Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1885 — GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES. [ARTICLE]

GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES.

A Medium’s Mistake. A woman at a spiritualistic seance expressed a desire to converse with the spirit of her departed husband, Mr. John Smith. After several unsuccessful attempts, the medium reluctantly announced that she was unable to summon the spirit of John Smith. “Perhaps,” suggested the bereaved widow, “considerin’ that John wasn’t allers very pertickler about things he did when on this earth, you’ve been trying the wrong place.”

An Awful Scandal. “Why, la, Mrs. Jinks, have you heard the news ?” “No, Mrs. Brown; do tell me, for I am dying to hear.” “Well, you know I never gossip, my dear.” “Of course not; I do not think it right to talk about one’s neighbors’ affairs. But what is the latest? Of course, we tell each other what is going on.” “Why, you know Col. Jones’ house is near to ours, and we can see light into their side windows. Well, would you believe it, I actually saw him kiss his wife this morning before leaving the house. ” “You are sure it wasn’t the hired giivl?” “No, I could see her plain enough. I know they had a terrible row and were making up. The idea of a man kissing his own wife, and before everybody, too.” “Yes, dear, it is an awfu'l scandal; good-by,” and Mrs. Jinks hurried off to see her friend Mrs. Smith, and tell her about the big row, and how Col. Jones nearly killed his wife.— Texas Siftings.

Women Who Love Flowers* “Flowers go ahead of all other gifts in winning a woman’s heart, and every young gallant knows that,” said the dealer. “Why so?” “Well, nearly all women love flowers, and there is something so delicate, so much unsaid, yet suggested, in flowers, that the simple gift of one is always appreciated by a woman—not to speak of the different sentiments that are associated with different kinds of flowers. It is very interesting to note how different people regard flowers. Why, I can tell almost the moment a woman enters whether she is fond of them. Women who love flowers always have sweet faces, soft ways, and gentle dispositions. One of that kind rarely asks for the fashionable flower because it is fashionable. She loves flowers for their own sake, and, consequently, she is almost sure to call for her favorites, whether in fashion or not. The woman who cares for flowers simply because they are fashionable is generally one of the cold, haughty, airy kind. She will look around critically, seize some flower and pull it out of a bunch, sometimes breaking off a leaf, or catching one of its thorns in another rose and tearing the petals. That’s the difference, you see. The other lady handles them with a gentle, caressing touch, almost as if they were human.”

A Doctor Who Favors Corsets. Many of the school text-books on physiology wage war on the wearing of corsets on the frightful example plan, by showing side by side the outline of some celebrated statue and that of a modem woman deformed by tightlacing, and all sorts of dire diseases are promised the female who indulges in that method of squeezing herself out of shape. There seems to be another side to this thing, however. One Dr. Alfred Chadwick, an advocate ot what he calls “figure-training by corset,” says that he does not “believe for one moment that fully 90 per cent, of women are deformed by stays.” “If such were the case,” he adds, “I should not hesitate to say that 90 per cent, of women know nothing of lacing; for if lacing the figure is practiced in a judicious manner, instead of deformity would come elegance and health. A well-applied corset leaves the upper part of the chest perfectly free and develops the capacity of the lungs in that situation—the most important situation, by the way, especially in the female sex. Tubercular consumption usually attacks the apices of the lungs, a part far removed from the pressure of a corset, however tight —in fact, the tighter the corset in the lower part of the chest, the greater amount of work and expansion in the upper part; but this would not lead to consumption.” Dr. Chadwick believes a woman is in better health when wearing a proper-fitting corset, and less liable to suffer from consumption, dyspepsia, or spinal curvature; but he deprecates the beginning of tight-lacing suddenly. “What I consider to be the perfeconti in the application of the corset to the female ligure or to the male,** he says, “is to begin early in life, say at the age of 7 or 10 years, and then only with very yielding materials, permitting the corset simply to touch the contour of the body, though a little firmer at the wai3t. As the girl grows up and the chest expands, the bust of the corset may be very properly made larger, the waist at the same time being kept within bounds. If such a system be carefully carried out, there never would be any undue pressure anywhere, and the girl who reaches womanhood will possess the perfection of a figure, with its round and taper waist, broad shoulders, and well-developed chest. It always was and will be necessary to restrain, limit, and correct the gro-steg figure. Without aid, nature seldrr <*©rins a good waist. Gradual

and early correction, instead of violent and sudden reduction of deformity, is the way to achieve success— no evil effects can possibly ensue. In the wearing of the corset, the degree of comfort with which it is borne ehouFd be the test of utility. Early care and judicious management will in every case succeed in attaining elegance and in preserving health.”— Exchange.

A School Including Body-Training for Girls. A convincing experiment was made upon a large number of girls at Lexington, Mass. A school for young ladies was announced and large buildings prepared. During four years of personal management by the founder of the school, nearly three hundred young women were subjected to a new and peculiar regimen, to determine the possibility of improving their bodies during their school life, as the bodies of young men are improved in some of the German universities. An exceptionally full curriculum of studies was adopted, and a large corps of teachers, ineluding such distinguished names as Theodore D. Weld, Catharine Beecher, and Zerdahelyi, labored with enthusiasm in the brain-work. The pupils were pressed harder, probably, than in any other school in New England. The girls averaged about 17 years of age, and came from all parts of the country, including California, Central America, and the West Indies. They were largely from wealthy families—delicate girls, unable to bear the artificial life of fashionable seminaries, and were drawn to the Lexington school by its fame for body-training. The constant dress of the pupils, like that of the normal school, was short and loose, leaving the girls as much liberty as the boys have in their gymnasium dresses. The results of the physical training at Lexington are well known. On entering the school, pupils were measured about the chest, under the arms, about the waist, the arm, and the fore-arm. The average gain for eight months about the chest was about 2$ inches; waist, 5 inches; arm, liiuohes; fore-arm about 1 inch. The work was so hard that, with all this remarkable development, the weight of the pupil was lessened. Of course, the girls came with injunctions from mothers not to climb stairs, with letters from family physicians urging moderation in gymnastics, and prescribing a horizontal position a number of days each month. With the corsets and long skirts in which they came, these injunctions and cautions were not unwise; but with the change of dress, became absurd. And now, with a full knowledge of all the facts familiar to hundreds of graceful parents, the writer affirms that giving little or no attention to periodicity, the girls worked through the entire month in these extreme stridings and other vigorous exercises of the legs and hips, contrived to counteract the evil effects of the long, imprisoning skirts, and that iu the four years not only was no harm done by this constant and dreadful violation of Dr. Edward Clark’s counsels, but that in no instance did a pupil fail to improve in health. The results may bo described as follows : pupils came with dread of stairs, with backache, palpitation, and other sufferings which may not be named here, and in a few months could do the full and hard gymnastic work of the school, dance three evenings a week, go upstairs without symptoms, and walk live to ten miles on Saturday without inconvenience. A common exclamation among the pupils was this: “What a slave I was! Everything was toil and suffering. I have now just begun to live!” And all this happy change came of abandonment of corsets, the adoption of a simple, physiological dress, with the exercise which this change in dress renders easy. The change in health and capacity often seemed magical. If this paper were designed for the eyes of medical men only, certain facts might be given which would surprise them, and leave no doubt that we have utterly failed to comprehend the mischief done to the growing form by the present meeds of dress.—Dr. Dio Lewis.