Part 12

In traveling at the West the past winter, I repeatedly conversed with drivers and others among the laboring class on this subject, and always heard such remarks as these: "Well! it is strange how sickly the women are getting!" "Our women-folks don't have such health as they used to do!"

One case was very striking. An old lady from New England told me her mother had twelve children; eleven grew up healthy, and raised families. Her father's mother had fifteen children, and raised them all; and all but one, who was drowned, lived to a good old age. This lady stated that she could not remember that there was a single "weakly woman" in the town where she lived when she was young.

This lady had two daughters with her, both either delicate or diseased, and a sick niece from that same town, once so healthy when the old lady was young. This niece told me she could not think of even one really robust, strong, and perfectly healthy woman in that place! The husband of this old lady told me that in his youth he also did not know of any sickly women in the place where he was reared.

A similar account was given me by two ladies, residents of Goshen, Litchfield Co., Connecticut.

The elder lady gave the following account of her married acquaintance some forty years ago in that place:

Mrs. L. strong and perfectly healthy. Mrs. A. healthy and strong as a horse. Mrs. N. perfectly well always. Mrs. H. strong and well. Mrs. B. strong and generally healthy, but sometimes ailing a little. Mrs. R. always well. Mrs. W. strong and well. Mrs. G. strong and hearty. Mrs. H. strong and healthy. Mrs. L. strong and healthy.

All the above persons performed their own family work.

The following account was given by the daughter of the lady mentioned above, and the list is chiefly made up of daughters of the above healthy women living at this time in the same town:

Mrs. C. constitution broken by pelvic disorders. Mrs. P. very delicate. Mrs. L. delicate and feeble. Mrs. R. feeble and nervous. Mrs. S. bad scrofulous humors. Mrs. D. very feeble, head disordered. Mrs. R. delicate and sickly. Mrs. G. healthy. Mrs. D. healthy. Mrs. W. well.

These last three were the only healthy married women she knew in the place.

* * * * *

I have received statements from more than a hundred other places besides those recorded here. The larger portion of these were taken by others, or else by myself in such circumstances that I could not make the inquiries needed to render them reliable, and some I have lost. The general impression made, even by these alone, would bring out very nearly the same result. The proportion of the sick and delicate to those who were strong and well was, in the majority of cases, a melancholy story. But among them were a few cases in which a very favorable statement was verified by close examination. In several such cases, however, most of the healthy women proved to be either English, Irish, or Scotch. In one case, a lady from a country-town, not far from Philadelphia, gave an account, showing eight out of ten perfectly healthy, and the other two were not very much out of health. On inquiry, I found that this was a Quaker settlement, and most of the healthy ones were Quakers.

In one town of Massachusetts, the lady giving the information said all the ten she gave were healthy, but two. Her associates were all women who were in easy circumstances, and did their own family work. These two places, however, are the _only_ instances I have found, where, on close inquiry, the majority was on the side of good health.

There is no doubt that there are many places like these two, of which some resident would report that a majority of their acquaintance were healthy women; but out of about two hundred towns and cities, located in most of the Free States, only two have as yet presented so favorable a case in the line of my inquiries during the year in which they have been prosecuted.

Let these considerations now be taken into account. The generation represented in these statistics, by universal consent, is a feebler one than that which immediately preceded. Knowing the changes in habits of living, in habits of activity, and in respect to _pure air_, we properly infer that it must be so, while universal testimony corroborates the inference.

The present generation of parents, then, have given their children, so far as the mother has hereditary influence, feebler constitutions than the former generation received, so that most of our young girls have started in life with a more delicate organization than their mothers. Add to this the sad picture given in a former letter of all the abuses of health suffered by the young during their early education, and what are the present prospects of the young women who are now entering married life?

This view of the case, in connection with some dreadful developments which will soon be indicated, proved so oppressive and exciting that it has been too painful and exhausting to attempt any investigation as to the state of health among young girls. But every where I go, mothers are constantly saying, "What shall I do? As soon as my little girl begins school she has the headache." Or this—"I sent my daughter to such a boarding-school, but had to take her away on account of her health."

The public schools of our towns and cities, where the great mass of the people are to be educated, are the special subject of remark and complaint in this respect.

Consider also that "man that is born of a woman" depends on her not only for the constitutional stamina with which he starts in life, but for all he receives during the developments of infancy and the training of childhood, and what are we to infer of the condition and prospects of the other sex now in the period of education?

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:

Grammatical errors remain as in the original. Variations in spelling and hyphenation remain as in the original.

The following typographical errors have been corrected:

Page 3: of civil government on woman.[period missing in original]

Page 104: The Kindergarten[original has "Kindergarden"], the primary school

Page 111: excess of marriageable[original has "marriagable"] women

Page 121: "[quotation mark missing in original]These resolutions contain sound sense

Page 121: "[quotation mark missing in original]There is no doubt that the present arrangement of society bears more hardly upon women than upon men; and all wise efforts to make them more independent of the mischances of life deserve encouragement.[quotation mark missing in original]"

Page 155: far better[original has "bettter"] than that obtained

Page 193: mantua-maker[original has "mantau-maker"] are imperfectly supplied

Page 196: power to give or withhold[original has "withold"]

Page 208: form a changeless[original has "changless"] character

Page 216: Mrs. L. delicate[original has "deliicate"] and well.

Page 218: Horse Heads,[comma missing in original] New York

Page 218: Pompey,[comma missing in original] New York

[173:A] Blessed[original has "Blesssd"] are the peace-makers

[178:A] Note C.[period missing in original]