The Wilmingtonian. (Wilmington, Del.) 1882-188?, 1884-09-06

chief charm of a walk out doors.
Who ever heard OF farm hand complain
ing of dyspepsia, want of appetite or head
ache? How much physic does he take in '
the year. save for some passing malarlal
affection or perhaps a common cold Yet, I
this man is made of the same flesh and
blood as the drawing-room miss, who would
faint at the notion of n dinner of salt bacon
and raw tomatoes, and to whom breath of
cool air suggests pneumonia and neuralgia.
The difference is that the farm hand lives
in the open air, uses his eyes, hands and feet
as God intended he should do, while the
young miss lounges in rocking chair in
darkened room all day long, till the muscles
of her limbs become fiaccid. atrophied and
useless, while as soon as she becomes a
mother she is an invalid for life, with no
other solace than a sofa and bottle of
patent medicine.
Is this picture overdrawn? Let us hear |
what one of Philadelphia's leading physi- |
cians-Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, says on the
subject
"To-day the American woman is, to speak
plainly, physically unfit for her duties as
woman, and is perhaps of all civilized
females the least qualified to undertake
those weightier tasks which tax SO heavily
the nervous system of man. She is not
fairly up to what nature asks from her as
wife and mother If the mothers of a people
are sickly and weak, the sad inheritance
falls upon their offspring, and this is why l
, must deal first, however briefly, with the
, health of our girls, because it is here, as the
doctor well knows, that the trouble begins.
Ask any physician of your acquaintance to
/ sum up thoughtfully the young girls he
D knows, and to tell you how many in each
score are fit to be healthy wives and moth
{ ers, or, in fact, TO be wives and mothers at
A all. l have been asked this question myself
very often, and have heard it asked of
u others. The answers 1 am not going to
G give, because I should not be Jelieged-a dis
c agreeable position in which l shall not
e deliberately place myself. Perhaps ought
= to add that the replies l have heard given
= by others were appalling"
> Detailing some of the symptoms of this
deficient pnlsyque, nc auus'-
!, 'Now l ask you to note carefully the
. expression and figures of the young girls
whom you may chance to meet in youI
walks, or whom you may observe at a con
:, cert OF in ballroom You will see many
= very charming faces which the world canno
- match-hgures somewhat too spare of flesl
., and a marvellous littleness of hand and foot
- But look further and you will be strucl
. with a certain hardness of line in form anC
y feature, which should not be seen between
= thirteen and eighteen at least. l do no
want to do more than is needed of thi
20 ungracious talk; suffice it to say that multi
tudes of our young girls are merely prett
70 to look at, or not that; that their destiny
J.. tile Shdl0l and sofa, neuralgia, aoeak backs an
tile carried forms Of hysteria, that domesti
y" demon which has produced untold discom
-, fort in many a household, and l am almos
i, ready to say, as much unhappiness as til
y husbands dram"
bo DIR. Allen, of Rhode Island, thus sums u
he his experience
is "The women have deteriorated PHYSICAL
cd in a surprising degree. A majority of thei
have predNniffanee OF NERVE tissue, wit
ro- aoedk muscles and digestive organs"
io' Are our women prepared TRANQUILITY
NC accept a life of nvaidism, dating even froi
es. youth, and to be transmitted with unerrin
II" certainty to a sickly offspring? Have the
~ no refuge apart from the medicine bottl
ire which, too frequently, is only dram-drinkin
hu in disguise?
u.s. Canadian women exhibit rugged healt
les and hold on the evanescent gift of beaut
which is an everlasting surprise to the
70 sisters of Vermont, Maine and New Englar
generally. Why? Because from me
OF childhood Canadian girls indulge freely
'sh the sport of skating, and so give the natur
=" play and exercise to the muscles of Il
inc lower extremities, and the still more impor
'th ant bands of muscles which in future yea
os are to be subjected to the severest strain Il
'eh human frame is called on to undergo. AS
lue result the women of Montreal and Ouch
'lu' are younger looking and more active
uhV forty than the American girl at twcnty-iiv
Vne Sleigh riding is poor device for the prom
INC ton of health. 1t produces certain exh
e aration of spirits and fills the lungs wi
fresh air, but it is not for II moment to
compared, as healthy recreation, to
hours sharp walk or the same time spent
skating or on the lawn tennis ground. Elk,
'hN cise-eXercise- Notwithstanding else W
ure keep men and women in good health.
Vhe the medicine bottle better Or peasanter
on cheaper device? No, it is merely t
'r'l homage which laziness is compelled to p
oil to activity
yes Mr.. Gladstone, the prime minister of Eu
cur land, is nearly SO years of age, and, exec
49, when Frustrated by temporary sickness, h
AIRY NOT ridden n dozen miles h,hind a horse
an his life But as boy he was foremost
all field sports; as man he walked fol
'ilu miles day for twenty years. To-day he
Is better pedestrian than many man
at thirty. George Cruikshank, the artist, "
nat accustomed to walk daily from his home
'ere Mazda Hill to his artist quarters in Fulha
,lic a distance of six miles, and back in the eve
hen inc another s;x miles. a cnstom which
wise kept up to within three months of his dea
Oh in his S1st year. AS compared with t
Ient long lifeand vigorous old age of these mt
e. what are we to think of the sickly, salt
oW- loungers in our cigar stores, to whom a wa
agh from Wilmington to Newark would be q
hu' of the labors of Hercules? Or, how sh
less we look on the Scotch lassie who thin
ms nothing Of twenty mile journey on fl