Ladies and Kind Friends:
At a former meeting I stated that, as former principal of this Seminary, I so exhausted my nervous system that I have never been able to assume responsibilities involving obligations which, by my failure, would cause disappointment to others. My method, therefore, has been to originate plans, and then induce others, more capable than myself, to execute them, and in such a way that I could help without taking any responsibility.
Thus I originated the plan for transferring teachers to the West, executed by Gov. Slade. And thus also I organized the American Women's Educational Association, for securing endowed collegiate and professional schools for women, which has established several flourishing institutions at the West. The most important of these is the Milwaukee Female College, which for more than fifteen years has been conducted by the chief agent of this Association, Miss Mary Mortimer; and which now numbers 180 pupils, and exhibits many of the benefits of our plan, although only partially endowed. The object of this meeting is to gain your influence in order to secure, not only what has been gained at Milwaukee, but to accomplish the whole plan of a fully endowed Woman's University, as the model which we hope to see reproduced all over the nation.
In all these educational efforts, I have been led by a deep and painful sense of the depressed and suffering condition of large portions of our sex, and to an extent little realized by women in easy and prosperous circumstances. I introduce here an extract from a published article of mine that gives some small exhibition of these painful facts.
That there is something essentially wrong in the present condition of women, is every year growing more and more apparent, while the public mind is more and more perplexed with diverse methods proposed for the remedy. In one of our leading secular papers we read this statement of the case from the pen of a working woman:
"There are so few departments of labor open to women, that, in those departments, the supply of female labor is frightfully in advance of the demand. The business world offers the lowest wages to eager applicants, certain that they will be ravenously clutched. And, indeed, to see the mob of women that block and choke these few and narrow gates open to them—the struggle—the press—the agony—the trembling eagerness—you might suppose they were entering the temple of fame or wealth, or, at least had some cosy little cottage ahead, in which competence awaited the winner. Nothing of the sort. These are blind alleys, one and all. The mere getting in, and keeping in, are the meagre objects of this terrible struggle. A woman who has not genius, or is not a rare exception, has no opening—no promotion—no career. She turns hopelessly on a pivot; at every turn the sand gives way, and she sinks lower. At every turn light and air are more difficult, and she turns and digs her own grave. Do you say these are figures of speech? Here, then, are figures of fact. There are now thirty thousand women in New York, whose labor averages from twelve to fifteen hours a day, and yet whose income seldom exceeds thirty-three cents a day. Operators on sewing-machines, and a few others, enjoy comparative opulence, gaining five to eight dollars a week, though from this are to be paid three or four dollars for a bed in a wretched room with several other occupants, often without a window or any provision for pure air, and with only the poor food found where such rooms abound. Thousands of ladies, of good family and education, as teachers receive from two to six hundred dollars a year. Few women get beyond that, and a large proportion of them are mothers with children. Over these poorly-paid laborers broods the sense of hopeless toil. There is no bright future. The woman who is fevered, hurried, and aching, who works from daylight to midnight, loathing her mean room, her meaner dress, her joyless life, will, in ten years, neither better herself nor her children. The American working-woman has no share in the American privilege given to the poorest male laborer—a growing income, a bank account, and every office of the Republic, if he have brain and courage to win them."
This describes the condition and feelings of not all, but of a large class of women in many of our larger cities, who must earn their own livelihood. But, in the medium classes, as it respects wealth, the unmarried or widowed women feel that they are an incumbrance to fathers and brothers, who often unwillingly support them from pride or duty. For such, also, there is "no opening—no promotion—no career;" and they must remain dependent chiefly on the labor of others till marriage is offered, which to vast numbers is a positive impossibility.
This has lately been proved, from the census, by a leading New York paper. In that it is shown that, in all our large cities, the male inhabitants, under fifteen and over the usual marriageable age, are greatly in excess of the females, and, consequently, the women at the marriageable age are greatly in excess of the marriageable men. Thus, in New York City, according to the statements of the New York Times, there are eleven thousand more females than males, of all ages, while there are one hundred and thirty-two thousand more women of marriageable age than men of that age. This is perhaps a large estimate, but the disproportion is at all events enormous.
And, in the rural districts of New York State, we find a similar state of things; for the excess of females, of all ages, is twenty-one thousand, while the excess of marriageable women, if at the same ratio as that stated in New York City, would be two hundred and sixty-three thousand. A similar state of things will be seen in all our older States.
The most mournful feature in this case is the fact that most of these women have never been trained for any kind of business by which they can earn an independent livelihood. The Working-woman's Protective Union, of New York City, reports that, of thirteen thousand applicants, not one-half were qualified to do any kind of useful work in a proper manner. The societies that are formed to furnish work for poor women report that their greatest impediment is that so few can sew decently, or do any other work properly.
The heads of dress-making establishments report that very few women can be found who can be trusted to complete a dress, and that those who are competent find abundant work and good wages. The demand for really superior mantua-makers is almost universal in country places, and even in many of our cities.
In former days sewing was taught in all schools for girls, but now it is banished from our common schools, and the mothers at home are too neglectful, or too ignorant, or too pressed with labor, to supply the deficiency.
It was reported in the New York Tribune, not long since, that there are at least twenty thousand professed prostitutes in New York City alone, while Boston, in proportion to its number of inhabitants, shows a larger number, and all our cities give similar reports. This, it is hoped is an estimate much in excess of the reality; but the truth is mournful enough. Multitudes of these unfortunates have only two alternatives—on the one hand, poor lodgings, shabby dress, poor food, and ceaseless daily toil from eight to ten or fifteen hours; on the other hand, the tempter offers a pleasant home, a servant to do the work, fine dress, the theatre and ball, and kind attentions, with no labor or care. Where is the strength of virtue in those who despise and avoid these outcasts, that might not fall in such perilous assaults?
It is this dreadful state of temptation which accounts for the fact that crime increases faster among women than among men. Thus, in Massachusetts, during the last ten years, among the men of that State, crime decreased at the rate of eight thousand five hundred and seven less than during the ten preceding years, while, among women, crime increased at the rate of three hundred and sixty-eight during the same period; that is, over eight thousand less men, and over three hundred more women, were guilty of crime than in the previous ten years.
