Women Born In The 19th Century

"We have got to change this state of things. Our educated women will not or do not become mothers and our less intelligent mothers let their little ones die, and thus our numbers are each year growing less and less. In every city in the country where you observe it you find that we are losing by death more than we are gaining by birth. Immorality, as well as poverty and ignorance, bears its share of the blame for this low state of vitality. It makes us susceptible to all forms of disease and death. We must have a cleaner ‘social morality.’ A man who has given thought to the moral life of the race claims that over 25 per cent of the colored children born in one city alone are admittedly illegitimate. In a certain locality, in a certain State, another man states that there were during one year 300 marriage licenses taken out by white men. According to the population 1,200 licenses should have been bought by colored men. How many do you suppose were in reality taken out? Twelve hundred should have been secured and only 3 per cent were taken out. Twelve hundred colored men and women, for whom there is no excuse, living immoral lives, handing down to their offspring disease and crime, and only three living in such a way as to advance the race. No spectacle can be more appalling."

"In a certain Northern city only 2 per cent of the people are colored, yet we furnish 16 per cent of male prisoners and 34 per cent [of] female criminals. In another Northern or Northwestern city we make up 1 1/3 per cent of the whole city, and yet 10 per cent of the arrests fall on us. Immorality is directly responsible for these crimes, and hence punishment. Immorality is also directly responsible for physical inability to resist crime."

"The majority of cases of consumption are not inherent, but are contracted through lack of thought and interest in one’s own self. How many of our women during their pregnancy make nothing of lifting from one bench to another heavy tubs of clothes, drawing buckets of water, lift great sticks of wood, run up and down stairs, and a dozen other similar things entirely against them. They do not know the laws of health, and they will not learn them. No, I do not say do not work during the months of unborn motherhood; work, even hard work, is good for one, but the manner in which labor is performed is what I criticize. As women can we not do something to correct our condition physically and morally? I think we can"

"The average colored person dislikes water, and he won’t keep himself clean. He bathes, if at all, once a week Saturday night and changes his clothes in the same indifferent way. He seldom uses a tooth brush. He often even neglects to comb his hair, except on Sunday. There is no excuse for this. Bathe at least twice a week, and change the clothes as often, and be sure to clean the teeth at least once a day, and do not forget to comb the hair each day."

"I am immediately told that I receive an excellent salary as women’s salaries stand.…Does he ever think that I have a home to keep and a family to take care of as well as the men?…And this is considered an enlightened age!"

"While we cannot maintain that in everything woman is man’s equal, yet in many things her patience, perseverance, and method make her his superior"

"My home life is necessarily different from that of other officers of the University since all housekeeping cares rest on me, in addition to those of providing the means to meet their expenses. My son Edward…knows little or nothing of the value of money and, therefore, has the idea but that everything should be forthcoming on demand"

"At the present time all property is personal; the man owns his own ponies and other belongings he has personally acquired; the woman owns her horses, dogs, and all the lodge equipments; children own their own articles; and parents do not control the possessions of their children. There is no family property as we use the term. A wife is as independent as the most independent man in our midst. If she chooses to give away or sell all of her property, there is no one to gainsay her."

"No nation or race has ever come up by entirely overlooking its members who are less fortunate, less ambitious, less sound in body and hence in soul, and we cannot do it. We must not do it. There are too many of us down. The condition of our race, brought about by slavery, the ignorance, poverty, intemperance, ought to make us women know that in half a century we cannot afford to lose sight of the large majority of the race who have not, as yet, thrown off the badge of the evils which I have just mentioned."

"To be a stronger race physically we have got to be a more moral one. We do not want to lose our tempers when we discuss these conditions either. Now that, as women, we may be able to make a move in the direction of improving the race, we have got to take certain facts regarding our health and morals. They are not all from the standpoint of the Southern white man, either, nor are they all from the Northern white man with a Southern soul. You know that we often feel that every white man and woman south of the Mason and Dixon line is a real devil. It is pretty bad down here, I will admit, but there are many very fine and noble Southern white people, women as well as men. It is a Southern man, an Alabama man, at that, who, in part at least, makes it possible for us to be here together to day to study our own shortcomings and to try to find a way out of them. I say it is not Southern whites alone who have felt that we should make a move upward, who feel that we are weak in these directions; nor is it the white man alone at all, but our own medical men, our own educators, who also feel and know that there is too great a laxity amongst us."

"Labor honestly, conscientiously, and steadfastly, and recognition and success must crown your efforts in the end.”"

