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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
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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
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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
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wlUlng to glv. some attention to their Madame Valentine
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