Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-08-13
Small Waists.

There is no doubt but that a "small
waist" is admired of all men and all
women. No matter how the physiOlO-
gists or the physicians may talk, women
always have compressed their waists and
expanded their skirts, and they always
will, until public opinion pronounces for
the heavy figure. 1t has never influenced
a fashionable woman yet to hear that the
Venus de Medici has large waist-she
has been told so ever since that faultless
image of female beauty was disinterred.
She merely ShrUgS her shoulders and
draws her laces tighter. She knows very
well that if she went to a ball with that
figure of the Venus no man would ask
her to dance. So important a matter is
it to have a small waist that it has be-
come matter of pride to the Austrian
people and is often mentioned in the
court journals that the Empress of Aus
tria is celebrated for possessing u waist
which only measures sixteen inches
This is a greater nobility than even the
possession of sixteen quarterings on your
shield, without which you cannot be ad-
mitted to the best society Of Vienna.
Sixteen" therefore, is a magic number
at Vienna. There are many persons, to
be sure, who have as small a waist, but
they have not the height, and contour
| and becoming fullness which the Empress
has. Nor is the "small-waist tur0re'
alone confined to the women of civilized
lands, so called. The small foot of the
Chinese women is local peculiarly;
the small waist, or the striving for it, is
universal. Even grave Humboldt de-
| scribes the beauties Of Java as eating q
| sort Of clay called 0DlpO, by which they
become very much reduced in size. 1t
kills them finally, but what Of that?
| Nothing is so unbecOming as a too
! tight garment. A shoe which is too small
| spoils pretty foot; a glove which
saueezes the hand ruins the effect; and
a waist injudiciously compressed ruins
the figure and the face. The blood is
| forced into the hands and arms; the
! figure is pressed out of proportion, and
the whole effect is singularly unpleasant.
| A large woman in France, where women
| have a taste for the becoming in dress
| conferred upon them by Providence,
wears ample draperies, loosely-fitting
! garments, and a corset which does her
| the best possible service, for it makes
! her look and feel at her ease-no labOred
/ breathing, no unnatural redness, no fear
| of suffOcation; she is simply a large,
| beautiful object, instead of pillow tied
! in the middle, with general air of as.
! phyXia.
Large women should learn that no
! tight lacing makes them look any small
er The size is like all other mGtteT-it
must 90 somewhere, and the effect of
squeezing the figure is never good. Every
woman cannot rejoice in the willow
pattern" which is so beautiful in young
! girls Age, which reduces everything
/ else, is apt to add on to the figure of
woman, and time brings an undesirable
stoutness. This cannot be better treated
than it was by the late Duchess of Dew
onshire, one of the most beautiful of
women, who grew, at forty, as English
women are apt to do, very stout
How have you kept your complexion
so pure, my dear Duchess?" said one of
her Notwithstanding at the court
of Queen Victoria.
by dressing at ease and keeping my
temper" said the handsome Duchess
| AppletO1l's Journal.