THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

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of nervous exnaustion. The tremendous strain upon the nervous system, which is wearing out our people in business, social and domestic life, is a serious matter. All seem keyed up to an extreme tension, and the evil does not end with the individual. The law of heredity is that an overtaxed vitality reproduces itself in a feeble offspring, at least having strong tendencies to mental, as well as physical, infirmities. Insanity is increasing among us. Our asylums are quite inadequate to the demands upon them. There is a constant cry for more room in which to shelter the poor demented beings who have become a menace to the peace and safety of their homes. Certainly parents have no right to bequeath this affliction to their children, neither have they the right to bestow a wrecked nervous system, which is the legitimate predecessor of insanity. Isolation, hard and monotonous work, have filled many wards of the retreats in our agricultural sections with the wives and daughters of farmers. These women have not neglected the wash-tub for the piano; they have not written books instead of rocking the cradle; they have listened to the steady thud of the churn- dasher, rather than to the silvery and enticing accents of the “female orator;” they have brewed and baked and scrubbed according to the most orthodox prescriptions; they have literally staid at home and looked carefully after the welfare of their house­holds; and yet these patterns of domestic industry head the list of demented women. “True ’tis pity, and pity ’tis ’tis true.” Some sage has observed that “ it is worry, not work, which kills;” and it must certainly be true that work with worry is doubly exhausting, for it depresses both mind and body, preventing that quiet rest which is so necessary for recuperation.

Now that physical culture is attracting so much attention, what with rowing and running and tennis and bowling, riding, swimming and base-ball, the muscle of our sons and daughters bids fair to be tolerably developed. True, this may, and probably will, be abused; but it is a move in the right direction, and will give to the country some superb physical specimens of men and women. The future race is partly depend­ent on our women, and nervous, hysterical girls will produce children with nerves irritable and over sensitive. It is popular to publish articles exhorting them to do thus and so, because upon them must rest the responsibility of motherhood. To many of these I say heartily, “Amen.” But after all, that is only half the matter. Young men are to bear the responsibilities of fatherhood, and it is therefore just as important that they should be virtuous and temperate, deserving the respect and confidence which their position should command. Healthy minds in healthy bodies the coming generations demand from all.

In the name of our watchword, liberty; in the name of our English-speaking ancestry, in the name of our early defenders against foreign interference, and of later upholders of the nation’s right to decide as to its citizenship and their duties, and for the sake of those who will come after us and who will have to suffer for our mistakes, let us think upon these things, squarely face the issues, and act in the courage of con­viction for justice, patriotism and self-preservation. Then will “ the nervous Ameri­can ” stand as a shining example of wisdom and prudence as well as of energy and industry.

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