The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-16
NERVES ON THE INCREASE.
MANY WOMEN ALMOST ON THE
VERGE OF HYSTERICS.

Talks OF the Trouble aud IT'S Remedy.
Half the women In tho new New York nova
days seem to BIO nervous almost to the verge OF
Mysteries. II this tendency keeps on increasing
as 1t has increased in the last ten years. 1t will
DO a very short time before womankind is all
nerves. Nine women out of ten, II questioned,
will frankly confess that they fall to crying
without any reason for tears whatever; that
the desire frequently comes to them to scream
at tho top Of their lungs; that they often
long to go away to some place where
there isn't SO much as n song bird to break the
silence. OF course, n woman in this condition
wouldn't stay in such q place long. because she
has sunk into tho realms Of sensation and must
have change. If she docs not have change she
will actually become hystcrical or collapse
physically and mentally, just as tho farmers
wife does because she lives at tho other extreme
Of the belt Of life. Her path is a trcadmill Of
monotony, and she finds herself just as nervous
as her city sister. but she is nervous in a differ.
ent way, and she declares that she is only !" all
ing a mite and nothing more or less"
When asked il the reason for SO much ner-
vousness in women is not largely the result Of
so much noise, DR.. George F. Shrady said:
1T is said that one Of the balances Of culture
is the absence of noise. and an evidence OF cul.
ture is that people should not give way to any
feeling or emotion. Half or two-thirds of the
women nowadays are nervous to the verge of
histories. and this tendency is increasing. 1t is
true that this condition is largely the result of
noise, or rather the result of the repression of
feeling. Think how shocked everybody in o
street car would DO If every woman in the car
screamed when the gong changed and changed
and changed unnecessarily, as 1t frequently does.
And yet nearly all tho women who travel In
cars feel like doing that. This constant repres-
sion has its bad effect on men rs well rs on
women, but men aren't so dclicately organized,
80 sensitive to sound, and 30 on.
MANY noises are incident to civilization and
cannot be avoided. but the preventable noises
are most exasperating. The rafting of car rails
in the street at night can easily be stopped. but
1t will keep a woman. or a man for that matter.
awake for hours. Every stroke exasperates her
more and more, until her nerves are all on edge
and she Is in q condition that does not invite re-
pose. That same woman can BIO lulled to sleep
by the roar of thunder and flashes of lightning
in a severe storm. The %trickling of water In a
bath tub. tho slamming of n door, the
sound Of u piano. all preventable noises,
disturb a persons peace Of mind. but
they are the penalties Of civilization. Many OF
our city houses. particularly apartment houses,
are built so that every neighbor can hear his
next door ncighbor sniff or sneeze. or his neigh
Dor above wash his hands or let down his win
dow shades. A person has to consider all this
when he rents. We rave about church bells.
beautiful things in their way, but an outrage in
a city. We have noise all round and about us
and it comes in to us in the very air we breathe
in our homes. We can't all have tanbark be-
fore our doors. The poor working girl goes
homo to her hall bedroom in a boarding house
at night with a raging headache. The people
In the big room next door are having q party,
but the poor girl cannot have tanbark: She
must shut herself in her cage and endure 1t with
open eyes, aching brain, and QuiyprinR nerye8.
This changing OF bells on the cars Is another
without being hammered by sound. And as for
this business Of working in the streets at night,
digging up and adjusting water mains. gas
pipes and what not, 1t Is an interference with
the personal liberty OF man. Why should he DO
forced to give up his sleepi What Is 1t all forl
such adds a double shock.
ness in woman is n complex condition and is due
to other things besides noise: Most of 1t is due
work in the trcsadmiil Of pleasure than there Is
In the washtub. ! wish women could BIO made
to realize real sed that T Crime o Sn ,hIpn nndi shn grow out
so entirely to pleasure these days that It is actu.
ally criminal. To do anything that hurts ono
Beecher was exactly right when he said that II
was a sin to be sick, for it showed plainly that
some law Of nature had been violated. Emer-
son was quite right whom no said: Punishment |
y a fruit that unsuspectea rtpens within the
Women seem to think that there Is no such
thing as toll in pleasure. They cannot associate
to keep very late hours. The Sonng sirl. " "nd
the matron, too, doesn't think that she las filled
her mission unless she has q late supper in a
dance, or reception. She gets home at / O'Clock, |
and more often after 2, and is in a poor condi.
strained. uneasy, sleep toward morning, and
when she should he up getting sunshine and
About. midday She gets, up and swaps ih"r
breakfast for a luncheon. and in tho
on a round OF afternoon teas and receptions. ali
tired out and with digestion upsct by irregular
hours and meals. She listens to and indnigos
In inano conversation and is bored almost to a
frenzy, for there is nothing more exhausting
than cling bored. II snps the vitality right np.
That night it is the theatre again or a dinner
followed by, n dance, or "A ball or something, and
on ana on she goes; neyercvcn admitting 10 her.
called u good. time, and growing more nervous
every day. She Is strained by the glare OF lights,
preston by never being able to say What she
thinks or feels to be her own natural self"
"Th Gn secret are ' Of a rf hesltSfu fo iirs sh!S se eonaitiGq r.
Shrady. lis moderation with regularity, Ma.
lure never likes m excess of work or pleasure;
does not get enough sleep OF tho right kind
Above all things she wants moro slecn TO bring
tho vitality like sleep, and l should say that
woman J, ods sleep more than anything in The
she ,overfecds herself. for she eats sweets and
candles between me is. Yes, what she needs is
s!cep. lOh lcll y woman mat she needs Slcep |
md ;he says; ,oh, no that is impossible, for
get good sleep when We have to breathe i'm The
noises Of the day.
+" Scientists have found. by testing the inten.
sity OF sound. that the first two hours of slern
are the best. Statistics show this. II any w6r,
man doubts the effect of the want of sleep, she
has only TO note the irritability, that follows a
restless nlght--a night broken by ureventable
noises. those hundreds Of women who suffer
with extreme nervousness would only deny
themselves and get 10 bed at half past So'clock
and mp - q they would wonder what had struck
them. This sleep would dc them more good Than
any medicine In the world.
I'VE say that people can become accustomed
TO noise 30 that they can 40 TO sleep easily I'M