The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-01-24

slightest knowledge Of the laws OF health
Real, practical physiology is sealed book
to them. The eternal mystery OF their be-
ing does not even excite their curiosity; and
as for the stuff with which their minds are
fed, commend me to a state OF barbarism
rather.
Now Il believe our girls are in no accoun-
table sense responsible for this. The sin
lies heaviest and fundamentally upon their
mothers, fathers and brothers. Nobody gives
the girl chance except in here and there
an isol ated case She is rarely a free agent.
Our very affections are turned to her harm.
We train her to no habits of self reliance.
We surround her as far as we can, with en-
ervating Injuries, and we teach her that the
grand object of her existence is to set still
and wal. for somebody to come along and
marry her. Out OF this mephitic atmosphere
spring the sordid marriages that debauch
lomesticity and make bells Of so many
homes.
In It's physical aspect alone this false sys-
TEN is terrible. What other sight is so pite-
GUS as that of human beings ignorantly de-
fiant of the tremendous truth that they are
fearfully and wonderfully made: can not
but believe that to this kind OF ignorance
must we look for the untimely marriages
which seem to prove the CHASTITY aphorism
that girlhood is folly and womanhood is fa-
talism. And pursuing it q little further, |
can measurably understand why that obser-
want Frenchman slashed all Am orleans with
his two edged satire that Our Girls mature
at fifteen and fade at twenty.
The 1lppancy with which they assume the
gravest responsibilities that can be placed on
human shoulders is no less the fault OF their
peculiar education, every element of which
is saturated with the one idea of marriage
and an independent establishment wherein
| they can be secured for life against the need
OF ever thinking courageously for them
selves, and where all development OF the
possibilities resident in them is in most Of
such lives hopelessly arrested. 1t is a melan-
choly truth that at an age when their broth
ers have just begun to comprehend the seri-
Gus business of life Our Girls are plunged
| into its very vortex-mothers of families at
twenty -five-often broken in health, and in
directly dragging their daughters down the
same 'way to dusty DEATH
Note the fragrant atmosphere and the
fruity bloom of the woman of thr ty or even
forty, who has preserved her health by the
observance of imperative physical laws.
When you see such won, an believe she was
taught something besides beaux aad shipper
ing and piano-pounding in her teens.
doubt if her mother exhibited her in the mat
rimonal market like the Georgian women
for the seraglio.
The truth is that as nation we are losing
ground physically. We have not the same
breadth, of shoulders that made the mentand
women of a century ago capable Of theil
ening and our general deterioration affrights
me. Nine. tenths Of the responsibility fol
this physical decay charge upon sickly
hot house system of making girls women and
then God forbid J mothers before they have
outlived the need OF true motherly care and
guidance themselvcs-yes, even before they
can have caught so much as a glimmer Of
the greatness and the sacredness of the Office
of motherhood.
Iplead guilty to share OF this serious
responsibility, and am resolved henceforth
sincerely repentant Of all my neglect, to
leave no word unsaid and no act unperfornl.
ed that can lessen the measure of my guilt
My girls shall know that they are the equals
OF my boys-equals in brain and the worlds
places, and, so far as may be, in Drawn and
courage. would not unsex them or trans
plant them into an unwomanly sphere, but
hope to see them pull winning oar in
some fields of endeavor hitherto preempted
for my boys and yours.
have an example in mind. Aldistingusli.
ed professional man, whom many of you cs-
TEEN and honor Tor his genius and sturdy
independence, has two daughters whose
physical education he counts Of as much i'm
portance as the shaping of their minds.
do not believe the question of marriage has
ever agitated either OF those girls, though
the elder is of manageable age, as most ri
us are accustomed to view t,and the young
err has scored years enough to have learned
good deal about the realities OF life. You
should see their splendid physiques. When
they move you are charmed as with the or
ganic grace OF the catamount The rich
blood that NANTES the fullness of their
cheeks sings in its own hosannas to high
health, and their laugh is the very outpour-
ing of exuberance. They have sound minds
and sound bodies. Some Of you may think
it a sad confession to make, but as live
believe the spectacle OF ''beau'' in their
fathers house would strike them as the abb
surdest thing in life. Why, these girls ac-
tually read Dante, and, more than that, |
happen to know that they can tell you how
many ribs they have and what the pericard-
um protects as readily as they can distin-
guish a neatly feathered oar from the awk-
ward splashings of landlubber in racing
shell. have known these same girls. to
think with vigor which is often character
lied as masculine, but which they have tri-
umphantly proved is no more the exclusive
privilege of man than is perfect health
They are moving onward in the way OF
royal womanhood, and | presume that in
due time they will wear its purple and meet
its great demands as becomes that high cs-
tate.
What is their secret? There is no secret
in it. They are simply an illustration of
what conceive to be only sensible and prop
err physical and mental training. Their par
ents were so trained before them, and it
need not surprise you to learn that not long
ago l saw representation of third genera
lion back, of the same fine strain, and she
wore her seventy years with more elastic
grace than many woman / can see.any day
VITO owns to only twenty five.
We cannot begin too early to train our
girls out of the mind and body-enfecbling