The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-10-17
THE WASTE OF LIFE.
Why We Should Take Better Care Of Our
selves.

Why We should Take Better Care OF Our.
fr- ,...- selves. -
From the New York Timcs.l
A hOtel-keeper past the middle age of
life, of long experience, and who had
quite acute powers of observation in re-
gard to the physique of his guests, was
quite positive that there had been de-
veloped of late better form of woman
kind. 81 know of no reason to account
for this improvement" said he, "than
by advancing the idea that woman and
girls are better fed. l miss those stoop-
ing, wan-faced women and girls of
former times who had no stamina. Once.
they were in the majority. Delicate
hands and feet were, of course, to be
found, but it was to be accompanied
with dropping head, no breadth of chests
and general debility. / do not know if
it arises SO much on account of more ex-
ercise, but rather from the fact that food,
such as women use, is better cooked and
more plentifully given to them than in
the time of our mothers and grand
mothers. There used to be an Old-fash-
ioned school which was founded on
stinting. 1t was unladylike for girl to
eat a hearty meal. Our sisters used to
be half starved. Craving for that solid
food which was absolutely necessary for
growing girls were satisfied with cups of
tea or thin slices of bread and butter on
which a little preserves had been spread.
Now, you may think but little of my ex-
perience, but seaside resort is ex-
actly the place where fair judgment
can be formed as to size, weight and
general appearance of our women.
am quite positive that if you were able
to weigh the women and girls
who are walking on this veranda or
on the sands, and had a record of the
weights of their mothers at the same
age, there would be an increase TODAY
of from 10 to Is per cent, quite suffi-
cient to add immensely to the personal
appearance of our women. You NAV
say that l am an interested party, be-
cause Ifeed my guests rs well as l can,
and that a better class of people fire.
quent my house, but the observations l
have the honor of entertaining you with
are general, and apply to the great ma
jOrity of women meet in the streets of
New York. We have no better food as
to quality, but believe it is the prepa-
There is no country in the world where
the necessity of good, well cooked food
is greater than in the United States.
The changes in our climate are terrible,
and the wear and tear on the human
frame is immense. Perhaps, nowhere
else, in any great city of the world is the
stress on human brains so great as in
New York. 1t is miraculous to think
how, fifty years ago, men or women got
along at all, and preserved their facul-
ties, with the bad system of feeding they
had then. But if believe can appre-
ciate better physical condition in the
city, I can not say the same for the
country. The country is still pie-fed and
hying-pan fed; it revels in clammy
paste, sticky dough, overdone meat, ig-
nOres rare brOiled beefsteak, is utterly |
ignorant of soup, and destroys its
digestion by clogging the stomach with |
bacOn-fat. It is worse in New England
than in the Middle States. It Is not
poverty that does it, but the want of
judgment in the selection of food and
ignorance in preparing it. These en-
gender long, lantern jaws, pallid COM
plexiOns, and slabsidedness in men and
women. Feed man and q woman
through half-century on indigestible
food, and their offspring viii show the
effects of it. 1t is not the physique
which is only undermined, but the men,
tai qualities are dwarfed. We don't
want Over-neryOus men and women, all
brain and no massive Drawn.