But, turning from these to the daughters of the most wealthy class, those who have generous and elevated aspirations also feel that for them, too, there is "no opening—no promotion—no career," except that of marriage, and for this they are trained to feel that it is disgraceful to seek. They have nothing to do but wait to be sought. Trained to believe marriage their highest boon, they are disgraced for seeking it, and must affect indifference.
Meantime, to do any thing to earn their own independence is what father and brothers would deem a disgrace to themselves and their family. For women of high position to work for their livelihood, in most cases custom decrees as disgraceful. And then, if cast down by poverty, they have been trained to nothing that would earn a support, or, if by chance they have some resource, all avenues for its employment are thronged with needy applicants. Ordinarily, and with few exceptions, there are only two employments for such women that do not involve loss of social position, viz., school-teaching and boarding.
But every opening for a school-teacher has scores, and sometimes hundreds, of applicants, while often the protracted toils in unventilated and crowded school rooms destroy health. To keep boarders demands capital to start, and an experience and training in household management and economy rarely taught to the daughters of wealth. In this country housework is dishonorable, and rich men make no attempts to train their daughters to any other business that would be a resort in poverty.
Few can realize the perils which threaten our country from the present condition of women. The grand instrumentality, not only for perpetuating our race, but for its training to eternal blessedness, is the family state, and in this woman is the chief minister. As the general rule, man is the laborer out of the home, to provide for its support, while woman is the daily minister to train its inmates. But there are now many fatal influences that combine to unfit her for these sacred duties. Not the least of these is the decay of female health, engendering irritable nerves in both mother and offspring, and thus greatly increasing the difficulties of physical and still more of moral training.
The factory girls, and many also in shops and stores, must stand eight and ten hours a day, often in a poisonous atmosphere, causing decay of constitution, and forbidding healthful offspring. The sewing-machine lessens the wages of needlewomen, while employers testify that those who use it for steady work become hopelessly diseased, and cannot rear healthy children. In the more wealthy circles, the murderous fashions of dress make terrible havoc with the health of young girls, while impure air, unhealthful food and condiments, lack of exercise, and over-stimulation of brain and nerves, are completing the ruin of health and family hopes.
The state of domestic service is another element that is undermining the family state. Disgraced by the stigma of our late slavery, and by the influx into our kitchens of ignorant and uncleanly foreigners, American women forsake home circles for the unhealthful shops and mills.
Then the thriftless young housekeepers from boarding-school life have no ability either to teach or to control their incompetent assistants, while ceaseless "worries" multiply in parlor, nursery, and kitchen. The husband is discouraged by the waste and extravagance, and wearied with endless complaints, and home becomes any thing but the harbor of comfort and peace.
Add to all this, the now common practice which destroys maternal health and unborn offspring—the loose teachings of free love—the unfortunate influence of spiritualism, so called—the fascinations of the demi-monde for the rich, and of lower haunts for the rest, with the poverty of thousands of women who but for desperate temptations would be pure, and the extent of the malign influences undermining the family state—that chief hope of our race—is appalling.
Woman, in the Protestant world, is educated only for marriage, hoping to have some one to work for her support, and, when this is not gained, little else is provided.
The Roman Catholic Church, while it honored the institution of marriage as a sacrament, and upheld its sanctity, yet taught that woman had a still higher ministry; and for this, large endowments, comfortable positions, and honorable distinction, were provided. The women who devoted their time and wealth and labors to orphans, to the sick, and to the poor, were honored above married women as saints, who not only laid up treasures in heaven for themselves, but also a stock of merits to supply the deficiencies of others. The idea of self-sacrifice and self-denial in that church was so honored as to run into mischievous extremes, so that rich establishments of celibates of both sexes multiplied all over Christendom till they became burdens and pests.
This drove the Protestant world to the other extreme, so that no provision at all has been made for the single woman. In most cases she must marry, or have no profession that leads to independence, honor, and wealth. To fit young men for their professions, thousands and millions are every year provided, securing by endowments the highest class of teachers, in addition to every advantage of libraries, apparatus, and buildings. But woman's profession has no such provisions made for its elevated duties.
In the Roman Catholic Church the woman of high position, culture, and benevolence, is honored above all others if she remains single and devotes her time and wealth to orphans, to nurse the sick, to reclaim the vicious, and to provide for the destitute. She becomes a lady abbess, or the head of some sisterhood, where high position, influence, and honor, are her reward.
And the priesthood of that Church employ all their personal and official influence to lead women of benevolence and piety to devote time, property, and prayers, to the salvation of their fellow-creatures from diseases of body, ignorance, and sin.
But Protestant women, as yet, have been influenced to endow institutions for men, rather than for their own sex. The writer obtained from the treasurers of only six institutions for men the following statement of benefactions from women:
Miss Plummer, to Cambridge University, to endow one professorship, gave $25,000; Mary Townsend, for the same, $25,000; Sarah Jackson, for the same, $10,000; other ladies, in sums over $1,000, to the same, over $30,000. To Andover Professional School of Theology ladies have given over $65,000, and, of this, $30,000 by one lady. In Illinois, Mrs. Garretson has given to one professional school $300,000. In Albany, Mrs. Dudlay has given, for a scientific institution for men, $105,000. To Beloit College, Wisconsin, property has been given, by one lady, valued at $30,000.
Thus half a million has been given by women to these six colleges and professional schools, and all in the present century. The reports of similar institutions for men all over the nation would show similar liberal benefactions of women to endow institutions for the other sex, while for their own no such records appear. Where is there a single endowment from a woman to secure a salary to a woman teaching her own proper profession?
It is the depressed and suffering condition of our sex, here indicated, which is the exciting cause of the agitation to gain woman suffrage. To me, success in this effort appears not as a remedy, but rather as a curse. But there are favorable results involved in this agitation that deserve consideration. One is, the exhibition of the moral power now held by women in our nation. For if women urging measures so contrary to our customs and prejudices—not to say so contrary to common sense and the Bible—with many prominent leaders so destitute of discretion and political foresight, yet can move society so powerfully, what could not be accomplished by the organized influence and action of that vast majority of intelligent women opposed to such innovations?
