Physical Education of Girls.--A Woman’s Value in the World.--High-bred
Figures.--Antique Races.--Inspiration of Art not Vanity.--The
Trying Age.--Dress, Food, and Bathing for Young Girls.--A Veto
on Close Study.--Braces and Backboards.--Never Talk of Girls’
Feelings.--Exercise for the Arms.--Singing Scales with Corsets
off.--Development of the Bust.--Open-work Corsets the Best.--The
Bayaderes of India and their Forms.--The Delicacy due Young Girls.--A
Frank but Needed Caution.--Care of the Figure after Nursing.
American girls begin to make much of physical culture. As they advance
in refinement they see how much of their value in society depends on
the nerve and spirit which accompanies thorough development. It is not
enough that they know how to dance languidly, and carry themselves in
company. To distinguish herself, a young belle must row, swim, skate,
ride, and even shoot, to say nothing of lessons in fencing, which
noble ladies in Germany, and some of foreign family here, take to
develop sureness of hand and agility. The heavy, flat-footed creature
who can not walk across a room without betraying the bad terms her
joints are on with each other, must have a splendid face and fortune
to keep any place in the world, no matter how good her family, or how
varied her acquirements, though she speaks seven languages like a
native, and has played sonatas since she was eight years old. A woman’s
value depends entirely on her use to the world and to that person who
happens to have the most of her society. A man likes the society of
a woman who can walk a mile or two to see an interesting view, and
can take long journeys without being laid up by them. He likes smooth
motions, round arms and throat, head held straight, and shoulders that
do not bow out. When you see that a fine figure must be a straight line
from the roots of the hair to the base of the shoulder-blade, you will
realize how few women approach this high-bred ideal. Special culture,
indeed, is discerned where such excellence of line meets the eye. The
polished races of the East, who, untutored and degraded, yet have the
entail of antique subtlety and art, inherit such figures along with the
proverbs of sages and palace mosaics. The best-born of all countries
have this noble set of head, this lance-like figure, and easy play of
limb. As surely as one can be educated to right thoughts and manners,
so the motions and poise of limb can be trained to correctness. The
work must begin early. A girl should be put in training as soon as
she passes from the plumpness of childhood into the ugly age of
development. The mother should inspect her dressing to see what
improvement is needed, and stimulate the child by the desire to possess
beautiful limbs and figure. The senses are early awake to the sense of
grace. There is no better way to inspire a girl with it than to take
her to picture-galleries, show the faces of historical beauties, or
the figures of Italian sculpture, and ask her if she would not like
to have the same fine points herself. This substitutes the love of art
for that of admiration, and makes self-cultivation too deep a thing for
vanity.
There is a time when girls are awkward, indolent, and capricious. Their
boisterous spirits at one time, their sickly minauderies at another,
are very trying to mothers and teachers. The cause is often set down
as depravity, when it is only nature. Girls are lapsided and indolent
because they are weak or languid, between which and being lazy there
is a vast difference. They have demanding appetites that strike grown
people with wonder. They go frantic on short notice when their wishes
are crossed. Mother, if such is the case, your growing girl is weak.
The nursery bath Saturday night is not enough. Encourage her to take
a sponge-bath every day. When she comes in heated from a long walk or
play, see that she bathes her knees, elbows, and feet in cold water,
to prevent her growing nervous with fatigue when the excitement is
over. See that she does not suffer from cold, and that she is not too
warmly dressed, remembering a plump, active child will suffer with
heat under the clothes it takes to keep you comfortable. If she is
thin and sensitive, care must be taken against sudden chills. Keep
her on very simple but well-flavored diet, with plenty of sour fruit,
if she crave it, for the young have a facility for growing bilious,
which acids correct. Sweet-pickles not too highly spiced are favorites
with children, and better than sweetmeats. Nuts and raisins are more
wholesome than candies. New cheese and cream are to be preferred to
butter with bread and vegetables. Soup and a little of the best and
juiciest meat should be given at dinner. But the miscellaneous stuffing
that half-grown girls are allowed to indulge in ruins their complexion,
temper, and digestion. No coffee nor tea should be taken by any human
being till it is full-grown. The excitement of young nerves by these
drinks is ruinous. Besides, the luxury and the stimulus is greater to
the adult when debarred from these things through childhood. Neither
mind nor body should be worked till maturity. Children will do all they
ought in study and work without much urging; and they will learn more
and remember more in two hours of study to five of play, than if the
order is inverted. Say to a child, Get this lesson and you may go to
play--and you will be astonished to see how rapidly it learns; but if
one lesson is to succeed another till six dreary hours have dragged
away, it loses heart, and learns merely what can not well be helped.
A girl under eighteen ought not to practice at the piano or sit at a
desk more than three quarters of an hour at a time. Then she should run
out-of-doors ten minutes, or exercise, to relieve the nerves. An adult
never ought to study or sit more than an hour without brief change
before passing to the next. This keeps the head clearer, the limbs
fresher, and carries one through a day with less fatigue than if one
worked eight hours and then rested four.
Thoughtful teachers do not share the prejudice against braces and
backboards for keeping the figure straight, especially when young. It
is the instinct of barbarous nations to use such aids in compelling
erectness in their children. These appliances need not be painful
in the least, but rather relieve tender muscles and bones. Languid
girls should take cool sitz-baths to strengthen the muscles of the
back and hips, which are more than ordinarily susceptible of fatigue
when childhood is over. But _never_ talk of a girl’s feelings in mind
or body before her, or suffer her to dwell on them. The effect is
bad physically and mentally. See that these injunctions are obeyed
implicitly; spare her the whys and wherefores. It is enough for her
to know that she will feel better for them. Of all things, deliver us
from valetudinarians of fifteen. Never laugh at them; never sneer;
never indulge them in self-condolings. Be pitiful and sympathetic,
but steadily turn their attention to something interesting outside of
themselves.
