The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-06-21
Need OF Educated Christian Women.
From The Bapti,t Courier.

many as are needed. And what is i'm
piled is but too true. One of the great.
est needs of this day is more educated
Christian women. There are about as
many fool women in the world at this
time as there are fool men, and that are
not helping the young men of the coun'
try either in the way of sense, or religion
neither improving their heads nor
their hearts. And this is the great duty,
as it is the great privilege and honor of
woman, to be reservoirs of healthful
moral influence to the world, and thus
save men from sin and impurity which
debaucb the intellect, as we'll as the soul
and the character.
shall now mention some things that,
to my mind, prove very clearly the great,
urgent need of educated and particularly
Christian women, In this our day.
First. to begin with, here is this Corset
hght.lacing a6omination, thing which is
against health, against intellect and
sense, and against religion. The Chinese
women glory in their little feet; our civ
ilized II can hardly say Christian) NO.
men glory in their little waists, though
to have these little waists their bodies,
and that too right over the vital organs,
lungs, heart and liver, must be put into
the compress, tightly laced corsets, just
as the feet of Chinese girls are put into
iron shoes. have been told that in all
the medical colleges, upon every gradu.
ating class is charged the duty Of warn
ing mothers as to the evils that come
from tight lacing. Talking on this sub
ject with very intelligent physician
some time ago he said that in the medi.
cal books there was described the ."corset
liver" and "corsetliv means q "cor'
set heart" "corset langs," q "corset
head" and from all these "corset w0-
mfs" There comes into nearly every
home in this State the inevitable fashion
book, with its fashion plates of tall and
spindling women. and the conspicuous
part, and the part Of the figure that
seems to be emphasized and attention
called to, is the little waist, which is
made to be the perfection of womanly
grace and beauty. If the thing goes on
much longer, a race of women will be
raised up without any waists at all. 1
almost shudder when look at one OF
these fashion books, filled up with pic
lures Of tightly corseted women for our
daughters to gaze at and admire. If I
had my way they shouldn't come through
the mails. "Can," l ask myself, "such
women as are represented in these plates,
ever be the mothers of great men and
great women ?" And this is need, No. l,
reform in corset wearing, and great
work it is for educated Christian women
to do, to destroy this modern Molocb, to
which is sacrificed the health and lives
| of thousands of women in eur land.
And, secondly, here is the rage Jor
dressing among ac0men, though by no
means is it true of all of them. 1t is not
an exaggeration to say that great many
| women spend the most of their time,
thought and labor, on something to wear
Their minds neglected, their souls neg
lected, their homes too often neglected,
snd the serious duties of life neglected,
and all for what? Why, simply to graf.
ify their 'ovs of dress and show. There
are may "Flors McFlimsey's," and they
live in many other places besides "Madi'
son Square," and spend their lives in
complaining that they have nothing to
wear" 1t was to women, and of the
matter of their dressing, that the Apostle
Peter wrote: "Whose adjoining let it not
be that outward adornirg of plating the
hair, and of wearing of gold, or of put
ting on of apparel; but let it be the hid
den man of the heart, in that which ia
| not corruptible, even the ornament of a
meek and quiet spirit, which is in the
| sight of God of great price," The aim in
life of great many women should very
properly be measured with yardstick
And of some of the prevailing styles Of
female dress Pm ashamed to speak, and
in very bad taste particularly is good
deal of the ball gearing. The Apostle
Peter, in the same connection with the
words just quoted, speaks of the "chaste
conversation" becoming to women; nor
should they be less mindful of "chaste'
dressing, which is also lovely thing in
woman. And here is need No. 2, reform
| in dress, and q great sphere of useful
work for educated Christian women.
And, thirdly, the "German" dance, and
the harm it is doing to women, and
through them to society, calls for the in
auence and active efforts of educated
Christian women to suppress it and thus
save their sisters and the young men OF
the country from its contamination. 1t
is enough to condemn these so called
"germans" that they encourage dissipa-
ton, it being the case that at them the
dancing and reeeling are kept up nearly
all night, and that they ignore all social
and moral differences. This is the case
particularly in regard to the men who go
to them. They are terrible Jewelers.,
these germans, and always level down.
They are open to men who in character,
are moral lepers, and shut out from all
homes and circles Of purity and refine
ment. It has always been strange thing
to me that some women, and the some
are many, that seem to hate vice and i'm.
purity only in one of their own sex, and
she often the victim of mans falseness
and villainy. Paul, writing of the hea-
then in his day, said: sit is shame to
speak of things done by them in secret" "
but in this Christian age it is shame to