Words to Christian Mothers

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On the Subject of Life, Health, and Happiness.-No. 2. Obedience to the laws of our being should be regarded of great importance, and to every individual, a matter of personal duty. Indifference and ignorance upon this subject is sin. The two great principles of God’s moral government are supreme love to the Creator, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are under obligations to God to take care of the habitation he has given us, that we may preserve ourselves in the best condition of health, that all the powers of our being may be dedicated to his service, to glorify his name, whose we are, and whom we ought to serve. It is impossible to render to God acceptable service while we, through wrong habits, are diseased physically and mentally.

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We are also under obligation to ourselves, to pursue a course which will not bring unnecessary suffering upon ourselves, and make our lives wretched, we groaning under the weight of disease. If we injure unnecessarily our constitution, we dishonor God, for we transgress the laws of our being. We are under obligation to our neighbors to take a course before them which will give them correct views of the right way to pursue to insure health. If we manifest an indifference upon this great subject of reform, and neglect to obtain the knowledge within our reach, and do not put that knowledge to a practical use, we will be accountable before God for the light he has given us, which we would not accept and act upon.

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I have heard many say, I know that we have wrong habits that are injuring our health; but our habits have become formed, and it is next to impossible to change, and do even as well as we know. By hurtful indulgences these are working against their own highest interest and happiness in this life, and are, in so doing, disqualifying themselves to obtain the future life. Many who are enlightened still follow in a course of transgression, excusing themselves that it is very inconvenient to be singular. Because the world at large choose to war against themselves and their highest earthly and eternal interest, they who know better venture to do the same, disregarding the light and knowledge which hold them responsible for the result of their violation of nature’s laws. God is not responsible for the suffering which follows the nonconformity to natural law and moral obligations to him. Enlightened transgressors are the worst of sinners, for they choose darkness rather than light. The laws that govern physical life, they may understand if they will; but the desire with them is so strong to follow popular, sensual indulgences of the day that are in opposition to physical and moral health, that they are insensible to its importance, and will not impress it upon others either by precept or example.

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Their neglect of this important subject exposes them to a fearful accountability. Not only are they suffering themselves the penalty of nature’s violated law, but their example is leading others in the same course of transgression. But if men and women would act in reference to their highest temporal good, untrammeled by fashion, living naturally, we should see fewer pale faces, hear less complaint of suffering, and attend less death-beds and funerals.

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Because the majority choose to walk in a path which God has positively forbidden, shall all feel compelled to tread the same path? The question is not, What will the world do? but, What shall we as individuals do? Will we accept light and knowledge, and live simply and naturally, feeling that we are under obligation to society, to our children, and to God, to preserve health and a good constitution, serene tempers, and unimpaired judgment. We have a duty to live for the interest of others. In order to benefit others, many think they must conform to custom, or they will lose the influence they might have upon the world. But when they do this, their influence to reform and elevate is lost, and their example leads away from reform. They are on a level with transgressors, therefore, cannot elevate them while their own example sanctions the customs and enslaving fashions of this age. The only hope of benefiting society is in showing them a better way by proper instruction sustained by a correct course on our part.

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Those who have means at their command, can do a good work if governed by religious principles. They can demonstrate, if they will, to rich and poor, that happiness does not consist in outward adornings and needless display. They may show by their own simplicity of dress and unaffected modesty of manners that there are higher and nobler attainments than conformity to the latest styles of fashion.

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If we would have happiness in this life, we must live for it, and show to society that we can preserve firm principles in defiance of extravagant and injurious fashion. If we conform to the world and bring on disease by violating the laws of life and health, fashionable society cannot relieve us of a single pain. We shall have to suffer for ourselves, and if we sacrifice life, we shall have to die for ourselves. We should as individuals seek to do right, and to take care of ourselves by living naturally instead of artificially.

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We cannot afford to live fashionably, for in doing thus, we sacrifice the natural to the artificial. Our artificial habits deprive us of many privileges and much enjoyment, and unfit us for useful life. Fashion subjects us to a hard, thankless life. A vast amount of money is sacrificed to keep pace with changing fashion, merely to create a sensation. The votaries of fashion who live to attract the admiration of friends and strangers, are not happy-far from it. Their happiness consists in being praised and flattered, and if they are disappointed in this, they are frequently unhappy, gloomy, morose, jealous, and fretful. As a weather vane is turned by the wind, those who consent to live fashionable lives are controlled by every changing fashion, however inconsistent with health and with real beauty. Very many sacrifice comfort and true elegance, to be in the train of fashion. The most enfeebling and deforming fashions are now enslaving those who bow at her shrine.

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Fashion loads the heads of women with artificial braids and pads, which do not add to their beauty, but give an unnatural shape to the head. The hair is strained and forced into unnatural positions, and it is not possible for the heads of these fashionable ladies to be comfortable. The artificial hair and pads covering the base of the brain, heat and excite the spinal nerves centering in the brain. The head should ever be kept cool. The heat caused by these artificials induces the blood to the brain. The action of the blood upon the lower or animal organs of the brain, causes unnatural activity, tends to recklessness in morals, and the mind and heart is in danger of being corrupted. As the animal organs are excited and strengthened, the moral are enfeebled. The moral and intellectual powers of the mind become servants to the animal.

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In consequence of the brain being congested its nerves lose their healthy action, and take on morbid conditions, making it almost impossible to arouse the moral sensibilities. Such lose their power to discern sacred things. The unnatural heat caused by these artificial deformities about the head, induces the blood to the brain, producing congestion, and causing the natural hair to fall off, producing baldness. Thus the natural is sacrificed to the artificial.

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Many have lost their reason, and become hopelessly insane, by following this deforming fashion. Yet the slaves to fashion will continue to thus dress their heads, and suffer horrible disease and premature death, rather than be out of fashion.

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Pleasure-seeking and frivolity blunt the sensibilities of the professed followers of Christ, and make it impossible for them to place a high estimate upon eternal things. Good and evil, by them, are placed upon a level. The high, elevated attainments in godliness, which God designed his people should reach, are not gained. These lovers of pleasure seem to be pleased with earthly and sensual things, to the neglect of the higher life. The enjoyments of this life, which God has abundantly provided for them in the varied works of nature, which have an elevating influence upon the heart and life, are not attractive to those who are conformed to the fashions of the world. They rush on unmindful of the glories of nature, seen in the works of God’s hands, and seek for happiness in fashionable life, and in unnatural excitement which is in direct opposition to the laws of God established in our being. The Marshall Statesman says:-

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«A PHYSICIAN, WRITING A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A SCHOOL-GIRL, DEVOTES ONE TO THE NICE KEEPING OF THE HAIR. AMONG OTHER DIRECTIONS HE REMARKS THAT MUCH IS SAID AGAINST WEARING SWITCHES, OR JUTES, OR CHIGNONS, BECAUSE THEY BREED PESTIFEROUS VERMIN, WHOSE LIFE IS FED BY THEIR DRAIN ON THE SMALL BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE SCALP; BUT ALL SUCH OBJECTIONS TO THESE MONSTROSITIES BECOME AS NOTHING COMPARED WITH THE OBJECTION WHICH ARISES FROM THE CONGESTED CONDITION OF THE BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE BACK BRAIN BY REASON OF THEIR USE. A SWITCH OR CHIGNON IS A SUBSTANCE WHICH, IN ITSELF, IS A GREAT CONDUCTOR OF ANIMAL HEAT. AS THE BACK OF THE HEAD HAS A GREAT DEAL OF BLOOD, AND A GREAT DEAL OF BLOOD HAS A GREAT DEAL OF HEAT IN IT, THE SURPLUSAGE OF THIS HEAT SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PASS OFF OUTWARDLY. TO WEAR ONE OF THESE APPLIANCES IS TO KEEP THE HEAT IN, AND AS THE PART THUS DRESSED BECOMES EXCESSIVELY HEATED, DISEASE TAKES PLACE IN A LITTLE WHILE, AND THE WHOLE BODILY STRUCTURE BECOMES AFFECTED. IN WOMEN THERE IS SUCH AN INTIMATE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE BACK BRAIN AND THE REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURE, THAT WHEN THE FORMER BECOMES ENFEEBLED THE LATTER INVARIABLY TAKES ON MORBID CONDITIONS.»