Special means are essential to special growth. Throwing quoits and
sweeping are good exercises to develop the arms. There is nothing like
three hours of house-work a day for giving a woman a good figure, and
if she sleep in tight cosmetic gloves, she need not fear that her hands
will be spoiled. The time to form the hands is in youth, and with
thimbles for the finger-tips, and close gloves lined with cold cream,
every mother might secure a good hand for her daughter. She should be
particular to see that long-wristed lisle-thread gloves are drawn on
every time the girl goes out. Veils she should discard, except in cold
and windy weather, when they should be drawn close over the head. A
broad-leafed hat for the country is protection enough for the summer;
the rest of the year the complexion needs all the sun it can get.
There is commonly a want of fullness in those muscles of the shoulder
which give its graceful slope. This is developed by the use of the
skipping-rope, in swinging it over the head, and by battledoor, which
keeps the arms extended, at the same time using the muscles of the neck
and shoulders. Swinging by the hands from a rope is capital, and so is
swinging from a bar. These muscles are the last to receive exercise in
common modes of life, and playing ball, bean-bags, or pillow-fights
are convenient ways of calling them into action. Singing scales with
corsets off, shoulders thrown back, lungs deeply inflated, mouth wide
open, and breath held, is the best tuition for insuring that fullness
to the upper part of the chest which gives majesty to a figure even
when the bust is meagre. These scales should be practiced half an hour
morning and afternoon, gaining two ends at once--increase of voice and
perfection of figure.
This brings us to the inquiries made by more than one correspondent
for some means of developing the bust. Every mother should pay
attention to this matter before her daughters think of such a thing
for themselves, by seeing that their dresses are never in the least
constricted across the chest, and that a foolish dressmaker never puts
padding into their waists. The horrible custom of wearing pads is the
ruin of natural figures, by heating and pressing down the bosom. This
most delicate and sensitive part of a woman’s form must always be kept
cool, and well supported by a linen corset. The open-worked ones are by
far the best, and the compression, if any, should not be over the heart
and fixed ribs, as it generally is, but just at the waist, for not more
than the width of a broad waistband. Six inches of thick coutille over
the heart and stomach--those parts of the body that have most vital
heat--must surely disorder them and affect the bust as well. It would
be better if the coutille were over the shoulders or the abdomen, and
the whalebones of the corset held together by broad tapes, so that
there would be less dressing over the heart, instead of more. A low,
deep bosom, rather than a bold one, is a sign of grace in a full-grown
woman, and a full bust is hardly admirable in an unmarried girl. Her
figure should be all curves, but slender, promising a fuller beauty
when maturity is reached. One is not fond of over-ripe pears.
Flat figures are best dissembled by puffed and shirred blouse-waists,
or by corsets with a fine rattan run in the top of the bosom gore,
which throws out the fullness sufficiently to look well in a plain
corsage. Of all things, India-rubber pads act most injuriously by
constantly sweating the skin, and ruining the bust beyond hope of
restoration. To improve its outlines, wear a linen corset fitting
so close at the end of the top gores as to support the bosom well.
For this the corset must be fitted to the skin, and worn next the
under-flannel. Night and morning wash the bust in the coldest
water--sponging it upward, but never down. Madame Celnart relates that
the bayaderes of India cultivate their forms by wearing a cincture
of linen under the breasts, and at night chafing them lightly with
a piece of linen. The breasts should never be touched but with the
utmost delicacy, as other treatment renders them weak and flaccid,
and not unfrequently results in cancer. A baby’s bite has more than
once inflicted this disease upon its mother. But one thing is to be
solemnly cautioned, that no human being--doctor, nurse, nor the mother
herself--on any pretense, save in case of accident, be allowed to touch
a girl’s figure. It would be unnecessary to say this, were not French
and Irish nurses, especially old and experienced, ones, sometimes in
the habit of stroking the figures of young girls committed to their
charge, with the idea of developing them. This is not mentioned
from hearsay. Mothers can not be too careful how they leave their
children with even well-meaning servants. A young girl’s body is more
sensitive than any harp is to the air that plays upon it. Nature--free,
uneducated, and direct--responds to every touch on that seat of the
nerves, the bosom, by an excitement that is simply ruinous to a
child’s nervous system. This is pretty plain talking, but no plainer
than the subject demands. Girls are very different in their feelings.
Some affectionate, innocent, hearty natures remain through their
lives as simple as when they were babes taking their bath under their
mothers’ hands; while others, equally innocent but more susceptible,
require to be guarded and sheltered even from the violence of a caress
as if from contagion and pain.
Due attention to the general health always has its effect in restoring
the bust to its roundness. It is a mistake that it is irremediably
injured by nursing children. A babe may be taught not to pinch and bite
its mother, and the exercise of a natural function can injure her in no
way, if proper care is taken to sustain the system at the same time.
Cold compresses of wet linen worn over the breast are very soothing
and beneficial, provided they do not strike a chill to a weak chest.
At the same time, the cincture should be carefully adjusted. Weakness
of any kind affects the contour of the figure, and it is useless to
try to improve it in any other way than by restoring the strength
where it is wanting. Tepid sitz-baths strengthen the muscles of the
hips, and do away with that dragging which injures the firmness of
the bosom. Bathing in water to which ammonia is added strengthens the
skin, but the use of camphor to dry the milk after weaning a child is
reprehensible. No drying or heating lotions of any kind should ever be
applied except in illness.