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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1916)
PITS The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Pace rest L y ----- ,.,.,,. - . a ' k ;r fe s f 'Crvf - :-i ! a i -by. By Valentine de Saint-Point, Jhe Parisian Poetess and Grandnlaca of tha Great Lamartlne. T rilE war has come, terrible, Insatiable, Involving, one after the other, nearly all the great nations. Even from neu tral countries Innumerable volunteers have flocked to place themselves among the com batants. Thus all nations, belligerent or neu tral, are affected by the great war. This terrible conflict, which the most thought ful person of past centuries would never have Imagined, Is a veritable carnage. Every day, every hour, of this war lays low a magnificent crop of European youth. It is, Indeed, the young that are most ex posed to slaughter and most often destroyed. This unparalleled war will make a red harvest of all our youth In arms. It ia the hecatomb, of the elite of several races. The flower of the nations will be cut off before baring pro duced any fruit. At this moment the fighting nations have their eyes Axed upon the field Of battle. They think only of the enemy who is armed with, shells and bullets. They forget Internal en emies, enemies who do not destroy with great aound and violence like the cannon, tout who nevertheless destroy the race of the old and the young civilised peoples of Europe and America the Occidental race. Among these Insidious and ellent enemies must put in the first place habits and cos tumes that have hindered the propagation of the race. For centuries, by means of Improper cor ets, tight shoes and other foolish fashions, the tody of civilised woman haa been deformed, spoilt, martyred. These fashions are not only a crime against art. they are a social crime. And this crime is made still more odious by the outbreak of war, because It Interferes with maternity and contributes to depopulation la a very large degree. Woman Mutt Do Her Duty Like tha Soldier. , The natural mission of woman has always been the continuation of the race. For a long time. In centres of civilittlon, In our cltlea. woman has been falling more and more In her aacred mission. In the modern life of cities large families are a burden and life is difficult for them. The woman who desired maternity was becoming rare tor that reason. But fool Ish fashions and social customs have insidi ously checked maternity even among those who did not wish to avoid it. They not only led many women to aterility but also trana lormed healthy and normal maternity Into a long and painful illness with lasting conse quences. This torture naturally had no attraction for women. They needed true heroism to be willing to run such great risks. In the entire Occident large families were thus becoming more and more rare. For many years statls ticlans in all countries had sounded a cry of alarm, but very few women troubled them selves about it It waa a mistake on their part, a aerlous mistake, but only a mistake, for the disastrous future was still far away. But the war came, and then It waa aeen that what bad been before the war simply an error would become to-morrow a crime. When men are fighting on the battlefield or In the economic world to re-establish peace, Industry and harmony In the world, women must accept maternity as a aacred duty. They must become the willing conscripts of ma ternity. Many women think that they have fulfilled their duty when they have helped to nurse the wounded or to clothe the fighting men. Those things are very well but they are very little. They are but play compared to the veritable mission which nature haa confided to them. In place of the fatal tithe of blood, which the men of all nations are paying, woman owes children to the country. Women must realize that all the dead men must live again and that It belongs to them to create that which the ancestral hate of the nations destroys every day. They must create new generations for the labors of peace. " .The mission of creating la ao magnificent Sinai a woman ehould forget the burdens or It. The mother who conceives a child creates the Toe In and You 0: N'E of the most annoying modern afflictions of the feet Is the broken arch, or flat-foot. Thla malady has of recent years become so prevalent that It has attracted much at tention from physicians and surgeons as well as military officers. Fallen arch and flat-foot are caused largly by abuse of the feet in wrongly designed shoes. Until very recent years, the health and comfort of the feet have teen wholly sacrificed to fantastic shapes and ridiculous heels. Since the military authorities at West Point started their elaborate investiga tion In perfecting an anatomically correct army marching shoe, baaing their recom mendations largely on the conclusions of a treatise on the subject by Major Bal guin, of the Swiss army, this country ha undergone