Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-07-23
Tbo Dnpr.r Of Depopu,,.on.

Enc Uuu8cr oil Uop0pulnGOu.
From the Journal Of Psychological Medicine.l
Once, say fifty or one hundred years
ago, nearly all New England girls were
trained up to some domestic labor, com.
meucing early, and continuing year
after year. Few domestics were then
employed, and what were, belonged
generally to their own stock. But un.
fortunately, the practice has not been
continued. Domestic service began to
be discarded by the last generation, and
at the present day it has become still
more questionable. Girls are sent to
school ut 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, il
at ali, to do only the lighter work ; all
that is laborious must be performed by
their mothers, or domestics employed
for this purpose. It is scarcely neces-
sary to state here that nearly all the
help now employed in domestic service
is Of foreign origin. The number be-
longing to native stock thus employed
has for a long time been diminishing
every year. And in families where
there are daughters, and not means of
procuring help, it is too generally that
the mothers do all the homework, or
the hardest part Of it, and let the
daughters do the sewing, or attend to
such kinds Of work Us require but little
physical exercise. A great amount of
time is now consumed by young females
in employments that do not tax the
muscles severely, such as the various
kinds Of sewing, dress making, millin-
cry work, embroidery, music, etc. A
little attention now and then to domestic
labor, or overseeing it, will not contrib
ute much toward improving the mus
cles. To develop and strengthen these
organs as they should be, requires years
Of labor. And, what is unfortunate, no
substitute has yet been found, or is
likely to be, to take the place ofdomestic
service. Within a few years some 1T
tentiou 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 commenced early and followed
up systematically. Besides, the knowl-
edge obtained from these exercises is
worthless compared with that acquired
in the performance Of domestic duties.
4
The girl has been sent to school from
the age of Eve and six, and kept there
continuously till sixteen or seventeen
years Of age, with only short intervals
for rest and recreation. THE curriculum
Of her studies has been constantly en-
larging, and the standard Of attainment
set before her has been raised higher
and higher every year. The rewards Of
merit in the common district school, the
stimulus of passing rapidly through the
graded school system, the distinctions
of scholarship In the seminary, the high
qualifications requisite for teaching, the
accomplishments of q fashionable edu-
cation, the attractions of cultivated So
ciety, and Of papers, magazines and
books, all these make powerful appeals
to the ambition, diligence and perse.
erance Of every young woman
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 IN excess activity of
the brain, a kind Of precociousness in
its development, a smartness and bril-
liaucY in the mental training and char
acter Of our girls, that Il nowhere
else be found. 1t is a growth too much
like that Of plants reared in II hot house,
that cannot bear outside exposure. But
this general predominance of the nery-
Gus temperament in Il New England
women is decidedly u%nfavorable to in
crease of population. As q general
rule, people highly educated, and fol-
lowing pursuits Of whatever kind, that
severely tax the brain and nervous sys-
tenn, have fewer children than persons
engaged in manual labor for n liveli-
hood,