New-York tribune., 1871-07-26
HAVE We A HEALTHY WOMAN AMONG USF

and a larger, more liberal love fOr tDelr IellOW
men.
NAVE WE A HEALTHY WOAAH AMONG US'
Our correspondents at sea and inland
watering places announce bathrooms and
beaches as full by this time; 80, place dur
danes! Fashion has the field for the next two
months, and will, az usual, sweep religious
conventions, politics, and even free-loye muir
ders clear out of sight with her bouBante
skirts. Caucus rooms and churches will be
left TO their sultry soltudes while divines and
dcmagogues, with their disciples, lounge
brief season on the grass and sip the mild IN
tOxication Of Summer novel. Literature IN
books or newspapers apng society VIII SUD
denly lose its backbone, and collapse until
September into limp thing OF fiirtations ana
ball costumes, mere remnant OF fool ana
" feather" There is no other time when the
average American woman thrusts herself so
prominently into notice or offers so fair field
for observation and criticism TO foreigners as
during July and August. City leaders OF fash
ion aud their apes mass themselves at the hot
watering places, while country people, with a
still odder perveFs;on of Judgment, choose
this as the time for q jauIt to the cities.
AS for aping fashion, OF frivolous dancing or
dressing there is no use Of bewailing or ser
monizing about them. Bad as they are, there
are worse evils. Solomon bemOaned the gilt
terng head-tire and mncing gait of the
daughters of Judah. Yet the men whom they
brought forth were warriors of renown, judges
in the gate. Whitfield found our grandmoth-
crs an offcnse In his nOstrils because OF their
boops and patches; but they cOntriyed to live
to IA hale, gray-haired age, and to give birth
to and rear families of dozen stalwart men,
Our girls and matrOns dance and dress after
the old fashion, though to their own tune
The significant fact about them, new and terri
BILE. To which we wish to call attention while
they are thus before the public, is that
of their physical degeneracy-of the almost
absolute mpossbility that they will be able
to bring forth generation OF s0nnd-Dodied,
clear Drained men and women. We venture
to doubt whether in all the bathrooms or sum-
mer haunts crowded on this July night there
can be found one perfectly healthy woman OF
American descent for two generations. Let
any man who doubts this assertion run over
the invalid list of his own family and friends,
and acknowledge its truth. There is no fact
about women more urgent in its Importance
and threat of unmeasured future evil than
this: vet, curiously enough the gravest OF them
shut their eyes to it with a willful pettishness
which silly schoolgirl only might consider
coGuettish and charming. The author of
pampblet ON the "Wear and Tear of the Ner-
"vous System" to which we have before re-
ferred, places the matter clearly before his
readers
flask you," he says "to note carefully the express
chance 10 meet in your walks You viii see many
very charming faces, the like OF which the world
cannot match-fures somewhat too spare Of flesh,
and. especially south Of Rhode Island, marvellous
littleness OF hand and foot But look further, and
especially among New-England young girls; You
will be struck with certain hardness OF line in form
and feature which should DOT be between 3 and 49,
a least do not want to do than is needed OF this
ungracious talk; suffice it to say that multitudes of
young girls merely pretty to look at, not that
that their destiny is the shawl and the sofa neuralgia.
weak backs and the varied forms Of hysera-that do
mestlc demon which has produced untold discomfort in
many household, and, am almost ready TO say,
much unhappiness as the husbands dram"
The same pamphlet calls attention to
the fact that native women of even the
laboring class are never able to nurse
their children as long as Germans and
Irish of the same grade, while few of
IL
year, however desirous of doing so. without
serious detriment to their own health; and
also to the significant decrease in the size of
native families, a problem which no reference
to questions of immortality will altogether
solve. So alarming is this falling off that the
question whether the American climate was
destined to support the life of Americans has
been gravely argued by scientific men. The
writer refers much of the lack of physical
vigOr in women to these peculiarities of cli-
mate and asserts that while the development
of nervous temperament with lessened
power of endurance, is one of the many
race-changes which are also giving us facial,
vocal. and other peculiarities derived krom
none of our ancestral stocks, this change of tenn
permanent is nurtured by causes quite within
our control. Chief among these, he alleges.
are overwork and confinement at school of girls
at the very age when they most require
frequent rest and outdoor exercise, instancing
the cruel forcing system in use in the public
schools Of this city aud Philadelphia. There