The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-18
81 The Atlantic.O

cOnee, or OF the Auulttrated COhee that might
contain diseased rye"
"The Atlantic"
From the article on cooperative House
keeping" We make the following extracts
A LOST GENIUS.
81 knew a woman once, gifted so-extraordina-
rily by God that she might have been Il rist, q
musician, an artist, physician, a teacher, au
evangelist, since to the mastery of any Que of
these callings she could have brought q nearly
equal power and passion. Whatever her fiery
mlnd fastened upon 1t fused into itself nor was
there anything her cunning right hand sought
10 do il which it did not excel. At fourteen
her precocity was SO great that her father cut
short her studies, because she knew enough
for woman aud made her teacher IN his
school school. o1.uu AT sixteen cthe she married g. a
ner health gave way but her energy
alas neither father nor husbaOd nor one OF ali
her twelve brothers and brothersin-laW saw
that it would be better economy to give the
genius they were all so proud Of, a musical or
an artlstc or medical education, that she
might pay with her earnings some commoner
mortal TO make clothes for her little ones. than
to let her do it herself with the painful toll OF
the needle. And she had been brought ub with
100 narrow vsioD OF womans duties and
destinies to understand herself that she was
wasting her lie and abusing her powers. All
her ready gifts were, in her eyes, merely appro-
pirate feminine 'accomplis hments,' and to
make lame or money out OF tnem never occurred
yet her mind was ever IN lever OF desire, OF
invention, OF agonIzed striving for the reali-
zalion or the dreams of beauty, of be
neicenCe, OF friendship, that tormented
her. The music rang in her ears; the
pictures floated before her eyes; the fearful and
wonderful human organism haunted her BRAN;
the dread mysteries of stu and suffering, the
awfulness of human responsibility, the gories
of salvatlon blrned upon ner lips as she taught
her children Their daily Bible lesson; and sIIll,
nailed TO her chair, the swift neGdle went In
nAt-Wnnf N hnr
through her delicate lungs as we'll as through
the cloth-untll at nine-and thirty the struggle
ended; the body, after long paroxysms Of exqui-
site anguish, gave up its strong hold on lite,
and the rich soul eXhaed away TO heaven,
rejoicing to escape from the bars against which
1t had 50 long beaten its bright wings in vain.
/ saw her IN her coffin, with an expression OF
freedom and eXaltation upon her marble fea-
lures that seemed glory reflected down from
her now trium phing iar-of spirit. and resolved
TO remember the woe and earthly wreck Of her
thwarteo nature, and never 10 cease until saw
scme Hc..ar h; Ter way ior women than this which
| can so horribly waste and abuse their finest
| powers.
| DoCTREssEs vs. DOCTORS.
"Nothing will ever make me believe that Go
meant men to be the ordinary physicians of
| women and babies. A few masculine experts
might be tolerated in special institutions, so
that cases of peculiar danger and difficulty might
not be lett, as they are now, to the necessarily
one-sided treatment OF single sex; but in gene
raj If ever u created beng was conspicuously
and intolerably out of his natural sphere, it Is,
| in my opinion, the male doctor in the apartment
| OF the lylDg-in woman; and / think our sex Is
| really guilty, IN the nrst place, that it ever
| allowed men to appear there; and, in the second,
| that 1t does not insist upon educating women OF
character and intelligence and social POSITION
| for that post.
Indeed, common delicacy would seem to de-
| mand that all the special diseases OF women
this aside, and speaking from common sense
only, men may be as scientific as they please
1t is plain that thoroughly 10 know the womans
organism what Is good fyr it and what evil, aud
how 1t can best be cured when it is disordered,
one Gust be ones self q woman. 1t only proves
how much unworthy passion and prejudice the
lion of pure science and boasted love OF hu-
manity, that instead OF being eager to enlist
the feminine intultions and investigations In this
great cause, as their best cnance of arriving at
truth, they are actually enac;ing the lgnobie
part of churls and misers, II not of quacks. For
are they not well enough aware that often their
women patients are so utterly beyond them that
| they do not know what to do with them The
diseases OF the age are nervous diseases, and
women are growing more Dervously high,strung
and uncomfortable every day, yet the doctors
stand helplessly by and cannot stop 1t. When,
however, there shall be a school OF doclresse es
of high culture and thorough medical education
going in and out among the sex with the proper
medical authority, they will see, and will ba
able 10 prevent much OF the moral aud
physical neglect and lmprudence which, no y
unchecked In school and home, make such
havoc OF the vital forces OF the present genera
ton.
Such a guardian of household health mi9ht
have been the poor, heart-brOken genius who
never found her true place IN the feminine com
munity. For she braVely preached the 10 Ss OF
health IN every family, while her presence in a
s!ck-Ioom was almost that of a savior. People
sent tor her for miles round, and often healing
seemed to wait upon her coming, such new hope
and confidence could she inuse INTO the patient.
The very touch OF her warm and skillful hand
the qulckness OF her sympathy ana cOmprehen-
sion: her courage, decision, AMI presence OF
mind iu cases of great danger; her observation
of every minutest symptom-all marked
her out as one OF Natures great practitioners,
while her enthusiasm for anatomy aud physiolO-
ey seemed TO show that, 1t she could have had
the opportunity, she would have been also a
true and pure and tiIeless deVotee of science.
Her popularity drew her at one time into SO
WIDE an amateur practice that she found she
was negecting her home duties for it, and gave
1t up for the sake of her Sc wing. Bat how much
more appropriate and grateful would her minis
tration have been-a mother herself a baby
nurse absolutely perfect, and with the most
sensitive and at the same time the steadiest
nervous organization in the world-at the bed
side OF her friends aud neighbors in their need,
than the services of the ordinary country doc.
tors who did otHciate therel"
From Mr.. Eugene Bsnsons critical notice oi
Charles Baudelaire We make the following
extTacts:-
"Baudelaire is as unique and interesting as
Han Iet' He Ia that rare and unknown beng
Agenuine poet-a poet in the midst OF things