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Daughters of God
so tight that there will be compression anywhere. Every muscle must
be left free to do its work without having to strain the cloth to use the
arms freely.
This pinching is the fashion, but none of it must be done in my
house, for I have some regard for the health of my workers. Give
the lungs ample room to exercise, the heart ample room to do its
work without one particle of pinching. The standard of fashion I
do not respect, and will not have these new inventions practiced. I
want to stand out clear and free from everything that will be the least
detrimental to breathing or to perfect freedom of action. Let this sister
have the sewing from Fannie to do. If she cannot cut and fit, she can
work with one who does cut and fit. And I am decided that these
close, skin-tight sleeves cannot be wise or healthful, and whether it be
fashionable or unfashionable, I advise that they not be made after the
tight order. Read this to the ones who do my sewing.
I would be pleased to have May’s clothing prepared, that she may
go anywhere that it shall be necessary to learn a trade or go to St.
Helena in time. I want her to be fitted with good clothing. She needs a
good sack [short jacket] of some kind made. There is that beaver sack
in the trunk. May can have a cloak from that. Again, I give positive
orders that it shall be made roomy and not so tight that she cannot get
it on or off without tugging and pulling. Now, if this girl at Brother
Leinenger’s can sew, may can do the work and get her sewing done....
If she [May] does her work systematically and considers in the
morning and jots down upon paper just what she intends to do in the
orderly accomplishment of her work, she will not lose time but can
take up one thing after another. The dishes are not to be left, to do any
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other part of the work. Attend to the kitchen work first. Then the beds
have had a chance to air and may be made up....
It is a very bad habit to let the work drag and drive one. Drive the
work, and then you will not become discouraged. It is a bad plan to
give way to impulse. If you see a book you would like to read and sit
down in the midst of your work and read during the precious hours
of the day when there is work that needs to be done, then the work
is neglected. Make it [a] habit not to sit up after nine o’clock. Every
light should be extinguished. This turning night into day is a wretched,
health-destroying habit, and this reading much by brain workers, up to
the sleeping hours, is very injurious to health. It calls the blood to the