The Republican journal., 1904-06-30
How Women Should Rest.
Stop Work in Time. The Afternoon Nap.
Regular Out Door Exercise. Change of
Occupation Form of Rest. Necessary
ecreation and Relaxation.


to the Young Housekeepers,"" Housekeep-
ing Made Easy" "What to Eat, /" Gin City
Tents" Etc.
copyright 1904. by Christine Terhune Herrick.]
The time seems to have come when
American wemen have to be taught
to rest. They have learned nearly
everything else, but resting is some
thing good many of them have never
had time to acquire.
There is a saying that Providence
looks after the lame and the lazy. The
implication is, apparently, that the
healthy and the industrious know how
to take care of themselves. The fact
remains however, that they seldom do.
They go until they drop and never
seem to have the least idea that they
are OVERRIDING until they give out en-
tirely.
One of the first things to be learned
about resting is that it is like some
other remedies for the ills of this life.
1t is worth twice as much if taken at
an early stage as it is if delayed until
the disease has had time to gain
ground The true philosophy of rest
ing is to rest before one is really tired.
To know when to stop is as important
a part of life's schooling as to learn
where to begin. Indeed, the beginning
often presents itself, while the stop
ping place requires searching for.
Oar Puritan cOnscience,-in so many
lines boom, in SO many Others a bane,
is one of the obstacles in the way of
stopping time. The average busy
woman who wants to rest, feels, just
Sation, that it must somehow be wrong.
She will make sure that she is as tired
as she can be before she lays aside her
work and takes the few moments re-
pose she may need. But by the time
she comes to that stage she is at per-
iod of fatigue when few moments
rest will do little for her Her first
fancied economy was miStake,-and
she is paying for it, as one does for all
mistakes.
| have spoken before in these col
umns of the harm done by the Puritan
conscience. Its effect in making the
earnest woman scourge herself into
overwork is perhaps one of its worst
effects. There are many women who
need to struggle to attain state of
saving unconscientiousness. Had they
this, perhaps they might know how to
rest without making special study of
it,
Said young man the other day, in
my hearing. Il wouldn't have my
"I our mothers cOnScience" | said
"Why? She is one of the best women
in the world. What can she have on
her conscience"
Running sores"' returned the youth,
promptly. "She has punched it it and
pricked it $50 often that it is dreadful
condition. Mine is just a comfortable
callous," If more women could es-
tablish comfortable callous" in their
conscience it would be better for then,
and one may add, for those about
them. All parties concerned would
have more chance to rest. Or, what
might be better still would be for the
woman to learn to apply their consci-
entiousness to the rest problem.
How many busy women make point
of taking little nap every afternoon?
Nature seems to indicate the advisable
ity of this by making most persons
sleepy Immediately after the mid day
meal. While the process of digestion
is going on there should be temporary
cessation of work. A rest of fifteen
minutes or half al hour pays for itself
before the day lis out. The woman
should go off by herself, loosen any
tight clothing she may be. wearing,
stretch out on a couch, in darkened
room, Shut her eyes and lie still for a
liked time. Even il she does not go to
sleep she is sure to be rested. If she
is nervous and excited she would do
well to have some book of mild inter-
est at hand in which she can read for
ten of the thirty minutes she has al
lotted herself. This will calm her and
fit her for the sleep or rest she is try
ing to take.
But this is not all she requires. A
woman cannot rest Simply by stopping
work and staying in the house. She
needs great deal more than that. She
needs to get out of the house, and when
she goes out she must do some thing
that is good for her. Active exercise is
as much a desideratum of rest as abso-
lutte repOse.
The woman who rides a wheel ought
never to get really tired. For do not
call it getting tired to have sensation
of healthy WEAKNESS in limb and
muscle. That is the sort of thing that
brings sleep and rest. 1t is not in the
least like the jaded sensation that
comes over the woman who has toiled at
her household duties all day or who has
sat at her sewing until her back and
eyes and fingers ache. Anyone who has
once known the joys of the road on
good wheel will not tarry in answering
when asked if there is any difference
between the two kinds of fatigue
So the woman who wishes to learn
how to rest must exercise in the open
air.
l have spoken Of riding wheel, be-
cause that seems to combine a maxi
mum of exercise and of interest with
minimum of bother. The woman
who rides a good chainless wheel with
the proper sort of appurtenances in the
way of skirt guard and the like has no
toilsome business of wheel and frock
cleansing awaiting her when she gets
home. Shegoes out with an easy mind,
instead of being tired before she starts
by the thought of the unpleasant task
that awaits her when she comes home
and whose anticipation takes the edge
off her enjoyment. But if a woman
cannot ride a wheel, for any reason,-l
and the good reasons against almost
any woman doing it seem to be grow
ing smaA by degrees and beautifully
less, as the revival of the wheel goes
on,-she must not on that account stay
at home. Let her do something else,-t
walk, tennis, golf. Only let her do
something and do it out of doors and
do it every day, weather permitting.