sewing. or attend to such kind of
works as require but little physical
exercise. A great amount of time is
now consumed by young females in
employments that do nottaN the
muscles severely, sucn as the various
kinds of sewing. dress making, mills
nary work, embroidery, music, etc.
A little attention now and then to
domestic labor, or overseeing it, will
not contribute much toward improy-
ing the muscles. To develop and
strengthen these organs as they
should be, requires years of labor
And, what is unfortunate, no substi>
tute has yet been found, or is likely
to be, to take tho place Of domestic
service. Within a few years some
attention has been paid to skating,
to cricket and croquet playing, and
regular gymnastic exercises but
these can be practised only by a few
comparatively cannot be commeno-
ed early and followed up systematic
cally. Besides, the knowledge OBJ
tanned from these exercises is worth,
less compared with that acquired
in the performance OF our domestic
duties.
The girl has been sent to school
from the age of FIVE and six, and kept
there continuously till sixteen or sev-
enteen years of age, with only short
intervals for rest and recreation. The
curriculum of her studies and reading
has been constantly enlarging and
the standard of attainments set before
her has been raised higher and high
er every year. The reward of m crit
in the common district school, the
stimulus of passing rapidly through
the graded school system, the dis
tinction of scholarship in the semi~
nary, the high qualifications requisite
for teaching, the accomplishments of
fashionable education, the attrac>
tons of cultivated society, and ofpa,
pers, magazines and books, all these
make powerful appeals to the am
bition and perseverance CT young wo-
men.
The nervous temperament becomes
altogether too predominant, the brain
and nervous system are cultivated in
undue proportion to other parts of
the body There is successive ac-
tivity Of the brain, kind OF preco-
ciousness in its development, smart
ness and brilliancy in the mental
training and character of our girls,
that can no where else be found, 1t
is growth too much like that of
plants reared in hot>house, that
cannot bear outside exposure. But
this general predominance OF the
nervous temperament in our New
England women is decidedly unfa--
vorable to increase Of population
AS a general rule, people highly edu-
ucated, and following pursuits of
whatever kind, that severely tax the
brein and nervous system, have few
er children than persons engaged in
manual labor for q livelihood.-Jour-
nal Of Psychological Medicine.
I