Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-10-05
Education Of Girls.

To train the girl to become a wife
and mother, knowledge pertaining to
the whole household arrangements, to
cooking, washing, cleaning, mending5
the whole round of domestic employ
ments, is absolutely needful To fail
so to educate the daughters, to give
them the best possible constitutions, is
to cheat an honest young man, to de-
fraud society, to<smperil the harmony
of the home circle, and to cripple two
for life. 1t may not be true that a de-
liciency in these regards is sufficient
cause for complaint or ccnsure, and
yet, as society is constituted, it is prob
able that poor bread. scorched meats,
watery potatoes, inspid tea and coffee,
and an untidy house, are among the
prominent sources of family differ
ences.
Let me say, and with emphasis, that
no woman with deformed chest, made
so by cruel corsets and laciug, the lungs
occupying but fraction of the space
intended for them by the Creator, the
blood but half purified, of necessity, the
liver and stomach so compressed and
crippled as to be unable to perform
their natural functions, can be the
mother of truly healthy children. No
one can thus destroy the power of the
lungs, on which SO much depends. ex-
cite and inflame the whole system, the
nerves in particular, by strong acids,
eXcoriating spices and stimulants, and
still be prepared to rear children in the
best manner. No one can impair
digestion by gripping the stomach
hound in n VIZ nv ..to nd
then have the self-contrcl, the patience
and the cheerfulness needful in the
management of the household, since
dyspepsia always produces more or less
Impotence and irritability. And since
the woman is the outcropping of the
girl, the narrow-chested girl retaining
her deformity in womanhood as in the
girl, in her whole management or mis-
management, so will be the woman and
the mother.
The great demand of the age is better
educated females-educated in all re-
spects, their whole capabilities brought
into activity, since the health, vigor,
mental and moral power of the next
generation at least, viii depend on their
condition more than all other influences
combined - leach after its kind. ;"
The sickly mother will rear a sickly
child, though that feebleneSs may not
| at first be manifest. The peevish
mother-so during the most important
period of her earthly life-will produce
pecvishness in her offspring. The
groveling, low, sensual, Incorporate
and vicious woman becomes just to that
extent the mother of just such children,
as the future will demonstrate. If
these are facts, therefore, it is matter
of vital Importance that our girls shall
be thoroughly educated to become wives
/ and mothers, not SO much because that
is their highest position, as because the
true woman wishes to be wife and
/ mother from the very aspirations of her
nature. If she is thus to become the
mother of the race. it is her right and
! the duty which society owes her, tC
have every possible facility to become
the highest type of such mother
healthy and wise.
While our boys are trained for the
trades, for farming, for the professions,
! ETC., it is as needful that the girls shall
be made intelligent in general, and that
some occupation shall he selected as q
means of support, that they may not
feel that they are but parasites in soci.
ETY.; that they were simply made To be
married at about twenty years of age,
and then to be supported, pets to he
fondled-as long rs they seem to be pets
finely attired and handsome dolls.
That most will be married is hoped, an6
yet some will remain single, and as
su ch, il is but fair to them that they
should be able in some way to secure ar
honest living, to respect themselves,
To bring them up (or let them come up
to feel that they are too good to work
in any department of industry, too gooC
to be- useful, is to rob them of self
I respect, of true womanhood; nay, more
it teaches them sclishness, to disrcspec
the mother, regarding her as just fit tC
wait upon them, to be Il slave. Every
daughter-if the mother discharges hel
whole duty-will be taught to be usefu
first in the kitchen, in the nursery. iT
the sitting-room, as well as in the par
Tor, at least if she has any idea of ever
having the care of family. If not
she needs training in some of the trade.
that she need not remain hanger on,
practical paupcr. Men and womei
alike are placed in this world for labox
usefulness labor Of body or mind, o.
both. HanaatoTtl, IN WeStern Plow
man.