The power and beauty of superb womanhood : how they are lost and how they may be regained and developed to the highest degree of attainable perfection

Preface

All hail, ye women who love health, strength and the beauty which these conditions represent !

There is nothing about style or dress for dress's sake in these pages. I hate style. It has murdered more women, caused more misery, more crime and more degeneracy than all the wars in the world's history.

A beautiful body has a style of its own. It is clothed with the charm of its own personality, beaming through whatever may be its covering.

Dress it in rags or in the finest satin — it matters but little. If the beauty, the intelligence, and purity of a clean mind shine forth, there can be no unfavorable criticism.

Every woman can have strength and health, and her share of comeliness. The possession of all this is not merely a right. IT IS A DUTY, and if the reader has not performed her plain, even imperative, duty by making

6 PREFACE.

herself comely, let her begin now. No time is too late to start, but every moment's delay is hazardous.

If old age has not intervened, the proud consciousness of the attainment of superb womanhood may be realized. Even though you are on the downward slope of life, your closing years may be rendered sunny and sweet, healthy and helpful.

The instruction found herein will be of invaluable assistance. It may shatter many fond beliefs, but it will arm you with truth, the mightiest weapon of all in struggling against weakness, unhappiness and untimely death.

That these suggestions may be the means of bringing unto those who read and act thereon new light to the eyes, unexpected color to the cheeks, and undreamed of symmetry and beauty to form and feature, is the sincere wish of the Author.

CA

Zy£4sn.a>4/is

"0 woman, lovely woman. Nature made thee to temper

man; Angels are painted fair, to look like you; There's in you all that we believe of heaven, — Amazing brightness, purity, and truth."

— Thomas Otway.

Chapter I. Superb Womanhood

Who can estimate the value of superb womanhood— that degree of health and strength so essential to the accomplishment of life's purposes? From the standpoint of mere dollars its worth to a woman cannot be measured. There is nothing in life so priceless. Like the virtuous woman of Proverbs, who was also a healthy woman, such a dower is "beyond rubies." Without this power of superb womanhood, without the beauty and strength of body which is a part of this ideal condition, a woman is not woman. Paradoxical statement, is it not? But let us see. The word "woman" does not indicate solely a certain form or condition of body ; it indicates the possession of sex, and unless the body has been developed sufficiently to bring out and emphasize the instincts and powers of sex there is no real womanhood. Such a woman is merely a sexless nonentity. She goes through life eating, drinking, sleeping and existing, but she has never understood in its truest sense the meaning of the word "living." She simply vegetates, and not with a healthy growth, either. Not for one moment has the joy of life and health in all their completeness thrilled her nerves. She has existed ; she has not lived. "A beautiful girl eclipses all, as sunlight does starlight. And every element of this beauty is immeasurably enhanced by a right merging into womanhood. Sun shines on nothing quite as superlatively beautiful, charming, even enchanting, as splendidly sexed 'sweet sixteen,' in full maidenhood, unless it be that girl fully developed into perfectly glorious womanhood. All races and nations, throughout all times and climes, have worshipped at the shrine of female loveliness. And the more devoutly, the higher in the creative scale are the worshipers. Onlyworship of God exceeds it. It has turned all men's heads and hearts, and literally crazed them, throughout human .history. What will not men do and sacrifice for a really handsome woman? and women to enhance their beauty? What other ancient temples were as numerous or thronged as those of Venus?" — Prof. 0. S. Fowler.

You, who are enjoying this superb womanhood: you, who have felt its joys, its power to thrill the souls of beholders, can you measure its value? If the richest man in the world to-day were to come to you with his hundreds of millions, and offer to exchange every cent of his vast wealth for even a part of your superb health, for your power and beauty of body, would you consider for a moment such a proposition? Would you not rather laugh it to scorn? In accepting it would you not be "selling your birthright for a mess of pottage? " Would you not be trading a gem of priceless worth for that which would be of no value when you were in possession of a weak

IO POWER AND BEAUTY OF WOMANHOOD.

and sickly body? How little the average woman esteems this priceless boon ! How little she seems to value it in her own life and in the life of those she influences !

At the very outset of this book let me impress upon every reader the enormous value of the superb powers of health and strength. Their great importance cannot be emphasized too strongly. There is nothing in the world of equal value, for no matter what you may possess, if you are without health none of these possessions can be enjoyed. To be sure, a rich woman, though an invalid, can buy more of the "comforts of life" than a healthy and poor one, but the condition of invalidism will deprive the possessor of even a possibility of real enjoyment.

