The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-06-16
The Dress of Women.


What Lecturer Thinks on the Subject.
A lecture was lately delivered in Lon.
don on the inconvenience OF modern
lress-the dress OF women being par
ticularly referred to. The lecturer. said
that OF all the evils OF latter day FASH
ions for females, none were so great rs
that one constructing the waist, and so
altering the form of the human body.
It might not seem to us so Ht casual
glance, because the eye had become aC-
customed to the deformity; but still it
was not less hideous in point OF taste
than it was destructive to the health.
He had measured the waists Of women
of 12 stones weight, and found their cir
cumference to exceed eighteeniuches
thus compressing a waistwhich, Mt the
most modern computation, should have
been twenty-five inches, to half its nat
ural girth. The terrible pressure had,
Of course, the most detrimental effect
upon tho vital organs, by depressing
and circumscribing, and, ut times, re.
versing tho action Of the heart and
lungs, the liver and the stomach. The
fact was TINT women Ind now become
so obedient to tho lAws OF fashion, and
they laCed themselves to such an extent,
that they ceased to breathe through the
initiation of tho chest, but rather by the
inelegnnt as well MS unwholesome means
of quilting" Another dreadful evil Of
existing fashion was tho deformity in-
duced in the feet by the modern style
of boot, and the worst OF such defects
were now ut their worst. The lecsurer
here explained the action OF the foot in
walking, by which, naturally, the weight
of the body was thrown upon the heel,
the forepArt Of the foot being used as a
spring to impel the body forward. But
the present fashion did not admit Of the
fulhllment. of such natural laws. 1tdid
not even allow the great toe to remain
straight, but forced it outward, so that
all tile toes were crushed up into n
bunch. Naturally, the result Of such
harvesting was n ilourishing and ever
increasing crop of corns and bunions.
We wonder, however, where the lecturer
got his authority for the following lu-
dicrous statement: "During the late
American war, MI army Of corn.cutters
was obliged to accompany tho Army Of
tho Potomac, to cut the corns OF the
warriors before they were able to go
forth and do battle for the stars and
stripes" In referring to the "Grecian
Bend, he said that apart from the more
important injury Which this posture
necessarily compelled, surely nothing
could be more inelegant than this atti.
tudc, which inmotion produced ridic-
ulOus wagging of the body. Why SC
preposterous posture should be named
after nation so purely aesthetic as the
Greeks was ono Of the secrets which
belonged to the sponsors of modern
fashion and follies. Then that fearful
; and wonderful head gear called CHG
non, in which n living, lovely woman
flaunts the hair Of, perhaps, some
wretchcd creature who had died Of q
contagious disease in hospital. AS tC
the wearing OF hair low upon the fore
head, and so hiding the evidence Of in
tellectunlity, that wAs n false idea ol
the high standard of Greek beauty, fol
sucll style was only used by the
Greeks us n type Of mere sensual beau
ty, model no modern lady shoulG
choose to copy.