Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-11-05
FLANNEL A MORAL AGENT.
The cool wave sweeps down upon

The cool wave sweeps down upon
US and warns US that Indian summer
is drawing to close. Happy Indians
were they who first invented their own
peculiar style of summer. Living in
the open air and strangers to what we
call modern Improvements, they rev.
eled in a degree of robust health which
we victims of civilization know moth
ing about. There was no furnace heat
in their dwellings, nor sewer gas, nor
air-tight sleeping apartment, nor leaky-
bath-tub, nor loose,jointed plumber
work, nor mouldy cellar, nor kitchen
range which obstinately refused to
draw. The squaws were not pinched
by tight bootees, nor squeezed by
corsets, nor weighted with hair bought
at the barber shops The pappooses
We're free from the loads of clumsy
clothing which impede the progress of
our youngsters who ssattempt their first
efforts in crawling. The warriors were
not numbered with haberdashery which
we consider needful to masculine exist
ence. The Indian brave who would
have made his appearance in aboriginal
society with a gold-headed cane, high
heeled boots and polished silk hat
would have been sent with great dis
patch to the happy hunting grounds.
An Indian family with children, even
to the number of nine little Indian
boys, was at no very great expense for
clothing, except in the most inclement
season of the year. The Indian
mother let her boys run as wild as
colts or bisons Her policy was to
harden them. At the idea Of flannel
under-garments she, indeed, would have
laughed with scorn. She would have
considered these things emblems of
debilitated effeminacy She despised
and rejected everything which tended
to make her boys delicate and fragile.
In like manner many an American
mother has set out to harden her chill
dren and make them robust. Taking
as a model the Indian or, perhaps,
even the Spartan of old, she has begun
by sousing her babies in cold water to
make them hardy and prevent them
from catching cold. 1t was enough
for her to know that the Indians, who
had no hot-water pipes in the house,
must have immersed their pappooses
in running streams When children
treated in this manner lived long
enough to wear such clothes as chill
dren ought to wear, this foolish mother,
still bent on having her offspring
hardy, would put half enough clothing
on them, and teach them that if they
would be healthy they must endure
the sudden changes of summer, the
chills of autumn and the seventies Of
winter From this cause many and
many child has grown up only par
TALLY nourished, chattering its teeth all
through life, even into old age and
down to the grave, and all for the
want of few yards of flannel. In
stead Of enjoying an equalized tenn
perature of the whole body, such vic
tins of the hardening process have
never known what it was to be really
comfortable. Depriving the skin of
what was necessary to the successful
operation of each of its myriad little
pores, they became, as it were, tanned
They were, perhaps, hardened and so
is sole leather. They grew to maturity /;
and so did the barren fig tree. The
skin was as powerless to execute all Of
its proper functions without the
strength and nourishment given by
equalized warmth, as the stomach
would be if deprived of reasonable
food and drink. 1t is recorded of the
hardening processes practiced on the
Spartan children that the result was to
kill all but the very strong ones. We
are without accurate statistics in re-
gard to the family affairs of the red
men and their wives, the red women.
But we may safely assume that if there
were any weak little Indians, the
hardening and toughening processes to
which they were subjected gave them
rapid transit to early graves.
There are weak children among us
who are worth saving and who may
be made strong. Try to tougher them
and they die. Nurture them carefully
and they may be ornaments to society.
There was a miserable old woman who
piled her CRATE more than half full of
bricks, wrapped her shivering frame in
shawl and boasted how little money
she spent for coal 1t was poor econ
omy, fo. she chilled and shriveled both
her body and her soul. There are
people who think they do a shrewd
thing in depriving themselves and
their families of the necessary heat
which comes from generous provision
of underclothing Better stint the
outer wardrobe little than impoverish
the whole system by this poor SEM
blance of economy. The heathen on
distant and torrid shores may get
along without missionary contributions
of yellow and red flannel trousers, but
as for US and our families, let flannel
work out it's mission in keeping US
from the frosts of autumn and the
rigors Of cruel winter
NEVADA JUsTIcE.-A man was az
raigned before Justice Moses charged