The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-06-24
Advice to a Young Lady.

Inc UalVcStOn NeacS publishes the an
nexed letter, which was written for the
use of a young lady, a resident of that
city, who is about finishing her scholas-
tic course at Staunton, Va. Young ladies
generally may find instruction and i'm
provemcnt by careful perusal:
GALVESTON, April y. 1875.
My DEAR -: At your good mothers
request l have consented to make some
suggestions as to course of reading for
you.
Before doing so let me teach you a few
simple truths which observation and cx-
pcrience have taught Inc.
1t is quite as important, in every re-
spect, to cultivate your body as to cult
vate your mind. No amount of mental
acquisitions will compensate for the lack
of strong, elastic, healthful physical
system. shall have accomplished my
purpose, if you will take my word for it
that you have it in your power in great
measure to make and keep your body
strong, elastic and healthy. TO this end
plenty of sleep and opcn-air exercise
are the only physicians you need to con-
suit. Most human ills flow directly from
the stomach. 1t must have rest like any
other organ. Make it part of your re-
ligion never to taste food more than
three times day, and never to taste any
article of food which you have found to
be indigestible. You must be your own
judge of this. What you ought to eat
requires as much careful consideration
as what you ought to read. You must
depend on habit, acquired little by
little, to make any course of life you may
choose to adopt agreeable to you. Should
you ever give way to dependency as to
acquiring any desirable habit remember
that men by dint of perseverance learn
to use tobacco and strong drink and to
be unhappy without them. No task YOU
are likely to set for yourself can be equal
to this.
How you read is quite as important as
what you read. Most people waste all
the time they spend in reading. Mental
dyspepsia is almost as common disease
as physical dyspepsia, and is brought on
by the same means, viz: by devouring
more food and more rapidly than it can
be digested. There is no greater error
than to read many books, except it be to
read hurriedly and without pause. What
is not retained in the memory is lost, and
memory depends on the amount of atten-
tion bestowed, and the time thought is
kept before the mind. The power to fix
the attention and to keep a thought be-
fore the mind grows imperceptibly but
surely by use. Consider, then, no book
properly read unless you have made the
tone, the spirit, the thought of the au-
thor your own. Read no longer at one
time than you feel vivid interest in
your book. And let me insist that you
keep Webster's or Worcesters Una
bridged Dictionary always at hand, and
let no strange word pass without critical
inspection.
We think in words and, therefore, to
think clearly and to speak accurately
you must know the exact meaning of
words. They arc, in fact, the key to all
knowledge.
BY no means neglect to read aloud a
short time every day, with careful atten.
ton to the one golden rule of elocution
viz: Read in the tone and manner in
which you would utter the same senti
ments in conversation. This practice
will educate your ears as we'll as your
tongue. The cultivation of your voice
in ordinary speech is altogether more i'm.
portant to you than all the vocal gym
nastics of the opcra-house.
Don Cupid hath not in all his quiver's choice
An arrow for the heart like sweet voice.
commit to memory some line passage
in prose or verse almost daily, not, by any
means, for quotation, but to give you ia.
cility and power of expression. You will
have reaped only part of the benefits
of mental culture if you fail to acquire
the power of expressing your thoughts
in just and appropriate language and
with a distinct, clear, well-modulatcd
voice. In the selection of words avoid
the temptation to he fine, howery and
high Good taste rejects the star
spanglcd-banner style in speech and
writing, as it does in dress and manners
Never permit yourself to read novel
unless it is from the hand of one of the
great masters, and then read it as you
would read a textbook. Before entering
upon course of history it would be but
proper for you to read the lives of the
most noted historical characters.