Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-09
A BELLE AND HER BEAUTY.

Harriet Prescott Spofford Gives Some USE
full Hints to Girls Who Want to MiugIe
in Society and Still Retain Their Health
WRITTEN FOR THE pIsPATcH.j
There are few things lovelier to the eye
than a young girl. A baby may be
Bweeter, tenderer, dearer; but a young girl
is as satisfactory in another way. 1.-the,
symmetrical, wiIlowy, beaming with un-
questioning content, her ewes are stars, her
teeth s7e pearls her blushes are damask,
her dimples are smiles, her smiles are
csresses. 1t is true that there are periods
of woman's life that are happier and finer
finer, inasmuch as consciousness is superior
to mere existence, and as humanity's su-
periority to the beast lies in conscious
ness; while no one will deny that in
youth generally there is more of the
mere joy of living than consciousness Of its
possession. A woman at 80, or at IS, is aware
other happiness, her nature, her possibilities;
she has reached point in development very
near whatever degree of perfection she is to
attain; her beauty is not yet impaired, her
health ought to be absolute, her powers are at
their height ana could she pause there for 100
years before growing perceptibly older she
would find the world q pleasanter place; but, as
it is, scarcely have she and others come to the
realization of it all before much of it is thing
Of the past-the cheek has fallen, the eye has
sunken, the glow has gone, the things that
made her thrill once now give her only the
memory of that thrill.
But if the young girl is like the deliciousness
of the rounded and sun-pierced grape, the
woman at 30 is the clear, strong wine; vet how
lovely is the bloom upon that grape! And the
question is how to keep that bloom and add to
1t all the rest. The question is how to make
a1al#- rn1aa FTrG G1porA nSnN
their beauty led by Wholesome and time-resist-
ing currents and to enrich them besides with
the consciousness and wisdom and charm Of
soul that should belong to later years, all with
out exhaustlng the supplying fountains Of
health.
A COMMON SENSE VIEW.
OF course the subject has to be considered in
: large manner from the physical point of view
that of food, clothing, and habits. We all
know that good food makes good blood. unless
the blood is already as hopelessly vicious at its
source as the blood of kings-good food, not
meaning rich food, but that which is nutritious
sufficient and which approves itself by its ev1-
dent assimilation, which fills the blood-vessels
and makes the skin velvety as the petal Of q
rose. Good. clothing toO keeps this blood in
healthy circulation this skin in healthy activity;
and doubtless if Hebe were painted to-day for
the first time. and by discriminating artist,
II would be in fannels that she would be pic
tured, and in J8gar hannels at that. A few
other things also should be allowed our young
girl whose health is to preserve her beauty,
develop her soul and give comfort to herself
and all about her; no worry, not too much
study, plenty of bathing, and all the exercise in
the open air that she can take, and sleep at
night If there are family or other distresses,
they should be kept from the knowledge of the
young girl, who can do nothing TO rectlfy them,
and viii merely have her nerves and tempera-
ment injured by dwelling upon them.
And as fo- her studies, it is not necessary
that she should learn how to give the measure
/ments of the Great Pyramid according to the
numerical value of the Hebrew characters in
Genesis, in order to train her intellect; but her
studies should lead in directions specified by
her own aptitudes. If she has an Irresistible
desire to penetrate the secrets Of cabalistic
lore, of analytical mathematics, of air-drawn
metaphysics, she can do so by and by, when
there is no question of the establishment of
firm foundation of health; at present she wants
TO multiply and FL her blood vessels oxygen
ate all the blood in them, teach her lungs how
70 breathe, round out her muscles, and set her
heartbeats TO the tune of health And the
previous conditions obeyed, she will find all
that is wanted in exercise Not the gauged
and balanced exercises of calisthenics and gym
nastics, IN a fixed air, methods to be but guard
edly allowed the young and growing, as they
have possibilities in them Of dwarfing and of
impairing growth; not those Of sweeping and
busting, since sweeping is bad work for
woman at any time of her life. and busting is
only less unwholesome than living where there
is no busting at all; but exercise out of doors,
where every draught Of the open air feeds the
flame which burns away impurities exercise of
the sort furnished by walking. riding, mountain
climbing, rowing, swimming, dancing, and
skaJing-the last belonging to wintry weather,
most Of the others to summer-and walking
and dancing to the whole round year.
OUTDOOR EXERCISE.
One may sail from ice to ice between the
North Pole and the South, and receive no other
beneflt from it than that of being in the air and
sun, and feeling the delight of swift motion
carried on another's wings. But, when rowing,
one is in the air and sun as well. and is expand
ing the chest and strengthening the muscles of
Rll the limbs; and when between two sunsets,
one above anG one beneath, out on wide ex-
panses of river-mouth, or rocking on the swell
about the islands of the sea, or lifting the pro-
tecting boughs of secluded reaches and dark
pools Ofinland rivers and gliding into the green
shadow, or pausing out under the immensity of
Etarlit space that one sees in a boat level with
the water as nowhere else, is it that the soul,
too, does not expand, and the intellectual fiber
quicken and gather strength
Few of our young girls will ever swim so as
TO fancy themselves the attendants of Galates,
but the effort will call every portion of the
body into exertion, and the knowledge possibly
be of Inestimable use to them some day; yet
wise precautions are TO be taken in this matter,
the shock of sea-bathing being something that
all systems cannot bear. Few of them, again,
attempt will purify the blood rs all the medica-
ments of the pharmacopQa would fail to do.
All of them cannot afford riding, nor obtain
Rmaster in the art of mounting, and may notex-
Perience the transport of controlling another
will, becoming almost part Of another crea-
ture, and feeling the ecstacy of danger dehed,
OF swift passage, and bounding animal spir-
its But all OF them can dance and set
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music, and the brain responding TO
ordered sound, all of them can know that de-
light of being when thoroughly attuned TO
melody, one floats on wings, and the lark that
beats the sky knows no more joyous flight
only in good air, in innocent companionship, in
healthy hours All of them, too, can skate, if
they will, and live in freezing latltudes; and it
would be hard TO say where wilder, sweeter,
loftier exhilaration can be found in merely
the ice, the rush of the air hurryIng past the
long impulse, the flashing, glancing night all
but aerial full of glad CELEBRITY, as if the skates
were the gods talaris, the very spirit and soul
of motion at will, with the eager directing force
the slow wheeling pause, and no part of the
frame, from the tingling toes to the gray matter
Of the excited brain, not called into use in the
processi
WALKING IMPERATIVE.
But if peradventure, they may not dance, or
cannot skate, or have no water for rowing, our
young girls without exception may walk; and,
after ALL walking can be made almost the equal
in pleasure of the other forms of exercise and
quite their equal in health. Not the slow gait
Of the observing naturalist, If it is an affair OF
health, but the brisk, quick gait from point to
point and the lingering and observation upon
arriving. In fact, with short skirts, with easy
boots, with companion alert as ones self, with
shoulders back head up, and arms swinging, a
eait Of 70 minutes to the mile if Is is too much,
gives one presently sort of unconsciousness
bf the separate acts OF moving the feet and
Sensation as near akin to flying as it is given to
the children Of earth to have while the lungs