"Plain talk will not hurt us. It will lead each woman to study her own condition, that of her own family and so that of her neighbor’s family. If I can do anything to hasten this study, I shall feel repaid for any effort I may put forth. In consenting to come before you women to day I am influenced by this thought more than anything else: We need, as a race, a good, strong public sentiment in favor of a sounder, healthier body, and a cleaner and highertoned morality. There is no use arguing; we do not think enough of these two conditions; we are too indifferent; too ready to say: ‘O, well, I keep well, my girls and boys behave themselves, and I have nothing to do with the rest of the race!’"

"I do not mean to tell you, or leave the impression, that all of the disease and immorality in the race are confined to what we are pleased to call our poorer classes or second class folks. There is too much in our higher classes, especially in the case of too many men who as fathers of the girls and boys who, in their turn, will be fathers and mothers of other girls and boys. And does hereditary influence count for nothing? Study your own family as far back as your great grandparents and you will agree with me when I say hereditary influence is a mighty power in the formation of character, physical, as well as moral."

"When I was living with the Indians, my hostess, a fine looking woman, who wore numberless bracelets, and rings in her ears and on her fingers, and painted her face like a brilliant sunset, one day gave away a very fine horse. I was surprised, for I knew there had been no family talk on the subject, so I asked: “Will your husband like to have you give the horse away?” Her eyes danced, and, breaking into a peal of laughter, she hastened to tell the story to the other women gathered in the tent, and I became the target of many merry eyes. I tried to explain how a white woman would act, but laughter and contempt met my explanation of the white man’s hold upon his wife’s property."

"The Indian may now become a free man; free from the thralldom of the tribe; free from the domination of the reservation system; free to enter into the body of our citizens. This bill may therefore be considered as the Magna Carta of the Indians of our country."

"You are not, I know, surprised to hear me say that the women, young and older, among us, who most need to take caution in the matter of health and character, are the last to take any personal hold. It is no longer a compliment to a girl or woman to be of a frail and delicate mold. It is no longer an indication of refinement in woman to possess a weak and fastidious stomach. It was the great French Emperor who declared that the greatest need of France was mothers. And to day all who are willing to study facts with reference to our growth and strength in this country declare also that the most serious drawback to the race is its lack of a careful, moral and healthy motherhood. You have already noticed that I speak of health, then morals; morals, then health; my sisters, these two things go hand in hand, they are interdependent. They must go thus. They must be studied together at this time. They must be corrected at the same time."

"Her kindred have a prior right and can use that right to separate her from him or protect her from him, should he mistreat her….not only does the woman (under our white nation) lose her independent hold on her property and herself, but there are offenses and injuries which…would be avenged and punished by her relatives under tribal law, but which have no penalty or recognition under our lawas… At the present time, all property is personal…a wife is as independent in the uses of her possessions as is the most independent man in our midst….While I was living with the Indians, my hostess one day gave away a very fine horse….I asked, ,will your husband like to have you give the horse away?….I tried to explain how a white woman would act, but laughter and contempt met my explanation of the white man's hold upon his wife's property….As I have tried to explain our statutes to Indian women, I have met with one response. They have said, "As an Indian woman, I was free, I owned my home, my person, the work of my hands, and my children could never forget me.I was better as an Indian woman than under white law."

"...the woman owns her horses, dogs, and all the lodge equipments; children own their own articles; and parents do not control the possessions of their children … A wife is as independent as the most independent man in our midst.” Combined with the fact that among many tribes, female elders chose, advised, and could depose the male chief and signed treaties with the U.S. government along with male leaders-and that women could divorce and controlled their own fertility though a knowledge of herbs and timing-this caused indigenous women to be seen as immoral and tribal systems to be ridiculed as “petticoat government."

"Imperceptibly a change had been wrought in me until I no longer felt alone in a strange, silent country. I had learned to hear the echoes of a time when every living thing upon this land and even the varied overshadowing skies had its voice, a voice that was attentively heard and devoutly heeded by the ancient people of America. Henceforth, to me the plants, the trees, the clouds and all things had become vocal with human hopes, fears and supplications."

"I want to say in the beginning that I do not come before you to criticize or find fault especially, but you know that a great deal of harm has been done us as a race by those who have told us of our strong points, of our wonderful advancement, and have neglected to tell us at the same time of our weak points, of our lack of taking hold of the opportunities about us. Praise a child always and he soon gets to the point where he thinks it impossible for him to make mistakes. If we wish to help each other let us not only praise ourselves, but also criticize."

"That a malady so widely disseminated and so unmanageable as the tubercular variety of phthisis pulmonalis, or what is popular known as consumption, must, in its beginnings, be microscopic in character, has for years been suspected by students of medicine. That the patient and persistent labors of one individual, , should at last have at last revealed it, may be almost, but is not quite, beyond belief. The fullness of time for such a discovery had been indicate by the great amount of research, in regard to both the and of the disease."

