Almost a Woman Part 5

One can live without feet, but one could not live without heart and lungs and other vital organs, and can only half live when these organs are cramped and crowded together so they cannot work properly. If we were all truly artistic we would be pained at the sight of the small waist, for we should know that it was procured at the expense of the vital organs. You have heard of the statue of the Venus de Medici, renowned as being the most beautiful representation of a woman's figure?"

"O, yes, I have seen pictures of it."

"A certain English actress was called a model of loveliness in form and feature. Some one has made a comparison between the two. Here are the pictures and measurements:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Bust measure 36 Waist 26 Hip 45

Fig. 1

Bust measure 38 Waist 32 Hip 43

Fig. 2

"You see how graceful the curves of the Venus (Fig. 2), how abrupt those of the actress (Fig. 1), and yet to most people her figure looks the more elegant. But I want to call your attention to the fact that to create her figure is really to lose much s.p.a.ce, and to crowd together the important vital organs until their working power is greatly hindered. This same actress has become enlightened and now says: 'Of course, no woman can breathe properly in a tightly-laced corset. I am horrified when I think of the way I used to compress my waist, and look back at the pictures showing my hour-gla.s.s figure with positive amazement.'

"Don't you think it strange that we never want little rooms with furniture huddled close together, except in our bodily dwellings? The Divine Architect has given us grand apartments, with all the machinery harmoniously related, and we think we improve things by putting everything into the closest possible quarters and disturbing the harmony! But the damage is not done to the heart and lungs alone. The liver is crowded out of place until it sometimes reaches clear across the abdomen and is creased with ruts from the pressure of the ribs upon it. The stomach is also pressed out of place. It belongs close up under the diaphragm, but it is crowded by the pressure down until it lies in the abdominal cavity, as low down, sometimes, as the umbilicus, six or eight inches below where it belongs."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Showing how much s.p.a.ce is lost by constriction of the waist.]

"O, mother, that seems awful."

"It is awful, my dear, because the body is created to do certain work, and to do that work well, its laws should be regarded. We would not think of interfering with the works of a watch or a piano, because they are valuable, but we do not hesitate to interfere with the more valuable organs of our bodies, and we do not even think that we are offering an insult to the Creator.

"But I have not told you yet of the evil effects in the displacement of the bowels. Do you remember how many feet of intestines there are in the body?"

"About twenty feet of small and about four feet of large intestines."

"And how are they held in place?"

"Why, I don't just remember."

"The small intestines are encased in a membrane called the mesentery. It is just as if I folded this strip of cloth in the middle lengthwise and put my finger inside of the fold. The small intestines lie in the middle fold of the mesentery, and the edges of the mesentery are gathered up like a ruffle and fastened to the spine in a s.p.a.ce of about six inches, leaving it to flare out like a very full ruffle. In this way, you see, the intestines are left free, and yet cannot tie themselves in knots as they might if but laid loosely in the abdominal cavity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1.--A natural figure and a normal pose.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2.--Corseted figure producing abnormal pose.]

"If the waist is constricted above them, they sink down and pull on this attachment, and that often causes backache and inability to stand or walk with comfort. It may also press the reproductive organs out of place, and so cause much pain and suffering at menstruation.

"I am of the opinion that women were not intended to be invalids in any degree because of their womanhood; and very likely there would be much less flow at menstrual periods if women and girls lived in accordance with Nature's laws."

"But, mother, you have not told me what this blood is for. It seems as if it would not be necessary for women to go through such an experience every month."

"Perhaps we do not fully know why it should be so, but we do know when the little child is growing in its little room, the mother does not have the menstrual flow; so we may suppose that it goes to nourish the child."

"O, I see, and when not needed for the child, it just pa.s.ses away."

"Yes, and every time this occurs it says to the woman that she is a perfect woman, capable of all the duties of the wife and mother. This thought should make her think very sacredly of herself."

For a few moments there was silence between mother and daughter, broken only by the sound of the falling rain. At length Helen spoke. "Mother, there is something I want to ask you about. You remember last summer, when Mrs. Vale and Mrs. Odell called on you, I was in the library and they did not see me. While they were waiting for you they began to talk of Edith Chenowyth and of something dreadful she had been doing. They called her a very bad girl. When you came in they spoke to you about her and you said 'Poor child, I am sorry for her;' and they were quite angry that you should pity her. Just before they left I made some slight noise, and Mrs. Vale said, 'I hope no one heard what we've said,' and you said, 'I hope not, I am sure.' So I thought you would not want me to know of it or I should have asked you about what it all meant.

"Yesterday I heard some of the girls talking and one said, 'Did you know that Edith Chenowyth had a baby last night? She is down at old Mrs.

Fein's. Her folks have turned her out of the house.' Then Clara Downs said, 'Well, they ought to turn her out, acting as she has.' Then they all said such dreadful things of her! And while they were talking, Cora Lee came up and said, 'O, girls, I am an Auntie! My sister Ada had the loveliest baby boy last night and my father gave her $500 because it is his first grandson; and the baby's father opened a bank account in the name of Charles Wyndham Bell. Ada is just as happy as she can be and we are all so proud.'

"Now, mother, Ada Lee and Edith Chenowyth were in the same cla.s.s at school; they sang a duet together on the day of their graduation and Edith was just as lovely as Ada. Now she has a baby and every one scorns her, while Ada has one and she is honored and loved. I wish you'd explain this to me."

