--I believe there are few greater popular errors than
the idea we have mainly derived from chivalrous times, that woman is a
weakly creature. Julius C aesar, who judged for himself, took a very
different view of the powers of certain women of the northern races,
about whom he wrote. I suppose, that in the days of baronial castles,
when crowds of people herded together like pigs within the narrow
enclosures of a fortification and the ladies did nothing but needlework
in their boudoirs, the mode of life wasvery prejudicial to their nervous
system and muscular powers. The women suffered from the effects of ill
ventilation and bad drainage, and had none of the counteracting
advantages of the military life that was led by the males. Consequently
women really became the helpless dolls that they were considered to be,
and which it is still the fashion to consider them. It always seems to me
that a hard-worked woman is better and happier for her work. It is in the
nature of women to be fond of carrying weights; you may see them in
omnibuses and carriages, always preferring to hold their baskets or their
babies on their knees, to setting them down on the seats by their sides.
A woman, whose modern dress includes I know not how many cubic feet of
space, has hardly ever pockets of a sufficient size to carry small
articles; for she prefers to load her hands with a bag or other weighty
object.
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