only safe ground. A woman can no more be trusted with a corset, than a drunkard with a glass of whiskey."

To sum up the evils of dress and suggest lines of study, is all we have room for in our short space.

1. Insufficient underwear.

2. The corset-which compresses the vital organs, overheats the region it covers, displaces the pelvic contents, serves as an excuse for hanging the clothes upon the hips, impedes the circulation of the blood in the extremities, lungs and brain, and robs the wearer of freedom and grace of movement; while it brings in the long line of ills which have doomed our American women to invalidism, and robbed their children, if they have any, of their lawful inheritance, good health. 3. Heavy and trailing skirts, which burden the wearers, and impede their motion.

4. Inequality of clothing, which covers the waist and abdomen, which should not be overheated, with from ten to fifteen thicknesses, while the shoulders and limbs are often covered with but one thickness, and that of cotton.

5. The high-heeled shoes which throw the body out of the natural poise, and so displace the womb.

6. The general lack of thought of what dress should be in order to give health and comfort to its wearers.

"Evil is wrought by want of thought

As well as by want of heart."

Our young wives should know these evils, and institute a crusade against them, so strong and forcible, that intelligent common sense shall govern in dress, and health and happiness be the blessed results, in the home.

CHAPTER III.

HEALTH OF THE YOUNG WIFE.

Health Insures Happiness.-Be Ambitious for Health. The Scarcity of Perfectly Healthy Women.-Fashion to the Rescue.-The Boon of Health. Necessity of Ventilation and Fresh Air. -Duties to the Home.-The Greatness of Woman's Sphere. In the Society Drift.-The Extreme of Wholly Avoiding Society.-Keeping in the Middle of the Road.-Pleasures and Recreations Taken Together.-Taking Time to Keep Young.-Mistakes Which Some Husbands Make. -Wrecks at the Beginning of Married Life.

To be a successful home-maker, the young wife must be well and know how to conserve her health. While the husband may be patience itself yet an invalid in the home, and that invalid the home-maker, is a serious drawback to happiness.

Sir James Paget, in a lecture on national health, says, "We want more ambition for health. I should like to see a personal ambition for health as keen as that for bravery, for beauty, or for success in our athletic games or field sports. I wish there were

such an ambition for the most perfect national health, as there is for national renown in war, in art, or in commerce."

"All women ought to know that invalidism, speaking generally-there are, of course, exceptions to this rule,-is a carefully cultivated condition, quite as truly as the magnificent condition of the prize-fighter, the race-horse or the gymnast."

It has become a rare thing, to-day, to find a woman who counts herself perfectly healthy. Is it possible that womankind has become so susceptible to influence, that she imagines herself ill when she is not? We are more or less creatures of imitation, and yield to the force of our surroundings without a murmur. More than this, we must admit that among the many a semi-invalidism is considered genteel and attractive. True, in the last few years we have made some effort to rise above this, and a few have succeeded.

Even Dame Fashion herself has started a line of reforms that we trust will continue popular, until they have become fixtures. Short skirts, heavy shoes, natural waists are sought by a fairly large number to-day; but we dare not prophesy what would be the result did another turn of the wheel of fashion

decree otherwise. The agitation must be increased until no backward step is possible along these lines, and until our daughters will desire comfort and healthfulness in dress, rather than fashion, and its frequent result, disease.

It is not enough that you as a wife, come to your marriage with good health, but that you do all in your power to conserve it in the days and months thereafter. It is safe to say, if from principle and wise judgment you learn in the new relations during the first year, how best to preserve and conserve your strength, you will carry this knowledge and practice with you through life.

First you must consider health a priceless boon, before you lose it.

In the new relations fix your habits of exercise and recreation carefully, and adhere to them. Learn how to rest, before you have reached the point nervously where rest is impossible. Do not presume too much upon your splendid health, and overdo daily. Stop before you have reached the limit of your strength.

If you have not learned about the necessity of good ventilation in the home, learn it at once, and let in daily the fresh, pure, lifegiving sunshine and fresh air, room-fulls of it.