Have you ever had occasion to note the allpervading influence of superb womanhood ? A woman in possession of the beauty, force and magnetism that come with a high degree of health is in a thousand times better position to accomplish her objects in life, regardless of what they may be, than one who does not en-

SUPERB WOMANHOOD. II

joy this divine gift. No matter what may be her sphere in life, whether she is an inhabitant of savage countries, or intermingles with those in the highest social circles, this power is equally important. Nature has willed that it should be all-inspiring. It is one of the necessary means of perpetuating the human kind. We hear much about men winning their wives, but the real fact is that woman, not man, does the choosing. Of course she makes it appear that man is the pursuing party, but, after all, she really does the selecting, really decides as to which man shall pursue her, and, at the proper moment, win her.

Now, the completeness of her physical womanhood gives her not only a larger list to select from, but the man she finally selects can in every instance be won with far more ease and certainty because of her physical charms than would be possible under other conditions.

Not only does the great value of this gift of superb womanhood apply to marriage, but also to every condition of life. The woman in possession of a beautiful body and of vigorous health which accompanies this condition, will find the gates of every avenue of life more easily opened undei these circumstances. If she has ambitions she will find encouragement and assistance at every hand, though if her personal appearance is against her the conditions will, in many instances, be exactly the opposite.

Those who suffer inconvenience and illtreatment because of their general physical ugliness accuse the world in general, and become cynical, but in reality they are themselves to blame. Their personal uncomeliness has been caused by their own errors, and they are simply paying the penalty of their sins against the great laws of Nature.

There is but little chance for happiness if this normal condition of health is not possessed. Happiness means various conditions to various people. Each woman has her own idea of what constitutes happiness, but unquestionably each one will admit that without superb womanhood there is little chance of securing this great and desirable end. Regardless of where she may be placed, whether in the business, professional, or social world, this lack of physical comeliness will handicap her every effort. Without it, life cannot be a success from any standpoint.

How many girls to-day possess mere prettiness — beauty of skin, of hair, of eyes, of delicate mold of features? Of how little value is such beauty to a woman! It is of transient duration, the first flush of budding maturity, which may never come to fruit or even flower. Such women often do not reach fully matured womanhood. They never allow their body to develop fully. This delicate prettiness will sometimes last a few years, though often only a few months, and then, instead of developing, as it should, into superb womanhood, a condition of physical decline is usually induced. It is a well known fact that women usually begin to lose their attractiveness at twenty-five — and sometimes even younger. Such a condition is a crowning disgrace to modern civilization. It is really a confession by such women that they have never possessed the complete powers of superb womanhood. A woman should be pretty at twenty, and — under normal conditions — beautiful at twenty-five, and handsome at thirty.

Who cannot call to mind instances where women have apparently been able to maintain their beauty even to greatly advanced age? History records many instances of this.

" Helen of Troy was over forty when she perpetrated the most famous elopement on record, and, as the siege of Troy lasted a decade, she must have been quite elderly when the ill-fortune of Paris restored her to her husband, who is reported to have received her with unquestioning love and gratitude. Pericles wedded Aspasia when she was thirty-six, and yet afterward, for thirty years or more, she held an undiminished reputation for beauty. Cleopatra was past thirty when Antony fell under her spell, which never lessened until her death, nearly ten years after. Livia was thirty-three when she won the heart of Augustus, over whom she maintained her ascendency to the last. The extraordinary Diana de Poictiers was thirty-six when Henry II. of France (then Duke of Orleans, and just half her age) became enamored of her, and she was held as the first lady and most beautiful woman at court up to the period of that monarch's death, and of the accession to power of Catherine of Medicis. Anne of Austria was thirty-eight when she was the handsomest queen of Europe, and when Buckingham and Richelieu were her jealous admirers. Ninon de L'Enclos, the most celebrated wit and beauty of her day, was the idol of three generations of the golden youth #f France, and was seventy-two when the Abbe de Bernis fell in love with her. A rare combination of culture, talents,'- and personal attractions endowed their possessor seemingly with the gifts of eternal youth. Blanco Capello was thirty-eight when the Grand Duke Francisco of Florence fell captive to her charms and made her his wife, though he was five years her junior. Louis XIV. wedded Mme. De Maintenon when she was forty-three years of age. Catherine II., of Russia, was thirty-three when she seized the empire, and captivated the dashing young Orloff. Up to the time of her death, at sixtyseven, she seems to have retained the same bewitching powers, for the lamentations were heartfelt among all those who had ever known her personally. Middle Mar, the tragedienne, only attained the zenith of her beauty and power between forty and forty-five, when the loveliness of her hands and arms especially was celebrated throughout Europe. Mme. Recamier was thirty-eight when she was, without dispute, declared to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, which rank she held for fifteen years." — Prof. 0. S. Fowler.

