Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-01-08
4 TALK WITH GIRLS AND THEIR
MOTHERS.

some of the mistakes maze Dy Sirl'
and their mothers, aud makes thu
following sensible comments thereon'
In the first place girls make q
great mistake i'll beng careless about
1hsir health. / do not know that they
Aare any more careless than boys, bu,
their habits Of life, aud especially
their habits of dress, ara generally
more injurious to health than those
Of boys. The great majority Of oul
grit take much less vigorous exercise
il the open air than il good for them;
those whs can walk three or four
miles without exhaustion are ex.
stIt seems to me . mistake" says
one of my correspondents, "that
bows and girls should be trained SO
differently, particularly in regard to
Out.of.door sports. With a strong
love for everything in nature. 1 re-
member as a child what torture it
Was to be kept always indoors, in
some feminine employment, while
my strong brothers (strong on this
very account, %perhaps1 could spend
all their leisure time in the open air.
I was much interested years ago in
reading q sketch of Harriet Hosmer's
xirlhood. Her father having lost all
his children by consumption, aud
finding her delicate resolved to bring
her up as a boy, teaching her all sorts
Of athletic sports, and thus making
her q strong healthy woman"
The lack of exercise on the part Of
girls is due, no doubt, in part, to the
7oslish styles of dress, in which it is
Impossible for them to be out in
rough weather, or to make any con-
siderable muscular exertion. "The
lack of warmth in clothing. and the
foolish adjustment of what is worn,"
u said in one of these letters to be
one of the chief cause that produce
"ths peculiar v diseases to
which women are subject"
/ wish I could make you all under
stand how great q mistake you make
when you sacrifice health, or the
physical comfort on which health
depends, to appearance or to any
other earthly good; when you neg
lect to provide, by regular exercise
and wise care, a good stock Of phys
icaI vigor for the iabors aud the bur-
9 dens of the coming years. Without
this foundation, all that you can
learn in school, and all that wealth
can buy for you, will be worthless:
ssIntelIect in al, enfeebled body"
says some one whom l quote from
memory, sis like gold in a spent
swimmers pscket-it only makes
him sink the sooner"
Another great mistake that many
of our girls are making, and that
their mothers are either encouraging
or allowing them 20 make, Is that OF
spen ding their time out of school in
1dleness, or in frivolous amusements,
doing no work TO speak of, and learn
ing nothing about the practical duties
and the serious cares Of life. 1t ls
not only in the wealthier families
that the girls are growing up indo-
lent and Impractical i'll household
work, l think that more attention is
paid to the industrial training OF
girls in the weaIthiest families, than
In the families Of mechanics and OF
people in moderate circumstances,
where the mothers + compelled to
work hard all the while.
"Within the last week." says one
Of my correspondents, 81 have heard
two mothers worthy women IN most
respects, say, the first. that her
daughter never did any sweeping
Why, if she wants to say to her com.
panions, Il never swept a room in
my life,' and takes any comfort in it,
let her say it ; and yet that mother ia
sorrswlng much over the short
coming OF that very daughter. The
other said she would net let her
daughter dc anything i'll the kitchen
Poor deluded womaul She did II
all herself, instead !"
The habits of Incidence and OF
helplessnsss that are thus formed are
not the greatest evils resulting from
this bad practice: the sslfishness tina,
it fosters is the wort thing about 1t
How devoid of conscience, how lack
ing in all truo sense Of tenderness, or
even of Justice, a girl must be-, wha
will, thus consent to devote all bel
time out Of school to pleasuring
while her mother is bearing all the
heavy burdens of the household
And the foolish way in which moth
ers themselves sometimes talk aboul
this, even in the presence of theiI
children, Ia m%ischieveous in the ex
treme. 20, Hattie is SO absorbed
Will u0I OOOhSs VI hSA SAoySuoS "
her embroidery, hat she takes III
Interest III household matters, aud
do not like to Call upon her," As j
the daughter belonged to a superior
order of beings, and must not sci
her hands Or rufHe her temper will
necessary house-work The mothe
is the drudge ; the daughter is tn,
fine lady for whom she tolls. N
mother who suffers such q state o
things as this q preserve the re
spect of her daughter and the re
spect of her daughter no mother Cal
affsrd TO lose.
"The result of all this is to form II
the minds Of many girls not only
dlstaste for labor, but 9 contemp
for it. and a purpose to avoid it q
long az they live by some means o
other. And l wan to say to you
girls, that if you are allowing your
selves te grow np with such habit
OF Incidence and such notions absu
work, you arc preparing for your
selves q miserable future.
Work." says nj of nay letters
aud it is written by 8 woman VIII
does not need to labor for her ow
support, and who does enjoy with
keen relish the reinements Of life
''work, which you SO plainly shove
te be good tor our boys, is quite q
necessary for eur girls"
Closely connected with what hs
just been said, is the mistake of nan
girls in MASKING dress the main bus
ness of life. [ quote now from on
OF my letters, whose writer has ha
unusual opportunities OF observin
the things she describes:
From the time when the littl
one can totter to the mirror to ss
how sweetly she looks IN her ne
hat to the hour when the bride
the altar gives more thought to III
Arrangement of her train and We
than to the vows she is taking upo
herself, too large a share of tims an
thought il devoted by mothers su
daughters to Dress"
81 have heard" writes II of m
correspondents, "a vain mother ga
Of her beautiful baby, rm SO gla
It's & girl; l can dress her SO muc
nner than l could q boy O, woman
woman! To what depths of degradatio
you have sunk when you can loo
Anto the face OF a baby lying in you
lap-the face of a child hat God hs