The hydraulic press., 1859-07-02
Crinoline Hygienically Considered.

. addresses to us a communication with tht
, leading idea of which we entirely concur
having studied s'the institution" some 'ir
the concrete" bachelor as we are. The
chance remark upen which he predicates
his Intelligent plea, seems to have been ia
ken in a more comprehensive sense than
was intended. In speaking of crinoline as
one of the modes by which human life is
prematurely ended, reference was had par
ticalarly to the number of fatal accidents
which have occurred from the expanded
garments catching fire and consuming the
wearer. Though we are bound to say that
United States to what they are in England
where open CRATES instead Of stoves are SO
extensively used. While giving this general
assent to the argument of our correspond
ent we cannot refrain from intimating that
the benefits produced by extended skirts
might be as fully obtained by the adoption
of costume ess violative of taste and de-
structive Of personal graces, while at the
same time preservative Of modesty and free
dom.
After some hattering expressions which it
would be indelicate hereto repeat our friend
remarks
In your last paper, am sorry to say, you
have perpetrated-in my estimation at least
AN aesthetic and hygienic heresy. On the
first page and third column, under the cap
tion of "How to take Life" among a multi
tude of beautiful truths, you have, inad-
yertently and thoughtlessly, | hope, insinua-
] ted one ugly error. With q masters hand
you show how whiskey, tobacco, and glutto-
ny slay their thousands of the male sex, and
how thin soles, with their multitudnous con-
comitants, furnish premature modes of exit
for the souls of the fairer and better part of
our race. 1t grieves me to perceive that,
with thin souls, against which the tender
sex cannot be too earnestly admonished, you
have, most unwarrantably, as it seems to
me, included ''crinoline' as one of the cases
of premature decay and death.
They tell me you are II bachelor; and thus
perhaps, having been debarred from study
ing the institution of crinoline, in the con-
crete as we'll as the abstract, you have vol
unteered a hasty condemnation of it, in to-
tai ignorance of its legitimate Office and eff
fects. Crinoline-or, rather, the series of
hoops which have usurped its functions
must be viewed from a physiological and
hygienic stand point, instead of from one
furnished by the pointless jokes of unscien-
tiic Knockers, if we wish to have a right
conception of its properties and uses.
I A popular writer of the last century, a
very astute philosopher, though somewhat
cynical and blunt III the expression of his
opinions, said that, ga votaresS of Fashion
would sacrifice, ON the shrine Of her IDOL
comfort, health, honor, reputation, and life
itself" Though an ardent adorer of wo-
mankind for more than, forty years, my ex-
perience compels me reluctantly to confess
that Sir Richard Steele was not so far wrong
in his appreciation of fashionable women, as
some plain-thinking people might imagine
Fashion is an unreasoning tyrant, that pays
no respect to the laws of nature nor to the
comfort, health, honor, reputation, or even
life, of her subjects, but demands, from all
and each, blind and unthinking submission
to her caprices. Within my day, have seen
delicate maidens, at the command of this
terrible tyrant, commit slow and torturing
suicide, by COMPRISING their waists with
stays and corsets, crushing heart, liver, and
lungs into q confused and loathsome jelly,
and thus 60 heroically into premature graves,
rather than wear the form that nature gave
but which fashion repudiated. All this is
melancholy enough; but, when fashion, as
is sometimes the case, does happen to coin
eide with nature and the laws Of health, as,
humbly opine, she has done in the matter
and article of crinoline, let us be thankful
| for the unexpected benefaction, and not class
it among the mass of her tyranical follies.
| A liberal acquaintance with physiology
and hygiene will teach US that, while the fe-
male chest should not be artifcially COM
pressed, it should be carefully clothed and
defended from the effects of a chilled atmos-
phere. The neither portion of the female
structure should not be thus sedulously inn
prisoned. Any sensible and we'll read med
ical man, who has honesty enough to speak
as he thinks, will point you to the demi
ked Scotch Highlander, as a proof in point
of what | have here advanced. But all this
involves scientific considerations which are
more appropriate to a medical journal than
to family newspaper, like yours and,
therefore, dare not argue the subject as far
as | wish.
| A few years ago, the ladies, in compliance
with the dictates OF fasnlon, loaueu tneir
hips with burden of petticoats, that, while
| 1t killed them, threatened a total extinction
of the maternal relation; and now, since
Fashion, in one of her good-humored capri
ces, has substituted the light and airy, and
healthful hoops, you must needs class them
among the artillery of Death. The hoops,
as any sensible woman will tell you, have
! liberated the sex from tedious and horrible
martyrdom and | sincerely hope you will
reconsider your attack upon them and en-
deavor to regard them through the medium
Of an expanded and generous philosophy:
A. J.
We announced, the other day, the discov-