But we need not turn to the history of the past for facts to prove that women can, if they choose, maintain youth even to advanced age. Only a short time ago Lady -Randolph Churchill, who is a mother, with a son past his majority, married a handsome young man, who was considered the greatest " catch " in England, and who was only two or three years older than her own son. Is there any evidence more emphatic than this needed to prove that women can maintain their beauty years and years beyond the ordinary time for showing age ?

You may say that these women were remarkable exceptions, but if the inside history of their lives were known it would reveal that tfiey simply understood the secret of maintaining health ; that they believed in regular exercise, proper habits in eating, and that they cared for the body as Nature demands.

If she is in possession of that normal condition of health which accompanies superb womanhood, a woman should grow greater and greater in beauty, at least up to the age of thirty or thirty-five, and this condition should be maintained from fifteen to twenty-five years longer. The fact that one rarely meets with such examples indicates quite clearly the appalling need of knowledge in reference to the simple laws that govern the health and strength of woman.

I have previously mentioned that women really select their husbands, but I would also add that their selection is, in many instances, guided entirely by the desire to " marry well," by the influence of wealth or other attractive conditions, instead of the instinct of superb womanhood, which are the only natural guide. The fact that so many women are willing to sell their souls and bodies for a few paltry dollars indicates with remarkable clearness the great need of the adoption of those means which will develop the highest degree of normal womanhood. With this degree of health come those superb instincts which indicate to every woman, beyond all possible question, the one whom she should select for a life partner. To a woman superbly sexed, money could not, in the slightest degree, influence a choice. There would be but one judge, her womanly intuition, and this would, under normal conditions, in every case direct accurately.

The marital unhappiness existing to-day often causes comment. Under present conditions the real surprise is not why there are so few, but why there are so many, happy marriages. How many women enter the marital state absolutely devoid of all sexual instincts! They marry not for love, but simply to be married, because they will probably be more comfortable under these conditions — better fed?

better dressed, and be able to be their own mistresses, to a greater extent than at the home of their parents. Such marriages are criminal. A woman not in possession of a high degree of physical health has no right to marry; she commits a crime against herself, and a crime against the man she marries. Marriage is a physical union. This physical basis is its foundation. There may be other subordinate conditions which influence entrance into matrimony, and upon which the complete happiness of marriage depends, but all marriages must be founded upon physical attractions. The importance of superb womanhood cannot be more thoroughly emphasized in any department of life than in this particular respect. Marital happiness cannot exist without physical health. It really furnishes the instinct which guides a woman under these conditions. She has no right to marry unless she possesses this condition of superb health, and if this is not possessed she should immediately adopt the necessary means to develop it, for not until then has she the slightest right even to consider the possibility of contracting a marriage.

"Woman — God's best gift to man and the chief support of the doctors." — The Annual Toast at Medical Conventions.

Chapter II Present Physical Condition Of Woman

Physical wrecks caused by the evils connected with our so-called civilization can be seen everywhere. Alcoholic liquors, dissipation, over-eating, and numerous other weakening influences often cast men downward to the lowest depths of physical decay ; but if one will carefully compare the average physical condition of each sex he will usually arrive at the conclusion that man, with all his dissipation, with all his sins against the laws of life and health, still approaches more nearly the standard of perfection than does woman. This conclusion cannot be deduced by an actual comparison of man and woman, but by the comparison of woman as she is with woman as she should be, and of man as he is with man as he should be.

No one will question the great superiority of the strength of man over woman. The average man usually possesses double the strength of the average woman. He has that much advantage over her in actual muscular vigor. This also means that his nervous forces, his digestive powers, his actual manhood, in fact, are just that much nearer the standard of perfection than the same and corresponding qualities in the average woman. The truth of the statement that woman can be nearly as strong as man may be proven by merely referring to the animal world, and to the various woman athletes who take part in acrobatic and athletic feats that one often sees in theaters and circuses. The average woman is very greatly surprised when she sees the strength possessed by these athletic representatives of her sex. The ease with which they handle the weight of a man, turn somersaults, and perform other apparently marvelous feats of agility and strength, naturally seems beyond belief. It should be remembered, however, that this strength has not necessarily been inherited ; it is simply the result of cultivation, and those very women who marvel at the strength of these athletes could, in numerous instances, have been as strong, and even stronger, had they gone through the same course of training in their youth that was required of these athletic women in order to develop their great muscular vigor.

