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, (I shall not tell you whether it
was my wife, or myself,) 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?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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