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God has surrounded us with his glories, that the natural eye may be charmed. The splendor of the heavens, the adornments of nature in spring and summer, the lofty trees, the lovely flowers of every tint and hue, should call us out of our houses to contemplate the power and glory of God, as seen in the works of his hands. But many close their senses to these charms. They will not engage in healthful labor among the beautiful things of nature. They turn from shrubs and flowers, and shut themselves in their houses, to labor and toil in closed walls, depriving themselves of the healthful, glorious sunlight, and the pure air, that they may prepare artificial adornments for their houses and their persons. They impose upon themselves a terrible tax. They sacrifice the glow of health God has given in the human face, the blended beauty of the lily and the rose, and tax the physical and mental in preparing the artificial to take the place of the natural. The beauty of the soul, when compared with outward display, is regarded almost valueless. In the anxiety to meet the standard of fashion, beauty of character is overlooked. A writer has well said:-

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«CURLS AND COSMETICS ARE ALL IN REQUISITION TO ENHANCE THE BEAUTY OF ‘THE HUMAN FACE DIVINE;’ BUT WHAT IS THE RESULT? YOUTH’S ROSES ONLY FLEE THE FASTER-OLD AGE WILL CREEP ON APACE; ROUGE CANNOT HIDE ITS WRINKLES, NOR CAN IT MAKE ANY FACE BEAUTIFUL. WE ARE DECIDED BELIEVERS IN THE OLD ADAGE, ‘HANDSOME IS THAT HANDSOME DOES.’ NO FACE HAS TRUE BEAUTY IN IT THAT DOES NOT MIRROR THE DEEDS OF A NOBLE SOUL. THERE IS NOT A THOUGHT, WORD, OR DEED, THAT DOES NOT LEAVE ITS AUTOGRAPH WRITTEN ON THE HUMAN COUNTENANCE; AND WE CARE NOT WHETHER KIND NATURE HAS GIVEN HER CHILD AN UGLY FACE OR A HANDSOME ONE, IF THE HEART THAT BEATS UNDERNEATH ALL IS WARM AND LOVING. AND IF THE SOUL THAT LOOKS OUT FROM THE EYES BE TRUE AND PURE, THE FACE WILL BE BEAUTIFUL ALWAYS, FOR IT HAS FOUND THE TRUE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH; AND THOUGH TIME MAY FOLD THE HAIR IN SILVER, AND FURROW THE BROW, YET THERE WILL EVER BE A BEAUTY LIGHTING IT UP THAT YEARS CANNOT DIM, FOR THE HEART AND SOUL NEVER GROW OLD.»

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Another writer says under the caption,

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«DANGEROUS FASHIONS, «THE CRUELTIES THE TYRANT OF FASHION INFLICTS UPON HER SLAVES-WILLING THOUGH THEY BE-ARE INDEED APPALLING. JUST TO THINK OF LADIES UPON WHOM NATURE HAS LAVISHED HER CHARMS, SUBMITTING TO THE ENAMELING PROCESS ONLY TO BECOME SUBJECT TO PARALYSIS OR DROP DEAD FROM ITS EFFECTS. OTHERS, AGAIN, SEEKING TO BE FAIRER THAN THE FAIREST, ARE ALLURED BY THE GLARING WORDS, ‘LAIRD’S BLOOM OF YOUTH,’ AND SIMILAR POETIC PHRASES, AND EAGERLY SEIZE UPON THE POISONOUS COMPOUNDS, ONLY TO SUFFER THE EXCRUCIATING PAINS OF NEURALGIA OR BREATHE OUT A PAINFUL AND LINGERING EXISTENCE FROM THE EFFECTS OF SLOW POISON INTRODUCED INTO THE SYSTEM BY THEIR USE.»

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The majority of pleasure lovers attend the fashionable night gatherings, and spend in exciting amusements the hours God has given them for quiet rest and sleep in order to invigorate the body. Hours are spent in dancing. The blood becomes heated; the system is exhausted; and while in this feverish state of excitement, the late suppers are introduced, and the unnatural appetite is indulged, to the injury, not only of the physical, but the moral health. Those things which irritate and burden the stomach, benumb the finer feelings of the heart, and the entire system must feel it, for this organ has a controlling power upon the health of the entire body. If the stomach is diseased, the brain nerves are in strong sympathy with the stomach, and the moral powers are overruled by the baser passions. Irregularity in eating and drinking, and improper dressing, deprave the mind and corrupt the heart, and bring the noble attributes of the soul in slavery to the animal passions.

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Many in returning to their homes from these night scenes of dissipation, expose themselves to the damp, chilly air of night. They are thinly clad with thin slippers upon their feet, the chest not properly protected, and health and life are sacrificed. By the limbs and feet becoming chilled the circulation of the blood through the system is unbalanced. Very many have, by pursuing this course, brought upon themselves lung difficulties and various distressing infirmities, which have, in a few months, carried them to an untimely grave.

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Many are ignorantly injuring their health and endangering their life by using cosmetics. They are robbing the cheeks of the glow of health, and then to supply the deficiency use cosmetics. When they become heated in the dance the poison is absorbed by the pores of the skin, and is thrown in to the blood. Many lives have been sacrificed by this means alone.

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The following selection we here insert hoping that it may arrest the attention of some of the votaries of fashion, and excite their fears, if it does not arouse their consciences, to put away the pride and sin which produces such dangerous results:-

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«THE FATAL EFFECTS OF PAINTING. «NO ONE CAN RIDE OR WALK THROUGH THE FASHIONABLE PORTION OF NEW YORK CITY, ATTEND ANY PLACE OF AMUSEMENT, OR GO TO ANY EVENING PARTY, WITHOUT BECOMING AWARE OF THE HORRIBLE FACT THAT MANY WOMEN OF WHOM BETTER THINGS MIGHT BE EXPECTED, HAVE FALLEN INTO THE PERNICIOUS HABIT OF APPLYING TO THEIR SKINS THE ENAMELS WHICH, UNDER VARIOUS ATTRACTIVE NAMES, ARE ADVERTISED AND SOLD IN ALL PARTS OF THE LAND.

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«NOT ONLY FADED FACES, BUT COUNTENANCES SO YOUNG, PLUMP AND PRETTY IN OUTLINE THAT THEY MUST IN THEIR NATURAL CONDITION BE ATTRACTIVE, ARE LACQUERED OVER WITH AN UNNATURAL POLISH OF FINE PORCELAIN, WHICH PRODUCES AN EFFECT SUCH AS ONE MIGHT IMAGINE IF A CHINA DOLL WERE AFFLICTED WITH THE CONSUMPTION.

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«THIS PRACTICE IS AS PERNICIOUS AS IT IS DISGUSTING-THE SEEDS OF DEATH OR PARALYSIS BEING HIDDEN IN EVERY POT AND JAR OF THOSE MIXTURES, WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO BE NOT ONLY INNOCENT, BUT ALSO TO POSSESS THE VIRTUES OF THE UNDISCOVERED FOUNTAIN OF PERPETUAL YOUTH.

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SOME WHO USE THEM WILL SUDDENLY HAVE A SEVERE ILLNESS; AND RECEIVING A PRIVATE WARNING FROM THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN, WILL CEASE THE USE OF THE CAUSE OF THEIR DISORDER, AND RECOVERING, GO THROUGH LIFE WITH AN EXTREMELY BAD COMPLEXION, AS A REMINDER OF THEIR FOLLY.

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«OTHERS WILL DROP SUDDENLY, WITH THEIR FEATURES TWISTED ON ONE SIDE, AND PERHAPS DEPRIVED OF THE USE OF THEIR LIMBS. OTHERS WILL DIE OUTRIGHT, NO ONE GUESSING WHY. THE EFFECT ON ANY PARTICULAR PERSON CANNOT BE CALCULATED. WHAT ONE SUFFERS PARALYSIS FROM, MAY KILL ANOTHER OUTRIGHT. THE ONLY SAFETY IS IN HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY OF THESE BANEFUL PREPARATIONS.»

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If God had required of society so great a sacrifice for his sake, what mourning we should bear of the terrible burdens imposed upon those who follow Christ. But the slaves to fashion take these burdens upon themselves, and make their own life very wearisome with needless care, in their anxiety to keep pace with fashion. They lay upon the altar of fashion, health, happiness, life and Heaven.

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Christians cannot afford to make this great sacrifice. They cannot afford to sow to the flesh and reap corruption. That which ye sow ye shall also reap. Now is the sowing time. The reaping time hasteth. What will the harvest be? The inspired apostle addresses us, » I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.» —

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After completing the foregoing, I found the following. I have had some experience in using Mrs. S.A. Allen’s World’s Hair Restorative, also Hall’s Vegetable Sicilian Hair Restorative. I have made applications of these preparations upon the head of my husband, to prevent the falling off of the hair. I observed that when using these preparations, he frequently complained of giddiness of the head, and weakness and pain of the eyes.

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In applying these preparations, my eyes, that were naturally strong, grew weak, and twice seemed to be greatly inflamed. Eruptions appeared upon the lids, and continued for weeks. I was convinced that I was poisoned by applying these preparations to the head of my husband. We discontinued the use of these altogether, and I have had no weakness of the eyes since. My husband has been free from the peculiar sensations he experienced while using these preparations, and my experience has been for twenty years, that pure soft water is best for my head and hair. E. G. W. —

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On the Subject of Life, Health, and Happiness.-No. 3. Health is a great blessing, and can be secured only in obedience to natural law. Good health is necessary for the enjoyment of life. A calm, clear brain, and steady nerve, are dependent upon a well-balanced circulation of the blood. In order to have good blood, we must breathe well.

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Mothers are accountable, in a great degree, for the health and lives of their children, and should become intelligent in regard to laws upon which life and health depend. Their work does not end here. They should carefully educate their children upon this subject, that they may, by obedience to nature’s laws, avoid disease, and secure health and happiness. It is not necessary that all mothers should teach their children all the details of physiology and anatomy. But they should avail themselves of all the means within their reach to give their children instruction relative to the simple principles of hygiene.

