USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Congress of Women : held in the Woman's building, World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 : with portraits, biographies and addresses > Part 92
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The Broomloan Halls Classes for Cookery and Sewing were founded at Govan,
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Glasgow, by Mrs. John Elder, in 1885. They form a technical school for the wives and daughters of artisans, and are in the midst of a large ship-building population. All their incidental expenses are paid by the generous founder. The cookery demon- stration class, attended by some two hundred women and girls, is the most popular. It is supplemented by the cookery practice class, at which their clever teacher, Miss Gordon, shows her pupils how to turn out the best possible Sunday dinner from the materials they bring on Saturday night. Eighty to a hundred women attend the Monday evening sewing and mending class; a large number also appreciate that the starching and ironing class will fit them for a useful calling; and lastly, forty-two girls are carefully trained to be kitchenmaids, and never fail to find good places. During the summer months housewives who choose to enter their names on a list, are visited by intelligent and specially trained women of their own class, and shown how to cook and clean and arrange their houses. This kind of help is most eagerly sought.
The Little Servants' Home, in connection with Brownshill High School, Stroud, was founded by Miss Winscombe. This attempt to prepare young girls for domestic service by training them under upper servants, might be imitated in other large house- holds, for every effort that tends to raise the status of domestic servants, and the standard of qualification for domestic service, is a real benefit to girls in humble homes.
For the third time a village in Scotland claims our attention. The Misses Fer- gusson, with the occasional help of their own servants, have, since 1881, organized and carried on most successful evening classes for joinery, basket-work, fret-work, carving and drawing among the men; and for knitting, crochet, embroidery, etc., among the women of West Linton, Prebleshire. Their last sale realized about one hundred and five pounds, all profit to the workers.
In Cumberland, the loveliest district in England, under the fostering care of Mrs. Hardwicke Rawnsley, wife of the vicar of Crosthwaite (that picturesque vale, or thwaite, where St. Kentigern reared the cross in the earliest age of England's relig- ious history ), has grown up, since 1883, the Keswick Industrial School of Art, and a Linen Industry, which has Mr. Ruskin's leave to bear his name. Both are endeavors to reduce to practice his characteristic teaching, that a love of the beautiful lies hid- den in every human soul, and that things made by hand, and bearing the impress of human individuality, are incomparably more beautiful than those which can be turned out by machinery. There is something quite mediaval about the whole undertaking, so little trace can be found in it of the modern commercial spirit, and so lovingly do these northern peasants linger over the details of their work. From seventy to eighty men now belong to the carving and brass-work classes. The linen industry was started by Miss Twelves; the spinning is all done with the old-fashioned wheels, and the weav- ing is all done by hand. These earnest and artistic workers in the land of two nine- teenth century laureates, lately had the satisfaction of doing honor to a third, by weaving a pall of wondrous beauty for Lord Tennyson's coffin.
We turn now to schemes that aim at imparting knowledge, at informing the head, and according to our threefold being of body, soul and spirit, take these as they suc- cessively deal with the physical, mental and moral welfare of mankind.
Canon Kingsley, Bishop Wilberforce and others, have taught our generation the whole meaning of the old phrase, mens sana in corpore sano. Two societies, both dwelling in Berners street, London, and both owing their existence to the insight and energy of women, are waging successful war, not with flourish of trumpets, but by quiet persistent work, against the arch-enemy ignorance, and teaching rich and poor that the essentials of wholesome life are pure water, nourishing food, daily bathing and daily exercise; that our homes must stand on high ground and dry soil, give abundant entrance to light and air, and be thoroughly cleansed, not only above but below ground. The Ladies' Sanitary Association, founded in 1857, grew, so Lady Knightley, of Fawsley, tells us, out of a suggestion made by Dr. Roth, and has now about four hundred members. Countless lectures have been given through it to all
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sorts and conditions of women; it has organized loan libraries of books on health, and distributed over a million and a half of tracts on hygiene for the people. Much of the technical teaching of which we have already spoken may be traced to its influence, as well as dinners for destitute children, nurseries for motherless babies, and many coal and clothing clubs and temperance associations. From its " park parties " have sprung the Children's Country Holidays schemes for city boys and girls, to whom an uncaged singing-bird, a growing wild flower, an expanse of blue sky, a field of scented hay or waving corn, or the rippling of water or whispering of leaves in the wood, are things as new and wonderful as they are joy inspiring. Its secretary is Miss Rose Adams.
