Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-12-23
woMAMs WORLD N pAaAeRApAs.
When We Are Civilized Enough to Dress
as We Please.


as We Please.
A pretty, gentle little woman, Mrs.
Aber of San Diego, Cal, has devised and
appeared upon the public street in u
costume WHICH she considers the most
healthful and convenient Of anything
worn in modern times. This unique suit
consists of just two garments--an under
tunic Of fine, white muslin and an outer
tunic Of unbleached muslin. The lady
shares the barefoot fad, which is extend
ing among people in our time, and be-
heves it is much more healthful and
comfortable to go barefoot than to wear
shoes. She walks about the streets
and at home without shoes or stockings.
Thereupon broad smile extends from
one side of this continent to the other, and
the newspaper wits make merry over the
mild little woman in San Diego. But
why should they? Her costume is GER
tainly more healthful, convenient, and in
warm weather more comfortable, than
that of any other woman in civilization
today. We have worn heavy clothes
clinging close to the body for SO many
years that the human skin is really dead.
That is the meaning of what is called
scurf skin. Millions of little mouths are
stopped and stuffed up by the lint from
the clothing that fills them. Air is ex-
cluded from the skin, and all it can do is
to pour layer upon layer of waste mate
rial into the internal organs as long as it
can, then take refuge in cold or case
of severe illness, to waken the degener-
ate son of civilization to his danger. An
imals are more healthy than we because
the air can come freely to their skin and
take away the waste matter. Extra work
is not thus tarown upon the internal ex-
cretory organs, as is the case with man.
The little lady of San Diego is on the
right track absolutely. Victor Hugo re-
tanned his tremendous vitality and ener-
gy to great age partly because in the is
land OF Jersey every morning it was his
custom to take prolonged air and sea
fog bath on the top of his house. When
we are as civilized as inhabitants of Ara
bia and India are in this matter, we shall
be able to permit people to dress exactly
as they please without being insulted or
derided, so long as they are decently COW
cred and clean, and we shall never be
civilized till we learn that it is none Of
our business how other people dress.
The scientist who discovered in the
human larynx the anatomical reason why
woman has a soprano voice and man a
bass one, was woman, Mrs. Emma
Seller. She was German, born in Wurtz-
burg. Left IA widow with two children
to support, she resolved TO become a
teacher of singing, but suddenly lost her
voice. Then she determined to find out
why, also to discover if possible the cor
rect method Of singing, SO that others
might not loso their voices. For this
purpose she studied anatomy. Surround
ed, however, as she was by the idiots and
bigots who would cut off all intellectual
pursuits from women, she was obliged to
study in secret. She dissected larynx
after larynx and spent years in her
why women's head tones could reach
high Q while men had no soprano
tones. At length her search was
rewarded She discovered under the
microscope one day two small wedge
shaped cartilages whose action produces
the highest tones of the human voice.
She made her discovery public 1t ex-
cited great attention among scientists.
But so cruel was the prejudice OF her
time that she did not dare let the world
know woman made the discovery and
wrote the account of it. Her own BROTH
er, a physician, praised the treatise in
the highest terms till he found his own
sister had written it. Then he dashed
it down, sayiag in q rage that she would
better be attending to her homework.
Nine. Sellers portrait, marble relief,
is in possession of the American Philo-
sophical society of Philadelphia, Of
which she was a member. She wrote
among other books 1.-The Voice In Sing
ing" "The Voice In Speaking" She
died in 1886.
am SO dead tired of this eternal
barping on the relation of the sexes.
Life should be one song of thanksgiv-
ing for the power to work and achieve.
Miss Lillian OConnell of New York
has hit upon comparatively new idea
in dramatic Rotations. She has course
of six entertainments, which she calls
lecture recitals, dealing with famous
poets and novelists. The young lady
first gives a word sketch OF the author.
then recites omething from his or her
pen. Miss JConnell's delineations are
so scholarly and pleasing that her unique
entertainments are meeting with much
success. ELIZA ARCHARD CoSgER.