WHY SHE GROWS OLD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1545, 14 September 1912, Page 11

WHY SHE GROWS OLD.

THE BACHELOR GIRL,

The modern girl, though well up in most things, is unversed in the simple art of how to keep well, and, once started mi a business career, soon loses the health habit, because she neglects to revive a tired system with proper nourishment, writes "a contributor to the Melbourne "Age." This does not so much appiy to the outside worker who lives at home, and is supplied with proper food, as to the business girl living in rooms, who does herself cheaply, bringing living expenses down to the smallest possible margin, through which, of course, her health in time invariably suffers. The key to health 19 in our own possession, and to retain all one's vitality is the most desirable thing to do, for it is always cheaper to keep well than to be ill, as many girls have discovered, when compelled to resign their daily duties in order to battle against some illness brought on by ignoring this simple rule of health, and endeavouring to subsist on unsuitable diet. ' The bachelor girl begins her day on a bread and butter breakfast. She will tell you she doesn't require anything else, and often is unable to have much of that. Generally a late riser, and always in a hurry, something has- to go, and it is breakfast every time. A cup of tea and a hastily swallowed morsel of bread hardly braces one for a morning's work at or deciphering rows of figures; and flagging energy is stimulated with a tea-shop lunch. The evening meal is made up of tinned variety or something bought .hurriedly at a cook, shop, and this playing at eating goes on till tired Nature steps in and takes her revenge. Girls living in this unwholesome way acquire a distaste for duties. They haven't time, and when it is only a question of self can't be bothered. A spirit lamp and tea kettle make up> the cooking apparatus, and the larder is stocked with.a daily supply of cakes and scones, and something extra for Sundays. .Under these conditions, youth and health quickly fade, for the girl who works all. day in a stuffy office easily grows old before her time, unless care is bestowed upon her diet, which is just as necessary for the mental as the physical worker, for activity of the mind reacts on the organs of the body, and tends to make thought a physical process. A case recently came under notice of a healthy professional girl who, to minimise time and labouT, contracted the tabloid habit, ond her compressed meal, hastily swallowed, ( left nothing to put away or wash up. All her fresh brightness soon

faded, anaemia and nervous conditions set in so badly as to make effort of any' kind out of the question, and skilled treatment has so far failed to restore active health. Another reason why girls living on a small income are so apt to misuse the most precious possession, is that they must have money for dress and amusement. A desire to be in' the fashion necessitates constant saving for some coveted article ol attire, which-is really letting.sjip the substance to grasp the shadow, for the world so far has found nothing to take the place of youth and health banished before their time. -' ■ It is of little use for any girl to enter the business world without keeping well equipped to stand the strain. A good breakfast is a necessity, and by rising a little earlier will always bo found welcome. . . ' No one can expect to eat a hearty meal the minuto they aro out of bed or bo in, a condition to begin work right away. A brief- spell is required to allow our digestivo organs to get into working order. A heavy midday meal is undesirable, but a good dinner of meat and vegetables should follow in the evening. Proper attention to diet would give more pleasing facial results than all the skin foods to which the girl who has lost her complexion invariably resorts. Men havo long since learned the value of food, and fashion-has no power to tempt them from'this sensible course, but a working girl grudges tho money for a dinner in town though she is too tired or unable to prepare it at home.

A club to meet the great needs of the working girl was started some time ago in this city, but though the cooking was good and the tariff reasonable, it was so poorly patronised that the club was unable to exist. Everything in nature to thrive demands Drops' , sustenance, arid woman, despite her acts, is not the solitary exception.