Another beneficial result it is hoped will be, systematic and concerted measures by judicious and benevolent women to organize agencies to remedy the evils all must lament, and by measures more wise and more practicable. What such measure will probably be, may be indicated by a series of resolutions adopted first by two previous meetings, and afterwards by a large public meeting at Steinway Hall, New York, of ladies invited by the Managers of the American Woman's Educational Association, from all religious denominations in the city, as follows:
"Resolved, That one cause of the depressed condition of woman is the fact that the distinctive profession of her sex, as the nurse of infancy and of the sick, as educator of childhood, and as the chief minister of the family state, has not been duly honored, nor such provision been made for its scientific and practical training as is accorded to the other sex for their professions; and, that it is owing to this neglect that women are driven to seek honor and independence in the institutions and the professions of men.
"Resolved, That woman's distinctive profession, in its various branches, involves more important interests than any other human science; and, that the evils suffered by women would be extensively remedied by establishing institutions for training women for her profession, which shall be as generously endowed as are the institutions of men, many of which have been largely endowed by women.
"Resolved, That the science of domestic economy should be made a study in all institutions for girls; and that certain practical employments of the family state should be made a part of common school education, especially the art of sewing, which is so needful for the poor.
"Resolved, That every young woman should be trained to some business by which she can earn an independent livelihood in case of poverty.
"Resolved, That in addition to the various in-door employments suitable for woman, there are other out-door employments especially favorable to health and equally suitable, such as raising fruits and flowers, the culture of silk and cotton, the raising of bees, and the superintendence of dairy farms and manufactures. All of these offer avenues to wealth and independence for women as properly as men, and schools for imparting to women the science and practice of these employments should be provided, and as liberally endowed as are the agricultural schools for men." These resolutions were adopted unanimously and then published in all the leading secular and religious papers with equally unanimous approval. The following from the N. Y. Evening Post, is a fair specimen of the whole.
"These resolutions contain sound sense; and their claim that practical schools for women deserve as much attention as similar schools for men, is undeniably just. If we are to have industrial schools at all, if it is important that anybody should be able to secure systematic and thorough instruction as a preparation for useful industries, girls would be as much benefited by such instruction as boys; and women need it as much as men.
"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."
Although the plan aimed at is large, this Association commenced with only a small portion. At Milwaukee, where is their first institution, a school already organized was taken as the nucleus. The citizens were to furnish land, and building, and pupils enough to support by tuition fees a given number of teachers. On these conditions the Association agreed to provide endowments to support a certain number of teachers, so long as the plan of the Association was carried out, but if it was relinquished, to remove their patronage to another place. The Lady Agent of the Association is still at the head of this Institution, which has prospered on this plan for more than fifteen years, the Association supporting by their funds a portion of the teachers.
In my former address in this place, I showed how in this and other cities, the more wealthy, and best educated classes, and those who pay the most taxes for public education, provide for their own daughters inferior advantages to those given to the humblest poor. Our own High School in this city compared with this Seminary and all private schools, will illustrate this remarkable fact.
For our High School has a building healthfully and thoroughly warmed and ventilated, as can be said of neither this Seminary, nor any private school of this city; while its apparatus and library are superior to any except those of the College, and the Theological School, to which no girls have access. By reason of subordinate graded schools, only well prepared pupils are admitted, or this is the rule which can be enforced; while all scholars must enter at regular periods. Thus, only four classes are formed and only a small number of studies are pursued at any one time. The teachers are thus allowed time to prepare themselves, and other great advantages for instructing, while their salaries are much higher than can be given to assistant teachers in most private schools. Thus the best class of teachers are tempted to forsake private schools for these superior advantages.
In contrast to these advantages, although this Seminary is warmed and ventilated as well as most private schools, it is necessary to employ much of the time of an intelligent and careful teacher to keep the rooms at proper temperature, well ventilated and free from poisonous gases, and yet with but imperfect success.
Then the pupils enter this and all private schools, at any time and at all grades of advancement, making it necessary to multiply classes and to tax the teachers in order to bring forward the new comers to certain classes. The method of arranging certain studies at one time of the year, and others only at other times, as in colleges and our public high schools, often cannot be enforced without dissatisfying patrons, and thus lessening income. Then the accomplishments, especially Piano music, to which classes must conform, greatly increases the difficulty of classification in this and in all private schools.
The result usually is, a most inferior, desultory, and unsatisfactory course of education. There are cases where by overworking poorly paid assistant teachers, and by small profits to proprietors, some private schools turn out as fine scholars as our best managed High schools. But these are exceptions, and exceptions that bear very severely on the subordinate women teachers.
Thus comes to pass the remarkable fact that the most wealthy and cultivated pay the largest taxes to furnish the poorer classes a gratuitous and a better education than they gain for their own daughters by paying the largest tuition fees, or at expensive boarding schools.
There is great misconception as to the advantages of education for daughters of the more wealthy classes, owing to the fact that the ambitious name of "college" is given to schools that have no proper claim to this appellation. For the distinctive feature of a college heretofore has been its endowments, by which a permanent faculty of superior and co-equal teachers are maintained to a great extent independent of tuition fees; and also supporting professors as independent heads of departments, instead of subordinates to a principal, as in High Schools and academies. This being the fact, there is not a single college for women in this country, nor in the whole world.
The only feature of a college in any institutions for women is a similar course of study and graduating diplomas, and these without endowments only increase the branches taught, and decrease the thoroughness of instruction and overwork the teachers.
There is also great misconception as to the influence of woman's domestic duties in developing and training the intellect. A problem in arithmetic or geometry is far more interesting, and therefore more quickening to the intellect, when it is directly applied to some useful, practical purpose. Thus a woman who is daily calculating her butcher's and grocer's accounts, or trading at stores, is cultivating her intellect as much or more than she would by studying arithmetic in college or school without any end but to escape reproof or marks of imperfection. So the planning and cutting garments and the various other calculations and measurements of carpets, curtains, and furniture, are daily exercises in both geometry and arithmetic, while the practical interest and the handicraft involved tend to quicken intellectual vigor.
Then in kitchen affairs, domestic chemistry, though on a small scale, is constantly studied and practically applied. Again in the care of infants and of the sick, the discipline of the physiologist and the physician are united. Then in the government of servants and children, the same mental exertion and principles are employed as are demanded for legislatures, statesmen, and magistrates. Then in the religious training of children, all the most profound questions of the metaphysician and the theologian are daily objects of enquiry and reflection as childhood urges the most difficult problems of mental science, and of natural and revealed religion.
