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Don't you see now how it is? To have a strong and muscular body is to be suspected of work, of service; while a frail, delicate personnel is a proof of position, of ladyhood.

Go through the town and observe the women. Are any of the fashionable ladies strong and muscular? Not one! Are any of them able to perform hard work? Not one! But there are women who do hard work, very hard work. They are not ladies, they are servants! The ladies are delicate. The servants are strong. Don't you see what a plain case it is? Miss Leonora desires, above all things, to be a lady, and to be always, and everywhere, and immediately recognized as a lady. How clear it is that the one, unmistakable, conclusive proof is, that she should look and move like a lady. If she looks strong, and moves with a will, she will be mistaken for a worker, for a servant. If she looks delicate, and moves languidly, it will be seen at once that she does not belong to the working class.

It is true that many strong, muscular women are coarse and ignorant; they have given their lives to hard work, and have been denied all opportunities to cultivate their minds and manners. To compare such with the petted, pampered daughters of social and intellectual opportunity, and then to treat the strong body of the one as the source of the coarseness and ignorance within, and, in the other case, to treat the weak, delicate body as the source of the fine culture, is to reason like an idiot.

In order to arrive at anything like a fair illustration of the influence of health upon the mind and temper, we must visit a family in which there are daughters in sparkling health, and others who are languid and delicate.

We visited such a family, in a neighboring state, three summers since, and shall never forget our observations and experiences. The oldest daughter was delicate. The youngest two were likewise sensitive and delicate. But there were two girls who were in fine health.

When the stage stopped at the gate, the girls, who were expecting us, came out on the piazza, and the healthy ones came rushing down to the gate, and threw their arms around one of us, nearly smothering that one with kisses, while they shook hands most cordially with the other one. They took hold of our hands and fairly danced us up the walk. On reaching the piazza, we were very cordially and languidly welcomed by the other girls.

During our stay, the well girls ran over constantly. They devised and executed scores of little plans for our amusement, while the Misses Languid were the recipients of attentions from us all. The Misses Vigorous ran over and flooded us all, while the Misses Languid absorbed from us all.

Never have I more fully realized the common saying, that "sickness is selfish." The Misses Vigorous had enough for themselves and all the rest of us. The Misses Languid had nothing to spare, and were constant borrowers and beggars. Do you imagine the well girls were less lovely, less beautiful in heart and soul, than the delicate ones?

Or, if you prefer, do you think a young lady who leaves the city in June for the mountains, pale, nervous, unhappy, hardly able to take care of herself, unable to even think of anything but her own wretchedness, do you think her more lovely than when, returning in October, she comes bounding in, all radiant with joy, and full of sympathy and helpfulness?

FASHIONABLE SUFFERINGS.

So determined is the esprit du corps of the fashionables, that ambitious young ladies secretly pride themselves upon the attainment of womanly weaknesses.

There are certain "female weaknesses" which one would think young ladies might hesitate to mention; but so strong is this secret pride in the signs of ladyhood, that many fashionable young ladies go over the details with real pleasure.

I once heard a conversation between an invalid aunt and four young ladies. The young ladies were all unmarried, and the oldest not above twenty-three. The aunt was a successful competitor in the race for number and intensity of sufferings, and embraced every opportunity to make a tabular statement. Her spine was the favorite theme. The burning, the pain, the sharp and indescribable dartings and excruciating tortures were something fearful to hear. But the girls constantly interrupted her with saying, "That is just the way I feel;" and, "I have exactly that pain;" and, "precisely, I have had that pain for months."

The aunt replied, "Now, girls, don't tell me that. It isn't possible for you to have such afflictions at your age." But they declared, with sparkling eyes, that every one of the sufferings she had described,--every one of them,--they enjoyed in the most dreadful way. The aunt enjoyed another class of affections, upon which she lingered with real gusto. I do not feel at liberty to go into particulars; but here again the young ladies were enough for her. They declared, without flinching, that every one of her sufferings, they had, and what was more, they had certain horrible variations which they described, and which, in fact, I thought rather outdid the poor aunt. Aunt spoke of her headache in the most brilliant style; but here the girls were not to be beaten. In fact, it was neck and neck to the end.

