Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1867-12-04

VI a-E4 - 49,
natural size of the waists of many of our
. otherwise sensible young ladies. To me
there is no harmony in the proportions Of
a very smalEwaist midway between broad
shoulders and hips.o Girls! do you know
you are committing deliberate suicide as
surely as though you were daily taking
some terrible poison.o7 Do you do it for
the sake Of winning the admiration of
| gentlemen? IF SO, you have, / think,
madera great mistake, for. SO far as | haye
heard them talk, they are too sensible of
your folly to adm re your apparent want
fof room for your poor foolish heart. I
never knew but one man to advocate it.
He suggested to me that [ would "look
better" if I would reduce the size of my
waist by that agreeable process. | re-
torted somewhat Indignantly that I pre-
fered a natural death. He, insisted
I that it was not truthful and quoted
his first wife as an example. | informed
him that believed Mrs. R No, 1,
died of consumption, in which assertion I
was joined by Mrs. R No. 2, who
refused to believe it would be fine dis
cipine for her iuntutored form, and who is
IN consequence alive and well. have
always felt to admire myself for the for,
bearance | exercised in not limiting to HIM
that | distrusted his motives, for 1 had
my suspicious that he had in mind Mrs,
R No. 3. .. g6..n - ..r.5y 49,.
In this busy age such .rof US as are not
blest with fortunes must work and l,
think the questions of how we can
dress most consistently with our comfort
and labor, ought ,to. be we'll considered.
Though [ may hook you, | acknowledge
myself an advocate Of the short "Ameri-
can costume" as u working dress. am
heartily glad fashion has made it easier
for woman to adopt it, for I coEside the
short street costume as a long step in the
advance of reform. But [ am afraid that
the repentance of many in that direction
savors somewhat Of the sick mans re-
pentance and prayers who said "Remein-
Der Lord if I get well, this all goes for
nothing" And for the good their short
dress has done they atone by making their
other dresses to trail a yard more or less,
[ tried the dress once, when having been
very i'll Of "a fever, the good old Doctor said
I must "run Wild" cultivate acquaintance
with Mother Earth, &c. Long dresses
sadly in my way, SO came out in a
Bloonser. can't say / was compliment
ed on my appearance, my mother kindly
said, 'you look like a WITCH" and my
brother manifested the usual benevolent
characteristics of brothers and teased my
life half OUT But my father, bless his
sensible soul, said I looked first rate and
with him on my side, I felt that I could
defy the world. Health came with the
flying weeks, and the remembrance of the
ease with which I perambulated pastures
and crossed mud puddles, comes like a
decided aggravation. to my mind when I
am picking my way through snow and
mud. za6t B .s}.5 --s:.-sa D, eE nasg
r ,po o.I II ,ra , ,o,,.;I 10 .,,or,o,
who have moral courage enough to dress &C.
cording to their work. AS to tight-shoes
I have but little to say and that CO mes
from experience. I think they generally
bring their punishment with them. I
have very distinct recollection of the
only time I ever assayed the feat of wear
ing pair of them had been reading
poetry wherein lady's feet were compar-
ed to little mice, and though I was not
Z quite insane enough to hope for so dimin-
utlve pedal extremities as that, yet had
a faint hope that by dint of pinching they
might pass for respectable sized rat.
All! never shall I forget that day of dis
comfort. [ remember that my good Sc
rene father opened his eyes to their fullest
extent, and gave what seemed to me full
evidence of ''total depravity," and my
respectable mother all at once grew de:
cidedly saucy. ] felt savage desire, to
"box" my venerable grandmother's ears,
when she mildly limited that was the
''erOss,' one. Our kitchen divinity.