A man in his daily toils, or in the learned professions has only one or two subjects that hold his practical attention and interest, but a woman as mother and housekeeper has a constant succession of employments that tax all her intellectual and her moral powers. These views are remarkably illustrated by some of the women of a former generation whose intellectual training was chiefly in domestic pursuits with little else except the humblest kind of common school, a very small library, and a vigorous pulpit ministry. Let such be compared with multitudes of women who with little domestic training and exercise have graduated from the High Schools and Colleges of the present day, and we shall have occasion for serious reflection as to the diverse results.
I can best illustrate this by an individual case that may fairly represent a large class of women forty or fifty years ago. In early youth I lived in Litchfield, Conn., where a law school was conducted by Judge Reeves, and Judge Gould, two of the most talented and learned jurists of the nation, and gathered from forty to over one hundred law students from the first colleges and the first families of every state in the Union. There were also eight or ten other gentlemen of liberal education and some of more than ordinary talents and culture, in the same circle.
Then of the ladies I met in that circle, were Mrs. Judge Reeve, Mrs. Judge Gould, Miss Sarah Pierce, to whom I owe my school education, Miss Mary Pierce, Miss Amelia Ogden, Miss Lucy Sheldon, my father's sister Esther, my mother's sister Mrs. Mary Hubbard, and my mother. In my own family circle I used to hear my mother and aunts discussing a variety of literary and scientific topics, and especially remember their enthusiastic interest in the new discoveries of chemistry by Lavoisier, and their practical test experiments in the kitchen and study. Aunt Esther was deeply interested in medical science, and probably had read medical works as extensively as most physicians of that day.
Then Mrs. Judge Reeve, and my mother and aunts, would meet and read works of history, or travels, or some classic English literature. Miss Mary Pierce was an accomplished elocutionist, and when Judge Gould suffered from weak eyes, would go day after day to read works of literature and discuss the topics introduced. Miss Sarah Pierce was head of the largest and most celebrated female school of the nation, and was overflowing with acquired knowledge, as well as poetic treasures.
Now not one of these ladies had studied a line of Latin or Greek, or of mathematics or other college studies which women are now seeking so earnestly at the sacrifice of health and all domestic culture. And yet when they met these gentlemen of the highest talents and education, they were regarded as fully their equals in mental power and intellectual debate. Indeed, some of my brothers educated in this circle, honestly maintained that women were endowed by nature with intellectual powers superior to men; and one brother argued in defence of this position in a public college exercise. Moreover, six brothers had a college education, while none of my sisters studied any part of the college course; and yet there has been no marked inequality of mental power and culture in this diverse training.
In that day, novels, by most women, were either deemed an unlawful indulgence, or were taken as condiments only, while the substantials of literature and science were their chief intellectual pabulum. And having but few books and those the choice works of the best English classics, they were perused and reperused with such interest as rarely is given in colleges to the literature of Greece and Rome. And it was a frequent fact, that women were far better read in English classic literature than were their brothers and friends in colleges.
Now at the present day, when mothers and housekeepers meet gentlemen in social gatherings, is there anything in their conversation and pursuits to show the superior advantages of the female High Schools and Colleges, which have nearly supplanted the intellectual domestic training of a former generation? Have not novels, magazine stories, newspaper literature, and the fashions and accomplishments of the age taken the place of the more vigorous mental culture so common at a former period?
A variety of intellectual training which is pursued in connection with such interesting practical results as woman's employments involve, tends to produce a vigorous and well balanced mind, far more than devotion to one or two professional pursuits such as the business of most men requires. And even in science and literature, we not unfrequently find some of the most learned men entirely deficient in intellectual balance and executive power; while their less learned mothers or wives are respected as wise and practical counselors.
The diminution of domestic exercise in the family state by mothers and daughters has equally tended to the loss of physical development and vigor in the present generation of women. The Creator has wisely adapted the physical organization of woman to her appropriate duties, so that the alternating sedentary and active exercises of the nursery and household are exactly those best fitted to sustain and invigorate the organs which now are so extensively displaced or diseased. And the artificial modes of exercise to remedy these evils, now so successful in the Movement Cure, are to a large extent in imitation of these domestic muscular movements demanded in the nursery and in other household labors. The tending of infants, the bending, twisting, and stooping constantly practiced in these domestic labors are exactly what are demanded to preserve in health and activity the muscles most important to womanly development and vigor; while the interchanging employment of the needle and other sedentary domestic pursuits, when in proper proportion, equally tend to healthful results. Very different are the influences on woman's health as she stands six and eight hours behind the counter or in shops and mills in one continuous and unvaried toil, or sits day after day over the needle without intervening healthful exercises. Not less are the evils to the daughters of wealth and ease, whose brain and nerves are never relieved and strengthened by the exercises of domestic life. Still more lamentable is the common practice of those who, when sending daughters to the public schools, free them from domestic labor, that they may give their whole time to study and school duties. If instead of this, these pupils were required to engage in domestic labor two hours each day and this amount of time was deducted from school duties, not only health but higher intellectual development would be secured.
If a time should come when the aims of the Woman Suffrage party are attained, and women are trained for the pulpit, the bar, the political arena, and other professions drawing woman from domestic life, still more disastrous influences will show the great mistake of taking woman from her true sphere and giving her the work designed for man. If, on the contrary, women are trained to both the science and the practice of their true profession in all its varied departments, and with the honor and emolument that now are given exclusively to the professions of men, every woman will be in demand for the services of the family and the school, and will regard the employments of men as less important and less inviting than her own sacred ministries.
It is often said that it is mothers who must give the domestic training to daughters, and that school duties should be confined to literature and science. This might have been true in former days, when daughters and mothers performed most of the family labor, and when the style of living was simple and economical. But with the present style of houses and expenditures, demanding two, three or more servants, it is utterly impossible for a mother and housekeeper to add to her multiplied cares the scientific domestic training of her daughters; nor can anything of this kind be successfully connected with large boarding schools. The demand for scientific domestic training is greatly increased by improved modern conveniences.
The one item of selecting and superintending the management of stoves and furnaces, demands much scientific study and practical instruction, and there is no one point where family health and economy suffer more than for want of them. The inhaling of poisonous gases, the sudden changes of temperature, and the want of proper ventilation probably are doing more to destroy the constitution and health of families than any other cause, and owing greatly to the want of needed science and skill in housekeepers.
