Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-15
SHOULDERS Oh HIPS?

Delicate Suggestions for the Ladies'
Information for Masculine Paul
Prys.
Mrs. Swisshelm is not to have things all
her own way among the dress reformers.
There is another Mrs. Richmond in the
field in the person of Mrs. WoolsOn, who
has written book in regard to the man.
ner in which the garments of ladies should
be supported. The subject is too delicate
one to be handled otherwise than ginger
", though lovingly by the EueniRg ReptIb-
licGH, but what follows from correspond
edit of the NeIc York Tribune is both prop
er and interesting:
With the earnest and well-intentioned
work Of an earnest and good woman like
Mrs. Abba Goold WoOlson, one should at
least deal thoughtfully and respectfully,
however one differs from her. 1t is, there
fore, to be hoped that Mrs. Woolson's new
volume on "Dress Reform" which Roberts
Brothers are about to publish, will not be
met by the pert fippances with which
crusty bachelors and high-minded maids
have been wont to treat a wOIk of this
sort. Mrs. Woolson's book is entitled to
a fair hearing. 1t is composed Of lee
lures delivered in Boston, during the spring
of the present year; four of them by wells
known and successful lady physicians, and
the other by Mrs. WoolsOn herself 1t is
another attempt to set the world right on a
matter in which the wicked world seems
very obstinately determined to go wrong;
and it will probably convince few save
those who are always ready for sedition, al
ways prepared to believe that the new is
better than the old. We have, in the
fr1ntespiece, the long familiar contrast be-
tween the Venus Of Milo and a modern
belle.
The Venus Victrix stands there, in the
changeless grace or her eternal silence, just
as she was in the very first picture of the
sort. But the modern belle changes her
adornments in every successive plate; and
nearly always for the better. Really she
looks very pretty, even here, where she is
posing as an Illustration of naughtiness;
only her dress with its long train is house
dress and should not be belied by the Co
quettish little hat perched upon the fluffy
hair. The Venus is evidently not dressed
for the street, either; SO mademoiselle's hat
is altogether unnecessary to the contrast.
Now every modern belle would no doubt be
Venus If she could-the trouble is that she
can't; and so she must content herself by
trying to bea pretty girl. But, says Mrs.
Woolson, let her be pretty and healthy at
the same time. Certainly, gentle lady;
agree with you there; and unless she is
reasonably healthy she will not long be
pretty. But how is this marvellous combi-
nation of happy and healthy and hand
some to be attained? There is the ques-
tion which Mrs. WOolson has tried finally
to settle, and there is where we are forced
to take issue with her.
Are women's shoulders made of cast-iron
any more than their hips? If you over.
weight them, shall they not ache? think
the casts of the female figure, in a museum
of anatomy, would convince any unpreju-
diced observer that feminine hips are quite
as well calculated to bear burdens as fem
! mime shoulders are. But in one respect Mrs.
Woolson and her sister reformers are I'M
questionably right; and that is that
reasonable woman should not allow her
dress to be numbered by such a weight
of trimming that her freedom Of locomo-
| ton is impeded by it, and walking is
rendered unendurably fatiguing. One
would not care to be more healthy than
the average Englishwoman, unless one de-
sires to be wandering Jew and outlive all
ones friends; and yet the average English
woman dresses, save in two important par
ticulars, precisely after the model of her
American sister, except that her
taste in the arrangement of
the dress is infinitely poorer. The English
woman's walking dresses are simpler and
| less heavily trimmed, and her boots are