Our women work hard, seemingly, and many of them against a heavy tide; nor does there ever seem to be an end to their toils. Especially do some of the laboring women of my race appear to work under heavy disadvantages; if the family is small, they are never through with their work; if it is large, there is a double excuse for having no time to rest; yet many real needful things are left undone. I have often wondered if such housekeepers, whose own affairs are neglected, and in whose homes things go to waste, while they take so much upon them of other people’s work, never thought of the story of “filling a hogshead at the spigot that had no stopper at the bung.”
So with our men who labor hard; they are anxious to keep the wolf from the door, and they thoughtlessly rise in the morning, go to work, perhaps, without breakfast, working for hours in a condition for odors, contagious or otherwise, to affect the system. Thus the liabilities to colds in the vital organs, which may go on for years, gradually undermining the general health, or may, as frequently happens, develop in lung fever, and consequent shattered constitution. The laboring men of my race, generally speaking, take much better care of the horses intrusted to their care than they do of their own health. Were men just as particular about what they themselves eat and drink, and how they dress and sleep, the deaths of young men of thirty and forty years would not be so common. Those who are not careful of their health die early in this climate, and their offspring die earlier.
It is not the blood we wish to keep hot, as some desire to do; this induces disease and premature decay. It is the body that needs to be kept warm while the blood is normal, or rather cool. This is just as easily done with man as with the horse.
Frequent baths, wearing all-wool flannels next the skin in winter, changing for thinner ones in hot weather, eating coarse dry food, taking less medicine, desisting from the use of tobacco and “firewater,”—all tend to lengthen the days of mankind on this beautiful earth. It is authoritatively stated that the colored population decreases in Boston, but it is not all the fault of the climate; for there have been native Africans who lived to a great age here. It is the neglect, in a great measure, to guard against the changes of the weather.
By seeking to get in possession of the comforts of life, and buying a little home, our men can yet be enabled to live, and raise up children who shall be an honor to that noble race with which we are identified, in point of strength and longevity. The Lord gave the qualities, it is for us to preserve and improve them for His final acceptance. Our Heavenly Father has provided a healing balm for every disease that man is liable to, and I am prepared to say that all diseases can be cured without the use of alcoholic stimulants. We have access to a large and varied field of remedies, both in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, the virtues of which unfold to man in proportion to his possession of heavenly virtues.
Let me, in conclusion, appeal once more to the united efforts of mothers and fathers. Do not try to be blind when you are not. Can you not cut short the certain destruction that awaits your sons and daughters, through the influence of impressions gained by the constant perusal of fictitious, and, in many cases, corrupt library books? Will it not pay to prohibit those under age, or at least under fourteen, from reading even Sunday-School story-papers? We are aware many of them are given for the moral to be derived, but not more than one boy or girl in a hundred ever cares a fig for the moral.
Does any one believe that the majority of the little children who witness the farce of “Punch and Judy” on Boston Common every summer, gain a moral, or feel that it is wrong to imitate beating a wife, killing a baby, or hanging a black man? The popular adage, “No nigger, no fun,” is why such schools are tolerated on our Public Parks. Are they not a curse to our land? May not such shameful scenes prove to be the primary lessons in pugilism, murder, and suicide? Possibly they best serve to prolong the barbarous system of flogging, whether it be by lashing to a post and applying the cat-o’-nine-tails, or otherwise. Then will it not pay to endeavor to cultivate inborn morals early in life, thereby shutting out a desire for vulgar and debasing sports?
Volumes might be written in which could be inserted plans, which, if enforced, could not fail to prevent the adversities of life, the gloomy foreshadowings and prolonged deficiencies in health. Some do not wish to know about the human system, others cannot read, and more have no time to read, or think how to live and be happy; seeming to forget that our Heavenly Parent gave the earth, with all it contains, for man’s inheritance. Many such are laboring day and night, and trying to educate their children, yet do not always turn the abilities of their children to good account. Books on the laws of health from the proper source could never injure the mind and morals; but would, if read aloud in the family circle half as often as trashy novels are thumbed over, prove a blessing more lasting than gold. Let us strive to know more about ourselves,—it is human, it is Christianlike to do so. Then will there be minds from which to select students for the college, that may come forth to the community graduates in Pharmacy, Surgery, Dentistry and Medicine. It is well known that many noble-minded women have graced the chambers of the sick with good service, in different conditions of need, too; but at the present, women appear to shrink from any responsibilities demanding patience and sacrifice, or rather seem not to rely on the union of their strength with that of our great Creator, in time of need.
What we need to-day in every community, is, not a shrinking or flagging of womanly usefulness in this field of labor, but renewed and courageous readiness to do when and wherever duty calls.