Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-02-03


contempiuous boon which is conceded 10
weakness because II is not strong enough
10 do any harm, is very different thing
from the glorious right which, like the
Magua-Charter, is granted because II
cannot be held, Obtaining the right OF
suffrage as pitiful aims, flung TO us dog
and bone like, is very different thing
from rising in royal strength Of body and
soul and demanding that right
oh, wish il could be thundered into
the ears Of American women, with the
force Of forty, FOUNDER, that weakness
is not respectable; that II is forever and
ever contemplate OF truth, We scarce
lv deserve the right to vote, until the
United States is something else than a
hospital for lady invalids. tr.
The women OF America are physically
the weakest women in the world, and
seem pleased 10 be told of il. Moreover,
the immediate cause OF ninetenths Of
all their sickness and inyalidism is moth
ing else than the want Of healthy muscu.
lar exercises A certain good old doctor
hereabouts is in the habit Of saying 10
nineteen out of every twenty among his
fashionable lady patients:
"You don't take exercise enough.
Gentle housework will be the best thing
But for all the "gentle house.work .
they ever do, the good old doctor might
save his breath.
"Bless me Do you mean to say these
girls all have false teeth 2" exclaimed a
merry Englishman, recently, as eight
Laughing, chattering fashionable beauties
came and took seats in car near by him.
So our merry Englishman made some
sly observations, and found that out of
the eight handsome girls there were but
two whose teeth we're natural. Now,
what was the reason of all this2 An in
telligent dentist answered the question
the otner day.
You women have so much poorer
teeth than men on account of your Sc
dentary habits
There it comes again. Sedentary hab-
its 2 Women sacrifice even their very
teeth to woman's weaknesses. They give
up their teeth, their hair, their muscle,
their rich blood, their compilations, their
health and happiness they waste them
selves away to skin and bone-and very
little of that-all that they may be merely
delicate" There is more humbug
about a modern fashionable lady than
there is in a gift enterprise. So that a
beautiful woman, be-padded and be-
painted, with her head covered with false
hair, and her mouth full of artificial
teeth, invariably set an individual, at all
inclined to metaphysics, to wondering
how much is woman and how much is
CANNON. All this, too, when, to make
her beauty real, instead of artificial, but
one thing would be needed--good healthy
| physical exercise.
For making women invalids, next to
muscle wasting idleness, is muscle. vast
ing occupation. Unfortunately all the
occupations in which American women
who earn their own living are engaged
are of that class. With business notion
of being what they call genteel, leave
honest, healthy household labor and gar.
dening to the Biddys and Katrinas, and
become dyspeptic and consumptive over
teaching, sewing, and, recently retailing
light dry goods. If they only could see
their folly and nonsensel The good
kitchen girl is infinitely healthier and
better paid, even, wnen it comes to that,
than the sewing girl. Whatever is honest
and healthy cannot but be honorable,
and the kitchen girl may and should be
Just as intelligent as the school-teacher.
| Household labor is in every way prefera-
BILE to stitching or selling buttons, and
physical health and cheerfulness of mind
| is a rare boon to receive in exchange for
bit of miserable, starved gentility
The rosy-cheeked cook or laundrsss,
with healthy body and clear con-
science, is hundred times happier than
her sickly, stitching, and oftentimes
hungry sister, and thousand times bet
ter off than that poor, worried, careworn,
most tormented Of all created beings, the
"assistant underling in large school.
Teaching, as our public schools are at
present organized, is nothing less than
murder to hundreds of women every
year. Five years, or ten at most, of con-
scientious service as a school-teacher will
bring any woman of ordinary constitu-
tion to her grave. Oh, | have seen it
too many times to hope that my state
ment can be contradicted It's unspeak-
ably saddening to watch them-noble,
beautiful girls-fading, fading out, month
after month, and byand.by the heavy
load drops OF itself, and you see another
name among the deaths next week-that
is all