The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-04-14
TIE AMERICAN GIRL.
An Interesting Lecture by Dr.. Hamilton
Osgood, Of Boston, on the Necessity OF
q Radical Change In Girls Training and
Education.

Osgood, Of Boston, on the Necessity OF
Radical Change In Girls Training and
Education.
Tie auphtheatre of Jefferson Medical
College Hospital, in Philadelphia, was
thronged one evening last week with
professors and students aud their lady
friends to hear the annual address to the!
alumni by Dr.. Hamilton Osgood, Of Bos-
ton, a graduate of the College, whose
subject Was The Necessity OF q -Eadical'
Change in the Training and Education
of the Adef3can Girl
The gfaatsst Error, Dr.. .0sgood said, ins
the estrafnfing of the American girl Is that
she is allowed to become woman before
she knows it. One day she is child;
the next, all unprepared, all ignorant OF
what it means, she is woman. Take
the average girl of, to-day, at the age Of
nineteen, We viii say This girl, who.
would blush iftobiged to confess igno.
rance of some fourth.class character of
mythology, will calmly admit that she
not only knows nothing of the physiology
of her functions, but is perfectly indiffer-
ent about it. This is munsn0us error
-one into which our girls. should by no,
means be allowed to ifall s They should
be 30 trainadIbetween, their twelfth and
fourteenth Years as not only to be men
tally but physically prepared for the
metamorphosis. which IS coming. The
American girl should know how to live,
hysiologically, and gradually be taught:
the great and divine meanings Of woman
hood. She should be impressed with
feeling of reverence for her highest mis-
sion in life, in spite of as many women's.
rights doctrines;as might fill the shelves
of Bodleian library. The women of
to-day who are striving to put off and fly
from. the true mission of woman remind
one of the boy who, in order to nd him
self of an aching tooth, filed it with
gunpowder, put q, slow match to it and
then ran. From the age of twelve to the
day of her marriage girl should be
made to feel her responsibility towards
her future and. those whose lives will one
day be. in her Keeping. 1fthe boy be
father, the gift. is in double sense
mother of the nah.
A NATIoNAL REQUISITE.
The supreme end of nature, Herbert
Spencer says, Is the welfare of posterity.
The first requisite to success in life is to
be good animal. The American girl
should know that to ;haves 9 nation oof
good mothers is the first requisite of ma
tiopal prosperity. She should be; taught
her share in this desirable result is to be
attained only through conscientious care
of her shodys Shh cannot escape from
herself. She cannot change her sex.
The rest1essness so Common among our
cultivated women is a mistaken and
fruitless insubord dination an endeayor
to escape tie duties which are the glory
and should constitute the chief Joy of
woman.
Need I tell you why change, a radi-
raj change, inthe education and training
of our girls. is necessary.3 Look at the
young women sof sixteen to twenty who
pass US BY hundreds as we walk the
streets. Whether they be rich or poor,
what is more rare than finely formed
girl, with firm step, bright eye and ruddy
cheek? When these are lacking, what
is the reason of their absence? "The
first observation of European who
comes to America" says DR.. Clarke, in
his "Sex in Education" sis that our
women are feeble race, and, if physi-
illogical observer, he is sure to add that
they are responsible for a feeble race sue
ceeding them" 81 never saw 80 many
pretty girls together" said Lady Amber
ley to DIR; Clarke, during visit to Bos.
ton school, "only," she added, "they all
looked sick
~ TIE DIFFERENCE.
Why should there be such radical
difference in treatment of boys and girls
in their early years3 The boy has his
warm clothing. His feet and legs are
well protected. The girl is but half clad.
Half her limbs are exposed to the
weather, protected gonly by stockings
none too thick, the necessary undergar-
ments, in the mjority of cases, being
omitted This difference fixes point of
departura for the cultivation of the great
sensitiveness of the girl. The Ignorant
mother but little realizes the amount Of
physical vigor- it. costs an insuficiently
clad girl to keep warm. And 80, lie
the boy acquires q growing hardihood, an
indifference to changes in the weather
and is ready to eat at any hour Of the
day, the girl becomes delicate, shrinks
from cold, her appetite is as. sensitive as
the Thermometer, her cheek loses its rosy
hue. --rFhus.her life goes on, steadily in
creasing its divergence from that of the
boy. He becomes square shouldered,
straight and sturdy She, STOPPING,
round-shouldered and sensitive. l do
not include every girl in this picture. l
refer, simply, to the average girl OF
America, whose training does notdevelop
her original vigor, but transforms a con-
stitution as fine in every sense as the
BOYS intoa.tangle of fretted nerves; and
this is the average American girl.
But while girls are not given enough
exercise as children, they are allowed to
have too much of kind that is not good
for them when they grow older. Take
the exceptionable case where girls are
not allowed to 20 into fashionable dissi-
patton until after they leave school.
These girls, all unused as they are to the
strain Of social dissipation, plunge into
a vortex OF engagements-dinners, par
ties, lunches, balls and theatres crowd
ing upon each other with hardly chink
for rest. The result is that one or two
seasons rob them of their bloom and
brightness, and not only this, but they
have exhausted the social pleasures by
mere gluttony.
SCHOOL CRAMMING.
One of the great errors of the day is
that a girl is expected to complete her
education by. her nineteenth year-an
age at which lads are but little more
than half way in theirs. Everything in
the shape of culture is crowded into the
wears during which the girl should be
cultivating the physical strength, COM
mon sense and practicality which are to
be of lifelong benefit to her and her de-