I do not want to do more than
is needed of this ungracious talk: suffice it to say that multitudes of
our young girls are merely pretty to look at, or not that; that their
destiny is the shawl and the sofa, neuralgia, weak backs, and the varied
forms of hysteria,--that domestic demon which has produced untold
discomfort in many a household, and, I am almost ready to say, as much
unhappiness as the husband's dram. My phrase may seem outrageously
strong, but only the doctor knows what one of these self-made invalids
can do to make a household wretched. Mrs. Gradgrind is, in fiction, the
only successful portrait of this type of misery, of the woman who wears
out and destroys generations of nursing relatives, and who, as Wendell
Holmes has said, is like a vampire, sucking slowly the blood of every
healthy, helpful creature within reach of her demands.
If any reader doubts my statement as to the physical failure of our
city-bred women to fulfil all the natural functions of mothers, let him
contrast the power of the recently imported Irish or Germans to nurse
their babies a full term or longer, with that of the native women even
of our mechanic classes. It is difficult to get at full statistics as to
those a higher social degree, but I suspect that not over one-half are
competent to nurse their children a full year without themselves
suffering gravely.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35