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It is well that physiology is introduced into the common schools as a branch of education. All children should study it. It should be regarded as the basis of all educational effort. And then parents should see to it that practical hygiene be added. This will make their knowledge of physiology of practical benefit. Parents should teach their children by example that health is to be regarded as the chiefest earthly blessing. They cannot do this while the love of money and of display is made of greater consequence than the health of their children.

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Mental and moral power is dependent upon the physical health. Children should be taught that all pleasures and indulgences are to be sacrificed which will interfere with health. If the children are taught self-denial and self-control, they will be far happier than if allowed to indulge their desires for pleasures and extravagance in dress.

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The great burden of life with very many is, What shall I eat? What shall I drink? And wherewithal shall I be clothed? Many mothers indulge in pride, and in many things which are hurtful to the health of the body, in order to be in fashion. What deplorable lessons are they giving their children in this respect. They do not, by precept and example, educate their children to practice self-denial as a sacred duty, in order to possess health, serene tempers, goodness, and true beauty. Good health, sound minds, and pure hearts, are not made of the first importance in households.

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Many parents do not educate their children for usefulness and duty. They are indulged and petted, until self-denial to them becomes almost an impossibility. They are not taught that to make a success of Christian life, the development of sound minds in sound bodies is of the greatest importance. The dear children should be taught to flee every taint of sin. In order to do this, they must separate from the hurtful fashions of the world.

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It is a sad fact that many, even professed Christians, make their pleasures, their amusements, the gratification of pride in dress, the gratification of appetite, almost everything; while the cross of Jesus Christ, and purity of heart and life, are left out of the question. God has claims upon them, but they do not, by their life, show that they have a sense of their duty to him. They acknowledge the claims of the world in their obedience to fashion. They devote time, service, and money, to its friendship, and, in so doing, prove themselves to be not the true friends of God. He demands of his people the first place in their hearts. He requires their best and holiest affections. The Christian religion invites, urges, and claims self-denial, and the bearing of the cross for Christ’s sake. And the soul’s interest should come first.

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The world may clamor for our time and affections, fashion may invite our patronage; but the words of the apostle should be enough to lead Christian mothers from the indulgence of pride in dress and demoralizing amusements. «Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?» «Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God.»

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Christian mothers should take their position on the platform of truth and righteousness; and when urged to unite with the world in patronizing fashions which are health-destroying and demoralizing, they should answer, We are doing a great work, and cannot be diverted from it. We are settling the question of our everlasting destiny. We are seeking to develop in our children, sound and worthy and beautiful characters, that they may bless the world with their influence, and have immortal beauty and glory in the world to come that will never fade. If children had such an example from their parents, it would have a saving influence upon their lives.

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But it is a lamentable fact, that many professed Christian women, who are mothers, take the lead in patronizing the fashions, and those who make no pretensions to Christianity follow in the footsteps of professed Christians. Some who are in humble circumstances in life, in their efforts to keep pace with fashion, that they may retain their position in fashionable society, endure privation, and work far beyond their strength, that they may dress equal to the example given them by their more wealthy Christian sisters. Unless they can dress somewhat to compare with their more wealthy sisters, they have no desire to attend church, where there is such a display of costly adorning. The contrast is humiliating, say they, and they can only think of their humble dress.

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The temptation is so strong before some to come up to the standard of fashion that they are sometimes led into dishonesty and theft to gain their desired object. Others sell their virtue, that they may have the means to decorate themselves for display. They see this is the great aim of life with many who profess to be righteous. Professed Christians, whose example thus proves a stumbling-block to their weak sisters, will have a fearful account to meet in the day of final reckoning. They have, by their example, opened a door of temptation to the inexperienced, who are charmed with the respect paid to those dressed in fashionable style, and they became so infatuated that they at last sold honor and virtue, woman’s greatest adornments, and sacrificed health and happiness for artificial decorations for display. I clip the following pointed remarks from the Marshall Statesman , under the caption of Fashionable Ruin:

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«AT A FASHIONABLE PARTY IN FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, A FEW EVENINGS SINCE, A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN TURNED SHARPLY UPON AN ELDERLY DOWAGER WHO WAS PROSING ABOUT THE MAGDALENS, AND THE HOPELESSNESS OF DOING ANYTHING FOR THESE ‘LOST WOMEN,’ WITH THE ASSERTION: ‘I KNOW A CLASS MORE HOPELESSLY LOST THAN THEY. WE FASHIONABLES, WHO MURDER TIME AND SQUANDER MONEY, AND LEAD WOMEN TO BECOME MAGDALENS THAT THEY MAY DRESS LIKE US, WHY DOES NO BODY SEND MISSIONARIES TO US?’ THE INTENSITY OF THE UTTERANCE WAS ELOQUENT OF BETTER POSSIBILITIES. NO DOUBT THERE ARE MORE WAYS THAN ONE OF BEING LOST. THE SYRENS ARE NOT ALL OF ONE CLASS, OR CONFINED TO ONE LOCALITY.»

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The apostle presents the inward adorning, in contrast with the outward, and tells us what the great God values. The outward is corruptible. But the meek and quiet spirit, the development of a beautifully symmetrical character, will never decay. It is an adornment which is not perishable. In the sight of the Creator of everything that is valuable, lovely, and beautiful, it is declared to be of great price. «Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel. But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner, in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands.» 1 Pet. 3:3-5.

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It is of the greatest importance that we, as Christian mothers, show, by precept and example, that we are cultivating that which the Monarch of the universe estimates of great value. In doing this, what an influence for good can we have upon our children; and how important we can make our lessons of instruction, that purity and holiness should be the great aim and object of their lives. The following should be read with attention:

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«DRESS.

«FEMALE LOVELINESS NEVER APPEARS TO SO GOOD ADVANTAGE AS WHEN SET OFF WITH SIMPLICITY OF DRESS. NO ARTIST EVER DECKS HIS ANGELS WITH TOWERING FEATHERS AND GAUDY JEWELRY; AND OUR DEAR HUMAN ANGELS, IF THEY WILL MAKE GOOD THEIR TITLE TO THAT NAME, SHOULD CAREFULLY AVOID ORNAMENTS, WHICH PROPERLY BELONG TO INDIAN SQUAWS AND AFRICAN PRINCESSES. THESE TINSELRIES MAY SERVE TO GIVE EFFECT ON THE STAGE, ON THE BALL-FLOOR, BUT IN DAILY LIFE THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE CHARM OF SIMPLICITY. A VULGAR TASTE IS NOT TO BE DISGUISED BY GOLD OR DIAMONDS. THE ABSENCE OF A TRUE TASTE AND REFINEMENT OF DELICACY CANNOT BE COMPENSATED FOR BY THE POSSESSION OF THE MOST PRINCELY FORTUNE. MIND MEASURES GOLD, BUT GOLD CANNOT MEASURE MIND.

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«THROUGH DRESS THE MIND MAY BE READ, AS THROUGH THE DELICATE TISSUES OF THE LETTERED PAGE. A MODEST WOMAN WILL DRESS MODESTLY; A REALLY REFINED AND INTELLECTUAL WOMAN WILL BEAR THE MARKS OF CAREFUL SELECTION AND FAULTLESS TASTE.»

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A great amount of time and money is squandered upon needless adornments. Many inventions have been sought out in extra puffings, tucks, and trimmings, which have a direct tendency to lessen vitality and shorten life. Almost every conceivable style of dress may be seen in crowded cities, and upon the great thoroughfares of travel. There are customs and styles in dress current now, that a few years ago would have been looked upon by Christians as monstrosities.

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The corsets which are again being generally worn to compress the waist is one of the most serious features in woman’s dress. Health and life are being sacrificed to carry out a fashion that is devoid of real beauty and comfort. The compression of the waist weakens the muscles of the respiratory organs. It hinders the process of digestion. The heart, liver, lungs, spleen, and stomach, are crowded into a small compass, not allowing room for the healthful action of these organs.

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The following item is clipped from the Herald of Health: —

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«A FEMALE SERVANT DIED SUDDENLY A SHORT TIME SINCE IN THE EAST. THE DOCTOR COULD NOT ACCOUNT FOR THE DEATH, AND MADE A POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION, WHICH SHOWED THAT THE STOMACH HAD BEEN REDUCED TO THE SIZE OF A CHILD’S, AND THE HEART PUSHED OUT OF ITS PROPER PLACE THROUGH TIGHT-LACING.»

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Where tight-lacing is practiced, the lower part of the chest has not room sufficient for action. The breathing, therefore, is confined to the upper portion of the lungs, where there is not sufficient room to carry on the work. But the lower part of the lungs should have the greatest freedom possible. The compression of the waist will not allow free action of the muscles.

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Alcohol and tobacco pollute the blood of men, and thousands of lives are yearly sacrificed to these poisons. Confinement indoors, shut away from the glorious sunshine, and deprived of the invigorating air of heaven, improper eating, with wrong habits of dressing, corrupt the blood of women. The compression of the waist by tight-lacing prevents the waste matter from being thrown off through its natural channels. The most important of these is the lungs. In order for the lungs to do the work God designed, they must be left free, without the slightest compression. If the lungs are cramped they cannot develop; but their capacity will be diminished, making it impossible to take a sufficient inspiration of air. The abdominal muscles were designed to aid the lungs in their action. Where there is no compression of the lungs, the motion in full breathing will be observed to be mostly of the abdomen. When lacing prevents this, the breathing is restricted to the upper portion of the lungs. Women’s dress should be arranged so loosely upon the person, about the waist, that she can breath without the least obstruction. Her arms should be left perfectly free, that she may raise them above her head with ease.

