The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-09-04 00:00:00

TIGHT-LACING.
(From the Daily Telegraph.)

_
The Girl f the Period ha, tsken to figtt-lacing
Of elia.ever owned, les that much a ivo d and
mush admired person !nay have been lee-nay guilty,
at least she has refrained for some years past from

aiontiartaaing her waist. A short while back we were
all finding fault with criuolotea. Men at least, had
much reason to complain. Neither at ehe dinner-table
nor at the theatre, neither walking nor sitting, arid
certainly not in carriages, were we ever free from those
dreadful hoops. A man was as much sep &rated from
his wile as though she had be, n in India and he in
Greenland. And then the pretty anger if a heartless
man ventured upon a murmur (Jr aromblaint ! Was
this the way we ithoweil our thankfulness for the
manifold blessiegs that we enjoyed? When so much
pains had been taken purely for our sakes, and with
such results, what right hail we to protest just because
a little bit of silk or velvet. careened, as it were, our
rude, ungainly forms ? Well, we were ungrateful, and
did complain, and fancied that of the oppression there
would be no end.
No man now married, we then thought, might hope
to see the end of crinoline; but already it is gone—like
a shadow—like a dream ; and here we are almost
lamenting that. we cannot get it, back again. It was
better, after all, that a man s wife, sister, tar daughter,
should twirl him about with Imolai. than that she
should condemn herself to a miserable, sickly life, and
a premature grave. The result, grave authorities
affirm, proceeds trim the fact that ladies in walking
attire no longer wear the shawls, pelisses, and swett
fringed mantillas which need to take our reason
captive. The young lady's present idea of a waist
is that it should be drawn and tightened into propor-
tions such as neither the sculptor nor the sculptor's
Creator ever dreamt of. Surely, to parallel
Baluteridon's immortal saying, beauty is matter
in the right place. If the Girl of the P. nod would but
consider that what she squeezes away must go some-
where else—and that there it is not wanted ! For this
moment we speak only of outward form; by and-bye
we shall have to say a word of what lies inside. On
this second point our young ladies Hoist hear with
plain speaking for once in a way, because their precious
lives are at 'take. But, simply with regard to the
outside curves and lines, is the beauty of Sophia really
enhanced when she has Niles zed up into her bosom—
or, if you will, in a downward direction—so much
honest flesh which was intended to be her waist? She
is all wrong, as the sailors would say, below alai aloft.
Then there are the red arms, and the cheeks too
highly coloured, anti occasionally all the symptoms
of incipient strangulation. Is all this lovely? We
think not. Ni doubt, if a poor young girl is taken in
time, while her rills are still very flexible, wonders can
be achieved by the compression id the lower ribs.
Look at the Chinawoman's feet. By taking the foot in
time, by bending their toes downwards and inwards,
those strange Chinese ladies do at last manage to lie.
tort their feet and toes with much success. The
fashion seems to us intolerably absurd; but, when
we come to consider the matter for a moment, the
Chinese foot is positively leas offensive to good
taste, far less injurious to health, than the English-
woman'a waist. It is quite refreshing to think of the
loose garments, be they of silk or of some less costly
material, in which women are clad throughout the
Flowery Land. They may not be able to take much
walking exercise, but at any rate they can breathe
freely. At least, when they swallow their food, room
is lett for the process of digestion. For, alas! even
birds of paradise, and humming birds, anti young
ladies, must eat something. To speak the truth, all
three eat a good deal ; and this brings us to the more
serious part of our subject.
The Girl of the Period does not generally read The
Law:et—which ia a pity, for in Clio week's number there
is an article to her address, and the fair sinner could
not have a more instructive or more protestant con-
fessor. What is the result of tight lacing, aceordin;
to the doctors ? "As medical practitioners we see its
effects every day in the train of nervous and dys-
peptic symptoms by which it is constantly indi-
cated, anti in the still more grave mischief of
permanent character which is often caused by it."
Will young ladies seriously consider that be-
sides hearts—which they will ackncwledge -inside the
most beautiful, the most graceful, the most lily-like
amtang them are such vulgar things as livers, lungs,
antis multitude of arrangements in addition, every one
of which must go right, or the whole system goes
wrung? They are tirade inside just like any dear
old bathing woman on Ramsgate sands. The neural-
gias, headaches, nerves, indifference to food, or too
eager craving for it—the sleepless nights, and distaste
for exercise—proceed one and all trom interference
with the great organs of life. With the young it is
bad enough even when the curative virtues of youth
are there, and Nature does her best to repair what this
folly of woman has destroyed. It is 111 t most shocking
—if it were not so ludicrous—to see stout nil kile-aged
matrons laced and hauled within an inch of suffocation?
How the beholder longs to snip tht in up, and so give
breath and a free passage for the blot al!
The rude people in the Lanett soy, that, owing to
the tight-lacing and consequent pretsure upon the
muscles of the back, a woman cannot even walk up-
right She stoops as she goee—and certainly she does
not stoop to conquer. 7be alterations of form and
structure are not all, for the tight-lacing tells in every
way. Whatever beauty there may be bbour, ill-health
no doubt the tight-lacers are entitled to boast; but
illness is not lovely. Affection may 'rend over the
warded frame of one long loved, and 1* her perhaps
di the more for the evidence of suffet itg ; but shou:d
any woman venture to play upon such a feel-
ti g, when she might, if she elms., be strong
dal healthy, and play an honest part in the
world ? A good complexion and tight-being certainly
c cunot be found together ; and timely in the case of our
young English nialdens we have been it the habit f
.00king for roses on the cheeks, As yell as mere
statuesque beauty. Are these all to fain away, and
be no more seen, in order that waists truy be unnatus
rally email No man cares about small waists. The