The National Health Society, founded in 1873, began with a modest scheme of lectures by ladies at men's clubs and mothers' meetings. It now has three princesses of Great Britain for patronesses, the Duke of Westminster for president, and over four hundred and fifty members. Its aims are well summed up in its motto: " Prevention is better than cure." Free lectures are given throughout the country to the poor, subsidized now in many places by the county councils; while distinguished medical men and eminent lady nurses instruct drawing-room audiences, who need teaching scarcely less in the laws of health. A diploma of honor was awarded to its literature by the Council of the International Health Exhibition, and among the varied matters that claim its aid and interest are hygienic dress, smoke abatement, open spaces, and boarding-out of children. Its secretary is Miss Ray Lankester.
The Ladies' Association of Useful Work at Birmingham, which was founded in 1874, is a local association, rather younger than these two national societies. It was originally as comprehensive as its title; but since Mason College was opened it no longer labors for higher education, but is chiefly active in giving eight or nine courses of lectures on hygiene to working women, keeping up a recreation-room for business girls, and organizing country holidays for children. Its useful work is almost wholly carried on by voluntary helpers.
Education, in the narrower popular sense, next concerns us. This is not the place for speaking generally of the system that has supplemented girls' schools by women's colleges, and thrown open to the women of this generation a wide culture that is mak- ing women's lives richer and happier than they ever were before. Some women, like some men, go to the university in order to take up teaching or another profession that their attainments will render honorable. But some women, like some men, seek a liberal education for its own sake, and for its usefulness to others, rather than its gainfulness to themselves; and a new need of the help that they can give has grown up with their new power to give it.
The College for Working Women in Fitzroy street, London, was founded in 1874 in memory of the Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, originator of Queen's College, Harley street, the earliest of all women's colleges which now play so large a part in our intellectual life. It seeks to provide women in business and in domestic service with three things-teaching, amusement, and opportunity of friendly intercourse. When it began three-fourths of the two hundred women on its books were learning to read, write and spell in elementary classes. Now, thanks to the progress of popular education, there is but one elementary class with twenty pupils, though the members are between three and four hundred in number. The council seeks a teacher for any subject desired by not less than six students. Some subjects, such as French, attract from their usefulness for daily work; others, as in the case of a girl who lately took up Greek, because of their remoteness from the daily toil. There is a Bible class on Sundays, and lectures on first aid and sick nursing have been given in connection with St. John's Ambulance Association. The classes are supplemented by a library of some two thousand volumes, all gifts. Members who have worked for four terms in a class may use the college as a club only, and the social side of its work grows more important as time goes on. Take, for instance, the Holiday Guild inaugurated by Lady Stranford. The four Saturday evenings in the month are devoted to a dance exclusively for students, presided over by young ladies; an ambulance practice; a work-
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ing party for the Institution for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind; a con- cert or lecture often given by some eminent person. About a quarter of the working expenses is met by students' fees, the rest by gifts from friends and from the city companies. Miss Frances Martin is the honorary secretary. The College for Men and Women in Queen Square, London, founded in 1864, carries on a similar work.
The College by Post, founded in 1881, sprang out of an effort which I made in my own early days at college to help, by correspondence, other girls whose opportunities were fewer than my own. University College, London; Westfield College, Hamp- stead; Griton and Newnham Colleges, Cambridge, and Lady Margaret and Somerville Halls, Oxford; the Ladies' College, Cheltenham, and kindred institutions for higher education, have contributed to a staff on which between two and three hundred teachers have now been enrolled. From all parts of the United Kingdom, from the continent and the colonies, students representing many different conditions of life and degrees of education have joined to the number of between three and four thou- sand. Competition with professional teachers is carefully avoided, and no " coach- ing" for examinations, other than our own, is undertaken. Giving half an hour daily to Bible study in one of our seventy Scripture classes is the condition of receiving gratuitous instruction in other subjects. The scheme of historical Scripture study, which I have elaborated for our students, has now been published in a volume called "Clews to Holy Writ," which went into its third thousand within a few weeks of its publication. About twenty subjects are taught in our secular classes. The hygiene class; which is conducted by a medalist of the National Health Society, is one of the most popular of these. The wise and kindly influence of teacher upon taught, and the friendships, helpful to both, which grow up through their work together, are, per- haps, the most valuable and the least describable part of the scheme. Through the "writing mission," suggested by Lady Wright, some hundreds of our students are also in friendly correspondence with factory girls.