a wave of Interest in aealth for the feet, on which depend Madame de Saint-Point, the Gifted Parisian Poetess and Social Leader, Says Women Must Abandon Their Silly and Unhealthful Clothes and Devote Themselves to Maternity future from the past As for the sufferings Inseparable from maternity, women will reduce them In proportion as they suppress the hor rible customs which destroy their health and cause them pain, entirely against nature. ThCTe Is no physical Joy like that of successful maternity. Thanka to abominable and unnatural clothes, we have lost a precise knowledge of the fe male body aa nature Intended it to be. Since the fourteenth century, the period when fash Ions began to be ugly and degrading, improper corsets and unhealthy contrivances have over and over again changed the female figure ac cording to the whim of the moment In size, pos ture and nearly every other respect Every time that the stupid and ridiculous fashion of the mall waist haa prevailed the corset has been a true instrument of torture. To display It women have shown as much heroism as the soldier In the trenches, but It waa a aadly misplaced heroism. Woman has become, through her slavery to fashion, the worst enemy of the human race. Instead of beautify Ing her body she makes It ugly. To-day her figure bears only a distant resem blance to the natural body of woman. Let every woman among my readers fJ .'-v iv' 'j "eit if-' ft f 4 1 ps. 4 if v r'Aa ! ! : v-v;."'i'.V' V V"--' I 1 I -;;n ; mi j ' ? i mtff ? v . , , - , I . .. -v i j uyv ; i w - : ls V-'- I Jj rrii'f Yv y Tuture womanhood should model Us ideals after tha noble Venu Cenetrix and discard tha inartistic distortions of fashion." compare her undraped body with a classic Greek statue and she will at once see that they have not the same form. While the statue has harmonioua curves and a line which only turns in a little bit at the waist, to spread out gently at the hips, the figure of the modern woman ia aharply hollowed out at the waist, causing the hips to stick out brutally and ungracefully. Evidently, modern women have destroyed the natural harmony of their bodiea. How often do we see a woman who cannot sit down, rise, bend over or execute any natural movements harmoniously? She cannot sit on a low seat or display any suppleness of move ment. Khe is no more in harmony with the natural Hie of the body, tine is an artificial thing. Moreover, she puts in many cases a pretax- Won't Have Flat Feet health and poise of the body and mind. The West Tolnt or Beers found thst flat-foot which disables a man for all future usefulness in the army, Is caused both by high heels which throw the foot out of Hs proper rocking balance, and by narrow and misshapen lasta which crowd the metatarsal bones. To correct the modern tendency to fallen arches, the army Is now instructed to march with the feet extended straight forward or even toeing In. To walk always with feet toeing outward. Is to Invite weakening and falling of the arch. Just as a spring Is flattened when ex tended. Walking with the feet slightly toeing inward induces the natural cupping of 1 the arch and the springy tep. In foot ' races H will be noted that the auccesaful runners all toe in. whereas those woo :anaot do this lose all chances of properly applying and leg leverage. Another point worthy of note in this connection is the fact that modern civi Women v ture end to her youth. Binding tip and com pressing the most important muscles of the body, she deprives them of exercise and their normal contractions. Thus they become weak ened and atrophied. Women owe to foolish fashions, tight shoes and Improper corsets many of the diseases that afflict them defects of circulation, weakening of the abdominal muscles, which are no longer able to support the most sensitive and essen tial organs, feet that cannot bear the weight of the body, a complexion without life, and what Is most serious, sterility. A healthy and vigorous human being has no need of artificial aids. In youth the free muscles acquire their vigor through harmo nious exercise; later. If left free, they pre serve their form. If country women grow old earlier than city women it Is not, as certain cynical fashionables pretend, because they live naturally, but be cause of their Ignorance of hygiene and the proper care of the body. Our peasant women destroy themselves Just like the men whose work they share; they are the Inevitable de fortuities of their calling. To be bent all day long over the earth and to lift great loads with gestures perpetually and dally repeated, must deform anybody quickly. "wmu. But ir our city women, who understand by. giene ana care for themselves, would wear loose and graceful costumes they would be more teautlful and enjoy better health; thev would be better mothers and more prolific ones. Helng squeezed In. aa our fashionaole women too often are, does not prevent them their natural foot alirii ism I W I.. lized