do-ea

Girls of the Period are not squeezing to please their
ad irein—they are squeezing against each other. Men
much precer the proportions that belong to the
Meilicesn Venus, or to any of the great female statues
of antiquity.
Tight-lacing was supposed to have gone out long
since ; but it in c true upon Us again, and worse than
ever. Young ladies !—your fuzzy heads and prep, is-
ternio no were and are absurd enough. A girl
with two heads is a monster, whatever he may think
of herself ; and the modern practice of rigging up be-
hind a second head of false hair had, and has, nothing
to recommend it. The only apology that can be offered
for it is, that it is a bonnet of hair. The hair is the
bonnet, for the pinches of lace or the three or four
sprigs of flowers which now-a-days are called bonnets,
would leave the wearers exposed to tooth-ache, face-
ache, and rheumatic pains of all kinds. The manifold
bundles of petticoat and the huge balloons of crino-
line were absurd enough, but they did not positively in-
jure health. Nor can much be said in favour of the
little pep under the heels, which are intended to give
height. Of course, they only change a woman's, or a
girl's, perpendicular proportions ; and if Nature in-
tended her to be five feet two inches, she will gain
nothing in grace or loveliness by screwing herself up
two or thiee inches higher. Still, save in so far as
they may distort the foot, enfeeble the limb, and
cause walking and exercise to he felt as a sevyrer
et, ails, the heel-p-gs are not gravel) hurtful. For the
the tight-lacing there is not a wird to be said.
Hii y cm a stooping, braced-up girl be grace.
? If she has not full command of her
respiration, how can she move about in that enchanting
way which is natural with girls whsn they leave
Nature to herself? It is positively dreadful to ace our
fl ttteried, tightened, ill-propiirtioned girls, stooping
painfully and tripping awkwardly about the street.
Artists dislike th is fashion of tight lacing and physicians
condemn it. Will not the Girlof the Period, then take
timely warning, and give up this latest and most
hurtful of all eccentricities? If the ladies will but let
gO the stay-laces an inch or two, they will be so much
more beautiful and comfortable, and better in health !
It goes to our hearts to give them this rough counsel to
their faces; but we are only saying what is said behind
their backs by artists, by doctors, and all true lovers of
the Gil of the Period.

