Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1870-12-08
Reading for Worcestershire Talk on
Various Subjects.
WAISTS.

Various Subjects.
From Good Health.
WAISTS
The waists with bands over the should
ers and buttons for the attachment of the
skirts which some ladies wear are very
useful means of support, and when pre-
perly made and fitted to the form they
do much toward taking the weight of
the skirts off the waist, and their use is
to be strongly recommended; a single
waist can be made so as to support all
the skirts but that of the dress, and
this should be so loose as to be support
ed by its own waist. OF course, if the
under waist is made 50 tight at the bot
tom as to closely compress the abdo-
men, it will be quite useless for the pur-
pose designed. Woman's taste and in
genuity can devise plans for making
them so neatly that they will add to,
rather than detract from, the appear
ance of the form Those waists were
much more generally worn formerly
than now, and it is pity that they were
ever discarded, as their continued use
would have prevented much injury to
the health of women.
THE CoRSETs.
This question of appearance brings
us at once to the consideration of the
corsets, for it is undeniable that these
articles of dress are now worn mainly
for appearance sake. When and by
whom they were devised no one knows
1t is said they were first introduced as
a means of furnishing refractory wives,
by lacing the ladies up in them, in the
days when the husbands will was alb
solute, and woman's rights were un-
known. If this is true, woman, with
her usual skill, has converted the wea-
pons employed against her to her own
use For every other article OF female
attire we can find some model, either in
nature or art, however far fetched the
comparison may be, but the most lively
can trace no resemblance
between the corset and its use and any
thing else in creation, except in the
form of the wasp, or in some of the an
Gent statues of Pallas, where she is
presented wearing breastplate of
scales, the shape Of which somewhat re-
sembles he modern corset; but the
learned and warlike goddess wore this
for defense, not for the production of
small waist; and, indeed, had she Sc
cured this great desideratum of modern
times, she would probably have been
safe from the solicitations of Vulcan, for
with the ancients, gods as well as men,
the wasp-like waists of to-day would
have been considered deformity.
HOW coRsETs SHOULD DE WORN.
That corsets are always injurious, /
have not stated, for there are cases in
which, when they are properly nodded
to the form, they may be Of great COM
fort and benefit to the wearer, such as
cases of weakness or deformity; but
the moment you lace it so tight as to
compress the chest and abdomen, it
ceases to be of benefit and is productive
Of injury. A corset might be construct
ed, nicely fitted to the form, nodded at
the top SO as to receive and support the
breasts when necessary, and the lower
portion so shaped as to rest on the
hips-not on the waist-an elastic strap
should pass over the shoulders, and be
made adjustable to different lengths by
buttons or buckles Some means of at
for the skirt might be devised
that would suspend them from the cor
sets by buttons or otherwise, and yet al
low their weight to be suspended main
ly from the shoulders by reason of the
straps passing over them. These straps
should support the corset and prevent
it's pressing too heavy Oh The hips; and
if the corset is properly fitted to the
hips, these will easily support what lit
tie weight comes on them Remember
there is distinction between the waist
and hips, and that the corset is to be 80
constructed that the weight of the skirts
shall fall mainly on the shoulders.
When women will wear corsets, some
of the kind can easily be
devised by the modesto, and q single
trial will be al! that is necessary to CON
vince any one of their superiority over
the old style.
COTTON"
Ladies generally are anxious for
full, graceful development of the "bust,"
an appearance which adds much to the |
beauty of woman; yet many of them
,ignorantly Of course) adopt means
which prevent the very effect they de-
sire to secure, by allowing the pressure
Of tight corsets and thick cotton pads
On the delicate organs which mainly
give it form, while it should be left free
and unrestrained, that it may attain to
Ill the beauty and grace which naturally
belongs to it, Where these artificial
will be used, let some of
the light elastic, gauze material, now
being introduced, be used, in prefer
snce to the old-fashioned pile of cotton;
but the best of them are likely to do
harm. As for their deceiving the other
sex for which purpose they are usually
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