Among the lower animals the male is very little stronger than the female. The female horse, for instance, is capable of running as fast as the male. In fact, some of the world's records have been held by the female of this species. Woman can be as strong, in comparison to man, as are the females of lower animals in comparison to the males of their own species.

"By nature the female sex is as healthy as the male. German and Irish women are about as healthy and almost as robust as German and Irish men ; the same is true of squaws and Indians. That this modern and American debility is due to the habits and usages of civilized life is demonstrated in the palpable fact that the female sex among the peasantry and uncultivated is about as strong and robust and as uniformly healthy as a male. This shows that modern female weakness is easily avoided, that it originates in style, not Nature ; in fashion, not necessity. Usually, female drudges are healthy ; as a rule only ladies are weak and sickly. Mark this universal fact, and learn the lesson it teaches." — M. J. Rodermund, M.D.

History records many instances where women have disguised their sex and followed the more active Hfe of man, and in such cases there was usually no evidence that their strength was not equal to men of their height and weight. Let me emphasize right here that the vigorous and regular use of the muscular system will enable a woman to develop in every instance muscular strength almost to an equal degree with man.

"History, as well as those magnificent legacies in marble and on canvas, teaches us that no greater fallacy could be imagined than that 'we are women , and therefore, weak.' Among the Teutonic tribes the women frequently accompanied their husbands to war,

24 POWER AND BEAUTY OF WOMANHOO&.

and exhibited instances of the most daring bravery. In ' The Fall of the Nibelungen ' we are told that the conditions upon which the ' Good King Gunther ' won the hand of the beautiful Brunhilde were, that, at the peril of his life, he should vanquish her in hurling the spear, casting the stone, and leaping after the stone after it was thrown; also how he succeeded, with the assistance of his noble friend, Siegfried.

" One-half of the 421 graduates in the Boston school for physical education were women, many of whom had been teachers broken down in health. The result of the removal of the corset and the long, heavy skirts, together with the use of those exercises which a short and a very loose dress renders easy, was that in every one of the ten classes of graduates the best gymnast was a woman. In each class there were two to six women superior to all the men.

" Truly ' there is nothing new under the sun,' for when the physician of to-day calls the American woman a * sham,' which he sometimes does, he is only repeating the complaint of a husband of the olden. time, who declares that he has married a ' sham,' a lady of comely proportions who, en deshabille, shrank into a dwarf. Her head-dress measured eighteen inches, her shoes elevated her six inches. Her circumference decreased as alarmingly as her height, for, on the removal of the stomacher and hoop, the stately pyramid of silk and satin who had swept about all day dwindled into an insignificant pigmy of half her artificial size." — Anna M. Galbraith, M.D.

How few really well-formed women are seen ! Notice them, as they pass, in any large city. What a small percentage even possess ordinary good health ! Their forms are mostly shaped by corsets, padding, and other artificial means used by dressmakers to simulate the modern depraved idea of perfect womanhood. You often see big, bulging hips, with small, tightly squeezed waists and large, prominent busts, which, if it were not for the corsets, would fall low and make a disgusting exhibition of physical ugliness. There are also the other extremes : fiat chests, without a sign of the bust, thin necks, and small, thin and shapeless arms, tapering from round and sloping shoulders. In fact, almost every feature of deformity produced by the lack of exercise and the non-observance of the plain laws of health, are common in all civilized communities. Probably less than one per cent, of civilized humanity possesses that suppleness, strength, and beauty which is the inalienable right of every normal human being.

Even the figures of professional models, who probably possess far more beauty of body and symmetry of form than the ordinary woman, bear but slight resemblance to the ancient sculptured ideals of female perfection. The most perfect human specimens are deficient in some part of the body.

Among the women of the social world a similar condition exists. Physical ugliness, weakness, and sickness are everywhere. To be sure, women frequently display their supposed charms in the modern decollete costumes, but how few appear attractive in the eyes of those who fully realize how beautiful every woman should and can be! The arms are often illshaped, either too fat or too thin, the bust is usually forced up to an abnormal position by the aid of corsets, and numerous other artificial aids are used to simulate that beauty of health and strength which no artificial means on earth can possibly produce.

Even the stage, where some of the best examples of physical perfection are found, can boast of but few superior specimens of physical beauty. Many of the well known actresses have to make free use of padding, tight lacing, and other means, to enhance their supposed beauty. Bright, clear eyes, well-formed arms and limbs are attractive and desirable, but where the waist is constricted until all the internal organs are benumbed and almost paralyzed, such signs of beauty will be possessed but a short time.

