AN APPEAL
TO AMERICAN WOMEN.
BY THE SENIOR AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME.
MY HONORED COUNTRYWOMEN:
IT is now over forty years that I have been seeking to elevate the
character and condition of our sex, relying, as to earthly aid,
chiefly on your counsel and coöperation. I am sorrowful at results
that have followed these and similar efforts, and ask your sympathy
and aid.
Let me commence with a brief outline of the past. I commenced as
an educator in the city of Hartford, Ct., when only the primary
branches and one or two imperfect accomplishments were the ordinary
school education, and was among the first pioneers in seeking to
introduce some of the higher branches. The staid, conservative
citizens queried of what use to women were Latin, Geometry, and
Algebra, and wondered at a request for six recitation rooms and a
study-hall for a school of nearly a hundred, who had as yet only one
room. The appeal was then made to benevolent, intelligent women, and
by their influence all that was sought was liberally bestowed.
But the course of study then attempted was scarcely half of what
is now pursued in most of our colleges for young women, while there
has been added a round and extent of accomplishments then unknown. Yet
this moderate amount so stimulated brain and nerves, and so excited
competition, that it became needful to enforce a rule, requiring a
daily report, that only two hours a day had been devoted to study out
of school hours. Even this did not avail to save from injured health
both the teacher who projected these improvements and many of her
pupils. This example and that of similar institutions spread all over
the nation, with constantly increasing demand for more studies, and
decreasing value and respect for domestic pursuits and duties.
Ten years of such intellectual excitement exhausted the nervous
fountain, and my profession as a school-teacher was ended.
The next attempt was to introduce Domestic Economy as
a science to be studied in
schools for girls. For a while it seemed to succeed; but ere long was
crowded out by Political Economy and many other economics, except
those most needed to prepare a woman for her difficult and sacred
duties.
In the progress of years, it came to pass that the older States
teemed with educated women, qualified for no other department of
woman's profession but that of a school-teacher, while the newer
States abounded in children without schools.
I again appealed to my countrywomen for help, addressing them
through the press and also by the assistance of a brother (in
assemblies in many chief cities) in order to raise funds to support an
agent. The funds were bestowed, and thus the services of Governor
Slade were secured, and, mainly by these agencies, nearly one thousand
teachers were provided with schools, chiefly in the West.
Meantime, the intellectual taxation in both private and public
schools, the want of proper ventilation in both families and schools,
the want of domestic exercise which
is so valuable to the feminine constitution, the pernicious modes of
dress, and the prevailing neglect of the laws of health, resulted in
the general decay of health among women. At the same time, the
overworking of the brain and nerves, and the "cramming" system of
study, resulted in a deficiency of mental development which is very
marked. It is now a subject of general observation that young women,
at this day, are decidedly inferior in mental power to those of an
earlier period, notwithstanding their increased advantages. For the
mind, crowded with undigested matter, is debilitated the same as is
the body by over-feeding.
Recent scientific investigations give the philosophy of these
results. For example, Professor Houghton, of Trinity College, Dublin,
gives as one item of protracted experiments in animal chemistry, that
two hours of severe study abstracts as much vital strength as is
demanded by a whole day of manual labor. The reports of the
Massachusetts Board of Education add other facts that, in this
connection, should be deeply pondered. For example, in one public
school of eighty-five pupils only fifty-four had refreshing sleep;
fifty-nine had headaches or constant weariness, and only fifteen were
perfectly well. In this school it was found, and similar facts are
common in all our public and high schools, that, in addition to six
school-hours, thirty-one studied three hours and a half; thirty-five,
four hours; and twelve, from four to seven hours. And yet the most
learned medical men maintain that the time devoted to brain labor,
daily, should not exceed six hours for healthy men, and three hours
for growing children.
Alarmed at the dangerous tendencies of female education, I made
another appeal to my sex, which resulted in the organization of the
American Woman's Eductaion Association, the object being to establish
endowed professional schools,
in connection with literary institutions, in which
woman's profession should be honored and taught as are the professions
of men, and where woman should be trained for some self-supporting
business. From this effort several institutions of a high literary
character have come into existence at the West, but the organization
and endowment of the professional schools is yet incomplete from many
combining impediments, the chief being a want of appreciation of
woman's profession, and of the
science and training
which its high and sacred duties require. But the reports of the
Association will show that never before were such superior
intellectual advantages secured to a new country by so economical an
outlay.
Let us now look at the dangers which are impending. And first, in
regard to the welfare of the family state, the decay of the female
constitution and health has involved such terrific sufferings, in
addition to former cares and pains of maternity, that multitudes of
both sexes so dread the risks of marriage as either to avoid it, or
meet them by methods always
injurious and often criminal. Not only so, multitudes of intelligent
and conscientious persons, in private and by the press, unaware of the
penalties of violating nature, openly impugn the inspired declaration,
"Children are a heritage of the Lord."
Add to these, other influences that are robbing home of its safe
and peaceful enjoyments. Of such, the condition of domestic service is
not the least. We abound in domestic helpers from foreign shores, but
they are to a large extent thriftless, ignorant, and unscrupulous,
while as thriftless and inexperienced housekeepers, from
boarding-school life, have no ability to train or to control. Hence
come antagonism and ceaseless "worries" in the parlor, nursery, and
kitchen, while the husband is wearied with endless complaints of
breakage, waste of fuel and food, neglect, dishonesty, and deception,
and home is any thing but a harbor of comfort and peace. Thus come
clubs to draw men from comfortless homes, and, next, clubs for the
deserted women.
