r dance.
In fact, entire repose is strictly enforced in every
well-regulated household and school. A German girl would
consider the idea of going to a party at such times as simply
preposterous; and the difference that exists in this respect
in America is wholly unintelligible to them.

As a general rule, a married woman in Germany, even after she
has had many children, is as strong and healthy, if not more
so, than when she was a girl. In America, with a few
exceptions, it appears to be the reverse; and, I have no
doubt, it is owing to the want of care on the part of girls at
this particular time, and to the neglect of their mothers to
enforce proper rules in this most important matter.

It has seemed to me, often, that the difference in the
education of girls in America and in Germany, as regards their
physical training, is, that in America it is marked by a great
degree of recklessness; while in Germany, the erring, if it
can be called erring, is on the side of anxious, extreme
caution. Therefore beautiful American girls fade rapidly;
while the German girls, who do not possess the same natural
advantages, do possess, as a rule, good, permanent health,
which goes hand-in-hand with happiness and enjoyment of life.

Believe me,
Very truly yours,
---- ----.

JUNE 21, 1873.

This letter confirms the statement of Dr. Hagen, and shows that the
educational and social regimen of a German school-girl is widely
different from that of her American sister. Perhaps, as is intimated
above, the German way, which is probably the European way also, may
err on the side of too great confinement and caution; and that a
medium between that and the recklessness of the American way would
yield a better result than either one of them.

German peasant girls and women work in the field and shop with and
like men. None who have seen their stout and brawny arms can doubt the
force with which they wield the hoe and axe. I once saw, in the
streets of Coblentz, a woman and a donkey yoked to the same cart,
while a man, with a whip in his hand, drove the team. The bystanders
did not seem to look upon the moving group as if it were an unusual
spectacle. The donkey appeared to be the most intelligent and refined
of the three. The sight symbolized the physical force and infamous
degradation of the lower classes of women in Eu