VERY PROBABLE.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7908, 26 February 1894, Page 1

VERY PROBABLE.

"I'll toll you what ails tho working girls of England," said a inombor of a medical society tho other day ; •' thoy aro suffering from an insufficiency o£ soap and water. They aro not clean. Thoy don't wash thomsolves properly. They aro sallow-facod ; they havo colorloHH lips, cold hands and feet, and no flesh on their bones. In my publio and professional lifo I havo had a great deal to do with tho sax in general and WAgo-oarnora in particular. I boliovo I have studied evory type, from the teacher to tho factory apprentice, and the more I see of them tho more fearless I am in declaring that what they jieed worse than anything else is a correct understanding of the medical value of the bath. '•Poor girls and women who livo in tho model lodging-housos or occupy bedrooms iv cheap furnished room houses havo no facilities for bathing. And they don't bathe. Now, the men and women who preside over and lecture boforo tho working girls' clubs ought to know that it is a fact, and do something to correct it. There are thousands o£ baths in clubs, gymnasiums, Young Men's Christian Associations, and othor private societies,?uot to .montion barber's shops and bathing establishments, where young men can go for a small sum, and there s^ouli bo just as many opportunities foe tho business women. " Whether theso privileges would be used or not I don't protend to say. Thoy should bo set forth. The experiments is worth making. Tho press and Uio Church, the women's clubs, women suUVagisls, and great associations of. teachers, college people, and social reformers should get together, and work together for tho physical improvement of our girls. " Too much time is wasted on such topics as dress, rostheticism, missions, oomploxion cures, and hou»>e decoration, and it is time that tho physioal side of life was studied. Healthy bodies and healthy minds go together. Our children go to work at fifteen years, boforo they havo had & ohanoo to learn how to live, and it is the duty of tho intolligont womon to teach tho girls how to tiiko caro of thomsolvos. Tho boys can take euro of themselves."