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By lacing, the internal organs of women are crowded out of their positions. There is scarcely a woman that is thoroughly healthy. The majority of women have numerous ailments. Many are troubled with weaknesses of most distressing nature. These fashionably dressed women cannot transmit good constitutions to their children. Some women have naturally small waists. But rather than regard such forms as beautiful, they should be viewed as defective. These wasp waists may have been transmitted to them from their mothers, as the result of their indulgence in the sinful practice of tight-lacing, and in consequence of imperfect breathing. Poor children born of these miserable slaves of fashion have diminished vitality, and are predisposed to take on disease. The impurities retained in the system in consequence of imperfect breathing are transmitted to their offspring.

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Very many children are born with their blood tainted with scrofula through the wrong habits of the mother in her eating and dressing. The very many miscarriages that now occur may generally be traced to fashionable dress. Lacing causes displacements, and this character of disease is increasing with each successive generation. Many suffer years without making their condition known. They remain in ignorance of the causes of their difficulties, and endure sufferings, which it is impossible for language to express. Not a few women have strength sufficient to carry them through the period of child-bearing. Either her own life or that of her offspring is frequently sacrificed. If both live, she has not been able to give her offspring physical vitality sufficient to withstand accidents and prevailing epidemics. Any trifling cause may put out the feeble flame of existence. And the Christian mother tries to be resigned to her bereavement, which she believes to be in God’s special providence. But could she look back, and trace in her life the true cause, and be convinced that her living and dressing fashionably had put out the life of her child, she might be wise, and repent of her murderous work.

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The following excellent remarks are from The Household:

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«THE ORDINARY DRESS THAT MEN WEAR DIMINISHES THEIR BREATHING CAPACITY ONE-FOURTH; AND WHAT WOMAN WEARS HER CLOTHING SO LOOSE AS THAT? I CALL A DRESS TOO TIGHT THAT YOU HIT WHEN YOU DRAW IN THE FULLEST POSSIBLE BREATH.

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«‘BUT MY WAIST IS NATURALLY SLENDER,’ SAYS ONE WOMAN. SHE MEANS THAT SHE HAS INHERITED SMALL LUNGS. HER ANCESTORS, MORE OR LESS OF THEM, COMPRESSED THEIR LUNGS IN THE SAME WAY THAT WE DO, AND IT HAS BECOME IN HER CASE A CONGENITAL DEFORMITY. THIS LEADS US TO ONE OF THE WORST ASPECTS IN THE WHOLE MATTER — THE TRANSMITTED RESULTS OF INDULGENCE IN THIS DEADLY VICE. AND IT SHOWS ITSELF IN DIMINISHED VITALITY AND IN LIABILITY TO TAKE ON DISEASE OF MANY KINDS. A MOTHER MAY EVEN MAKE HER CHILD SCROFULOUS BY HER IMPERFECT BREATHING DURING THE PERIOD OF GESTATION, AND MANY A MOTHER DOES SO. ALMOST ALL THE READING PUBLIC, VERY POSSIBLY ALL WHOSE EYES FALL UPON THESE LINES, HAVE BEEN TOLD AGAIN AND AGAIN HOW THE TIGHTNESS OF THE CLOTHING ABOUT THE WAIST AND ABDOMEN (PLEASE REMEMBER MY DEFINITION OF TIGHTNESS) DISPLACES THE YIELDING VISCERA WITHIN, PRESSING THEM UPWARD UPON THE LUNGS AND DOWNWARD UPON THE PELVIS, AND PRODUCES DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY ALL THE FEMALE COMPLAINTS TO WHICH THE GENERATION IS SO LARGELY SUBJECT. ONE MEDICAL WRITER DECLARES THAT THIS INFLUENCE UPON THE ORGANS IN THE LOWER PART OF THE ABDOMEN IS SO GREAT THAT IT FURNISHES TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION NEARLY HALF ITS BUSINESS,’ NOTWITHSTANDING THE FACT THAT MANY WOMEN AND YOUNG GIRLS FROM NATIVE DELICACY KEEP THEIR SUFFERINGS TO THEMSELVES. THE VERY LIST OF THESE COMPLAINTS IS ALARMING, AND THERE IS NO QUESTION BUT THE PUBLIC AT LARGE, AND EVEN WOMEN THEMSELVES, HAVE VERY LITTLE IDEA HOW MUCH THEY SUFFER IN THIS WAY FROM THE EFFECTS OF TIGHT DRESS.

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«OF COURSE, IN THIS FORM IT DOES NOT END WITH THE INDIVIDUAL, UNLESS SHE DIES BEFORE MARRIAGE, OR SO UTTERLY DISABLES HERSELF THAT SHE CANNOT BEAR CHILDREN AT ALL, WHICH IS NOT UNFREQUENTLY THE CASE. IF NOT QUITE SO BAD AS THAT, SHE IS STILL OFTEN UNABLE TO COMPLETE HER TIME, AND THE LITTLE ONE FALLS OUT OF BEING FROM SHEER LACK OF THE VITALITY WHICH THE MOTHER HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO GIVE IT. SHE CANNOT TAKE NEARLY BREATH FOR ONE, MUCH LESS FOR TWO. A LARGE PROPORTION OF THE ALARMING NUMBER OF MISCARRIAGES IN RESPECTABLE SOCIETY IS DIRECTLY DUE TO TIGHT DRESSING. I MET A LADY A FEW DAYS SINCE WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN A BEAUTIFUL AND QUEENLY WOMAN BUT FOR THIS DEFORMITY (HER WAIST WAS LESS THAN HALF THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF HER SHOULDERS), AND I WAS NOT AT ALL SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT A FEW MONTHS BEFORE SHE HAD COME WITHIN A FEW MINUTES OF DEATH FROM THIS CAUSE.

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«IN MANY CASES WHERE THE CHILD LIVES, IT DRAGS OUT A FEEBLE EXISTENCE, READY TO BE SNATCHED AWAY BY ANY TRIFLING ACCIDENT, AND THE MOTHER PIOUSLY TRIES TO BE ‘RESIGNED TO THE WILL OF PROVIDENCE.’ SHE NEVER DREAMS THAT IT WAS THROUGH ANY FAULT OF HERS. ‘I AM PERFECTLY HEALTHY’ SAID SUCH A CHILDLESS MOTHER TO ME ONCE, AND THEN SHE WENT ON WITH A LIST OF THE UNTOWARD CIRCUMSTANCES THAT TOOK AWAY ONE LITTLE INNOCENT AFTER ANOTHER, WITHOUT A SUSPICION OF THE TRUTH THAT IF SHE HAD BEEN ‘PERFECTLY HEALTHY,’ SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GIVE EACH CHILD SUCH VITALITY THAT IT WOULD HAVE BRUSHED ASIDE THESE ACCIDENTS AS TRIFLES LIGHTER THAN AIR. I DO NOT SAY THAT ALL SUCH TROUBLES ARISE FROM TIGHT DRESSING, BUT I DO SAY THAT SO FAR AS MOTHERS ARE CONCERNED, IT IS FAR THE MOST PROLIFIC SOURCE OF THEM. «AND THIS SORT OF THING WILL GO ON, I SUPPOSE, UNTIL OUR WOMEN ACQUAINT THEMSELVES WITH PRACTICAL PHYSIOLOGY, SO AS TO GET SOME IDEA WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ‘PERFECTLY HEALTHY.’ IT WILL BE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, TOO, IN ORDER TO MAKE THEM COMPREHEND INTELLIGENTLY THE MISCHIEF OF TIGHT DRESS, THAT THEY SHOULD KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THE INDIVIDUALITY OF THE ORGANS WITHIN, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THEM IN THEIR RIGHT PLACES.»

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SAYS THE WESTERN RURAL : «I SAW A YOUNG LADY, NOT LONG SINCE, DRESSED FOR A PARTY. HER WAIST WAS INCASED IN CORSETS, LACED SO TIGHTLY THAT SHE WAS ABSOLUTELY DEFORMED, STILL IT WASN’T TIGHT (OF COURSE NOT; IT WOULD BE ABSURD TO IMAGINE IT WAS); AND FOR FEAR OF LOOKING STOUT, SHE WORE ONE THIN SKIRT ONLY. ON REMARKING IT, SHE DEMANDED TO KNOW IF ONE HADN’T A RIGHT TO LACE IF SHE PLEASED? NO, SAID I, EMPHATICALLY, ONE HAS NO RIGHT TO ENTAIL MISERY UPON HER OFFSPRING, NOR COMMIT SUICIDE, AND THEN UNJUSTLY ACCUSE THE LORD OF TAKING THEM OUT OF THE WORLD.

