The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-05-03
Who are the Healthy Women Among Us 2
pY ANroINETrE nRowv BLAcKwEIL.


Who are the Healthy Women Among Us 2
BY ANToINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL.
AS write from a rural neighborhood,
l may be compelled to testify that there
still are healthy women among US
rOsy-cheeked maidens, with ample
waists and well-expanded chests, who
can walk mile or two to school, and
sometimes help milk cows; middle-aged,
unmarried women, with stout, well-knit
physique, plenty to do and cheerful
hearts, accepting and glOrifying the
most menial duties; mothers, who can
bear a reasonable number of children,
and look as wholesome still in the green
country setting as well-ripened apples in
Autumn, hanging up among their glossy
dark leaves. These are oar healthy
women. Iheyd hare something to do;
and yet are not overburdened either
with care or never-ending labor. Now,
who are the healthy women of the great
world? When / used to be among them,
''taking notes. / was immensely i'm
pressed with the fact that it was inva-
riably women who had something to do,
and did it always with vigorous and
reasonable enjoyment in the occupation.
In the field, in the factory, in the house
D AA0AAf OlA lAAC HAdAAtAAAlf III AAAG SAhAil III
the studio, and in a hundred other places,
/ have seen such women; but l never
knew a thoroughly healthy woman who
had nothing to do except to get other
women to make her pretty little things
I to wear; and to wear them herself,
/ chiefly at midnight.
l am prepared to make the broad as
/ sertiOn that the average health of the
/ intellectually working women of the
| last twenty years, in this country, is
quite on a par with that of a smaller
class of men. ! affirm, moreover, that
the health of mind-wOFkers among men
is rather below than above the medium
standard of health for men generally
reason obvious: they stimulate mind, at
/ the expense of body. On the contrary,
the average health of the women who
coin money with their brains is above
I the average health of women generally
reason obvious: they have gained an
additional object in life; have estab-
lished n balance of harmony between
mind and bOdy-most of them still re-
tanning q fair share of the ordinary
duties and privileges of wOmanhOOd. 1t
remains for the public TO decide whether
/ these assertions are correct or incorrect.
If they are facts, here is one direct
avenue to health for women already in
hAIelANhs BGAANNNf AAANANoNNAf AAistN NlAG
/ health of lCOrEing women of all grades,
/ throughout all the various occupations
in which they are now engaged, is fairly
equal-Other things being exactly bal
anced-to the health of men in the same
or similar vocationsl Are these things
so? The 10th century is not the 9th,
and America is not Europe. The doc
/ trine of Evolution has been wonderfully
applied to nerves among us-among our
women in particular-and now, if we
hinder its equal application to the
| quickening of wOmanly energies, society
must evidently be the sufferer in conse-
/ quence.
Mrs. Child, with herunresting, earnest,
/ graceful pen, which has instructed and
delighted the nation for these forty
years, has yet so judiciously balanced
all this with household duties, that to-
day she is a cOmely, pOrtly matron, who
may be put forward with pride rs bright
exemplar to either sex.
i Lucretia Mott, at eighty years, after
long life of many activities, retains to-
day the same vigorous mind in the still
beautiful body. Time would fail me to
offer examples, though the temptation is
strong, almost resistless, in that direc-
ton; but instead of yielding to it, allow
me to face about and give the other side
of the picture.
Who are the unhealthy women among
us? In the country, our unhealthy
women are the labOrers' or farmers
wives, who have many children, many
tolls. few assistants, few diversions, and,
therefore, many nerves and ailments and
few enjoyments or points of cheerful
outlook into the future. Their young
daughters, thin and sapless at birth, are,
perhaps, fed on pork and cucumbers, and
chained TO heavy baby during all the
wears of growth; and in young ladyhood
they diet on poor novels and are chained
to the needle or the sewing machine.
Even country fresh air is not fair offset
) to a regimen like this, SO that both the
red and white damsels are as common
hereabout as the two patches of red and
white flax in the country gardens, the
varieties often growing so closely to-
gether that the colors are greatly mixed.
) The domestic women are not all dead
vet, either in town or country; and the
! female sex has not yet gone CR n,dsse to
, Newport or to Saratoga.
J No end of toll is, perhaps, as bad as no
, beginning. Incessant brain-wOrk is.
! doubtless, a severe trial to the nervous
system; but ceaseless nursery details.
5 added to the endlessly repeating processes
of the three meals a day administration.
. are a tax immeasurably more severe
upon any human organization, male oil
female. The one may have slain its
: thousands of American men, but the
t other, with its steady twenty-four hours
: beat of care, never wholly laid down tc
sleep, has slain its tens of thousands Of
, American women. Nerve? Certainly
, Not until the maternal heart of the
1 nation has found the conditions where il
q can rest and enjoy tranquility, free from
all harassing cares, some few hours, al
: least, out of every day, may we even ex.
o peet anything except nerves, either fol
the mothers or for the children.
4 Give every matron three full hour
daily for her own enjoyment, and per
suade her to spend it in the open air ex
ercise of brain, muscle, and lungs; and
:. depend upon it, we shall speedily Great,