So we pass from the intellectual to the moral sphere, and to organizations that aim at enabling people to be, rather than to know, taking first those that aim at fitting special classes for special duties. The Home and Colonial School Society, established in 1836, is for the Christian training of women teachers, and sends forth annually some seventy-five to elementary schools, and some fifty to family teaching and secondary schools. Little can be done by the best of schools for those whose home influences are adverse, and this was never truer than it is today, when the day-school system prevails widely for every class of the community Hence the importance of insisting upon the sacred responsibilities of parents, often so lightly undertaken and so thought- lessly delegated to others. At the request of some Bradford mothers, Miss Charlotte M. Mason, in 1888, drew up a scheme for assisting parents of all classes to study the laws of education as they bear upon the bodily development, moral training, intellect- ual work and religious bringing up of children. The Bishop of Ripon's wife was the first president of the Parents' National Educational Union, and the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen are the present presidents. Among those who warmly took up the scheme were Dr. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of London, Miss Beale of Cheltenham College, Miss Clough of Newnham College, and Miss Buss of the North London Collegiate School. Its organ is the "Parents' Review," an admirable monthly. The House of Education offers definite training to those who hope to become mothers or governesses. "I was deeply impressed," said Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, in November, 1892, " with the carnest and business-like way in which the students addressed themselves to their work, and I do not doubt that they will devote them- selves to the care of children with exceptional zeal and knowledge."
Throughout we have to recognize a duty not only to the destitute and degraded, but to those who ask not alms but help of human fellowship, and appcal less to our pity than to our sympathy. It is through the co-operation, and not through the con- flict of classes, that progress will be made, and the amount of this co-operation will
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depend upon the degree in which each class realizes what are its special responsibili- ties and what are the true interests and the highest aims of the human race.
" We must be here to work; And men who work can only work for men, And not to work in vain, must comprehend Humanity, and so work humanly, And raise men's bodies still by raising souls, As God did first.'
7
HARMONIOUS ADJUSTMENT THROUGH EXERCISE.
By MRS. MINNA GORDON GOULD.
"Oh saw ye bonnie Leslie As she gaed o'er the border? She's gone, like Alexander, To spread her conquests farther. To see her is to love her, And love but her forever, For nature made her what she is, And ne'er made such another."
Nature made her what she was, and therefore she was beautiful. We all love beauty. Much of our joy of living comes from our delight in the beauties of nature. "Our heart leaps up when we behold a rain- bow in the sky or dances with the dancing daffodils."
It must have been a part of nature's plans that it should be so. And surely the beauty of woman's form is no less worthy of admiration than any other mani- festation of God in His creation. Indeed, by many it is considered the masterpiece of nature. Macaulay said that the most beautiful thing in the world is a beautiful woman; and I am sure many another man has thought so if he has not said it; and the wish MRS. MINNA GORDON GOULD. all women have to be beautiful seems to me as nat- ural as for birds to sing or for flowers to exhale per- fumc. It is part of their mission in the world. Beauty means harmony, whether in music, painting, sculpture, or in the mind and body of man. A beautiful body is one which is harmoniously developed in all its parts, whose organs are formed as nature intended, and which perform their functions according to nature's laws. Any deviation from this standard is deformity. An abnormal body is not beautiful because it is not harmoniously developed. We all recognize abnormal development in the fashionable woman, who compresses her waist by means of corsets, but we can also see lack of harmony in the figures of many women who do not dress unhy- gienically. Bad habits of carriage, such as standing or sitting with waist muscles relaxed, and a consequent settling of the body into the hips, a rounded back with hollow chest; indolent habits of inaction, which tend to the accumulation of too much flesh; hard work, as in the case of the blacksmith, whose right arm and shoulder are developed out of all proportion to the rest of his body-all these are illustrations of abnormal, inharmonious development. The same thing is seen in the case of athletes, who often injure their health by undue exercise of some muscles of the body at the expense and neglect of others, especially in failing to maintain the balance between the organs that supply and those that waste the vital force.
