Why Women Are Always Tired.
By Jennie June
It is a common thing nowadays to talk of all men and women who work as being over-worked and always tired, and always needing "rest." Why don't they take it? Because people do not even want rest unless it costs a good deal of money. An old-fashioned rest, in a rocking chair, with the doors closed and the windows open, does not suit modern ailments. You must go a long way and take an infinite amount of trouble to get proper and suitable rest, a sort of rest a la mode, and then you are supposed to be ready to again rush into the thickest of the fight, and meet and conquer every obstacle. Why there are fights, and why there are obstacles, is not explainable. Life is supposed to be easier from the house-hold point of view than formerly—why it is has not yet been discovered. A great deal of breath has been expended in showing how and why living has been made easy, but the fact still remains that people take it harder than ever, and die of it with less provocation. One of the reasons suggested itself the other day, when a cloth dress for traveling was sent home. It was for a "tired" woman. It was of heavy serge and it had two skirts, one laid in plaits and weighted with "Hercules" braid, and the other laid in close, abundant folds over a thick quilted "mattress" and two broad steel rails, and the burden of carrying the weight of wool, enough to appall a strong man. It might be supposed that women could or would exer-cise some control over their own clothing, but they cannot unless they make it themselves; the powers that be are obdurate, and insist that you must carry their reputation for drapery or tour-nure "style" upon your back, whether it is equal to the strain or not. How delightful the rocking-chair and the straight, cool dress of linen or lawn seem in retrospect. Perhaps they still exist in remote districts. If they do, let us advise the possessors to make much of them.—Jennie June.