I have heard conversations of another sort which are pertinent in this discussion. A strong country woman, accustomed to work in the garden, and to take long walks, mentions to a group of fashionable young ladies, that she has just walked six miles. "Wonderful! dreadful! is it possible? Why, I couldn't walk six miles to save my life." Perhaps the country aunt says, "I finished a large washing before leaving, and hung the clothes upon the line." Miss Araminta exclaims, "I never washed anything in my life. Why, how is it done? and how dreadful it looks to see all sorts of clothes hanging out in a yard."

The common affectation of ignorance of all useful work is another illustration. A young lady sometimes knows how to make certain rare and delicate cake, but she never knows how to make bread; she knows how to make pink dogs in worsted, but not how to make a shirt. She knows how to crochet, but not how to make garments for herself or her brothers; and thus on through the whole list. She knows nothing whatever of useful work, in which the body and heart may be brought into earnest, womanly play.

My dear girls, I could show you in this city a sight, which would make you sick at heart. I know a home, in which you could see, on any day, just before dinner, a pale, thin, overworked mother hurrying to and fro in her kitchen, and in the parlor overhead four daughters. One young lady is playing the piano , and the others are crocheting, tatting, and feasting upon the "Awful Secret of the Mysterious Milk-Maid," and one other thing--waiting to be called to dinner. And, although the mother generally thinks it very hard, I have known many cases where she joined in, and really advocated this plan of bringing up daughters.

You may hear such a mother exclaim, "Well, I don't care; my girls shan't be worked to death as I have been. Let them have an easy time while they can; their turn will come soon enough."

So they screw up their waists, recline upon a couch, and ponder the "Fearful Doom of the Mysterious Count," and thus get ready to take their turn. Thousands of young ladies, in this city, are being trained for wives and mothers by such means.

WOMAN TORTURES HER BODY.

Here I want to group the outrages which woman perpetrates upon her beautiful body.

To begin at the top, she almost never permits her hair an opportunity to display its natural beauty. At the present moment, a mass of Japanese bark, or false hair, or some other foreign stuff, full of uncleanness, is piled upon the top of the head, while her own natural hair is twisted, and turned, and pinned, and broken, and ruined in doing subordinate, menial service to the dirty foreign intruder. Besides this, her hair is bedaubed with nameless and dirty greases and oils.

I asked one of the largest retail druggists in this city, "What one article, or line of goods, do you sell most of?"

He replied, without a moment's hesitation, "Preparations for the complexion." These preparations have for their bases three or four deadly poisons. Thousands upon thousands of bottles and boxes are used by the women of Boston every year.

Those glands which, in the economy of nature, are appointed to the most sacred and precious of maternal duties and privileges, are, by the pressure and heat of large artificial pads, almost uniformly ruined. A dressmaker assured me that she very rarely made a dress in which the bust was not padded. The heat and pressure soon spoil the glands.

She bores holes in her ears, and hangs in various trinkets.

In this place I shall not speak at length of that culminating outrage upon woman's body, known as lacing; Look about you, and see what a hideous distortion of the beautiful Greek Slave you see in living figures.

Below the waist there are enormous paddings, which heat and injure the spine.

Below the knee, a ligature, seriously checking the circulation of the feet.

Reaching the feet, we find in the fashionable shoe an ingenious torture. What with the narrow soles and the high heels, the foot is rendered almost helpless, while the ankles are made so weak, that "turning the ankle" is a common occurrence.

In this category I have by no means included all the body tortures in which women indulge; but I have included all that can be properly spoken of in a work which is designed for general reading. Modesty forbids the mention of two or three methods of body torture, in which fashionable women very generally indulge.

STOCKING SUPPORTERS.

Girls, I do not blame you for wishing to keep your stockings smooth. Nothing looks more "shif'less" than stockings in wrinkles. How shall they be kept smooth? The means usually employed, is to apply a ligature just below the knee. If the calf of the leg be very large, the knee small, and the circulation of the feet vigorous, I suppose an elastic garter may be used, to keep the stocking smooth, without serious injury. But, as most American girls have slender legs, as there is but little enlargement at the calf, the pressure of the garter required to keep the stocking in position, is very injurious. It produces absorption of important muscles, and, therefore, weakness of the legs; a lack of circulation, and, therefore, coldness of the feet. The stocking must be drawn up and held. How shall it be done?