In various other departments, the increase of civilization and its elegancies and conveniences have greatly increased the need of scientific training for mothers and housekeepers, who, never having been thus instructed themselves, are not qualified to train their daughters.
As to the virtue of economy, in our nation among the more wealthy classes, it seems to have become one of "the lost arts." The art and skill of domestic economy can no more be acquired without instruction and training, than any of the mechanical trades. As eldest daughter of a poor minister, and the pupil of a most ingenious mother and a vigorously economical aunt, I know that by proper training, a young lady can dress with taste and propriety at one half the expense required by one untrained; and that a housekeeper without such a preparation needs double the means of one who is properly instructed. Not that there are not women as well as men, who have natural gifts that enable them to excel in handicraft and skill without any training, so as to equal those properly instructed. But these are exceptional cases.
To illustrate the fact that the more civilization increases the enjoyments and refinements of the family state, the more it multiplies the responsibilities and cares of a mother and housekeeper, I will reproduce a specimen of such conversations as I have repeatedly had with familiar friends. The lady introduced, is a mother of five young children all attending some primary, or some higher schools, and in reply to her remark that she had no time for solid or systematic reading, I enquired,
"How many servants have you?"
"Three; a cook, a chambermaid, and a boy for errands and care of yard and garden."
"Now suppose," said I, "that you give me an outline of your ordinary daily routine, that I may appreciate your difficulties; for I think few understand how much is demanded of mother and housekeeper in these days. At what hour do you rise?"
"Usually about seven; and then beside dressing myself, I must see that the little ones are washed and dressed properly, as all the servants are busy. Their hair must be combed and braided, their teeth and nails in order, and their clothing be all whole and clean for school, which often demands an extra stitch, or some change that I must regulate. This takes till near breakfast hour, when I go down to see that all is right on the table and in the kitchen. When I have a good cook, and second girl, I have not much to do; but the frequent changes oblige me often to be training, or overseeing one or the other. Then at table, I serve the tea and coffee, and also take care of the two youngest, to supply proper food, and see that they behave properly."
"Cannot your husband take some of this care."
"Oh, no; he is so hurried in business and so anxious to get off as soon as possible.
"Then we have prayers, and I must collect all the family, and see that all the children behave properly. Then I make a memorandum of errands or purchases for my husband to execute. Then I must see that all the children are prepared for school, their books all collected, their hair dressed, and shoes in order, and all their little wants supplied.
"Then I go to the kitchen and make arrangements with the cook for the day, giving written orders for the grocer and butcher. Then I arrange the work for the second girl for the day. I go over all the rooms and chambers myself, and always find in my drawers and closets something that needs care or labor, that I must do myself, or arrange for others to do. Oh, the making, the mending, the altering, the washing, and the care of clothing for young children which our present fashions require! And yet I always hang back and do as little as possible without being odd, or making the children fear lest all their companions should outdo them.
"By noon I am so tired and nervous I can not do anything more than sit down quietly and look over the morning paper. Then comes the noon lunch, when I again have all the table serving and care of children. After lunch, I send out the children to play, and then comes the family sewing and mending, the shopping—to buy dresses, bonnets, shoes, gloves, trimmings, and all the numerous et ceteras of the wardrobe for husband, children, and self. The mantua-maker must come some days, and then what worry and work! Then the sempstress comes other times; then company calls that I must entertain; and then comes the children's music practice, and their hard lessons in arithmetic or geometry, where I must help or oversee.
"Then comes the dinner at 5 or 6, when company often is added, and I must see that all is in order, and the children well behaved, and the table served aright. For an hour or two after dinner comes a little time to talk with my husband and children; but again I am called on to help in the lessons of the older children, or to aid them when sewing or drawing. Then I must go to prepare the little ones for bed, as both servants are busy after dinner.
"All this is what I do when I have no visitors, and when there is no baby. But when there is a nurse and a baby, and visitors staying in the family to entertain, I am sure I do not know how I get through all. I only know that most of my married life I have suffered constant weariness, and a pain in head or back, and that all put together make life such a burden that often I should willingly lay it down were it not for my dear husband and children.
"And all these beautiful things around me, and my lovely home, seem to double my cares because I have so much to keep in order. For all these rich and delicate things are soon ruined if left in the hands of servants, and the more we get, the more we have to watch and work to save from injury or waste."
"If we lived in such a convenient little cottage as you have put in your American Woman's Home, and had a highly educated governess, and then all of us united to do the family work, except washing and ironing, how much easier and happier life would be!"[140:A]
[140:A] This book is enlarged and has questions for a text book for schools. Its title is "Principles of Domestic Science," and it is published by J. B. Ford, Park Place, New York. The second part entitled The House Keeper & Health Keeper is in press and will be published in the fall by the Harpers.
But at present my thoughts and efforts are most engaged to accomplish that department of a Women's University which relates to the preservation and restoration of health. When often asked what is the reason that our women are so delicate and unhealthy, and that our young girls so often suffer what in former days was rare and then only in connexion with maternity, my reply often is, that it is because parents and teachers are doing every thing they can do to produce such mischiefs.
Sleeping in unventilated chambers; living in schoolrooms and parlors heated to excess and charged with poisonous gases; exposed to sudden variations of temperature from mismanagement; eating unhealthful food at irregular hours and to a dangerous excess; supplied with unhealthful confectionery to eat at any hour; indulged in exciting amusements with late hours for sleep; the brain stimulated by a multitude of school duties and studies unrelieved by muscular exercises; the dress contrived to impede vital functions, compressing the most yielding parts so as to force the upper organs on to the lower, generating the most cruel displacements and mental and bodily diseases; over-heating the parts most injured by such treatment, and exposing the parts most important to keep warm; compressing feet and ankles so as to impede circulation, with high heels throwing all the muscles out of natural play so as to increase all the dangerous tendencies to internal displacement; these are only one portion of the many contrivances adopted or allowed by parents and teachers to destroy the health of women and young girls.
The public press is now circulating such charges against the most cultivated Protestant women of our country as, if true, will verify the assertion that in one important respect, "Protestantism is a failure." For maternity in its normal aspect, involves what scripture represents as the extremity of physical suffering. If to this is added the protracted tortures of mind and body consequent on such outrages on nature as are narrated above, it is not the graduates of boarding schools, and High Schools and Colleges who are to be the mothers and educators of this nation, but those rather who are protected from these sins and sufferings by humble means, daily toil, and a vigilant and politic priesthood.