Our working-girls, clerks, and factory workers, are miserable specimens of what they really should be. They ape their more well-todo sisters, constrict their waists, and conform to all those conventional habits which literally

" dry up " the true essence of womanhood that each should possess at complete maturity. They naturally envy the supposed privileged class, which spends much of its time in trying to be beautiful, and, as far as possible, they adopt similar modes of living.

How about the girls and young women one meets in the country? There they are supposed to have the advantage of fresh, pure air, and to be away from the demoralizing influences of so-called higher civilization. In the first flush of early womanhood many of them have their fair share of physical charms. There being but rare occasions for appearing conventional by crushing the vital organs, the body more often grows strong, shapely and beautiful. This is usually true only of those who are much engaged in that active, out-door life which influences, in every case, the development of superior physiques. The country girl has, however, fallen into many of the evils that sap the beauty and vigor of those residing in cities, and though one occasionally finds very fine examples of physical beauty, as a class they are not superior to their urban sisters.

There is evidence everywhere of female degeneracy, and the need of increased physical health and strength for women, but if proof beyond all possible question as to the physical condition of woman is desired, visit one of the popular seashore resorts during the bathing season. There you will find evidence at every hand of the distorting and demoralizing influence of the habits of life adopted by the average woman. How few can boast of even an ordinary degree of comeliness when in a wet bathing suit! It allows of no deceit. They then appear just as they really ar,e when minus their frills and furbelows — just as outraged Nature has made them. Here, too, one can compare the physical condition of the two sexes.

It is not at all uncommon for one to see superb specimens of manhood at these resorts. Many men are seen with fine limbs, strong, well-made arms, and figures that possess symmetry and beauty almost equal to those of the famous statue of Apollo. But how few Venuses can be found? Many of those who possess a fair share of beauty beyond the first flush of youth are often forced to wear a corset, even in the surf, to hold their bust in its normal position. Those who possess, in all its completeness, the beauty and strength of normal womanhood, are rarely seen.

Everywhere, and among all classes, this deplorable lack of beauty and vigor in woman can be noted. Female diseases, from which by far the larger majority suffer, indicate with remarkable exactness the cause of much of this physical weakness and ugliness. How rare it is for a woman to remain free from diseases of this character ! In every home sufferers from these troubles can be found. Medical fakirs, who advertise remedies to cure diseases of this character, are fast growing opulent. It is not at all difficult for them to find victims. There is needed no other evidence on earth than the universal existence of these diseases to prove accurately the necessity for reform in the life and habits of woman. Every woman was made to grow beautiful. It is only by crushing and disobeying every natural instinct that she becomes the weakened and misshapen specimen that is so often seen in civilized countries to-day.

" Female forms are nearly all deficient. What is the practical confession of all their padding and bustling, crinoline included, but that to look passably well they must supply by art what they should, but do not possess, by nature? All ought to be good looking, and many really beautiful, without any artificialities; yet how poor the physiques, how imperfect, the female forms of most of them. Many of our girls, on first budding out into womanhood, have good figures and complexions, but, alas, how soon they shrivel and lose the special forms of the sex. Nearly all are dwarfed. Our young men are half emasculated ; and maidens almost bereft of this precious element. This is most appalling.

" The walk and carriage of both sexes tell the same sad, sorry tale. How few noble, majestic, lofty, commanding-appearing men; or sylph-like, springy, blithe, sprightly, elastic, agile, poetic-motioned ladies? But how many males are weak-kneed, munching, limberjointed, inferior-appearing, moving about shrinking, self-condemned, as is ashamed of themselves. We are so accustomed to this deficit in both sexes that we fail to notive how almost universal or how great it really is.

" Our young women, how miserably sexed, physically. Few are two-thirds grown. Most are dwarfed, rendered too small to be of much practical account, by excessive brain and deficient bodily action. Scan the forms of these pocket Venuses. Nearly all are deficient in bust and pelvis, meager in face and limb, narrow and round-shouldered, hump-backed, crooked-backed, stooping, too fat unless too lean, with their breast-bones caved in, short ribs meeting or overlapping, bowels small or knotted, faces painted besides. What a damaging confession that they need to paint ? Yet how awfully they look without, and even with. And they use cologne in addition, thus telling all within smelling distance that they lack that balmy perfume which is coincident with normal health. One-fourth have crooked spines.

" One-half of the few mothers use nursingbottles in feeding their weakly children. A recently improved bottle, though expensive, sells at the rate of sixty to seventy thousand per annum; and the same doubtless serves in two or more families. Think of these hundred or more thousand famishing infants, put off with sucking-bottles. And how many lack even that? Merciful Father, to what are these fashionable modes and unsexing customs bringing us !