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«BUT WHAT IS THE USE OF TALKING? IGNORANCE AND FOLLY GO HAND IN HAND, AND STRONGER BRAINS ARE WANTED BEFORE WE CAN HOPE FOR REFORM. THE DAY AFTER THE PARTY, THE YOUNG LADY MENTIONED WAS FORCED TO WEAR HER DRESS SEVERAL INCHES LOOSER THAN USUAL, WAS UNABLE TO TAKE A FULL INSPIRATION WITHOUT EXPERIENCING A SHARP PAIN IN HER SIDE, AND ENDURED THE TORTURE THROUGHOUT THE DAY FROM PAIN IN THE CHEST; AND I SUPPOSE THE HEROISM WHICH ENABLED HER TO ENDURE IT WAS SUBLIME.»

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While on a tour west, we spent some hours in Chicago, at the Massasoit House. Several young ladies waited upon the table, and all of them were deformed by tight lacing. My husband’s hands could have spanned their waists. Their shoulders were broad, their hips were large. The artificial paddings over the chest, and the large appendages upon the back of the head, and upon the small of the back, made these girls appear anything but attractive. Their faces were pale, and they moved about languidly. There was nothing like sprightliness or gracefulness in their movements. Their vital organs were pressed in so small a compass that it was impossible for them to fill their lungs. They could not breathe naturally. They could only gasp. They could not walk naturally and gracefully. They wriggled in their walk, as though every step required an effort. Thought I, this is one of Dame Fashion’s tortures. And these poor girls adopt her inventions, although in so doing they appeared like fools going to the correction of stocks. Read what Good Health says of

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«CORSETS. «AMONG THE CAUSES WHICH PREVENT MUSCULAR EXERCISE, THE COMPRESSION OF THE CHEST BY CORSETS IS THE MOST REMARKABLE. WHERE ON THE EARTH, OR UNDER THE EARTH, OR IN THE WATERS, OR IN THE AIR, IN THINGS ANIMATE OR INANIMATE, THIS FASHION FOUND ITS ORIGINAL MODEL, UNLESS IT BE IN THE VENOMOUS WASP, IT WOULD BE HARD TO DISCOVER. TRADITION INSISTS THAT CORSETS WERE INVENTED BY A BUTCHER OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY, AS A PUNISHMENT FOR HIS WIFE. FINDING NOTHING TO STOP HER LOQUACITY, HE PUT A PAIR OF STAYS ON HER TO TAKE AWAY HER BREATH, AND SO PREVENT HER FROM GOING ABOUT AND TALKING. THIS EFFECTUAL PUNISHMENT WAS INFLICTED BY OTHER CRUEL HUSBANDS, TILL AT LAST THERE WAS SCARCELY A WIFE IN ALL LONDON WHO WAS NOT TIED UP IN THIS MANNER. THE PUNISHMENT BECAME SO UNIVERSAL AT LAST, THAT THE LADIES, IN THEIR DEFENSE, MADE A FASHION OF IT, AND SO IT HAS CONTINUED TO THE PRESENT TIME. THE FORM GIVEN BY CORSETS TO THE FEMALE CHEST IS DIRECTLY OPPOSED TO GRECIAN AND ROMAN MODELS OF BEAUTY.»

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On the Subject of Life, Health, and Happiness.-No. 4. I have conversed with many young ladies upon the sin of wearing corsets and tight dresses, and I have never found one ready to acknowledge that she laced. But I often hear young ladies exclaim, «Why, my dress is not tight; if I should were it looser, I should feel that I was dropping to pieces.» We want no better evidence that the dress is worn very much too tight than that as soon as the dress is loosened, the wearer feels as though dropping to pieces. The compressed muscles have suspended action in a great measure, and have become enfeebled, and partially paralyzed, so that when the pressure is removed, they cannot act their part in sustaining the system until they have time to recover from the abusive compression. And, again, the blood has been hindered in its flow through the veins, by the tight corsets. Remove the pressure, and nature makes an effort to force the blood into the contracted veins, which causes pain. The muscles and veins require time to recover from the abuse that has enfeebled them, and that nature may perform her work as she would have done had she been left to herself.

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Tight lacing forces the ribs out of their natural position, and crowds them upon the lungs. When the pressure is removed for any length of time, and the lungs are allowed to have room to be filled with air, the ribs are thrown out more to their natural position. This change, for the time being, causes pain. But if loose dresses are worn constantly, all these disagreeable sensations will disappear, and a wonderful sense of freedom and relief will be experienced.

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A writer in the Household says: «I was talking, some time since, with a lady in rather delicate health, who has had three children, and lost them all early, at different ages. She ought to have been intelligent on such topics, but so far from having any shade of self reproach, she began to talk about how small her waist was ‘naturally.’ She was tall, broad-shouldered woman, but the belt of her wedding dress measured only one half a yard! She had kept it for the admiration, if not for the emulation, of other girls. ‘And my Susan was just like me; she could lap her ribs, too. She often did it for the amusement of the other girls, till she really looked as if she would drop in two.’ It is not wonderful that ‘Susan’ did not survive the birth of her first child.

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«We have not much reason to suppose that dressmakers pay any attention to physiology, but I got the following item from one some years ago. It was when they wore those cruel long waists and no corsets: ‘I always give plenty of room about the lungs’ (meaning the upper part of the chest, which she could not have compressed much if she had tried), ‘that is important, you know; but I do not suppose it makes much difference how tight you have your dresses here,’ and she placed her hands upon the lower, floating ribs, which yield to any pressure. The less of such physiology the better for anybody.»

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In my early life, I was intimate with a near friend who persisted in lacing. There was not much said in those days condemning this health-destroying practice. I knew but little of the evils resulting from tight lacing. I was solicited, at one time, to lace the corset of this friend. I drew the strings as firmly as I possibly could, which started the blood from the ends of my fingers. But this did not satisfy her, and she declared that I did not know how to lace one. She called for a stronger person, who also worked to the best of her ability to get her form squeezed to the desired dimension. But she scolded, and declared that we did not half try. She even shed tears.

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She then thought of a plan that might bring more strength to bear. She fastened the strings of her corset to the bed-post, and then wrenched from side to side, gaining a little at each effort, while two of us held fast what she had gained, that the strings should not loosen when removed from the bed-post. She seemed satisfied that she had done all she could to lessen her size. Next came her shoes. They were a size and a half too small for her feet. And for the life of her, she could not bend her compressed form to put on her shoes, which we succeeded in doing, after repeated trials.

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This young lady was naturally a rare specimen of health. Her skin was clear, and her cheeks red as a rose. Her chest and shoulders were broad, and her form was well-proportioned, her waist corresponding with the healthy proportions of her body. She was a slave to the tyrant, fashion. She was literally deformed by lacing. Her broad shoulders and large hips, with her girded, wasp-like waist, were so disproportionate that her form was anything but beautiful. And the most of her time was devoted to the arrangement of her dress in keeping with fashion, and laboring to deform her God-given, healthful, and naturally beautiful, form.

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And this friend was naturally devotional. We attended meetings together, and she was several times deeply moved, and more than half persuaded to leave her false life, and become true to herself and to God. But the decision was finally made to live for this world. She thought she could not bear the cross of Christ; yet she daily imposed upon herself a ten-fold heavier cross than Christ ever requires his followers to bear for him.

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Jesus invites the restless, the murmuring, the oppressed and sorrowing, to come to him. He even invites this class of fashionable martyrs, who are heavily laden under their self-imposed burdens, to come to him, that they may find rest. He invites them to take his yoke upon them, which imposes no such sufferings as they subject themselves to endure in being the slaves of fashion. He presents his yoke in contrast to the galling one they have placed upon their own necks. He says: «Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.» Lowliness and meekness of mind, which ever characterized the life of the divine Son of God, possessed by his true followers, bring contentment, peace, and happiness, that elevate them above the slavery of artificial life.

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The result of my friend’s self-imposed martyrdom was, the loss of health, peace of mind, and natural beauty. She suffered the penalty of her folly in shattered nerves, swollen joints, and deformed feet. The nails grew into her flesh and caused the most excruciating suffering. When I told her that this was in consequence of wearing small shoes, she would not admit it. She said that many of her acquaintance wore shoes closer than hers. She suffered a painful surgical operation in having the nails cut from the flesh of her toes. But this gave her no permanent relief. She finally married. Previous to the birth of her first child she was hardly a sane woman. Her imagination was diseased. In short, she was a marked case of fashionable ruin, with shattered nerves, and impaired mind. She is now the mother of children. What can be expected of her offspring?

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The Christian mother, in order to mold her children for usefulness in this life, and for God and Heaven, must have health, calm nerves, rational and sound reflective and reasoning powers. These will give her gentleness and sweetness of character to reflect upon the minds and hearts of her children, and also give her that becoming dignity and independence necessary to her holy life-mission in training her children, and conducting her household.

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The heathen devotees sacrifice their lives to their gods. The car of Juggernaut crushes out the lives of many, and missionaries are sent to enlighten this benighted race. But why are not Christians aroused in our land of boasted light and Christianity, as they witness the daily sacrifice of health and life among women to follow slavish customs that actually destroy a greater number of lives than are sacrificed among the heathen, and this in a land where Christ is preached? And what is worse, professing Christians take the lead, and set the example. How many who minister in the sacred desk, in Christ’s stead, and are beseeching men to be reconciled to God, and are exalting the free gospel, who are themselves slaves to appetite, and are defiled with tobacco. They are daily weakening their nerve-brain power by the use of a filthy narcotic. And these men profess to be ambassadors for the holy Jesus. And thousands of Christians are destroying their vitality by becoming fashionable slaves in point of dress. Fashion will not give them room to breathe, or freedom of motion, and they submit to the torture. They lay aside reason and noble independence, and submit to the martyrdom of fashion, sacrificing health, beauty, and even life itself.