Mrs. Minna Gordon Gould was born at Brockton, Mass. Her parents were Andrew Mckeown, D. D., a Methodist. clergyman, and Lina B. (Pease) Mckeown. She was educated at Roxbury and Cambridge, Mass., and at Vassar College. She married Allen W. Gould, at one time instructor of Latin and Greek at Harvard College, and at present secretary of the Western Unitarian Association. Her special work has been in the interest of physical culture and improved dress for women. Her profession is that of public reader and teacher of elocution, physical and vocal culture, for which she is eminently quali fied. In religious faitb she is Unitarian. Her postoffice address is No. 175 Dearborn Street, Room 94, Chicago, Ill.
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Harmonious development of all the parts of the body seems one of nature's great laws, if we would have health and beauty. And so imperative are nature's demands for harmony that when one organ is raised to the proper pitch, the other organs are often brought up to the same key; or, when one organ is dragged down from its place, all the other parts of the body suffer. To illustrate: We all know that a well-poised head and full chest and flattened back are desirable from the standpoint of beauty. To acquire a full chest the lungs must be developed by exercise, and increased lung power means of course more oxygen in the blood, and better blood means everything better-better appetite, increased vitality and the consciousness of ability to attempt great things. Upon the other hand, when one part suffers from being thrown out of nature's harmony, all the other parts are sympathetically affected. For instance: A woman who wears high-heeled shoes which are too small for her feet, will experience many aches and pains, besides the comparatively insignificant ones of corns and bunions. The muscles of the feet being rendered useless, the calves of the leg are not developed, and the springy motion in the gait, so characteristic of health and happiness, is con- spicuous by its absence. The effort to maintain an equilibrium, caused by the high heels, throws many of the vital organs out of place and gives rise to an infinite variety of ills. Even injury to the eyes is said to be one of the results of wearing tight shoes. When we reflect that few, if any, see our feet, and that everyone sees and notes our walk, it seems strange that we would ever be willing to sacrifice the great beauty of a grace- ful carriage to the far lesser charm of a trim foot, even if no consideration of health and comfort induced us to respect the natural requirements of our feet, instead of treating them as pegs for balancing the body. There can be no one exercise more beneficial to the body- the whole body-than a brisk, animated walk, with all the muscles of the body participating more or less in the movement; but such a walk is absolutely impossible when the various parts are impeded by the clothing, and when to the tight shoes and corset is added the incubus of a muff to restrict the move- ment of the arms, or long, heavy skirts to be held up, the lack of free harmonious action is well nigh complete. The object of my paper is to emphasize the value of exercise as a means to harmonious readjustment. There is always a tendency to the normal in all diseased or abnormal bodies, and if the hindrances are removed, nature herself will do much toward readjustment. At a recent medical congress, an eminent physician made the statement that "very few, if any, drugs cure; that educated physi- cians hesitate before asserting that they have cured their patients; that at best they but guide their recovery." Doctors recognize more and more the immense power of self-cure by readjustment to nature's laws, and instead of loading the system with powerful drugs which may do more harm in certain directions than they do good in others, it is sometimes the part of wisdom to stand aside and let nature act. And nature acts through motion. All her forces are but modified forms of motion. At any rate, all organic bodies require motion as a means of life. I will not speak of the ceaseless motion of inorganic nature, but if a human being wishes to live he must keep moving. It is motion that gives value to exercise, and not the straining of the mus- cles by gymnastic appliances of heavy dumb-bells and Indian clubs, etc. The less apparatus one uses in exercise the better. Thus there will be very little danger of straining the muscles and organs, and the muscular development will be more sym- metrical, and grace and suppleness will be secured more easily than when weight is added to motion as a means of development.