"Well, my daughter, you see Ada is married and Edith is not."

"Yes, I know that; and yet that does not explain to me why a child should be an honor to one and a disgrace to the other. I know people think so, but I want to know why."

"In order to make you understand why, I shall have to take you back to your lessons in botany. You recall how you learned there of the reproduction of plants. You learned that the pollen must pa.s.s down the style and fertilize the seed before it would grow; and you learned that the stamen, anther and pollen were the male part of the plant and the ovary, style and stigma the female part of the plant."

"Yes, and I remember that I thought it rather silly that in a school book the plants should be spoken of as people, as if it were a fairy story."

"And yet, my dear, it was only stating an actual fact, and was not, as you fancied, a fairy story. There are really fathers and mothers among plants; if there were not there could be no new plant life. In some plants the male and female are united in the same flower; in other plants there are male and female flowers, but all growing on the same plant. In a third species all the flowers of one plant will be male, and all of another plant will be female. The fertilization of plants is very interesting, for the insects and the bees and the breezes often carry the pollen of the male flowers to the female flowers, and so the seeds are fertilized.

"When we come to study reproduction among the human race, we find the same plan; in fact, we find it in all forms of organized life, plants, animals and man. That is, there must be fathers as well as mothers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPERMATOZOA.]

"I told you of the germ or ovum that is produced by the ovary of the woman. That ovum of itself could never become a new being. It must be united with a life-giving principle furnished by the man. This principle consists of a fluid in which float tiny little creatures called spermatozoa--one is a spermatozoon. Here is a picture of some. They are too small to be seen without the aid of a microscope. They are about 1/500 of an inch long, that is, 500 of them laid end to end, would cover only an inch in length.

"If an ovum starts from the ovary and is not hindered, it will pa.s.s on through the uterus and the v.a.g.i.n.a into the world, and that is the end of it; but if, when the ovum starts from the ovary to make its way through the tube, the spermatozoa are deposited here at the mouth of the uterus, they will find their way up into the cavity, and if one meets an ovum and enters into it, a new life is begun. The ovum will now fasten itself to the walls of the uterus and grow into the little child.

"You can understand that, for the spermatozoa to be placed where they can find their way into the uterus, means a very close and familiar relation of the man and woman.

"When two people have decided that they love each other so well that they are willing to leave all friends and ties of home, and in the presence of witnesses promise to live together always, and a clergymen has conducted a solemn ceremony and p.r.o.nounced them husband and wife, it is perfectly proper for them to do what before would not have been proper.

"They may go and live in a house by themselves, occupy the same room, bear the same name and be, in the eyes of the community, as one person.

"If they desire to call into life a little child of their own, it is fully in accordance with the laws of G.o.d and man, and no one can criticise them. They have violated no ideas of purity or propriety. But you can understand that if an unmarried woman has a child, every one knows that she has had, with some man, an intimate relation to which they had no right, either moral or legal. They have sacrificed modesty and purity, and the child is a badge of disgrace, rather than of honor."

"Isn't it just as much of a disgrace to him as to her?"

"Yes, dear, I think it is, and so do many of the best people; but, unfortunately, there are many who do not think so, and blame the woman or girl altogether. And the man, very likely, does not blame himself. He says, 'Well, she ought not to have permitted it,' and so he gets out of the way and leaves her to bear the shame alone. It is a cowardly thing to do, for in all probability he was the one who made the first advances and, had she been wise, she would have shunned the man who tried to lead her into wrong, into doing that which would forfeit her self-respect and the respect of the world. Even the man scorns the woman whom he leads into disgrace."

"I suppose girls don't understand it, do they? Now, I did not understand, until just now as you have told me about it, and I believe lots of the girls are going into danger and don't know it. I must tell you something. Yesterday as I was walking home from school with Belle Dane--you know her, don't you? Isn't she pretty?"

"Yes, she is pretty, and I should imagine pert also. She has no mother."

"Well, as we were walking along, a young man pa.s.sed us. Belle smiled and bowed, and he bowed too. I said, 'Who is that?' She said, 'I don't know, but isn't he handsome? I shouldn't wonder if he'd turn back and walk with us!' And sure enough, in a moment he was walking at her side, saying, 'What a lovely day? Do you walk here every day?' and she said, 'Yes, as I go from school. On Sat.u.r.days I walk by the lake.'

"'Ah,' he said, 'I am thinking of walking there to-morrow. At what hour do you walk?' 'About 4 o'clock,' she said. Then he looked at me. 'Does your friend walk there, too? I have a friend who'd be glad to come.'

Then I broke in--'No, I never walk by the lake.' Then he bowed and left, and Belle said, 'O, you little goose! Why did you say you didn't walk by the lake? He'd have brought his friend and we'd have had such a good time. Ten to one he'll bring flowers or candy, and we could take a boat ride. You were foolish.' And I said, 'I don't want to walk with young men, especially if I don't know them.' And she laughed and said, 'O, you'll get over that when you're older and learn what fun it is. My, he's a gentleman! See how nice he dressed and what pretty teeth he had and what nice words he used.' Now, I thought maybe I was silly, but after what you have told me to-day, I think she is going in dangerous places and maybe don't know it. I am so glad you told me."

"Yes, poor child! It was just so that Edith began. She met a handsome young man. She thought him a gentleman because he dressed fine. She let him hold her hand, then put his arm around her and kiss her, and so, little by little, he led her on, and she thought it was all so nice,--and now she is friendless and in great trouble."