Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-03
for dinner, when I see -that-she eats only
such things as will not burt fher.
Education isfNOFAIl.

gets spells Of thinking that 1t is nice to
be thought delicate, but the demands of
healthy young animars appetite are too
much for her, and she viii piece" between
meals to be able to carry out her designs
of being delicate at the table. I don't go
at her hammer and tofgs; at would do no
good. But I Immediately pus- her on simple
rations, curtail her outdoor privileges, ex-
cept under my eye, deprive her of her little
social entertainments for certain period,
much excitement, and iadd sto the duties
that she has to perform about the house
to give her the necessary sexercise. OF
course, I do not let her go to school when
she complains, and she has to let her music
go also. That breaks her heart, for she
is ambitious and determined to keep up in
her classes.
My remedies work like charm. There
is seldom a recurrence of those awful
headaches" that were simply the result Of
an awful habit of trying to hoodxink
nature. When she has headache row
1 know that 1t is because she is taxing
herself too heavily in some way, and get
to the bottom of the matter at once.
am ambitious for my little sister, and am
delighted to see her bearing off honors.
but her health and happiness are worth
more to me than an epitaph and a memory.
I'd rather she never knew more music
than the chords of Home, Sweet Home, or
mathematics than the multiplication table
than have to shut her forever away from
my sight in her white graduation gown
l was talking with a mother the other day
who has but one child, delicate girl Of
six / remembered that as an infant this
girl had been a wailing, sickly little thing
and there had been but little hope of rear
ing her. When 1 remarked that Alice
seemed to be developing finely her mother
laughingly remarked that her friends called
Alice 1.-The hygienic child" because she had
been reared by the strictest rules of physi-
ology and hygiene.
Living by Rule.
81 was determined that ii should be no
fault of mine If failed to keep my baby
though 1 knew in my heart that 1t was
from me that she had inherited her weak
constitution. I studied everything that I
could find on the subject Of building up Of
the human body, and then laid down my
rules and bound my husband and servants
ter have found health for both her and
myself. For her l began to eat, Sleep
drink and exercise by rule. Hard? Why,
there were times when 1t seemed to me
must give up. You know / was a self
willed girl and never knew what it was
to have within unsatisfied. / ruined nv
health by keeping late hours, injudicious
eating and overstudy, WHEN my strength
was diminishing through the strain / was
undergoing in trying to do my society and
school work together.
My parents were anxious for me to
graduate with honors. and so was 1, but
l should give up any of my social pleasures
and l doubt If l would have done so had It
been suggested. / graduated with honors
but a long spell of brain fever left me a
physical wreck. l realize that Alice will
never be a brilliant scholar. 1 married
young, and before I had fully recovered
from the prostrating effects of that fever
A year later Alice was laid In my arms,
and from that day to this I have had i'm
pressed upon me the truth of the Scripture
che sins of the fathers though in my
case 1t is that of the mother. My daugh-
ter's frail constitution and commonplace
talents are only the result Of my stupid
ignore nee" d.
A mothers responsibility Is a heavy one
at all times, but more especially is this so
after children leave her care to enter school
For the greater part of the waking hours
they are then out from under her eye, and
IT is her duty to know to whom they are
intrusted, the Influences that surround
them. and their effect. A school girl
should be as regular In her habits as the
clock She should go to bed and get up at
specified hours; she should eat regularly
not what she chooses to- eat, as that would
generally be sweetmeats-but well-cooked
food, such as has BEEN proved to be easy
of digestion. She should never be permit
ted to go to school until She has eaten
something. Such performance is suicidal.
Imagine from three to- FIVE hours brain
work. every Thought demanding a cor
responding waste of TISSUE and all done on
a stomach that has taken ND food for six
teen hOuiS VI II - pTepOSterOuS.
But how much worse II the girl begins
to get hungry about lunch time and fills
up on candy and the wife pastry of side
street shops. With a surfeit Of this, din
ner is not eaten, and before a late bed
time some more sweetmeats are demanded.
In the morning more lassitude and head
ache, and so II goes on. The studies are
increasing in number and difficulty as the
months go by, but the bodily strength is
decreasing, and the mental stimulus Is
borrowed from the principle Of life. instead
of from the good, new growth that should
be making all the time II the refusal of
root of the matter and correct the evil at
once. If there is constitutional weakness,
take the girl out of school and put her
under a regular hygienic course, and let
the schooling rest. Health Is worth more
than all the books in Christendom put to-
gether.
Plain Living and Dressing.
School girls should be dressed plainly and
comfortably. The mother who puts a cor
set on her growing girl ought to be obliged
to wear a straight jacket five hours a day
herself. I do not inveigh against corsets;
they are, in my opinion, quite a necessary
article of the toilet for a woman who has
matured. and has no growing bones to
crowd, no tender muscles to injure; but on
a young girl corset Is an instrument of
refined torture. Ten chances to one she
would never need one at all If left free to
for the first twenty years of her life.
Finery in the school room Is vulgar and
out of place, causing envy, jealousy and
heart-burning, besides tending to inculcate
a disposition for vanity In the better class
of boarding schools for girls uniform
dress is part of the discipline. and very
wisely, think. for then there is no posi-
BILE chance of a vain display.
III mothers would keep an iron hand on
their girls for the first sixteen years of
their lives, weakly women would go clear
out of fashion and be remembered only as
freaks. Now, 1 don't mean that a girl
should be reared In convent atmosphere,
that would be UNNATURAL; but 1 do mean
that IL mothers would care for their girls
as rigidly as they do for their cats and
pet canarfes. their poodles and parrots,
giving them strict regime and stated
periods of exercise, regular hours for sleep
and work, and rear them sensibly, there
would be less heart breaks in the world
from girls gone off wrong" or graves
filled with the early dead
SONORA SARA.