Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-10-02
A Good Word for COrSetS.

WE know of few things about which
there is so much nonsense talked and
written as about corsets. 1t is the fash
ion lust now TO denounce them as inge-
Nous devices of the enemy, and good
deal Of cheap popularity has been secured
in this way In this, as in most other
matters pertaining to the dress reform
movement, facts have weighed little while
all sorts of foolish assumptions have been
treated as aXioms.
Now we know perfectly well that some
women lace themselves too tight, although
it is not at present fashionable to do SO.
We know too, that many women have Sc
riously injured their health while some
have sacrificed life ltsei1-0n the shrine Of
a slender waist But the wearing Of the
corset does not necessarily, and, in fact
does not commonly end in tight-lacipg;
while lacing, and that, too, of very
hurtful sort, may be and frequently is ac-
cemplished without the use Of corset at
all. We have seen mems clothes worn as
tightly as any corset ever was. The con
domination of tight lacing is perfectly
Just, of course, as everybody having the
smallest knowledge OF anatomy knows.
But many women who never lace wear
corsets and derive great benefit from
their use. 1t is certainly very absurd to
demand that these people shall torego a
comfort giving article of apparel merely
because they could turn it into an lnstru-
ment of torture if they were fools. They
find that to put the entire weight of their
clothing upon their shoulders is to give
themselves pain and in order to divide IT
they let partsof their apparel depend upon
the hips for support. To do this without
a corset it would be necessary to wear
the garments altogether tighter about the
waist than they should be worn, and to
bind them around single mar
row zone, which would be both UNI
comfortable and unwise. The cor
set, however, distributes both the
weight and the pressure over the strong
muscles of the hips, and as It's less yield
ing than the flesh it obviates the necessity
of tight Wristbands altogether. The cor
set properly used, in other words, furnish
es the very best remedy for tight lacing,
particularly now that taper waists have
gone out Of fashion.
We are told that cOrsets ruin the health !;
that they make people nervous, irresoluie,
and weaklings generally; that our race is
growing feebler every day since we have
no more mothers of the old Roman type.
But stop a moment. History tells us that
the fine old Roman mothers themselves
wore corsets! Coming ON down we find
that our sturdy Saxon forefathers wore a
very clOsc-ftting sort Of corset, extending
from the arm-pits to the waist, made at
first of stout linen and afterwards of heavy
leather. Worse and worse, the Crusaders
and other knights of the middle age, who,
whatever other faults were laid to their
charge, have never been accused Of weak
ness. nervousness, or irresolution, wore a
corset, or, as they called it, a cuirass,
made of two plates Of metal. the one fit
ting the back and the other the chest, the
two being buckled togeth er at the side
and forming about as stiff and unyielding
a corset as can well be imagined. The
Germans, too, are commonly accounted as
sturdy race, and even when living in our
land of shaky nerves their women are
deemed model mothers in all physical re-
CARDS And yet it was they who first gave
the idea of the modern corset to the
French, and through the French to the
world. They wore a clumsy contrivance
of heavy and rude workmanship. The
French made it lighter after the revolu-
ton, and gave it something more OF shape
illness, and the corset Of to-day stood con
fessed.
Now let us not be misunderstood. We
| condemn as heartily as anybody the prac-
tice of comprising waists, but we do not
believe either that the use Of the corset
necessarily fosters that practice or that
the abandonment of corsets will cure the
evil. We do believe that the corset prop
erly worn is Of great service in keeping