All through my early days, no such charges against womanhood were even imagined, for I saw a cheerful, healthful mother each second or third year of her whole married life with another healthful infant, and all received by my father as a precious "heritage from the Lord" and through his long life his "chief joy and crown of rejoicing." And this, which is now so rare an example, was a common experience, in that more simple and healthful generation.
My opportunities for noticing the decline of health in women of this generation, and forming opinions on medical subjects, have been extensive, as for over forty years I have been taxing the science and sagacity of medical men in all parts of the nation, residing in many health establishments, reading medical works, and consulting all classes of medical practitioners. In this course I have secured perfect health and also learned many lessons that I hope will enable me to aid others in gaining the same blessing.
And the most important of these lessons is, that most diseases are consequences of violating the laws of health, (which are as really the laws of God as any in the Bible), and that the surest and safest remedies are found in conforming to these laws. This will be illustrated by a short account of my experiences while so long a wandering invalid.
During this period, as results have proved, I had no organic or functional disease, except extreme prostration of the overworked brain and nerves, increased by a punctured nerve, adding to the debility of the connected sciatic nerve. Thus came inability to walk without supporters, and little ability for any kind of either mental or physical exercise.
The treatment to be narrated was in all cases but one, by regularly educated physicians, most of whom were regarded as among the highest in talents and skill, often the professors of medical colleges. The first physician prescribed a heaping teaspoonful of carbonate of iron three times a day, which was taken with no benefit. Next, a learned professor, for a slight fever bled twice, and, to allay consequent nervous excitement, gave camphor till temporary deafness ensued. Next, another medical professor conjectured that the lameness resulted from the state of the stomach, and gave small doses of rheubarb three times a day with no advantage. Then another considered the spine as the diseased point, and applied irritating ointments. Another prescribed galvanism, but could give no rule as to time or manner, or expected effects, but hoped that somehow it might do some good. Several prescribed local applications to the limb, which in all cases increased the difficulty.
These all failing, I commenced my rounds to health establishments. The first was conducted by a sagacious and learned German physician, who conjectured that the cause of the lameness was the state of the blood, and used cold water to produce a skin eruption which came without any good result. But during a year's residence there, I saw most remarkable cures of many diseases, by treating the skin with alternations of heat and cold connected with simple food, and outdoor exercise. In repeated cases I saw thin, pale victims of tubercular consumption, some apparently in the last stages, changed to rosy, plump and vigorous women by this treatment. Here I also gained in vigor of mind and body, though under the most heroic water treatment, but the weak limb was unrelieved.
Then I resorted to an establishment where the treatment was confined to simple food, only one or two articles being allowed at one meal. To this was added short gymnastic exercises, alternating with short periods of rest. Here I found that by reducing the quantity of food, and taking only one or two articles at a meal I gained both in flesh and strength, but the weak limb prevented the required exercises and was unrelieved.
Then resort was had to an establishment where many women were cured of internal displacements and consequent evils, but a lady physician by proper investigation, decided that my lameness resulted from no such cause. There the physician instructed me in a course of exercises by which a forward curvature of the spine, caused by debility and use of supporters, was remedied, and the figure restored to the natural position, while at the same time the chest, and thus the breathing capacity, were enlarged so as to demand three inches added to waists and belts. Other cases I often have met of similar restoration of the figure, and enlargement of the chest, and compressed lungs, in several health establishments.
In addition to all these, I have tried Sulphur and Vapor baths, Russian baths, Chemical baths, Turkish hot air bath, and the Sun bath, and have seen patients benefited in all. Owing chiefly to my own knowledge and caution I was not injured myself by any, though I saw others, who, from ignorance, imprudence, or want of skill and care in the physician were seriously injured in every one.
I have also met persons who were benefited by the Grape Cure, and the Lifting Cure. Several friends have been treated by an ignorant tailor who taught his patients that the centre of the nervous system was the navel, and that he cured by operations that disentangled the nerves that were gathered in bunches and knots. His method was to spend an hour daily with each patient in a continuous pressure and pinching of all parts of the body, which resulted in some remarkable cures in spite of his ridiculous theories.
My final and only successful experiment was at the Swedish Movement Cure, under the care of Dr. Geo. H. Taylor. This method so far as I have observed, is the most reliable and efficacious remedy for debilitated nerves, and for the internal displacements and diseases consequent on the courses by which so many women weaken the constitution or ruin the health. By this method the weak limb was first relieved, and after this, by a strict obedience to all the laws of health, for several years I have enjoyed perfect health. I have also been every year gaining in strength and in the increased power of faculties usually diminished by age. And should burnings, and crushings of railroads, and other casualties be escaped, I have a fair chance for at least another twenty years of health, and active usefulness.
But this result has been gained not by any one method of medical treatment, but rather by faithful obedience to the laws of health, while it is preserved and continued only by the same. For whenever I failed in any one respect, my enfeebled nervous system, especially the weaker member, reported the wrong with marvelous precision.
What has been gained is continued only by a faithful and diligent course, securing pure air by night and day; regular and abundant sleep in the hours of darkness, and no mental or physical labor except by day; a daily towel bath in cool water in the sun or by a fire, except in hot weather; living in light and well ventilated rooms, and often sitting in the sun; abstinence from stimulating drinks of all kinds; a simple diet of properly cooked food in a moderate quantity, and only at regular hours; daily outdoor exercise by walking, riding, and use of the muscles of the arms and trunk; clothing that never compresses any part and always protects from chills; abstinence from over excitement of all kinds; the cultivation of a cheerful and quiet spirit; healthful amusements; benevolent activity never to exceed the strength; and all this prayerfully pursued as a religious duty owed to God, to my fellow men, and to myself.
Another lesson illustrated by my experience, is the advance of medical science in detecting the causes of diseases so as to apply remedies intelligently. My case was simply prostration of the nervous system by mental care and labor, increased by a punctured nerve. And yet my medical advisers, most of them distinguished in their profession, treated me, one, for diseased stomach, another for diseased spine, another for diseased blood, and most of them applied stimulants to the weak part, always thus increasing the weakness. That was nearly forty years ago. Since then nervous diseases are better understood, while animal chemistry, the microscope, and the thermometer have furnished new means for intelligent search for causes of disease.
