National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1873-06-13
The Dress OF Women.
what u Lecturer Thinks on the subject


A lecture was lately delivered in Lon
don on the Inconvenience OF modern
dress-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 IA
that one constructing the waist, and so
altering the form Of the human body.
IL might not seem to US so at casual
glance, because the eye had become ac-
crstomed 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 l2 stones weight, and found their cir
cumference not to exceed eighteen inches
thus COMPRISING a waist which, at the
most modern computation, should have
been twenty-five inches, to half Its nat
ural irth. The terrible pressure had,
Of course, the most detrimental effect
upon the vital organs, by depressing
and circumscribing, and, at times, re-
versing the action of the heart and
lungs, the liver and the stomach. The
fact was that women had now become
so obedient to the laws of fashion, and
they laced themselves to such an extent,
that they ceased to breathe through the
imitation of the chest, but rather by the
inelegant as well as unwholesome means
Of pulling" Another dreadful evil OF
existing fashion was the deformity in
duced in the feet by the modern style
of boot, and the worst of such defects
were now at their worst. The lec.urar
here explained the action of the foot III
walking, by which, naturally, the weight
of the body was thrown upon the heel,
the forepart of the foot being use as
spring to impel the body forward. But
the present fashion did not admit OF the
fulfllment of such natural laws. 1t did
not even allow the great toe to remain
straight, but forced it outward, so that
all the toes were crushed up into q
bunch. Naturally, the result of such
Harvesting was flourishing and ever
increasing crop of corns and bunlons.
We wonder, however, where the lecturer
got his authority for the following lu-
dicrous statement During the late
American war, an army of corn-cutters
was obliged to accompany the Army OF
the Potomac. to cut the corns of the
warriors before they were able to &c
tOftn ana GO Duttic lol' VIC op'io "iAN
stripes" In referring to the "Greciar
Bend" he said that apart from the more
important injury which this posture
necessarily compelled, surely nothing
could be more inelegant than this atti
tude, which in motion produced ridic
J ulous wagging of the body. Why Sc
preposterous aposture should he nameo
!, after nation SO purely aesthetic as thu
Greeks was one of the secrets whicl
; belonged to the sponsors of moderi
, fashion and follies. Then that fearful
and wonderful head gear called CHG
: non, in which living, lovely woman
daunts the hair Of, perhaps, some
wretched creature who had died of {
contagious disease in hospital. As t'
the wearing of hair low upon the fore
head, and so hiding the evidence of in
tellectuality, that was false idea o
the high standard of Greek beauty, fol
such style was only used by the
Greeks as type of mere sensual beau
ty, model no modern lady shoule
choose to copy.