The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-06-08
HEALTH AND nousEwoRk.

HEALTH AND nousEwoRk
a Woman Doctor Airs Her Vicws ON . Much
Conteated Point.
II don't know which of them makes
me. tiredest," said the woman doctor,
looking up from her desk with a
wrinkled forehead and resigned sigh.
mo, 1 know the word isn't in the die
tionary, but do let me use it."
What's the provocation?'' 1 asked.
She stuffed the papers into my lap.
Here, read them. Ones a letter from
the mother of three daughters, who
asks me if think homework is healthy
for women; the second. oddly enough.
is another letter in the same line
from q magazine editor, asking me
to contribute to his Symposium,
is Best Suited to the Physical
Woman One letter asks me to
answer as woman and the other
appeals to me in my capacity as a
physician I've forgotten which is
which. And the third is the first of
postum, which the editor sends me as
an example (or else a warning), and
enthusiastically proposes houseworl<
as a cure for every i'll feminine flesh is
heir to-a Neutrality-suspicious., nerve
soother. brain-developer and dear
Knows WIN 81Is II uAkeS The SICK
WE'LL And the we'll Sick" was the
irreverent interruptions. but what
are we going to do with them, and why
do they make you tired?'
''I'll show you what l am going to
do with them,' and the offending pa
pers were polked into the vaste-basket
with the point of a wiclxcd-looking
pair of shears. And the reason I'm
sick of being asked my opinion as to
the healthiness of house work is the
senselessness of such query. Sup
pose it isn't, what does anybody pro-
pose doing about it? We must all
take our share of it. 1t only
remains for men to begin asking,
is business healthy?' to drive us quite
distracted. II you want my opinion
here it is, and welcome. think house
work is a wearing, grinding treadmill
which fatigues strong women and
breaks delicate ones. That woman's
talk about exercise and *hea1thful va
riety of work is all nonsense. Part of
the exercise is the continual lifting of
heavy weights. from buckets to babies,
and going up ind down stairs, the two
worst things a woman can do, and her
muscles are called into play as benefi-
cially and more agrecably in a game of
tennis or a brisk walk as in handling
the broom or scrubbing brush. The
variety of work is only a. eupheuism
for saying that she never gets done.
Continual standing is not healthy.
Neither is the breathing of dust and
ashes. nor stopping about in water,
nor standing over a hot stove, nor
making fire in q cold room, nor
half dozen things included un-
That's why I'm out of patience
with that woman who wrote for the
magazine symposium. As for the one
with the three daughters, I guess 1
will answer her letter after all-tish it
up out of the basket. won't you?-and
say, Dear Madam: No, housework is
not healthy. Neither is living healthy.
We so into it, young and fresh, and
round and rosy; it leaves us old, and
worn and wrinlkled, and feeble. What
do you expect to do about it?'
''Give her daughters a business train
ing" I suggested.
Ibid say business was any bet
ter?" demanded the woman doctor.
''I've as many patients: who have
wrecked their health over the count
ing-desk as the wash-tub or the stove.
And it is absured to generalize that
way and put business including such
widely different occupations a.;
teaching, acting, selling goods,
writing stories. and tending a
in the other, and try to strike a bal
ance between them. Housework is
healthier than some businesses and
less healthy than others. Taken all in
all. the housekeeper's chances for
physical well-belng are a little better,
for she has none of the terrible nervous
strains over the possibility of losing
her position. and no matter how rush ed
she is, she can, and does if she is SEN
sible, let everything go for a moment
or an hour while she rests or sleeps.
If the worltingwoman be q store or
factory employee. she suffers a steadier
strain of standing than the veriest
household drudge. But the odds aren't
sufficient to warrant enthusiasm, and
I, for one, refuse to say anything-in
print, that is-about it,
Except by proxy" I warned her.
and she said that, of course, she had
expected that.-Boston Herald.
Common Errors In Speech.
The verb to get is one of our muc1,