And yet our most learned physicians complain of the deficient education given to medical students, and their negligent practice in comparison with European methods. I have before me the Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal of 1869, which claims to be the largest medical monthly in this nation. In it I find a letter from Dr. W. O. Baldwin, late President of the National Congress of physicians, asking from Dr. Wm. Neftel, of New York, late physician of the Russian Imperial Guard, an account of the course of medical study in Europe, and remarking that Dr. Neftel "beautifully illustrates by his example and by his valuable contributions to science, the wisdom of the system in which he was educated."
In reply, Dr. Neftel states that the first requisition in Europe for medical license, is a course of general study equal to that demanded in our colleges, and in addition, a thorough knowledge of physics. Next follows four summer and four winter sessions in the medical department. The first two years are devoted to anatomy, histology, physiology, chemistry, pathological anatomy, general and special pathology and therapeutics, the principles of operative surgery and obstetrics, working at the same time in the chemical, physiological and pathological laboratories. In the last sessions only the student attends the different clinics—medical, surgical, obstetrical, opthalmological, dermatological, and psychological. Then, under a professor some special branch of medical science is pursued.
Dr. Neftel states as one cause of the advance of medical science in Germany and Russia, is the institution of free teachers or privat docents. These are students distinguished by original genius or great research, who in connexion with the faculty, become teachers, and have full access to laboratories, museums, and libraries. Many young physicians of talents thus rise to high positions, and from this class have risen the greatest men of science. Thus it is, also, that the German Universities secure the best professors who devote their lives to science and instruction, with most admirable results.
Another advantage to medical science in Germany, is the close connexion of the medical departments in the Universities with the other faculties of philosophy, law, and theology. In consequence of this, we find the greatest chemists and natural philosophers to be medical men, and a number of physiologists are great mathematicians.
Dr. Neftel, after completing this course, was connected with medical departments in the Universities of London, Paris, and Germany for four years. After this the adoption of republican opinions prevented his return to Russia, and led him to this country.
It is by frequent intercourse with Dr. Neftel, and by observing his methods of detecting the causes of disease, that I have been deeply impressed with the imperfect modes pursued by inexperienced practitioners, and even by some who stand high in the profession. For example, I took a friend to him who had been examined by several physicians of high standing. One of them decided that the disease was of the heart, another that it was of the liver, and a third that it was of the kidneys. But by the microscope and by chemical tests, it was proved that neither of these organs were diseased, and that all the symptoms were caused by miasmatic fungi in the blood.
In the case of another lady I witnessed investigations to detect the cause of the frequent re-appearance of carbuncles, which had not been sought for by other medical advisers; they only prescribing modes of hastening and diminishing the crisis. To look at the tongue, feel the pulse, and hear a statement of the symptoms, is the common method, and then prescriptions are given of powerful chemical agents, which, if not suited to the case are injurious.
Thus it comes to pass that the most learned and careful physicians are demanding an increase of medical educational advantages in our country.
Thus also it has come to pass that health establishments abound, in which the natural agencies of water, light, pure air, exercise, and simple diet are the chief medical agents employed. And in most cases the patients are those who have vainly tried the regular medical treatment.
The great defect in all these institutions, so far as I have observed, is confinement to one special method, and a neglect of enforcing obedience to all the laws of health. For in not even one such institution have I ever known proper arrangements for securing pure air both night and day; while in some the diet is at war with healthful digestion. To these evils add the ignorance of the patients in over-doing, and the want of skill, or care of the physician, and the result has been more mischief than benefit in many cases. For there is as much need of science and care in the physician in the use of these natural agents as in the more common methods.
Recently some of the most efficacious methods employed in Water Cure Establishments have received the sanction and approval of the highest medical practitioners in Europe.
For in the Medical Record, the leading periodical of N. York physicians, I find a paper read before the New York Academy of Medicine, in October, 1868, by Dr. Neftel, in which he states that the most distinguished writers and practitioners in Europe now employ cold water for reducing fevers, just as for twenty years or more has been practiced in Water Cures.
In this paper he says: "My first acquaintance with the use of water in diseases, was during the Crimean war, when a murderous epidemic of typhus fever prevailed, resisting every known method of treatment. Following the instincts of patients and watching the effects of cold water, I commenced treating with cold sponging and effusions and the result surpassed my hopes, and was far better than that obtained by any other method. I myself was attacked by the disease and was saved from death only by my own mode of treatment. But still my treatment was purely empyrical and symptomatic. Soon after, this method was confirmed in the large hospitals of Russia, with excellent results."
"The principal rule observed is never to allow the temperature (ascertained by a thermometer placed under the shoulder) to rise higher than 103 Fahrenheit. The mildest degree of cooling is attained by sponging the whole body with cold water or by keeping the patient continually in a wet sheet. A wet cloth is laid on the head, and if not asleep, every quarter of an hour the patient is offered a little cold water to drink, and every three hours nourishing fluid food. The room is to be kept well ventilated and stimulants avoided."
Dr. Neftel adds, "the effect of this treatment is so wonderful that those familiar with typhoid patients will not recognize them. By keeping the temperature below 103.1 Fahrenheit the exacerbations are avoided and the fever kept in a continuous remission. The patients are never unconscious, never delirious, the tongue always remains moist and clean, the bronchial catarrh is very slight, and so is the diarrhœa, if any at all. There is no tympanites, no hemorrhage, no complication, and we have reason to believe the intestinal ulcerations do not occur at all. Under this treatment the course of typhoid fever is very mild and short, the convalescence very rapid, and the mortality none whatever. A great number of patients treated by myself on this method, have recovered without exception. In this city I had a patient whose morning temperature once reached 106.34° Fahrenheit—a case absolutely fatal under every other treatment—and she is now recovering."
"The thermometer indicates with the greatest exactness, the condition of the animal heat, the presence of fever, its degree, intensity and danger. It also traces the laws of the course of different types of disease, indicates transitions from one stage to another, the ameliorations and aggravations, and the return of the normal condition. It enables us to form a correct diagnosis and prognosis, and gives us positive therapeutical indications." In conversation I enquired if all kinds of fevers should be subdued by this method, and was assured that this was the safest and surest mode for all.
A scientific and very successful practitioner who managed a Water Cure Establishment, and was largely employed in the town around, stated that after a year or two of instruction in the use of cold water, he lost all his outside patients, as the mothers and housekeepers had learned to treat by his methods, and no longer needed his attention except in rare cases.