FEARFUL SUICIDE from the CLIFTON
SUSPENSION BRIDGE, BRISTOL.
On Saturday evening great excitement was produced
at Clifton, and especially in the neighbourhood of the
Clifton Hot-wells, in COMO quence of itsbecomingknown
that a young man, of whose identity nothing satiefactory
was ascertained at the time, had committed suicide by
precipitating himself from the suspension bridge into
the river Avon, and had, of course, met with an in-
stantaneous and terrible death. The suspension
bridge, it may be well to state, spans the gorge of the
liver, and connects the beautiful Downs' on the top
of the St. Vincent. Clifton with the romantic
demesne known as Leigh Woods, on the Somerset.
shire it-ink of the Avon. The bright of the structure
is 245 feet above hi,212 water mark, and the low-water
point upon which the unhappy young man fell was
some twenty feet below that. It would seem that
the p,sir fellow paid his to'l at the gate for cross-
ing the bridge, and proceeded as far as the centre of the
bridge on the upper or Bristol side, anti that then having
denuded himself of his hat, coat, and waistcoat, he clan,
bered over the parapet and tushed upon hisdeath. e was.
seen by persons at the Hot-wells to get over the rail
of the bridge and hold on by both his hands. In a few
moments he released one of them, and almost instantly
was seen tumbling over and over through the air into
the abyss below. Owing to some barricades which have
been raised along the banks of the Avon to cover
some extensive works going on in connection with the
improvement and extension of the harbour, the per-
sons on the Glouceetershire banks of the river did not
see him actually strike the mud, but 51r. Wilkinson,
the resident engineer of the port and pier railway, who
happened to be passing heard a loud 'thud," or sound,
which he at first supposed might be caused by bleating
the cliffs, and on running to an opening in the planks
of the ballustrade, he saw the poor fellow's body on
the mud. lying on his back. Mr. Wilkinson at once
obtained the assistance of some of his men, ad the
body was got up and removed to the General
Draper Tavern, where it was handed to the
charge of the police, and to await a coroner's
inquest. One of the men sent down to get the
ill-fated man off the mud, states that he gasped
twice after he saw him, but this is thought
to be a mistake, as death was probably instantaneous.
On the clothes being searched by the police, Ild, in
money was found in the pockets, tsgether with a knife
and some minor articles, but nothing that could at all
roint to his identity. The body was that of a fine
young man, of about 22 or 23 years of age' with a
broad handsome face and very thick hair. He was
I dressed in a white shirt, covered with small pink spots,
and a dark blue silk handkerchief, spotted, and dark
cloth trousers.

The terrible occurrence W 11.9 svitne.9sed by a lady on
the bridge, win, fainted at a sight so calculated to shock
the sirongest nerves.
- - - -

This is-the second suicide that has been committed
from Clifton Suspension-bridge, the former being that
of Air. G. \V. Green, of Portishead, who :threw him-
self off in May, 1166. In both cases, notwithstanding
the terrific height of the fall, no bones were broken,
and, with the exception of some alight bruises, the
bodies were not at all disfigured.

Oa Monday the coroner for Bristol opened the in-
quest. the evidence went to show that the deceased,
hating removed his hat, coat, and waistcoat, jumped
over the parapet and hung on by his left hand. He
made an effort to regain the bridge, but failed, and fell
into the I, d of the river beneath, a depth ,d 280 feet.
Ice body was not identified, and the inquest was ad-
itrned.
The same en, fling, however, shortly afterwards, a
man, named Cook, who lives in Roeemary-s reet, St.
Paul's, liiietol, happened to be passing the "General
Draper" Inn, and entered the shed in which the
body was lyitg to see if he could recognise it. He
immediately identified it as being that of a young
man, named Joel Coueene, a pastry-cock and confec-
tnmer, who had been earn ilia- on business for porn-
time past in the Lower-arcade, and with whom he
I was well acquainted.

The f trnily of the deceased were communicated with,
and his sister, Couseris, proceeded to the "General
Drain r," and, on inspecting some of the articles found
on the corpse, she declared them to be the property of
her brother. On viewing the corpse, she instantly re-
cegaised it.
it appears that the deemed, who was only nineteen
years old, has been leading a gay life. Of late he has
been rather peouliar in his manner, and seemed to be
brooding over something. Being of rather reserved
temperament, be did not communicate the cause of
his inquietude to his relatives, and they are totally in
the da,k Ps to what caused him to commit the rash
act. On Saturday it was noticed that there was a
peculier wild expression in his eyes, and he appeared
excited, as if with drink, but none of his acts or words
were calculated to give rise to a suspicion that he in-
tended to deetroy himself. He left his home about ten
! minutes after four o'clock, with the avowed intention
of proceeding to London, whither he had often stated
he should go. in order to separate himself from his
associates. Ile was well supplied with money, and as
he oil not return at night it was thought he had carried
his intention into effect, and his family did not feel the
slightest uneasiness at his prolonged absence. What
became of him from the time he left home until the
time he went on the bridge is not at present known.
The identification of tins body has cleared away the
mystery which until now has surrotuided the melan-
choly affair.