"It might seem an extremely easy matter to obtain accurate records of food consumed. Experience shows that it is not so. At the foot of the social scale there is a residue of housewives who are incapable of keeping accurate records, even with help and supervision. The work of Dr A. M. Thomson (unpublished) on shows that those unable to keep records are, almost certainly, worse fed than the more intelligent. In most surveys they swell the proportion of non-cooperators. But in all social and intellectual grades, vigilance is needed. Even highly intelligent scientists have been found grossly inaccurate in attempts to record what they ate the day before (Morrison, Russell & Stevenson, 1949)."

"Lindsay S. Hannah,"

"A very large number of variables must be considered and either eliminated by matching or allowed for in the plan of any piece of research in . First the animals, including man: to be taken into account are breed, sex, age, size at birth and at completed growth, rate of growth or of production (milk, egg, meat), stage of reproductive life, previous dietary history, physical environment (e.g., temperature and humidity). Second, in diet there is a great complexity of s. Known to be of importance are about 20 s, 14 inorganic elements each in many different compounds, and 17 s of known structure; of s there are 10 sugars and 8 groups of s; 14 s, and as many s, innumerable pigments and aromatic substances, as well as many injurious and inert components, present in countless different foods. Add to which that a complete longitudinal study of human growth must take about 20 years, of growth in a pig at least 3 years and even in a rat 9 months; and that there is the reproductive span also, and old age beyond that. It is obvious that the number of possible questions is enormous and that no one man or one team in the whole of a lifetime can hope to cover by original research more than a minute part of any nutritional field."

"A , with a broken leg past mending, was kept in our house in a cage about a year and a half, fed, bathed, otherwise cared for and occasionally allowed the freedom of a room. A happier, merrier fellow, I never saw. He sang early and late, nearly the year round, moped a few dayss and died. The said he was much wasted in flesh, and had lived as long as he could. He was kept as comfortable as possible, and his song seemed purely an expression of happiness."

"In 1874, Mary Moody became the first female student at the . ... Moody graduated from medical school in 1876 and worked as a physician in for approximately nine years. While in Buffalo, she advocated for preventative medicine, lectured at the Women’s Gymnasium, and participated in the establishment of the Dispensary for Women and Children. ... The also is significant. It is an exuberant expression of the style of the late Victorian period and one of the few surviving buildings dating from this period in this section of ."

"... Dr Isabella Leitch ... had a profound but often unacknowledged or unrecognizaed influence on nutritional science and scientists. Though a member of the since its formation, she never held office except as an editor of the first three volumes of the ' and the first five volumes of the . She contributed several papers of notable originality to its meetings and in 1979 the Society paid tribute by electing her as an Honorary Member. She was Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Nutrition in Aberdeen from 1945 until her retirement in 1960; and as a member of staff of the Bureau since its formation was the driving force behind Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews for over 30 years."

"In a bowlder of which the glacier carried two or three miles, possibly, and deposited not far from the site of , the writer recently found an excellently preserved skeleton of a small dinosaur the length of whose body is about 18. The bowlder was split along the plane in which the fossil lies and part of the bones are in one half and part in the other. These bones are hollow and the whole framework is very light and delicate."

"Women are in many respects superior to men, since generally speaking, they have more patience and often more taste and discrimination in arranging collections and more deftness in manipulating materials. How true this is!"

"Talbot worked on the paleontology of both vertebrates and . Her contributions to invertebrate paleontology included a revision of the s of New York State and the investigation of Stafford limestone, also in New York State. Her discovery of the approximately eighteen-centimeter dinosaur , in the Triassic sandstone near , established her reputation in vertebrate paleontology. She postulated that this small dinosaur was a bipedal carnivore."

"My learned and accomplished friend, , has written a most interesting history, entitled One Generation of a Norfolk House. It is more or less the history of the in early times."

"I remember a story that my great-grandmother, who never drove out but in a carriage and four with outriders, one day met with a mishap, her coach breaking down. In this terrible state of affairs no one knew what to do, my grandmother sitting, ruffled but dignified, in the carriage, the wheels of which seemed damaged beyond repair. Matters seemed at a complete standstill, till a servant of a daringly brilliant and inventive turn of mind ventured to suggest that her ladyship might possibly walk to her mansion, not far away; and, wonderful to relate, she actually managed to do it. As a matter of fact, the rendered exercise almost impossible for ladies."

"Lady Dorothy Nevill is the most interesting of all known and recognized nonagenarians. The very title of her new book indicates the long backward reach of her memory. She was a little girl when died. She has lived to see the accession of She loves the old days, but she is no bigoted admirer of the old ways. She recognizes that, on the whole, the march of progress has uplifted classes and masses alike, though at some temporary loss, among the first, in charm and distinction of manner, and, among the second, in color and atmosphere."