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HOME AND HEALTH WELL SAYS THAT «THE FREE AND EASY EXPANSION OF THE CHEST IS OBVIOUSLY INDISPENSABLE TO THE FULL PLAY AND DILATATION OF THE LUNGS; WHATEVER IMPEDES IT, EITHER IN DRESS OR IN POSITION, IS PREJUDICIAL TO HEALTH; AND ON THE OTHER HAND, WHATEVER FAVORS THE FREE EXPANSION OF THE CHEST, EQUALLY PROMOTES THE HEALTHY FULFILLMENT OF THE RESPIRATORY FUNCTIONS.

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«STAYS, CORSETS, AND TIGHT WAISTBANDS, OPERATE MOST INJURIOUSLY, BY COMPRESSING THE THORACIC CAVITY, AND IMPEDING THE DUE DILATATION OF THE LUNGS, AND IN MANY INSTANCES THEY GIVE RISE TO CONSUMPTION. I HAVE SEEN ONE CASE IN WHICH THE LIVER WAS ACTUALLY INDENTED BY THE EXCESSIVE PRESSURE, AND LONG-CONTINUED BAD HEALTH, AND ULTIMATE DEATH WAS THE RESULT. ALLUDING TO THIS SUBJECT, MR. THACKERAY MENTIONS THAT MEN CAN EXHALE AT ONE EFFORT FROM SIX TO TEN PINTS OF AIR, WHEREAS IN WOMEN, THE AVERAGE IS ONLY FROM TWO TO FOUR PINTS. IN TEN FEMALES, FREE FROM DISEASE, WHOM HE EXAMINED, ABOUT THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN, THE QUANTITY OF AIR THROWN OUT AVERAGED THREE AND A HALF PINTS, WHILE IN YOUNG MEN OF THE SAME AGE HE FOUND IT TO AMOUNT TO SIX PINTS. SOME ALLOWANCE IS TO BE MADE FOR NATURAL DIFFERENCES IN THE TWO SEXES; BUT ENOUGH REMAINS TO SHOW A GREAT DIMINUTION OF CAPACITY IN THE FEMALE, WHICH CAN BE ASCRIBED TO NO OTHER CAUSE THAN THE USE OF STAYS.»

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«DR. HERBST SAYS THAT A MIDDLE SIZED MAN, TWENTY YEARS OLD, AFTER A NATURAL EXPIRATION, OR EMISSION, OF AIR, INSPIRED, OR TOOK IN, EIGHTY CUBIC INCHES WHEN DRESSED, AND ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY WHEN HIS TIGHT DRESS WAS LOOSENED. AFTER A FULL DILATATION OF THE CHEST, HE INHALED ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX INCHES WHEN DRESSED, AND ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SIX WHEN UNDRESSED.

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«ANOTHER YOUNG MAN, AGED TWENTY-ONE, AFTER A NATURAL EXPIRATION, TOOK IN FIFTY WHEN DRESSED, AND NINETY-SIX WHEN UNDRESSED. HAD DR. HERBST MADE HIS OBSERVATIONS ON SOME OF THE LADIES WHO CARRY THE USE OF CORSETS TO EXTREMES, WE APPREHEND HE WOULD HAVE OBTAINED RESULTS OF A NATURE REALLY ALARMING.

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«AT THE HOTEL ‘DIEU,’ THE GREAT HOSPITAL AT PARIS, A YOUNG GIRL OF EIGHTEEN LATELY PRESENTED HERSELF TO BRESCHET FOR HIS ADVICE. ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HER THROAT, SHE HAD A TUMOR OF VARIABLE SIZE, BUT NEVER LARGER THAN ONE’S FIST. IT REACHED FROM THE COLLAR-BONE AS HIGH AS THE THYROID CARTILAGE. WHEN PRESSED DOWNWARD, IT WHOLLY DISAPPEARED; BUT AS SOON AS THE PRESSURE WAS REMOVED, IT WAS INDOLENT, SOFT, AND ELASTIC. IT WAS OBSERVED TO BE LARGEST WHEN THE CHEST WAS TIGHTLY LACED WITH CORSETS. IN SHORT, BY PLACING THE EAR ON IT, THE MURMUR OF RESPIRATION COULD BE HEARD IN THE TUMOR , WHICH PROVES THAT A PROTRUSION OF THE LUNGS HAD TAKEN PLACE, OR, IN OTHER WORDS, THAT THE POOR GIRL HAD BEEN LACED SO TIGHTLY THAT HER LUNGS, HAVING NO LONGER SUFFICIENT SPACE IN THEIR NATURAL POSITION, WERE SQUEEZED OUT OF IT, AND WERE FORCING THEIR WAY UP ALONG THE NECK.»

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Judging by their actions, women reflect upon their Creator in regard to their formation. They virtually say that God did not look far enough into the future to make provision for this age. They therefore seek to remedy the oversight of the Creator by artificial aids. The form the Creator has given woman is not after the present approved style of fashionable milliner’s and mantuamaker’s idea of graceful beauty; therefore, corsets are invented and recommended to be used, that the waist may be compressed into the least possible dimensions, for the form nature had given them was altogether too old-fashioned for this progressive age.

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The panniers worn by fashionable ladies, are a monstrosity, deforming instead of beautifying. These articles are composed of almost any material, according to the taste and circumstances of the wearer. Some are made of cotton, some of hair, others of newspapers, or cotton rags. Those who are wealthy purchase the beautifying adornment at the stores. Thus nature is deformed because fashion wills it, and the delicate organs, located near the small of the back, are injured by pressure and too great heat. These panniers are very inconvenient. They are made stiff, to retain their form of plumpness, and bound over the kidneys, and press upon the nerves and spine, retarding the free circulation of the blood, and inducing it to those parts which should be kept cool, and free from inflammation. In addition to this injurious arrangement, fashion binds upon women sashes and overskirts, with any amount of puffs, tucks, and ruffles. These all tend to burden the body, and create unnatural heat. The kidneys become irritated and do not perform their proper function, and the entire system becomes diseased by impurities being retained in the system. Nature cannot do her work while suffering such abuse.

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A dressmaker, while engaged in sewing at the Health Reform Institute at Battle Creek, was observed to sit without supporting her back against the chair. She showed signs of great weariness, and was asked to make her position more comfortable. She answered that she could not lean back against the chair, for the pannier that she wore would press upon her back and cause her great pain. The pads were examined and found to be hard and unyielding. They were made very stiff that they might not lose their form and bulk. This instrument of torture this lady wore over the kidneys and spine, and the pressure upon the nerves was so severe that it was almost beyond endurance.

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She also wore corsets, laced so tightly that she could not breathe freely, or have freedom of motion. She was reasoned with in regard to the sin of so injurious a practice which was destroying, according to her own admission, the healthy tone of the nerves. She answered that she must dress as the world dressed, although it exhausted her means to do so, and was robbing her of health. «What can I do?» was her inquiry. «If I did not keep up with the present styles I should not get employment. I live by my trade.» Said she, «I would not adopt the reform dress if I knew my life would be lengthened several years by so doing.»

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She also stated that the artificial arrangements upon her head were most uncomfortable, and that she had heat and pain in her head nearly all the time, yet she said that she would not be singular in her dress if it would save her life. Here was a woman sacrificing comfort, happiness, and life, to the customs of society. Her lungs were so pressed that she could not take a full inspiration of air. Because of imperfect breathing and unbalanced circulation, caused by pads over the brain and the small of the back, her blood was being poisoned, and her vitality was being diminished, every day. Yet she unblushingly stated that she preferred to sacrifice years of her life rather than be out of the fashion. Here she exalted fashion above health and life. This is not a solitary case. The world is full of just such devotees to health-and life-destroying fashions. And we cannot expect a better state of things until Christian mothers have courage to dress comfortably and healthfully, independent of the tyrant fashion.

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The Herald of Health , under the caption of Tight Lacing and Torpidity of the Liver, asks: «HAS TIGHT LACING ANYTHING TO DO WITH TORPIDITY OF THE LIVER AND CONSTIPATION OF THE BOWELS, EXCEPT IN AN INDIRECT MANNER BY CONTRACTING THE LUNGS, DIMINISHING RESPIRATION, AND THUS WEAKENING THE ENTIRE SYSTEM?

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«TIGHT LACING HAS A GREAT DEAL TO ANSWER FOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF THESE, AS WELL AS OTHER DISEASES. ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ARE PRODUCED IN TWO WAYS: FIRST, BY THE DIRECT PRESSURE UPON THE LIVER, CONFINING IT TO A SMALLER SPACE, COMPRESSING IT, AND THUS DIRECTLY PREVENTING ITS PROPER ACTION. LACE UP AN ARM OR A LEG IN THE SAME WAY, AND NOTICE HOW SOON THE CIRCULATION WILL DIMINISH, THE LIMB DECREASE IN SIZE, AND ITS STRENGTH WASTE AWAY. THE EFFECT OF CONTINUED PRESSURE UPON ANY ORGAN OR PART OF THE BODY IS THE SAME.

