The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-17
BY KATHERG NE MORTON. fCopyright, 1904 nv McCIure.l

Here you are. you girls who are
 turning gray in your teens and fighting
 crow's-feet at an age when your faces
 ought to be as smooth as a baby's
 Heer you arte. with a sermon by Dr.
 Edward Livingston Hunt that you should read and read again and digest before you complain of overwrought nerves. They may come from too
 much work. but question yourself sharply first-are theN not the result
 of too much worry instead7 Do you
 work heartily. blithely. strongly. and do you rest peacefully? Ask your-
 selves, and don't evade the answer
 More women go into nervous pros- tration as a result of idleness than If overwork." said the doctor. who for long years has made a study of women and their most cherished grievance their nerves. This. in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and four. when the cry of the times is: 50 much to do! ever minute to rest! Overstudy. overambition, overstrain." It has been supposed that too much of everything was Breaking down our high-strung American woman. and now along comes . distinguished nerve specialist saying that too little work is doing It.
 Don't you consider that 1t Is this so-cal1ed newness of woman that is WIGCkAHk neTs I aSkGu. ATSnt the nerve specialists patients made mp or women who have taken Ph. D. degrees and women who have supported esthet- fc husbands and women who have pre- sided over score of clubs? Isn't rest and relaxation the thing needed by American feminineF,
 Tn one sense, yes. But not rest from work. It is rest from petty worry that woman needs and that lies within her own power to give herself. The woman of today is not nearly so much overworked as she is overwor- ried. and the woman with nothing to do sthe one who falls a victim most readily to the complaint."-
 Then you prescribe work for the victim Of nervous prostration? It has been called nervous prosperity. Per hape that is the best name for 1t
 Frequently 1t describes 1t exactly A w,-an has wonderful powers of en- durance when 1t comes to great things. She can support a large family and come out none the worse for wear. She can bear the most terrific griefs. the loss of property and of those dearest to her, and be a heroine through 1t all. But when she has no real trouble no real responsibilities. no work to do, she fnyants trials that grow from mole hills to mountains in a night. She drives herself almost insane over the choice of a maid. She loses nights of sleep trying to decide whether she will decorate with orchids or poinsetta at her next function. She Is ready for the sanitarium by the end of the sea- son during which pleasuring was her only occupation"
 "Then what Is your prescriptionT"
 When the case Is not too far ad- vanced. I say work. I don't mean that she should scrub floors or take an office position-at least not to wo- men of wealth. to whom such effort would be violently distasteful. But I tell them to find genuine occupation. one that is both interesting and ab- sorbing. If their tastes are musical, let them study music in earnest. Per haps it may be painting or literature. It does not mater, so long as the idle mind is occupied with something that holds its attentio and calls for effort.
 "I don't mean to say that when 8 woman is completely prostrated would drive her to work: but as soon as she is able to enjoy it I would ad- wise her to busy herself with something she likes to do-never with uncon- genial occupations, for if she dislikes her work she will wear herself out not with the effort, but with her dis taste for 1t. I would have her work at 1t industriously earnestly enough to cause self to be forgotten. but not with strain and rivalry. It is compe- tftion that makes work difficult for so many women. If they are seeking suc- cess in a profession they often devote more time to worrying over whether they will succeed than to laboring for success"
 Then 1t is not how much a woman does. but how she does it that counts?"
 That's all. I don't mean that there is no such thing as overwork but I do mean that it is far less common than is generally supposed. Only a few work themselves int a wrecked condition, while many appear to- Take girl who goes to city to win a place in art. She paints only a few hours each day-not enough to injure her at all But all the time she is strainiuR. straining, silently. within herself. She is wondering whether her work will re- ceiye recognition at the next exhibition. She is thinking of a rival who Is suc- ceedtng fast and striving u distance her.zShe is considering the bread and butter question, knowing that if she does not make the hoped-for sale there will be disaster. It Is not work that is willing her! it is her way of work ing, of living. If she could calm her. self she might be able to work twice as many hours and feel less fatigue.