s?) of such groups of women is bitterly opposed to
conceding the belief held by physicians, that there are in the woman's
physiological life disqualifications for such continuous labor of mind
as is easy and natural to man. The public sentiment of these great
schools is against any such creed, and every girl feels called upon to
sustain the general view, so that this acts as a constant goad for such
as are at times unfit to use their fullest possibility of energy. Modest
girls, caught in the stern mechanism of a system, hesitate to admit
reasons for lessened work or to exhibit signals of failure, and this I
know to be the case. The practical outcome of it all is that the eyes of
home can never be too thoughtfully busy with those of their girls who
have won consent to pursue, away from maternal care, the higher
education of female colleges. I must have wearied that wise mother by
this time, but, perhaps, I have given her more than enough to make her
dread these trials.
I should say something as to the home-life of girls who go through the
ordinary curriculum of city day schools were it not that I have of late
so very fully reconsidered and rewritten my views as to this interesting
question. I beg to refer my unsatisfied reader to a little book which, I
am glad to know, has been helpful to many people in the last few
years.[11]
[Footnote 11: "Wear and Tear," pp. 30 to 60. J.B. Lippincott Company,
Philadelphia, 1887.]
OUT-DOOR AND CAMP-LIFE FOR WOMEN.
A good many years ago I wrote a short paper, meant to capture popular
attention, under the title of "Camp Cure." I have reason to think that
it was of use, but I have been led to regret that I did not see when it
was written that what I therein urged as desirable for men was not also
in a measure attainable by many women. I wish now to correct my error of
omission, and to show not only that in our climate camp-life in some
shape can be readily had, but also what are its joys and what its
peculiar advantages.[12] My inclination to write anew on this subject is
made stronger by two illustrations which recur to my mind, and which
show how valuable may be an entire out-door life, and how free from
risks even for the invalid. The lessons of the great war were not lost
upon some of us, who remember the ease with which recoveries were made
in tents, but single cases convince more than any statement of these
large and generalized remembrances.
[Footnote 12: "Nurse an
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