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«THE SECOND WAY IN WHICH IT PRODUCES INJURY IS, BY PREVENTING THE RIGHT MODE OF BREATHING. IN NATURAL RESPIRATION, THE DIAPHRAGM CONTRACTS AT EVERY INSPIRATION AND FORCES THE LIVER, STOMACH AND BOWELS, DOWNWARD AND OUTWARD, WHILE AT EACH EXPIRATION THE DIAPHRAGM RELAXES AND THE ABDOMINAL MUSCLES CONTRACT, FORCING THESE ORGANS TO BACK TO THEIR FORMER POSITION, THUS KEEPING THEM IN CONSTANT MOTION. THIS MOTION OF RESPIRATION IS NECESSARY TO GOOD DIGESTION, AND THE HEALTHFUL ACTION OF THE LIVER AND BOWELS. WITH TIGHT LACING THIS NATURAL MODE OF BREATHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, AND THE STOMACH, LIVER, AND BOWELS, BEING DEPRIVED OF THE NEEDED MOTION, BECOME TORPID AND INACTIVE. FROM INACTIVITY OF THESE ORGANS MANY OF OUR MOST DANGEROUS DISEASES ARISE.»

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It is no marvel that women are suffering invalids. The lower part of the lungs are compelled to suspend action for want of room. Enormous appendages are placed upon the back of the head and the small of the back. The spinal nerves, centering in the brain, are excited by the extras placed upon the head. The kidneys and spinal nerves are inflamed by the extras upon the back. The panniers upon the back incline the form forward. This, with compression of the waist, make it impossible for women to walk naturally and gracefully. They virtually say that God did not understand the philosophy of real symmetry when he formed Eve in the perfection of beauty.

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Christian mothers, shall we accept the plan of God and the sample he has given us of healthful beauty in the natural form? Or shall we go in for modern improvement upon his plan? Shall fashion, however injurious to health, natural beauty, and true modesty, be our standard? The masses of professed Christians hold themselves under obligations to follow changing fashion; as though they had no right to reason for themselves, and call in question its monstrosities, any more than they would the truth of the Bible or the existence of a God.

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Would God that Christian mothers would become intelligent in relation to the influence that fashionable styles of dress have upon their health and life. Before any permanent improvement can be expected, they must become intelligent in relation to the best manner of dressing so as to secure the healthy, well-balanced circulation of the blood in every part of the system and also the free and natural action of the lungs.

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Christian mothers, I close my appeal to you for this number, with the words of the apostle: «Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.» E. G. W.

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Treatment of Infant Children.

The Medical Reporter , under the caption of «Dress of Children,» has the following lucid and pointed remarks:-

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«THE CHIEF CAUSE OF INFANTILE MORTALITY IS NOT MORE THE WEATHER OR FOUL AIR THAN THE IGNORANCE AND FALSE PRIDE OF THE MOTHERS. CHILDREN ARE KILLED BY THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE DRESSED, AND BY THE FOOD THAT IS GIVEN THEM, AS MUCH AS BY ANY OTHER CAUSES. INFANTS OF THE MOST TENDER AGE, IN OUR CHANGEABLE AND ROUGH CLIMATE, ARE LEFT WITH BARE ARMS AND LEGS AND WITH LOW-NECKED DRESSES. THE MOTHERS, IN THE SAME DRESS, WOULD SHIVER AND SUFFER WITH COLD, AND EXPECT A FIT OF SICKNESS AS THE RESULT OF THEIR CULPABLE CARELESSNESS. AND YET THE MOTHERS COULD ENDURE SUCH A TREATMENT WITH FAR LESS DANGER TO HEALTH AND LIFE THAN THEIR TENDER INFANTS.

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«A MOMENT’S REFLECTION WILL INDICATE THE EFFECTS OF THIS MODE OF DRESSING, OR WANT OF DRESSING, ON THE CHILD. THE MOMENT THE COLD AIR STRIKES THE BARE ARMS AND LEGS OF THE CHILD, THE BLOOD IS DRIVEN FROM THESE EXTREMITIES TO THE INTERNAL AND MORE VITAL ORGANS OF THE BODY. THE RESULT IS CONGESTION, TO A GREATER OR LESS EXTENT, OF THESE ORGANS. IN WARM WEATHER THE EFFECT WILL BE CONGESTION OF THE BOWELS, CAUSING DIARRHEA, DYSENTERY, OR CHOLERA INFANTUM. WE THINK THIS MODE OF DRESSING MUST BE RECKONED AS ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT CAUSES OF SUMMER COMPLAINTS, SO CALLED. IN COLDER WEATHER, CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS, CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN, CONVULSIONS, ETC., WILL RESULT. AT ALL SEASONS, CONGESTION, MORE OR LESS IS CAUSED, THE DEFINITE EFFECTS DEPENDING UPON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHILD, THE WEATHER, AND VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES.

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«IT IS PAINFUL, EXTREMELY SO, TO ANY ONE WHO REFLECTS UPON THE SUBJECT, TO SEE CHILDREN THUS DECKED LIKE VICTIMS FOR SACRIFICE, TO GRATIFY THE INSANE PRIDE OF FOOLISH MOTHERS. OUR MOST EARNEST ADVICE TO ALL MOTHERS IS TO DRESS THE LEGS AND ARMS OF THEIR CHILDREN WARMLY AT ALL EVENTS. IT WOULD BE INFINITELY LESS DANGEROUS TO LIFE AND HEALTH TO LEAVE THEIR BODIES UNCOVERED, THAN TO LEAVE THEIR ARMS AND LEGS AS BARE AS IS THE COMMON CUSTOM.»

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In this age of degeneracy, children are born with enfeebled constitutions. Parents are amazed at the great mortality among infants and youth, and say, «It did not use to be so.» Children were then more healthy and vigorous, with far less care than is now bestowed upon them. Yet with all the care they now receive, they grow feeble, sicken, and die. As the result of wrong habits in parents, disease and imbecility have been transmitted to their offspring. And after their birth, they are made very much worse by careless inattention to the laws of their being. Proper management would greatly improve their physical health. But parents seldom pursue a right course toward their infant children. Their wrong course toward their children results in lessening their hold of life, and prepares them for premature death. These parents had no lack of love for their children; but this love was misapplied. One great error with the mother in the treatment of her infant is, she deprives it very much of fresh air, that which it ought to have to make it strong. It is a practice with many mothers to cover their infants’ heads while sleeping, and this, too, in a warm room, which is seldom ventilated as it should be. This alone is sufficient to greatly enfeeble the action of the heart and lungs, thereby affecting the whole system. While care may be needful to protect the infant from a draught of air, or from any sudden and too great change, especial care should be taken to have the child breathe a pure, invigorating atmosphere. No disagreeable odor should remain in the nursery, or about the child. Such things are more dangerous to the feeble infant than to grown persons.

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Mothers have been in the habit of dressing their infants with reference to fashion instead of health. The infant wardrobe is generally prepared more for show than for convenience and comfort. Much time is spent in embroidering, and in unnecessary fancy work, to make the garments of the little stranger beautiful. The mother often performs this work at the expense of her own health, and that of her offspring. When she should be enjoying pleasant exercise, she is often bent over work which severely taxes eyes and nerves. And it is often difficult to arouse the mother to her solemn obligations to cherish her own strength, for her own good, as well as that of the child.

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Show and fashion are the demon altar upon which many American women sacrifice their children. The mother places upon the little morsel of humanity the fashionable dresses which she has spent weeks in making, which are wholly unfit for its use, if health is to be regarded of any account. The garments are made extravagantly long, and in order to keep them upon the infant, its body is girted with tight bands, or waists, which hinder the free action of the heart and lungs. Infants are also compelled to bear a needless weight on account of the length of their garments, and thus clothed, they do not have free use of their muscles and limbs.

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Mothers have thought it necessary to compress the bodies of their infant children to keep them in shape, as though fearful that without tight bandages, they would fall in pieces, or become deformed. Do the young of dumb animals become deformed because nature is left to do her own work? Do the little lambs become deformed because they are not girted about with bands to give them shape? They are delicately and beautifully formed. Human infants are the most perfect, and yet the most helpless, of all, and, therefore, their mothers should be instructed in regard to physical laws so as to be capable of rearing them properly. Mothers, nature has given your infants forms which need no girts or bands to perfect them. God has supplied them with bones and muscles sufficient for their support, and to guard nature’s fine machinery within, before committing them to your care. The dress of the infant should be so arranged that its body will not be the least compressed after taking a full meal. Dressing infants in a fashionable manner, to be introduced into company for visitors to admire, is very injurious to them. Their clothing is ingeniously arranged to make the child miserably uncomfortable, and it is frequently made still more uneasy by passing from one to the other, being fondled by all.

