The herald., 1898-08-01
CLARA BARTON
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Clara Barton Is the most interesting wo-
man in the news today.
She has just returned from Caney, where
she has been feeding the hungry and car
ing for the sick. Clara Barton is, at the
very least 65 years old. She is fraih, deli
cate-loolSing old lady, with a sensitive face,
and a spare, stiff little figure, that makes
her look as if she had stepped out of ono
of Mary E. wilkins New England village
stories.
! asked her once how she did It, and she
told me. This is what she said:
"How do stand all this wear and tear?"
she said. Economy. That's 1t. Economy.
save my strength
"When I'm not working at the business
81 don't putter.
That's what ages women-puttering.
"When l see teacher breaking down or
trained nurse giving up with nervous
prostration I wonder when women will
learn to stop puttering.
II wouldn't sew button on to one of my
shoes for all the kingdom of the earth.
II can't afford such luxuries.
"a woman can be fine teacher, but she
can't be a good teacher, and an excellent
dressmaker, and an expert cook, and a
shoe cleaner, and a glove mender. and a
nurse, and a domestic economizer all a.
once.
"The minute she tries to do It she breaks
down. and then some one writes a brilliant
article on Why American Women Brea,s
Down.
I'd like to know how much of a success
In life Mr.. Pierpont Morgan would make IL
he left his affairs to go home and 'tidy nm
his room.
DR. Weir Mitchell doesn't leave the bed
side of nervous patient and go home and
fret about the dinner.
He'd be nervous patient himself II he
tried that long.
There's all there Is to the secret of NV
wonderful vitality as you call It, dom.
putter 1t away, doing something that can
hire SOME one else to do for me.
"Sleep is great thing for women.
Half the women know don't s,een b,,s
enough.
"Tve cultivated the ACCOMPLISHMENT ~
mapping.
Il shut my eyes and go TO sleep. Whom
ever tneres iull in my work curl up
somewhere and go to sleep.
ut isn't work that wears women ou+
ITS fretting and puttering.
"The way TO keep young?
stop worrying and go to work.
Throw yourself heart and soul brain
and nerve, into some one thing. mako
fetish Of 1t, throw every bit of energy,
you've got into it-housekeeping. tak,ng
care of children, teaching, writing. Nursing
1t doesn't make bit of difference what vo,,
do; It's the way you do it that counts.
Copy the first young-looking man vo,
see; do the way he does; work when ,-o,,
are working, and when you're not WORKING
cultivate the art of being amused.
Men are easily amused. Every man has
his pet toy-a camera, a horse, a Yacht
wheel, something or other to plav With.
that's what Keeps them young so much
longer than women.
Hire people to do the work Won don't
want to bother with, and make them ao
that work.
"If they don't know how, hire somebody
that does.
If you do your own housework. do /,
and don't think of another earthly tbr,
while you're doing It.
when you've done 1t. forget it til ne
time to begin again. Keep interested. keen
amused, don't let yourself get bored. One
hour of being bored wears me out mora
than a weeks hard work.
"And that's all know about how to keep
young
When I read about her work down there
in the heat and misery of starving Cuba,
work which would be an almost unbear-
able strain on an ordinary woman of half
her age, I begin to believe that she said
good many things that were absolutely true
-Winifred Black. in New York Journal.