racea have developed the great toe to the sacri fice of strength in all the others. The great toe doea practically all the lifting and propelling work while the others are aa useless as so many disjointed sticks. This is due to tight shoes which compress the little toes and com pel the wearer to direct his feet outward for relief when walking. Primeval races, on the contrary, have all five toea of the feet well developed and well separated like the fingers of the hand, for Individual actios and assletance m the work to be performed. When we consider that our feet dt more physical work in the course of the day than any other part of the boey, except the heart Copyright, by the Star Company. Qrt Britain RlghU Rsaerve - - LeSTO from the from acquiring; fat On the contrary, the Im mobilized muscles are no longer able to burn up the fat by their activity as they would do If they were free. Woman has made the mistake of concerning herself almost exclusively with her face. If her face Is handsome and appears young," she Is satisfied, because everybody sees it Her body may be deformed, but she does not care, because she can hide it in fashionable clothes. That Is to value beauty as an appearancs and not as a reality. Perfect beauty is, of course rare ana is not given to every woman. What Is given to every woman, however, is the oppor tunity to become a perfectly har monious and healthy creature capable of easy and repeated ma ternity. We need not think that the loose ancient draperies, which "V ere so beautiful, harmonious, are the only kind of clothing possible for the modern woman. That Is a great mistake. Many styles of dress are possible, and we should aim to wear that which is in harmony wit modern life. The only essential is that the natural undeformed outline of the human body should be preserved. If our women do not choose to learn by themselves that maternity is to-day a primor dial necessity we shall have to force them to understand It After the war- the publio au thorities will have to consider seriously the ' manner In which the frightful slaughter haa affected the problem of depopulation. Woman Needs a New Moral Education. Even before the war our public authorities had been concerned with the question. Various measures were proposed, but they all ended in a proposition of taxation: a tax to be paid by the bachelor or a relief of taxation for large families. These measures are inefficacious, for they are too gentle. However high the tax may be on bachelors, it will always be less tttan the cost of supporting a family. It will be necessary to find a more efficacious method. Heads of governments, presidents, kings, em perors and ministers will be obliged to con sider It To counterbalance the expense, which is constantly growing heavier, of a large family It will be necessary to show It some very sub stantial favors. The first should be the com plete education and instruction of the children by the State, a training that win ensure them a living. A complete solution simply by financial methods cannot he brought about However valuable they may be, they "will not be suf ficient to balance the modern tendency to sterility. Merely to make the raising of chil dren less expensive would not be sufficient to restore to women the love of maternity. We must begin a vast moral propaganda. We must make women regard their social duty as an ideal, make them feel the beauty of it and make them love It. A whole system of new education must be begun. We must above all succeed in making ci vilised! women accept Intellectually the mission which uncivilized women accomplished natur ally. The lost Instinct must be replaced by the conscious will, and the second will be Infi nitely superior to the first It will be a propaganda by example, a propa ganda by word and act. That la what the war has rendered imperatively necessary for us. Citizens of neutral countries must also aid in the work. They have suffered less by the war, and they owe this contribution to the future of humanity. We must persuade women to consent to this voluntary conscription. They must learn to love maternity and, carrying on their own war, sacrifice on the altar of their ideal the foolish and evil fashions that have been the cruel enemy of beauty and maternity. Let woman leave her hips free. Let her no longer martyrise her body, which has received the sacred mission of perpetuating humanity. By ber conscious and resolute will let her become once more, with the grave Joy of duty accomplished, the "Venus Genetrlx," the origi nal Eve, the mother of humanity. we will perhaps he more : v-4., - t wlUlng to glv. some attention to their Madame Valentine nrtraer fimotlnnhir uiin nf ?kJ v. t 1 s, - ' ' ' ' iv'i' V'i: -v - . 3 . : t 10k ; V( if Y:VS, , 1 k :V 1 7 - i 2 ' -,! s k t .A r 7 da Saiot-Point, the Beautiful ParUU P r . umuiuui raruian roetesk. m . .w. viwauc i or ficaitbtul Clothing. m i fi.. . , . -I t 1 1 ... . . . , J io is