A perfectly normal body, like that of a healthy young child, needs only the amount of exercise which his animal spirits secure for him. Such a one does God's will, and knows it not. But when unhealthy habits of dress or unhygienic habits of living have cramped the body and rendered useless certain organs, special exercise of those organs will aid them to regain their normal power in the quickest and best way. Since health depends upon motion, the clothing should be adapted to that need, and should conform to the shape of the body rather than that the body should be fitted to the shape of the dress, as our present fashion is. But while women are
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afraid of ridicule for being odd, and are slaves to fashion, no amount of argument from an æsthetic or even hygienic standpoint will affect them. In vain you may tell them that beauty and fashion are not synonymous, as anyone can see by looking at the hideous grotesqueness of the styles of the past; that some of the most celebrated artists of today will not paint a woman's portrait until she has removed " those disfig- urements," as they designate corsets, etc .; that the most noted house in London will not make a gown fashioned upon the abnormal, inartistic lines of the corset; that hun- dreds of the most intelligent women in this country and in England are striving for something better for themselves and their children in the way of healthful and artistic clothing. It is useless to refer to such other mistaken ideas of beauty as that which induces the women in some countries to insert a round piece of wood in the lower lip, and then gradually increase the size of the wedge and so enlarge the lip that it projects far beyond the place that nature gave it. A wedge two inches in diameter was in accord with the requirements of fashion, but four inches was the mark of an extremely stylish savage.
These arguments seem to fall for the most part on "stony ground," and the "thus saith" of fashion is as potent as ever with a large majority, even though obedience to her commands entails agony and deformity. "Oh Lord, make us all stylish," was the fervent prayer of a little girl I once heard of, and this, doubtlessly, is the sun total of many a woman's aspirations. So they cramp and distort their bodies, force their hands and feet into coverings much too small for these members and which destroy all semblance to the exquisite beauty nature shows in the perfect hands and feet of an infant, and make them almost useless. All this abuse of the body seems to be the result of a perverted notion that the female figure is not properly con- structed and needs making over. But women are beginning to awaken to the fact that a large portion of the sideaches, backaches, headaches, nervous prostrations, etc., are nature's warning against the violation of her laws. I believe exercise and the conse- quent ability of relaxation to be the chief factor of health.
The other requisites of health are sleep, nourishing food, fresh air, clean linen and peace of mind. But exercise comprises in itself all the beneficial qualities of the others. Sleep has been rightfully called " the chief nourisher in life's feast " Loss of sleep and lack of nerve-control are among the most serious maladies of the present day. We are in such a hurry, and live at such a high pressure of nervous tension during the day, that we lose our ability to sleep, and thus fail to recuperate the nervous forces at night. Well-directed exercise which draws the blood away from the brain will give a much more healthful and refreshing sleep than that which is produced by narcotics.
We must also have nourishing food in order that we may have health; but no amount of nourishing food will help the body whose organs of digestion and assimila- tion are ruined. And what good will fresh air do one whose lungs are unable to per- form their functions? But exercise, that gives health to the muscles, aids digestion and quickens the action of the heart and lungs. Peace of mind is impossible without that harmony of the nervous system which a healthy body secures. Thus we see illus- trated the story of the old woman getting her pig over the stile As soon as the fire began to burn the stick, the stick began to beat the dog, the dog began to bite the pig, and everything started in the way in which it should go. So, too, if you exercise, your appetite will be increased, your digestive organs will do their duty and nourish you. A well-nourished body demands sleep, sufficient sleep secures nerve-control, and so " a sound mind in a sound body " is the result. Health of mind, on the other hand, is necessary to health of body. We see plainly enough, in extreme cases of idiocy and insanity, that a diseased mind usually accompanies, if it does not result in, a diseased body; so, then, a diseased mind deranges the health, and as doctors can not minister to a mind diseased any more than they can to a sick body, with drugs simply, then here, too, harmony with nature's laws is the price of health and beauty. We reach the highest beauty of all when we attain the beauty of expression. Beauty in its highest manifestation does not consist in any one part, but in the harmony of the whole-mind,
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