The National tribune., 1889-03-14
Written For THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE.I
HEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD, NJ. D.,
Author of Physical Education"; Household
Remedies; The Bible of Nature etc.
CHAPTER VII.
AND CLOTHING

once watched the evening amuSeMentS OF d
gypsy camp, where our Arabian auxiliaries
were taking their ease after weary march.
"Just look at those happy loafers," said my
French Sergeant with sigh of envy; bare
footed, barearmed, and dancing like Berber apes
They get the same pay as our own men, and
twice as much fun. None of our soldiers would
dare to make themselves comfortable in that
free and easy fashion, even if there wasn't
regulation against skipping about in your
night dress. What blessing to have estab-
lished reputation of being barbarians!"
People who dare to follow the dictates of their
common sense may, indeed, enjoy mu ltitude
of enviable privileges; especially the privilege
of defying the absurdities of fashion. Without
our lnspeakable Difference to established Gus
TOMS whether sensible or idiotic, many of those
absurdites would long since have disappeared
like Nightmares before the morning sun. I'm
like our dietetic sins, dress vices could else be
shaken off like cobWebs. man who has got
drunk three or four times need only glide along
a smooth downgrade track to 60 to ruin with
out change of cars but dude who has for
years tortured his feet in fashionable toe
squeezers will have to overcome the same pro-
test of Nature every time he puts on new
pair. Tight cravats never become a second
nature. No hermit would dream of wearing
broadcloth in the dog days.
Besides freedom from gross prejudices, dress
reform needs nothing but moral courage or the
fortune of independent circumstances. Our
free Republic has not wholly missed its oppor-
tunites in that respect. In no other civilized
country do so many well-to-do parents earn the
lifelong gratitude of their little ones by per-
hitting them to run barefoot in Summer time.
Blue Jeans have never hidden moral worth
from American eyes. The force of prejudice,
rather than a snobbish Difference to European
caprces, is responsible for most of our dress
abuses. All observers who have visited our
IL a-, t. H.,
have been surprised at the physical precocity
of their youngsters. A Mexican boy of three
years can run and climb like young monkey,
and seems to have made unaceouptable progress
in the art of avoiding falls. 1t is true that the
young of the lower animals develop quicker
than their more Intelligent fellow creatures A
sucking pig can race about two days after its
birth, while puppies remain helpless for weeks.
But the better class of Spanish Americans are
in no respect very far below the standards of
civilization, and the cleverness of their kids
has different reason: they never swaddle
them. Wealthy mothers let their babies scram-
BILE about free on the floor of Especial room, COW
cred with old carpets; the poor let them play at
will in the dry grass, and nurse them only at
certain times of the day. They are too indo-
lent to train them in the Spartan fashion; they
never use leading strings; they merely have
the common sense to leave them the free use of
their limbs and Nature docs the rest. We turn
our babies into mummies. Swaddling will keep
them from catching cold and hurting them
selves, would be the nurses arguments, but in
both respects the methods of her plan defeat
their purpose. We have seen that catarrh is a
house disease, due to want of fresh air and ex-
ercise, rather than to the inclemencies of the
outdoor atmosphere. And instead of prevent
ing, swaddling ultimately aggraVates the risk
of bodily injuries The mummy's limbs get
stunted It's bones remain brittle and soft its
joints fail to acquire the suppleness which in
after years gymnastics can but imperlectly inn
part. No horse that had passed its colthood in
bandages could ever win race. once super
intended the exercises of gymnasium, where
l noticed that of 10 boys who got hurt by falls
or sprains, nine on the average were pampered
city lads, doing their best TO improve the op-
portunity for muscular development, but COM
ing to grief because that opportunity came too
late
cHTLDREN's DRESS.
Farmers babies should get the full benefit
of the "great blessing of having been born in
the country" or in the wilderness if the woods
are full of bears. With seven bear dens within
a mile of the clearing, the toddling, berry
gathering youngster of a backwoodsman
would stand better chance of survival than
the swaddled city child in its baby-carriage
padded with cushions founces and wrappers
that prevent every movement and exclude
every draft of the fresh air enjoyed by the
gossiping nurse who furnishes the motive
power of the mummy wagon. The best baby
dress for Summer is short-sleeyed linen dal-
ndtica-a sack blouse and petticoat in one piece;
for Winter wooden ditto, with linen under
shirt and hose, and outdoors in cold weather
an additional blouse with an ear-warming mood,
and warm socks, with canvas shoes or short
rubber boots.
scHooLBoY's DRESS.
a light jacket ('fwaist," as the dry goods
stores sometimes call it, wide, short linen
trowsers, waist and trowsers connected by a
girdle of stout buttons, is also the best Summer
dress for schoolboys up to II or IA years. On
all but the warmest Summer days let them play
bareheaded as well as barefooted. There is no
harm in little sunshine, and for breezy days
Nature has furnished them an excellent ready
made head-dress. That head-dress fades and
thins out the sooner the more artificial supple
ments make it superhuous. In old times when
men of 60 had full shock of unbleaehed hair
artificial head dress was used only on ceremonial
occasions or las helmets) in war. In time of
peace the ancients went mostly bareheaded. The
Emperor Hadrian travelled bareheaded through
the IS provinces of his vast Empire. Our Saxon
ancestors let their hair grow in Winter and cut it
shorter in Spring, but always let their sons wear
it long enough to distinguish them from the
close-cropped serfs. CapelIo uccide capella-
mats XIII nalr Us an Italian pr0VerD, ana
warm caps seem even to affect the texture of
the skull-bones. When the Persians under
Cambyses invaded northern Africa the Egyp-
tian army met them at Potassium, and hun
dred years later the battlefield still covered
with the well preserved skulls of the African
warriors, while those of the turbaned Persians
had crumbled away like egg-shells-all but
| their white teeth. In Walker County, Tex,
knew an old teamster who used to haul cord
wood in storm and sunshine and always bare
headed, having learned to prefer his name of
| yellow hair to any other cover. The neighbors
seemed rather proud of him. The pride of
little Tennessee mountain-town is quintet of
fairhared brothers, all ages from five to TO- and
all bareheaded. Fashion,. e., the verdict of
| public opinion-can, indeed, often be very sue
cessfully braved, or inverted, in such matters
On my last trip from Southampton to New
| York | remember how the cabin passengers
especially one female autocrat of the breakfast
table, turned up their noses at team of Ameri-
can children who romped about barefoot from
morning till night. But before we had been
| week out the children Of nature had become
| general pets, while the autocrat proved to be
herself sadly in need of patronage. Where
! fashion is omnipotent, straw hat with per-
| forated crown is the best head-dress for Sum
mer. In Midwinter we can very comfortably
even exceed the demands of conventional pro-
L ak1v