The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-29
The world OF W0mAAKIND
Topics Of Interest to All Members Of
the Gentle Sex.
HEALTH AND HOUSEHOLD HINTS
Carefully Selected Recipes. suggestions
as to the Care OF the Home and
Other Matters Entering Into
Womau's widening Sphere.

Complaint appears" says the Chi
cagoTfmes-H Herald, mot only IN the
United States but in France ana Eng
land that with adoption of the bicycle.
golf. tennis, the rifle and the sword for
fencing by women a new type Of the sex
is appearing. It is the grown-up TOM
boy. the adult hoyden. Such com
plaint ought not to be permitted to
endure. Athletics ought to be as sal
utary for women as for men. The open
air is as natural atmosphere for, the
one sex as for the other. Judicious
muscular development Is as wholesome
for one-half the human species as for
the other half. There is no more rea-
son why heal:hful exercise, even II ac-
quired in the form of sport, should
make women unwomanly than that the
same exercise should make men ruff
fans. The woman hoyden is only the
effeminate modification of the male
rowdy. Neither Is a legitimate product
~ fresh air. genuine sport or enliven-
ing recreation. Indeed, for women,
athletic exercise within metes and
bounds cannot be too earnestly recon-
mended. Society having done its best
to place her for by far the greater
portion of her life in quiet and seclu-
sion, she is liable to become inert be-
cause Of foreordained inaction, and to
degenerate into habbiness for lack Of
reasonable employment of her natural
force. Conventionality conspires with
nurses, mothers, doctors, preachers and
teachers from her cradle to send her to
her grave without any more of physical
development than she Is likely to wrest
from her environment i'm spite of its
% m
strongest in those countries In which
cOnventionality imoipges least on her
personal liberty, and the greatest
boon nature gives to her sex, mother
hood, she enjoys TO the highest degree
where she has liberty of fresh air, free
dom of personal inclination, and n much
larger measure of physical activity
than she gets in countries where, for the
present, intellectual and social progress
are deemed higher by women them
selves than a roundabout and SYM
metrical development of body and
mind.
athletics In wOmens colleges are al
most unknown as yet. Indulgence in Wig
orous pastimes Is reluctant on the part
Of most women students, and Is even
viewed askance by too large a propor-
tlon of their professional guides. Mems
sana in corpore sano is not yet fully
understood In womans education. The
bicycle, the ball. the racket, even the
foil If properly used, like good wine.
In moderation. must be good for normal
women. Instead Of melting to hoyden-
ishness. these animating expedients
should prove for their bodies what logic,
music. mathematics and poetry are for
the mind. Woman being physically
more plastic than man, she should find
in scientific gymnastics only the sculp-
tors dexterity and deftness. In ath-
letics she ought to be able to correct
natural or acquired defects and to ap-
proximate more nearly to the ideal fem
inine model. According to multifarious
tradition. Venus found aquatics pro-
ducer and preserver of supreme beauty.
whose first and always indispensable
requisite is health. Diana was not the
less feminine for her skill in archery.
and Juno was more ma jestic by reason
of her ease with the reins. OF course
n refined woman will mount a wheel
in refined way, and a coarse woman
will show her coarseness In her dis
mounting. Correct sensibility Is not a
universal quality in either man or wo-
man, and it Is not to be greatly in
creased or diminished by physical ex-
eTCISe UNUSUAL lOT WOII1tn except ny tnt
exertion Of the individual will. Prob
ably graceful woman will acquire. II
thoughtful. new grace by indulgence In
moderate and modest sport. and an un-
couth woman. In all probability, will be
coarsened by indulgences throwing her
in novel and possibly. II she be weak
woman, demOralizing familiarity with
prCmiscuOus herds of men, none OF
whom may have any interest in safe
guarding her dignity, and many OF
whom will not be disposed to respect
what all right minded men consider the
delicacy Of her sex.
Let women take all the physical ex-
ercise they can that is good for theil
health. Though a few may go to ex.
cess and some invite or tolerate lack
of Difference, an entire sex not to be
punished for the folly or crassness OF
a minority. Painting Is not to be aban.
doned because Of the existence of colol
blindness nor music be left to perish be.
cause deafness Is in the world. Every
exercise which tends to make woman
more healthful ought to make her more
amiable. To be alert should mean fol
her to be more attractive and more eff
flcient. Instead of losing womanlines.
by athletics she should increase there
by Its charms"
u II
The fact that drunkenness has of late
years decreased among men is general
ly admitted, and It has led to inquiry
whether the use Of intoxicants may no
have Increased during the same periot
among women. "A few years ago,
says the Times-Herald, "the sight Of {
respectable woman drinking an intoxi
70 Of ,tn
hotel unknown. Today II Is s.
common as almost to have ceased
causing surprise. At almost any first
class restaurant women, apparentl!
rational and refined, take the cocktail
Which rev years ago they knew moth
Ing about. with as little embarrass
ment as their men companions; nor il
1t as rare as 1t should be that womel
will order and drink cocktails evel
when unaccompanied by men. Th
latest phase Of the increase of intoxi
cants among women is found in tn
fashionable candy establishments
where, under various names, smal
quantities Of intoxicating liquors ar
mixed for the accommodation of q con
stantly enlarging demand. One of tn
strongest arguments commonly used II
promotion Of extension of suffrage t
women Is that their influence woul
be cast in favor of conservative socia
legislation, especially in relation to in
toxicants. All women inheriting Euro
pean ideas about wine and beer see n
evil In their moderate use. If Ameri
can women. to the manner born, be
come themselves a tippling sex wha
will remain, after awhile. Of the fore
of this argument? American physi
clans are largely responsible for the in
creased use of all kinds of liquor anon
American women. They prescrib
stimulants in large number of case
of invalidism among women, with tn
inevitable result that. whether salutar
or not for the sick, the habit grow
among the healthful. 1t is not lon
step from hops to corn. from the bre,
to the still. 1t would surely be melan
chOly phenomenon of the closing decad
Of the century II intemperance. declin