Let me illustrate. In attaching a horse to a load, we never draw a strap about its body and attach to that for draft purposes, but we seek some part of the body where the draft may come at right angles, or nearly so. That we find at the shoulder, and it is the only part of the animal upon which, without great harm, a considerable draft may be made.

When we wish to support the several pounds of skirts, the stockings, or any other garment, we look over the woman's body, to determine at what point such support, or draft, if you please, may be applied. To apply it about her legs, or about her waist, is precisely the same mistake that would be made if the draft were attached to the girth of the harness. There is only one point of support, and that is her shoulder.

In another part of this work I have discussed, in detail, the straps applied to the shoulder in supporting the skirts.

In this place it is only necessary to say, that a strap should be fastened to the skirt-band at the side, to run down over the hip, and on the outside of the leg, above the knee to divide into two straps, one of which is to be attached to the stocking on the front of the knee, and the other on the back of the knee.

Somewhere in the course of the single strap, a buckle may be introduced to regulate the tension of the support. This sort of support has been very much used for children's stockings. It has now been adopted by thousands of women, many of whom have spoken to me very warmly of its value.

LARGE vs. SMALL WOMEN.

Petite, applied to a woman, is a very dear word to the fashionables. Ah, the dear, delicate, petite creature! Ah, my darling, sweet petite!

But oh, how dreadful and monstrous such words as--the great creature!--She's as big as all out doors!--for mercy's sake, look at that woman! why, she could lift an ox! Among fashionable simpletons these words are applied to a woman who weighs, say, one hundred and sixty pounds, who has a fine, noble physique, fully competent to the labors and trials of motherhood and life.

The reason for this preference for little women, among men, is simply this. Formerly, women were slaves to the passions of men. In modern times they have, among our better classes, risen a little above that, and have become the pets and toys of men. Now a pet or a toy, say a black and tan, is valuable in proportion to its diminutiveness. A man in selecting a wife that he intends to dress in silks and laces, with trinkets hung in her ears, rings on her fingers, and little ornaments stuck all over her, who is to sit in his parlor while he is absent on business, to dress and redress herself several times a day, to be ready to receive him, all corseted, besilked, bejeweled and bescented, when he shall come from his office,--a man who selects a wife as a pet, a toy, is very likely to have the same sort of preference for a petite wife, that he has for a petite black and tan.

This is the source of the preference for little women.

Whenever women shall rise to a true companionship with men, as their equals, and not their toys, then a small woman will no more be preferred than a small man.

When the great ideas of use, of citizenship, of a true womanhood, of a dignified motherhood, shall come to prevail over this Turkish notion of toy women, then women of noble bearing and commanding presence will be the style; and the little woman will suffer the same disadvantage, in the matrimonial market, that a little man does.

I beg you will not misunderstand me. I am only speaking of the source of a fashion, a prejudice, a false preference. Some of the most lovely, delightful women, as well as the most useful women I have ever met, were small.

However, I am bound in truth to say that, during many years, I have been on the qui vive with reference to the differences between the large and the small, among women, and that I have reached the conclusion that the average large-sized woman is, like the average large-sized man, superior intellectually and otherwise, to the small-sized one.

Women of commanding height, average, so far as my observation has been able to determine, a higher morale, a more dignified character, and greater amiability than the petite ones. I think this statement is true of both sexes. Little men are more irritable, nervous and unreliable, as a class, than large ones.

Some one says, "I don't believe it; it's no such thing; there's that little Mr. R., who is the brightest, smartest man in town." This is not at all improbable.

But what do you think of this fact: At one time in the history of our great Revolutionary War, about fifteen of the most prominent actors in that memorable struggle happened to meet at West Point. They were weighed, and a record made. I have that record. Of the fifteen, only one weighed less than two hundred pounds.

A small man weighs one hundred and twenty five pounds. How many men of that size, or near that size, can you recall, who have figured among the solid, great men in the world's history? We can recall two or three brilliant poets, perhaps as many celebrated orators, who were small men; but when we look among the men who have illustrated the great, grand, solid, enduring traits of human character, in any of the important departments of life, we find that, almost without exception, they are above the average size.

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