The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-04-18
The Girl who Has No Nerves.

Should criticism spare
Martha Shepard Lippincott
The Girl Who Has No Nerves.
SBy Marian Martineau in Chicago
Tribune)
A high-priced lecturer on health and
beauty recently advised his hearers,
etc, a class Of society women and girls,
TO study the lobster. Behold" said
le, IAN animal destitute of magma
zion, an animal without nerves, an ami
NAL with absolute health and tran
guilty"
The speaker paused here and did not
advise his pupils to just what extent
they should initiate the peace loving
lobster, but he left them TO infer that
the most desirable traits in the world
were those that showed neither imag-
ination nor nerves.
The popular girl of today has no
NERVES" of the kind recognized as
auch. She has. to be sure, nerves of.
feeling, the necessary nerves for the
preservation of the body. Without
nerves you would never know when
you were injured, for it is through the
nerves that the body is alarmed.
If you feel a tingling in your arm
you know that something has hap
pened TO the arm, and that the nerves
are trying to give the alarm to you,
nerves Of feeling that the body is made
nware of if; or if you are cut or in
1ured in any way. it is through the
nerves that you are made aware of it.
So it is, really. the nerves that are
yoEr best friends.
But there are nerves and nerves |
There are nerves of feeling, nerves of |
health. so to speak, and nerves that |
have actually nothing to do with the |
welfare of the body. These are some |
times denoted as the nerves of sensi- |
bility.
NERVES OF TIRED OUT WOMEN. !
The pernicious nerves, as they may |
be called are the nerves of over
wrought feelings-the nerves of the
tired out or sick woman.
The woman who cannot bear the
sights of the street, the woman who
cannot endure street smells. street
noises, and the ordinary roughness of
life, is the woman whose nerves of
sensibility are too highly strung for
her own health and comfort.
There was a time when it was
thought elegant to possess nerves, of
this kind, and there was day when
the young woman of society was proud
10 display her sensibility by fainting
by turning pale, by becoming hysteri-
cal and by sinking upon her couch to
remain in a semi-stupor for hours.
These emotional scenes We're highly
fascinatin
In those days women tried to be fee
BILE they ate little. and only sweet
meats ut that; they slept in Corsets to
keep their waists small; they wore
their hair in ridiculous ways; they
did all sorts of things to destroy TIE
heath.
They had nerves" and they were ]
of -, /
better. !
The society belle of a generation ago.
or two generations ago-your grand 5
mother herself-was compelled to take I
shifts Of ammonia to keep her alive {
during the day; she nibbled seeds from '
a little hand reticule: she tapped with {
her little siI5en shod foot upon the f
floor i'm an agony of nerves at the 2
slightest Unpleasantness. and she could {
not be crossed in any way. in an argu- 7
ment or otherwise. An alteration with [
the cook would have driven her to bed f
for a week. /
MUST HIDE HER EMOTIONS. h
The woman Of today has no nerves. G
or, il she has, she seeks to hide them. '
The popular woman is the woman of 4
temperament, but without nervous .
shocks. She learns to subdue herself @
and her petulance. and such emotions /
as she has she keeps hidden from the h
world and from herself c
You can tell the nervous woman when L
YOU meet her. She taps her foot upon c
the floor she fidgets, her fingers loose t
lY work upon a chain which hangs
from her neck; she twitches the but
tons upon her gown: she bites her lips;
she winBs repeatedly: she bitches about c
and is uneasy: she signs; she is the y
embodiment Of unrest
But the popular girl does not do any o
of these things. If naturally nervous s
she has learned to control her nerves.
She has taken a course in nerve Gull
ture. and she does not let her nerves
manifest themselves.
One of her exercises is to place both :,
feet upon the floor and keep them ;
there. OF course, her shoes are COM
Portable, and her feet are in good con-
dition. She has no aching joints, bun
IONS corns nor rheumatism. Too often q
the twitching feet of a woman mean
twinges of pain. and the feet must
twitch because of their smarting.
But there is no excuse for aching
feet. and the girl who wants to be pref I
" and popular viii rid herself of them. 4
So also viii the girl who wants to be
a society leader for all the popular :,
qualities are embraced in leadership. =
Unless a woman understands how to ;
be popular she viii never be a leader 5
And if she is nervous she cannot lead
society That much is certain d
Nervousness often comes from lack I
Of exercise, and on that account the
popular girl viii take sufficient exer- I
else so that she will not be nervous.
o .
To keep the feet quiet there is no ex-
ercise as good as trotting. Put on [
gymnasium suit. consisting Of short a
skirt and Bnickerbocl1ers. and a blouse.
Take off your corsets and loosen your ]:
Put on comfortable shoes, n
high shoes. as the ankles tire u
too quickly in low shoes, and arrange o
the hair comfortably and loosely. c
Now stand on one spot and trot Q
Dance UP and down on one place, never
letting the feet move more than few n
inches apart After little practice I
YOU will be able to trot five minutes in
the same sport and viii scarcely be
tired at all.
While "trotting" let7the hands dangle a
loosely from the wrists to give the arms d
exercise This should be done in a v
loose. semi-nerveless way. which linn Ec
bers the muscles even as it relieves the
tension upon the shoulders and arms.
ct ef4;,,~ CO.. &c 2 good practice for Il