Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-07-20

A mother having become alarmed
about the failing state of her daughter 5
health, and not being able to get much
satisfaction from a consultation with
the village doctor, took her to a Lon
don physician for further advice He
asked few questions as to the girl $
daily habits and mode of life, carefully
stethoscoped her heart and lungs, and
then gave an involuntary sigh. The
mother grew pale and waited anxious
" for the verdict. MADAM he
said, $50 far as / can discover, your
daughter is suffering from a most seri-
Gus complaint, which, for want of a
better name, shall call 'dullness.'
Perhaps 1t Is in your power to cure it.
have no medicine which is a specific
for this disease" 1t is not every doc
tor who dares to be thus straightfor-
ward; otherwise, the same opinion
would be given in hundreds of cases
now labeled with some jaw-breaking
technical term for the sake of politeness
to the sufferer and her relations.
An indefinable, restless longing is the
natural state of a healthy, vigorous
minded girl, when she has nothing to
occupy her thoughts and her fingers,
just as the vague Tapping of birds
wings, as it sits beside the nest, shows
that it it is ready for flight. When
the most natural thing-marriage-does
not take girl from her old home to a
new one; if she has no regular employ
ment, no outlet for her energies, no in
teresting companions, no amusements;
IT Is scarcely matter for surprise if she
becomes listless or petulant, out of
health or out of spirits. There is a very
important time in a commonplace girl s
life, during which she rarely receives the
amount of consideration and encourage
ment that she would probably require.
II is when the school-room is exchanged
for the drawing-room, and the ire
sponsible child is supposed to enter upon
the duties and cares of life. In the
numberless homes where looming OUT
does not mean being presented at court
and round of London gayety, the sud-
den cessation of obligatory tasks, when
not replaced by some definite employ
ment, creates blank difficult to fill in
satisfactory manner, unless the girl
has some special talent she is bent on
cultivating with ardor. Strong, vigor-
Gus characters can accept the situation.
and out of very poor material build up
self-satisfying existence. No doubt a
determined cheerfulness, a resolute in
dependence and constant activity may
create, out of the most unpromising sur
roundings, a life at once busy and
useful.
But these characters are the excep-
ton, not the rule. Besides, il they can
not lind work at home, they generally
seek it elsewhere. The dullness of
which we speak is most bitterly felt in
those middle-class families where the
income is sufficient to provide servants
to do the household work, but not suffi-
cient to afford the means of foreign
travel, or the pleasant social intercourse
to which large country-house lends it
self so well. A girl feels refreshed by
being obliged to exert herself in some
manual labor, whether it be to bake
bread, wash up the cups and saucers,
or weed the garden. Priscilla Lam
meter says, with her keen good sense:
There's nothing like dairy, if folks
want bit O. worrit to make the DAYS
pass. There's always something fresh
with the dairy; for even in the depths
o winter there's some pleasure in con-
quering the butter and making it come,
whether it will or no. You'll never be
low when you've got a dairy But
there are countless homes In which we
may fairly say there is nothing half so
interesting as a dairy to occupy the
time and attention of the young women.
The mother prefers to retain the house
keeping in her own hands. The daily
needs of life are supplied with faultless
regularity.
There is sufficient food, warmth and
raiment. The gardener does not like to
be interfered with. The wants of the
parish can be attended to by the family
Of the clergyman. There is no incen-
tive or outdoor exercise, for country
roads are dreary when there is not any
object to be attained by walking on
them. So rare are the visitors that the
ringing of the hall door-bell brings
everybodv's heart into the mouth. The
sight of strangers face passing the
gate is enough excitement for a whole
week. The days drop one after the 9th
er Ike leaden bullets, and the years are
only marked hy fresh almanac.
Christmas is as heavy as its attendant
plum-pudding. Summer only enables
the dizziness to be transferred from the
freside to the open air. There is slow
but sure destruction of strong desires
and fruitless warnings, pathetic self
suppression, a hopeless stagnation,
which even the spirit of youth ceases to
fight against. Like the London physi-
clan we have no rustrum to offer for
this deadly disease of dullness, which
reckons its victims by the thousand.
We must trust to the more enlightened
parents of the future to stamp It out at
any cost. All we can offer at present is a
sympathetic sioh. =LoLolon Ln,lcct