The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-02-03
Has there Been a Decline of Vitality!

There is a strong impression abroad
that the American women of the pres
ent generation are much weaker than
their grandmothers, and greatly lacking
in vitality and the power of endurance.
A correspondent of the Woman's De-
partment of the Muine Farmer writes
thus on the subject:
" You or | j., Mrs. F.. could easily carry
a pailful of water, yet my little girl of
seven could not lift it, She can carry
one-third as much as easily as l can the
full pail, but she works Just as hard to
do it as | to carry mine. Now the
woman of to-day has about one-third
the health and strength that did her
grandmother in her prime (any physi-
clan will tell you this), and if she does
one-third the work she accomplishes
equally as much as did the woman of
forty years ago. But / hold that she
does more than this. Let us compare
the homework of those days with the
well-kept house of to-day. Our grand
mothers house was cabin of two, per-
haps four, rooms. Ours has twelve or
fourteen. A rag-carpet and paper
window-shades was the extent of her
fine furnishing, while we have fine
carpets, parlor and chamber-sets and
costly curtains. Grandmother was
rough and ready, while ours require
much care. Once week baking
of coarse food was prepared and baked
in brick oven. Not much work com
pared with the pastry cooking and
yeast bread-kneading we are obliged to
do each Tuesday and Saturday. And
the clothing worn in those days was
nothing compared with the elaborate
costumes which that tyrant, fashion,
demands for each member of the
modern family, from mother down to
the baby, and as general thing a
farmers wife must needs be her own
dressmaker."
1t seems to us that the two ends of
the above paragraph do not fit very well.
If the women of the present time are so
much more weakly than their grand
mothers, it is hardly possible that they
can dose much more work. We doubt if
any physician old enough to remember
how things were, half a century ago,
will confirm this idea. The vigorous
women of by-gone generations lived to
be old and are remembered, while the
weakly ones died off, as they do now,
and were soon forgotten. But even
fifty years ago the public was bewailing
the feebleness of the women, and much
was said of the prevalence of consump-
ton and the frequency of fainting in
church and elsewhere, compared with an
earlier generation. Our census returns
and the vital statistics of the country
show the average longevity of women to
be increasing, and the number of unusu-
ally aged ladies in the country, enjoying
good health and the full possession of
their senses, as testified to by the local
newspapers, does not confirm the no.
ton of a lessened vitality.
The women of the past had less
Homework to do than now, because the
living was simpler, but they did it
under less advantages and with fewer
conveniences than now. while they had
to spin, weave and knit nearly all the
clothing of their families. Experience
shows that the aid of domestic con-
veniences and household machinery do
not reduce labor, but merely enable
more to be produced or accomplished
by the same labor. The fact is that
ambitious women did all they could in
the old times, and do all they can now,
and there is no way of stopping them,
even if it were desirable. When we
see the elaborate housekeeping, the or
nate dressmaking, the energy with
which social and religious as well as
domestic duties are pursued by the
women of this generation, it is hard to
believe that any women in any time
could have done more. So far as our
memory goes back (Which is a good
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