I have stated that it was at the Swedish Movement Cure, under charge of Dr. Geo. H. Taylor, that the cause of my long invalidism and its remedy were ascertained. In addition to this personal benefit, I have learned the cause and the proper remedy of a class of female diseases which have baffled the most skillful practitioners and introduced methods in many ways so unfortunate, that my whole sex will eventually recognize as a great benefactor, the physician who has rendered them needless, and introduced others at once philosophical, modest, and efficacious.
Dr. Taylor's discoveries and methods are presented in his work on the Diseases of Women, published by George Maclean, 47 John Street, N. Y. This work has the approval of the leading physicians of Philadelphia and New York, and other distinguished practitioners whose specialty has been in this department. If this work should find its way into every school and family, it probably would do more for the health of women and of the next generation than any other similar measure that can be urged.
The information I have gained in the modes narrated, has increased my conviction of the importance of giving to every woman a scientific training for her profession as healthkeeper of the family state. Not that the long course needed for general medical practice should be attempted, which in the chief European Universities would demand ten and twelve years of study and training. Instead of this, I would propose a moderate course in physiology and animal chemistry, accompanied with instruction in practical scientific methods of employing water, light, heat, cold, air, exercise, and diet—both to prevent and to remedy diseases—nor should the application of these remedies be left entirely to the judgment and skill of women, even after such training, but be under the guidance of a physician, highly educated, so as to detect by careful investigation the causes of disease, and of such another as Dr. Taylor, who has practised in both the Water and Movement Cures.
I have stated that in one large town a Water Cure physician lost all his outside practice by instructing mothers and housekeepers how to use properly the methods of the Water Cure. If to these were added the practical methods of the Movement Cure, as conducted by Dr. G. H. Taylor, with the enforcement of all the laws of health in a given community, it is probable that all the physicians but those superintending these methods, would lose all their practice.
One of the most judicious and well educated physicians I know, expressed the opinion that if a number of families in a town would unite to provide a salary to a good physician (the same as to a clergyman) who should visit each family to watch over the habits and health, and see all methods employed to keep them well, that in the end, it would prove a great piece of economy in money as well as in health. The sagacious Chinese have learned this, and pay their physicians so long as they are well, and stop paying when they are ill.
But with us it is for the pecuniary interest of physicians to have sickness general in a community, and there is need of a profession whose honor and emolument depend on the prevention of all diseases. For this profession every woman, and especially every school-teacher should be carefully trained.
If all the women teachers of this nation could be trained to be health-keepers under the supervision of the highest class of educated physicians, and then sent forth to lecture in all our school districts teaching mothers and housekeepers the laws of health, and the methods of the Water and Movement Cures, it is probable that health and long life would be doubled all over the nation.
And here I would urge renewed attention to the state of female health in our country as exhibited in statistics published in a work of mine fifteen years ago, and introduced in a chapter placed at the end of this volume. I have never found any reason to doubt the correctness of the impression made by these statements at first, nor to suppose any marked improvement at the present time. For the diminution of domestic labor by school girls of all ages and classes; the increase of mental labor in public schools; the increase of cares to mother and housekeepers in country as well as cities, from increase of the refinements of civilization; the increased use of stoves and furnaces without proper arrangements for ventilation; the increase of unhealthful labor for women in unventilated stores, shops, and mills; the unhealthful fashions of dress, and the fact that at this day women receive more delicate constitutions than those given by mothers of a former generation; all these things indicate an increase rather than a diminution of the causes that undermine the health of women.
This brings me to the main object of this meeting, which is to enlist the interest and influence of the ladies present, in devising and executing plans for the proper education of the daughters of this city—by methods that shall remedy the evils that have been set forth, and which shall serve as a model to other cities and towns through our nation.
In detailing an outline of the plan aimed at, I will first state that it has already received the approval of ladies of good judgment, and of practical experience as mothers and housekeepers; and also is approved by the Trustees of the H. F. Seminary.
I appear at this time as the Secretary and Gen. Agent of the American Woman's Educational Association. This consists of ladies of high character and position in various states which meets annually to receive reports of agents and direct their operations. This Association has established several institutions at the West, the most important being the Milwaukee Female College. The method employed was to take a school already organized as the nucleus, and then offer to the citizens to secure endowments to support teachers, on condition that they provided a suitable building and tuition fees to support a certain number of superior teachers. This was done, and for fifteen years that institution, in its primary, preparatory, and collegiate schools has successfully carried out one portion of the plan of the Association, some teachers being supported by endowments provided by the Association, and others by tuition fees. The chief agent of the Association has had the control and supervision of this institution now numbering nearly 200 pupils from all the Protestant denominations. The chief difficulty has been the fact that the Association is located at the East, and its work done at the West.
It is now proposed to carry out the plans of the Association more completely in an institution at the East, under the immediate charge of an Executive Committee, resident in the same place as the Institution.
It is proposed to organize the H. F. Seminary like that at Milwaukee, with Primary, Preparatory, and Collegiate schools all under the care of the Trustees as at present. These schools to be furnished by the citizens, with building, library, and apparatus equal to those of the High School, and a course of study instituted allowing entrance only at certain periods, and limiting the number of studies each term, as is done in the College and High School. Also to raise endowments to support two of the highest class of teachers, so that they can secure homes and salaries equal to those given to college professors.
This being secured by the citizens, the Association will appoint their Executive Committee from ladies of this city, one from each denomination, and others be added, selected by them, also a certain number of the Trustees of the Seminary to become members. Then the managers will appoint a collecting agent to raise funds to establish a University School with diverse departments, in which pupils of the Seminary and others shall be trained for all the distinctive duties of women, and all who wish it also be trained for some suitable womanly employment or profession by which to earn an honorable independence.
The first organized departments of the University would be the Normal and Health departments. Two highly educated ladies would become the Principals, and Dr. Neftel, and Dr. Taylor have engaged to act as superintending physicians. The Association will aim to provide land and buildings for these departments, and support the two lady principals so that they can receive into their families two classes. During the months of July and August, when most teachers have vacations, the class will consist of enfeebled and exhausted teachers to be restored and trained to teach our system of Calisthenics, and to administer the methods of the Water Cure, and Movement Cure, and also to lecture on the laws of health in the communities to which they will return.