Meantime, domestic service--disgraced, on one side, by the stigma
of our late slavery, and, on the other, by the influx into our
kitchens of the uncleanly and ignorant--is shunned by the
self-respecting and well educated, many of whom prefer either a
miserable pittance or the career of vice to this fancied degradation.
Thus comes the overcrowding in all avenues for woman's work, and the
consequent lowering of wages to starvation prices for long protracted
toils.
From this come diseases to the operatives, bequeathed often to
their offspring. Factory girls must stand ten hours or more, and
consequently in a few years debility and disease ensue, so that they
never can rear healthy children, while the foreigners who supplant
them in kitchen labor are almost the only strong and healthy women to
rear large families. The sewing-machine, hailed as a blessing, has
proved a curse to the poor; for it takes away profits from
needlewomen, while employers testify that women who use this machine
for steady work, in two years or less become hopelessly diseased and
can rear no children. Thus it is that the controlling political
majority of New-England is passing from the educated to the children
of ignorant foreigners.
Add to these disastrous influences, the teachings of "free love;"
the baneful influence of spiritualism, so called; the fascinations of
the demi-monde; the poverty of
thousands of women who, but for desperate temptations, would be
pure--all these malign influences are sapping the foundations of the
family state.
Meantime, many intelligent and benevolent persons imagine that the
grand remedy for the heavy evils that oppress our sex is to introduce
woman to political power and office, to make her a party in primary
political power and office, to make her a party in primary political
meetings, in political caucuses, and in the scramble and fight for
political offices; thus bringing into this dangerous
melée the distinctive tempting
power of her sex. Who can look at this new danger without dismay?
But it is neither generous nor wise to join in the calumny and
ridicule that are directed toward philanthropic and conscientious
laborers for the good of our sex, because we fear their methods are
not safe. It would be far wiser to show by example a better way.
Let us suppose that our friends have gained the ballot and the
powers of office: are there any real beneficent measures for our sex,
which they would enforce by law and penalties, that fathers, brothers,
and husbands would not grant to a united petition of our sex, or even
to a majority of the wise and good? Would these not confer what the
wives, mothers, and sisters deemed best for themselves and the
children they are to train, very much sooner than they would give
power and office to our sex to enforce these advantages by law? Would
it not be a wiser thing to ask
for what we need, before trying so circuitous and dangerous a method?
God has given to man the physical power, so that all that woman may
gain, either by petitions or by ballot, will be the gift of love or of
duty; and the ballot never will be accorded till benevolent and
conscientious men are the majority-- a millennial point far beyond our
present ken.
The American Woman's Education Association aims at a plan which
its members believe, in its full development, will more effectually
remedy the "wrongs of woman" than any other urged on public notice.
Its general aim has been stated; its details will appear at another
time and place. Its managers include ladies of high character and
position from six religious denominations, and also some of the most
reliable business men of New-York. Any person who is desirous to aid
by contributions to this object can learn more of the details of the
plan by addressing me at No. 69 West Thirty-eighth Street. But it is
needful to state that letters from those who seek aid or employment of
any sort can not be answered at present, nor for some months to come.
Every woman who wishes to aid in this effort for the safety and
elevation of our sex can do so by promoting the sale of this work, and
its introduction as a text-book into schools. An edition for the use
of schools will be in readiness next fall, which will contain school
exercises, and questions that will promote thought and discussion in
class-rooms, in reference to various topics included in the science of
Domestic Economy. And it is hoped that a previous large sale of the
present volume will prepare the public mind to favor the introduction
of this branch of study into both public and private schools. Ladies
who write for the press, and all those who have influence with
editors, can aid by directing general attention to this effort.
All the profits of the authors derived from the edition of this
volume prepared for schools, will be paid into the Treasury of the A.
W. E. Association, and the amount will be stated in the annual
reports.
The complementary volume of this work will follow in a few months,
and will consist, to a great extent, of
receipts and directions in all
branches of domestic economy, especially in the department of
healthful and economical cooking.
The most valuable receipts in my
Domestic Receipt-Book, heretofore published by the Harpers,
will be retained, and a very large number added of new ones, which are
healthful, economical, and in many cases ornamental. One special aim
will be to point out modes of
economizing labor in preparing food.
Many directions will be given that will save from purchasing
poisonous milk, meats, beers, and other medicated drinks. Directions
for detecting poisonous ingredients in articles for preserving the
hair, and in cosmetics for the complexion, which now are ruining
health, eye-sight, and comfort all over the nation, will also be
given.
Particular attention will be given to modes of preparing and
preserving clothing, at once economical, healthful, and in good taste.
A large portion of the book will be devoted to instruction, in the
various ways in which women may earn
an independent livelihood, especially in employments that can
be pursued in sunlight and the open air.
Should any who read this work wish for more minute directions in
regard to ventilation of a house already built, or one projected, they
can obtain his aid by addressing Lewis Leeds, No. 110 Broadway,
New-York City. His associate, Mr. Herman Kreitler, who prepared the
architectural plans in this work relating to Mr. Leeds's system, can
be addressed at the same place.
CATHARINE E. BEECHER.
NEW-YORK, June 1, 1869.
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