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But there is an evil greater than those already named. The infant is exposed to a vitiated air, caused by many breaths, some of which are very offensive and injurious to the strong lungs of older people. The infant lungs suffer, and become diseased by inhaling the atmosphere of a room poisoned by the tobacco user’s tainted breath. Many infants are poisoned beyond remedy by sleeping in beds with their tobacco-using fathers. By inhaling the poisonous tobacco effluvia, which is thrown from the lungs and pores of the skin, the system of the infant is filled with poison. While it acts upon some infants as a slow poison, and affects the brain, heart, liver, and lungs, and they waste away and fade gradually, upon others, it has a more direct influence, causing spasms, fits, paralysis, and sudden death. The bereaved parents mourn the loss of their loved ones, and wonder at the mysterious providence of God which has so cruelty afflicted them, when Providence designed not the death of these infants. They died martyrs to filthy lust for tobacco. Every exhalation of the lungs of the tobacco slave, poisons the air about him. Infants should be kept free from everything which would have an influence to excite the nervous system, and should, whether waking or sleeping, day and night, breathe a pure, cleanly, healthy atmosphere, free from every taint of poison.

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Another great cause of mortality among infants and youth, is the custom of leaving their arms and shoulders naked. This fashion cannot be too severely censured. It has cost the life of thousands. The air, bathing the arms and limbs, and circulating about the armpits, chills these sensitive portions of the body, so near the vitals, and hinders the healthy circulation of the blood and induces disease, especially of the lungs and brain. Those who regard the health of their children of more value than the flattery of visitors, or the admiration of strangers, will ever clothe the shoulders and arms of their tender infants. The mother’s attention has been frequently called to the purple arms and hands of her child, and she has been cautioned in regard to this health-and-life-destroying practice; and the answer has always been «I always dress my children in this manner. They get used to it. I cannot endure to see the arms of infants covered. It looks old-fashioned.»

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These mothers dress their delicate infants as they would not venture to dress themselves. They know that if their own arms were exposed without a covering they would shiver with chilliness. Infants of a tender age cannot endure this process of hardening without receiving injury. Some children may have at their birth so strong constitutions that they can endure such abuse without its costing them life; yet thousands are sacrificed, and tens of thousands have the foundation laid for a short, invalid life, by the custom of bandaging and surfeiting the body with much clothing, while the arms which are at such distance from the seat of life, and for that cause need even more clothing than the chest and lungs, are left naked. Can mothers expect to have quiet and healthy infants, who thus treat them?

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When the limbs and arms are chilled, the blood is driven from these parts to the lungs and head. The circulation is unbalanced, and nature’s fine machinery does not move harmoniously. The system of the infant is deranged, and it cries and mourns because of the abuse it is compelled to suffer. The mother feeds it, thinking it must be hungry, when food only increases its suffering. Tight bands and an over-loaded stomach do not agree. It has no room to breathe. It may scream, struggle and pant for breath, and yet the mother mistrust not the cause. She could relieve the sufferer at once, at least of tight bandages, if she understood the nature of the case. She at length becomes alarmed and thinks her child really ill, and summons a doctor, who looks gravely upon the infant for a few moments, and then deals out poisonous medicines, or something called a soothing cordial, which the, mother, faithful to directions, pours down the throat of the abused infant. If it was not diseased in reality before, it is after this process. It suffers now from drug disease, the most stubborn and incurable of all diseases. If it recovers, it must bear about more or less in its system the effects of that poisonous drug, and it is liable to spasms, heart disease, dropsy of the brain, or consumption. Some infants are not strong enough to bear even a trifle of drug poisons, and as nature rallies to meet the intruder, the vital forces of the tender infant are too severely taxed, and death ends the scene.

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It is no strange sight in this age of the world, to view the mother lingering around the cradle of her suffering, dying infant, her heart torn with anguish, as she listens to its feeble wail, and witnesses its expiring struggles. It seems mysterious to her that God should thus afflict her innocent child. But she does not think that her wrong course has brought about the sad result. She just as surely destroyed her infant’s hold on life as though she had purposely given it poison. Disease never comes without a cause. The way is first prepared, and disease invited by disregarding the laws of health. God does not take pleasure in the sufferings and death of little children. He commits them to parents, for them to educate physically, mentally, and morally, and train them for unselfishness here, and for Heaven at last.

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If the mother remains in ignorance in regard to the physical wants of her child, and, as the result, her child sickens, she need not expect that God will work a miracle to counteract her agency in making it sick. Thousands of infants have died who might have lived. They are martyrs to their parent’s ignorance of the relation which food, dress, and the air they breathe, sustain to health and life. Mothers should be physicians to their own children. The time she devotes to the extra beautifying of her infant’s wardrobe, she should spend in educating her mind with regard to her own physical wants, and that of her offspring. She should store her mind with useful knowledge in regard to the best course to pursue in rearing her children healthfully.

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Mothers who have fretful infants, should study into the cause of their uneasiness. By so doing, they will often see that something is wrong in their management. It is often the case that the mother becomes alarmed by the symptoms of illness manifested by her child, and hurriedly summons a physician, when the infant’s sufferings can be relieved by taking off its tight clothing, and putting upon it garments properly loose and short, that it may use its feet and limbs. Mothers should study from cause to effect. If the child has taken cold, it is generally owing to the wrong management of the mother. If she covers its head, as well as its body, while sleeping, in a short time it will be in a perspiration, caused by labored breathing, because of the lack of pure, vital air. When she takes it from beneath the covering, it is almost sure to take cold. The arms being naked, exposes the infant to constant cold, and congestion of the lungs or brain. These exposures prepare the way for the infant to become sickly and dwarfed.

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Parents are accountable in a great degree, for the physical health of their children. Those children who survive the abuses of their infancy, are not out of danger in their childhood. Their parents still pursue a wrong course toward them. Their limbs, as well as their arms, are left almost naked. Mothers dress the upper part of their limbs with muslin drawers, which reach about to the knee, while the lower part of their limbs are covered with only one thickness of flannel or cotton, and their feet are dressed with thin soled gaiter boots. The extremities are chilled, and the heart has thrown upon it double labor, to force the blood into these chilled extremities, and when the blood has performed its circuit through the body, and returned to the heart, it is not the same vigorous, warm current which left it. It has been chilled in its passage through the limbs. The heart, weakened by too great labor, and poor circulation of poor blood, is then compelled to still greater exertion, to throw the blood to the extremities which are never as healthfully warm as other parts of the body. The heart fails in its efforts, and the limbs become habitually cold; and the blood, which is chilled away from the extremities, is thrown back upon the lungs and brain, and inflammation and congestion of the lungs or the brain is the result.

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God holds mothers accountable for many of the diseases their children are compelled to suffer. Mothers bow at the shrine of fashion, and sacrifice the health and lives of their children. Many mothers are ignorant of the result of improperly clothing their children. But should they not inform themselves, where so much is at stake? Is ignorance a sufficient excuse for you who possess reasoning powers? You can inform yourselves if you will, and dress your children healthfully.

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Parents may give up the expectation of their children’s having health, while they dress them in cloaks and furs, and load down those portions of the body with clothing where there is no call for such an amount, and then leave the extremities, that should have especial protection, almost naked. The portions of the body, close by the life springs, need less covering than the limbs which are remote from the vital organs. If the limbs and feet could have the extra coverings usually put upon the shoulders, lungs, and heart, and healthy circulation be induced to the extremities, the vital organs would act their part healthfully, with only their share of clothing.

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I appeal to you, mothers; do you not feel alarmed at seeing your children pale and dwarfed, suffering with catarrh, influenza, croup, scrofula swellings appearing upon the face and neck, inflammation and congestion of lungs and brain? Have you studied from cause to effect? Have you provided for them a simple, nutritious diet, free from grease and spices? Have you not been dictated by fashion in clothing your children? Leaving their arms and limbs insufficiently protected has been the cause of a vast amount of disease and premature deaths. There is no reason why the feet and limbs of your girls should not be, in every way, as warmly clad as those of your boys. Boys, accustomed to exercise out of doors, become inured to cold and exposure, and are actually less liable to colds when thinly clad than the girls, because the open air seems to be their natural element. Delicate girls accustom themselves to live in-doors, and in a heated atmosphere, and yet they go from the heated room out of doors with their limbs and feet seldom better protected from the cold than while remaining in a close, warm room. The air soon chills their limbs and feet, and prepares the way for disease.

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Your girls should wear the waists of their dresses perfectly loose, and they should have a style of dress convenient, comfortable, and modest. In cold weather they should wear warm flannel or cotton drawers, which can be placed inside the stockings. Over these should be warm, lined pants. Their dress should reach below the knee. With this style of dress, one light skirt, or at most two, is all that is necessary, and these should be buttoned to a waist. The shoes should be thick-soled and perfectly comfortable. With this style of dress, your girls will be no more in danger in the open air than your boys. And their health would be much better, were they to live more out of doors, even in winter, than to be confined to the close air of a room heated by a stove.

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It is a sin in the sight of Heaven for parents to dress their children as some do. The only excuse that they can make is, it is fashion. They cannot plead modesty to thus expose the limbs of their children with only one covering drawn tight over them. They cannot plead that it is healthful, or really attractive. Because others will continue to follow this health-and-life-destroying practice, it is no excuse for those who style themselves reformers. Because everybody around you follows a fashion which is injurious to health, it will not make your sin a whit the less, or be any guarantee for the health and life of your children.

E. G. W.