The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1883-03-08
Women and the Headache.

The headache only becomes q weapon
of offeminine despotism when it is employed
by the mistress of the household against
those who daily bow to her domestic
scepter. There is no sight in the world
so actually painful to every right-minded
man as the spectacle of woman, to
whom he has any sort of attachment, in
pain. 1t would be too much to say that
it is because the professional cultivator
OF headaches knows this that she sue
cumbs so entirely to the attack. On the
contrary, it is rather because she realizes
this fact 50 imperActly thnt the headache
is really welcomed by the fair invalid.
The feminine imagination suggests some
slight OF detects with perverse ingenuity
some ground of grievance, and the natural
development and expression Of this senti-
ment are the headache. The ailment,
when it is thus generated, is not a mere
affection. 1t is actually experience; it is
the resort to which natures that lack
energy are inevitably prone. It is q
species OF protest against a purely i'm
aginnry wrong and an unwise and most
distressing way of resenting an injury
that, as matter of fact, has never been
inflicted or meant
OF the headaches which are only ex-
pressive of momentary disappointment,
of annoyance that some meditated plea
sure has been abandoned, or that some
source of expenditure has eenrctrcnchcd,
1t IS needless to speak. For all varieties
of the malady which periodically attacked
Mrs. Wenham there is one remedy that
is tolerably certain to prove effcctual.
They are the consequences not so much
OF physical debility as Of moral weakness.
Nothing IS more certain provocative of
feminine headache than the habitual
broodlng over tritles till they seem to as
sumo the Importance of practical gravity.
In proportion Us the interests of life are
multiplied in number md the healthy
energies arc quickened, the tendency to
headaches Will disappear. Above all
Things, dlslngenous reserve is the fertile
parent of these indispositions. Women
whn pride themselves on preserving
silence i'll their troubles of mind or body,
absolutely WOO the headache which is
destructive of the peace of households.
1t IS G iven to extremely few persons to
conceal from the inspection of those who
are constantly about them the emotions
which they experience, and unless they
| can be concealed with artistic complete
ness it may be said without paradox
that they are aggressively transparent.
There IS really no alternative. The worst
of it is that the headache of the variety
now spoken Of, after having been oc-
casionally experienced for certain
length of time, becomes more or less Of
an abiding condition, and there are not q
few ladies who may be said to pass their
lives i'll the predicament of headache
Perpetual pain in the region of the eye
brows-pain which candor and courage
and occupation would almost always al
leviate-recurring day after day, supcrin-
duces q kind of moral and mental
languor, and from languor TO Obstructive
ness is but step. The state of mind in
which ladies abstain from pronouncing n
definite opinion, or expressing decided
preference when alternative suggestions
are offered, may be ono Of discomfort tc
themselves, but is one of positive torture
with ali whom they have to deal. Pro
pensity to headaches in women is almost
as bad as q propensity to drink witt
men; and is to be struggled against rs
resolutely, if peace and happiness and
contentmont are to be forthcoming
London World.