"Amongst other pictures which I remember in was the famous now in the , as well as a fine portrait of and another of e—both presents from the Cardinal and the poet to ."

"Writing a grief-stricken epitaph to Lady Dorothy Nevill née Walpole in 1913, the English poet and then librarian of the , Edmund Gosse observed, ‘life was a spectacle for her and society a congress of little s.’ ... Gosse conjures up an image of Lady Dorothy as a master manipulator, pulling the strings of her many puppets over the years, thus suggesting the influential position this aristocratic woman held in society throughout her long life. Born into the historical dynasty of the Walpole family, Lady Dorothy (1826–1913) was the daughter of the . She grew up at reading the correspondence of , the one-time ambassador to , and stated proudly that ‘like my kinsman Horace Walpole I am fond of collecting’. ... Lady Dorothy gained acclaim as a botanist, a political hostess, one of the founding members of the , an art collector, and a supporter of writers, s, and artists, many of whom she patronized."

"My dear mother was a great friend of the poet Samuel Rogers, and we often went to his breakfasts, which were at that time celebrated, for there were usually one or two great people present. His house at 22, was filled with pictures and curiosities; on a sideboard in the dining-room was a cast of the head of Pope by , whilst between the the fireplace and window was the poet's writing-table; there was an ingenious mechanical contrivance by means of which the larger pictures in the house could be moved from their place so as to be viewed in different lights. The library and drawing-room were on the first floor, the book-cases being surmounted by s, whilst by Sir Joshua Reynolds, hung over one of the two mantelpieces — the other, beautifully carved by , was crowned, I think, by a study by ; altogether, there were six or seven Reynolds's in the house, which was a real haven of artistic rest and repose."

"Food is an indispensable factor to the health and strength of a people in time of war or time of peace. It deserves a most important consideration in the planning of our national defense."

"Not very far from is the quaint old town of , which, I believe, took its name from the de Pydeles, one of those Norman families which came into England with the Conqueror. The church is particularly interesting, being one of the very few unrestored ones in —a county which has suffered terribly at the hands of the . ... If only because Puddletown Church is the church of Mr. Hardy's ', it should be left untouched."

"During my childhood at Islington the vicar of Puddletown was of the fox-hunting sort, quite different to the modern conception of a clergyman. He was popular enough with his parishioners, though I suspect he never saw half of them till they came up to be buried."

"My place is here. I cannot in conscience abandon my work and my girls."

"Eat well, consume nutritious foods such as meat, eggs and milk, if available in the morning. Don't overexert yourself and get enough sleep."

"Among the political squibs in my scrap-book there is one directed against the over-taxation which in long-past days certainly did press heavily upon the people of England. Exceedingly well written, it is, I believe, an extract from an article by Sydney Smith, published in the ' about 1820."

"There are some roses that always flower late, not just in a freak year. I always enjoy November roses, whether it is 'Madame Abel Chatenay', that wreathes the dining-room window, or , who pops up from behind the barton wall at a time when I thought all good roses had gone to sleep."

"If ever a garden was born of creative tension, it is the one at in . When Margery Fish moved there with her husband, in 1937, she wished to fill beds with simple cottage garden plants; he desired neat lawns, straight paths and bright summer bedding. Margery went on to record their battle for control in her 1956 book, We Made A Garden; with its passive aggressive tone, it is as much about their marriage as the garden, yet it is still a horticultural classic to be read and re-read., In the end, Margery won: Walter died in 1947, and with him the need to compromise. In 1951, she wrote her first piece on gardening for , and went on to publish numerous magazine articles and eight books."

"All the from my open fires is shared among the plants that particularly like , s and es particularly, and I give some to the , and in the winter the apple trees get their share. When I grew potatoes and es they, too, were lucky."

"If the flower spikes are kept cut the makes good cover because the roots are strong and the beetroot-colored leaves quite big. The plants should be put fairly close together and soon colonise if all the spikes are not removed very quickly."

"s are particularly valuable for the winter and one in particular, , is a good all-the-year plant for a place in the garden that is in constant use. I noticed a very happy and very natural treatment of a bed next to the porch of a front door."

"believed in manuring with a very generous hand and woe betide any little plant of mine that grew nearby, as it would surely die of suffocation under the great gallops of manure that were plastered round every rose. All the manure we could get was devoted to the roses and s."

"It is not possible to make sweeping statements about what will or will not grow in clay soil, because there are so many different types of clay. Some are much stickier and more difficult to handle than others; clay that has been made easier to handle by the addition of will grow most plants. I don't believe there is any soil that will not grow something."

"holidays— and 1st of November—were our aim for the ceremonies of ."