The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-12-17
"What | Know About Women
Greeley's Opinion of the Sweet
Sixteenth" Amendment.
A Bad Outlook for the Next
Generation.


have just now very little influence
The last within of woman is to find a
career for herself, and for this business
she has set aside as Of secondary i'm
portance her old empIoymehts OF love
making and child bearing and training.
The destiny of woman is to work, "
says one OF her spokesman; marriage
and maternity are mere accidents, and
such is the DRIFT of all her public teach
/ ing. When the adult woman has
| taken the bit between her teeth to this
! extent, the wisest plan is to let her run
her length unbalked whatrrr NAV he
cur opinion OF her road or gait. Buisuun
pi MS as are fathers have surely some
authority in deciding at least the bodily
| ate OF our infant daughters, and it is
worth our while seriously to consider il
the physical condition Of the next gen
erat on OF women is TO be as Geporable
as that OF the present. As TO whether
the American woman is a slave, or
whether suffrage or a new husband
every fourth year is the best remedy
for her political and social grievances,
we NAV each have different opinion
But that the American woman is weak in
the back, dyspeptic in the stomach and
nervous to the very verge OF insanity IL
tact which almost every husband and
father coaipsses in the bitterness Of his
soul
A leading article in woman'spaper
this week sets forth this fact more
plainly than we would dare to do.
Most women are almost invalids, we
are told, ard tl.y are counseled to
treat themselves az if they were alto
gether 50. The ordinary New York
woman begins TO go off while her
children are babies. She is advised that
rest is what she wants. Stay in bed ;
if the cook does spoil and steal, and the
children's aprons do"get dirty, don't
quicken that laboring heart, and set
those tired muscles quiverlng by jump
ing up to make things light Let your
husband do it, if nurse is out. ltwon't
hurt him" A leading physician, whose
practice is largely among women"
offers his advice THE gentlest gym
nastics for the chest; quiet drive, or
swing, with an easy chair for q seat;
eggs, beeftea, meats, and cream; iron
in small doses With this prescription,
the ordinary woman, it is hoped, may
bolster up her poor wreck OF body
while it shuflles its unable way through
lite. The leading physician adds,
significantly "A woman has no bust
ness to have o string Of children long
enough to go across the street; but she
ought to have one or two. And she IL,
above all things, to be piticd who de-
.strovs her first born. If she ever has
fine, intelligent child, it should be
the first. And in losing that she cuts
down the flower and hope Of her life. y
! The wise doctor S words, we are assured
should stand without comment or ad-
dition. We have but one comment to
offer, and that is, that for the woman
hv whom such advice is needed, one or
two children are quite too many. Let
her devote herself TO voting, or TO the
! Philharmonic, or bazaars. or five
houneei dresses, from which she is
warned; but for the sacred office Of
motherhood she is untitled in body and
soul. in the ewes both OF God and man.
The worst OF it is that the extreme rem
edics propounded impress the reader as
only sensible and just. 1t is like a pre-
scription of yeast or anodynes, given
when the patient is in drticu'o mortts,
not save life. but to make lingering
death easy.
Now. what is the cause OF this de-
plorable state Of affairs ? The great
Grandmother Of this hspless creature
very likely, was pioneer in the woods;
reared family Of twelve or thirteen
children; scrubbed, spun, wove and
cooked lived to eighty-ive, with iron
muscles, a broad chest, and keen, clear
eve. Climate influences have nothing
! TO 10 with the degeneration. The poor
farmers wife in the Middle States sits
down when her days work is done, al
unlovely object enough, it is true, with
her leatherv skin and wisp ofhair knot
/ ted back, but without pain or ache, and
| good for fifty healthy years yet. Nor
will it do to say that the substitution OF
mentral training in the education of
girls for manual labor has weakened
| their bodies and irritated their nerves.
/ The shrcad wife OF an early pioneer
found judgement, her observation and
| inver ton called into incessant action;
used her brain more in a week than the
New York woman Of ton would in a
year OF balls and bazaars. Nor will the
substitution OF an artificial for natural
mode of life altogether account for it.
The English fashionable woman leaves
nature ont o: sight also; yet, compared
with her American sitter, is Hebe TO a
shadow.
The secre, we believe 10 lie in the
false strain and tension OF American
society. Men as well as women are
borne into a maelstrom OF social strug-
gle; bat boy carries his body along
with him. II has a chance OF fresh air
and exercise as lie pushes his WY in
college or on Change or market; but
girl, at the very age when her
..tsical frame Gale FOR rest and out
door training, is crammod, taught to
dance, to fiirt, TO dress. to look ont
anxiously for a husband; when che is
married, she has her children to push
on in their turn, household drudgery or
n whirl Of fashionable engagements; or,
If she has taken the newer but no less
exhansting route. her sex's wrongs 10
right In any case her neglected body
becomes a mere bundle Of nerves on
which 10 hang diseases; and, as the
easiest way of Kidding herself OF some
Of them, she declines to become the
mother al more than One or two
children. When our infant daugh-