Weekly Trinity journal., 1875-10-16
SMALL WAISTS.

There is no doubt but that "small
waist" is admired of all men and
all women. No matter how the ply
siologists or the physicians may talk,
women always have compressed their
waists and expanded their skirts, and they
always will, until public opinion pro-
nounces for heavy figure. 1t has never
influenced fashionable woman yet to
hear that the Venus de Medci has large
waist. She has been told SO ever since
that faultless image of female beauty was
diSinterrcd. She merely shrugs her
shoulders and draws her laces tighter.
She knows we'll that if she went to n
ball with that figure of Venus, no man
would ask her to dance. So important a
matter is it to have a small waist, that it
has become matter of pride to the Aus
trian people, and it is often mentioned in
the court journals, that the Empress of
Austria is celebrated for possessing II
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 DO ad-
mitted to the best society of Vienna.
Sixteen" therefore, is n magic number
at Vienna. There are are many persons
it is true, who have as small n waist, but
they have not the height, the contour,
and becoming tullness which the EN-
press has.
Nor is the "small waist furore" alone
confined to the women OF civilized lands,
so-called. The small foot of tho Chinese
women is n local peculiarity tho small
waist, or the striving for it, is universal.
Even the grave Humboldt describes the
beauties of Java as eating sort of clay
called campo" by which they become
very much reduced in size. 1t kills them
finally, but what of that
undoubtedly there always will be fool.
ish mothers who will make their daugh-
ters sleep in their corsets, and many fool
ish women who will always draw their
laces too tight; but the golden mean re-
mains-a figure well, but not too stilly
supported II waist slender and round
but not too small for the adjacent figure
is the grand desidoratum Of female beauty
Nothing is SO unbocoming as a too tight
garment. A shoe which is too small
4 spoils pretty foot glove which
squeezes the hand ruins the effect and II
waist injudiciously compressed ruins the
figure and the face. The blood is forced
into The hands and arms the figure j.
pressed out Of proportion, and the whole
effect is singularly unpleasant. a large
woman in France, where women have 1
taste for the becoming in dress, conferred
upon them by Providence, wears ampl,
draperies, loosely fitting garments, and Il
corset which does her the best possible
| service, for it makes her look and feel at
her ease-no labored breathing, no un-
natural redness, no fear of sullocution ;
she is simply large, beautiful object,
instead Of pillow tied in the middle,
with general air of Osphyxia.
Large women should learn that no
tight lacing makes them look any smaller
/ The size is like all other matter-it must
go 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 every thing else, is apt to
add on to tho figure Of woman, and time
! brings an undesirable stoutness. This
cannot be better treated than it was by
the late Duchess of Devonshire, one OF
/ the most beautiful Of women, who grew,
at forty, Us English women are apt TO do
very stout.
How have you'kept your complexion
so pure, my dear Duchess" said one o.
her fellow ladies in waiting at the Court
of Queen Victoria.
"By dressing at ease and keeping my
temper" said the handsome Duchess.
1t is curious in these researches into
the mysteries of the female toilet, to find
how often the name and fashion OF gar
mcnt reappcars in history. Within five
years'the "peplum " or overskirt, used
undoubtedly by Helen before the Trojan
war, has been worn by ladies in this
country the kirtle," spoken of by
Chaucer, has become the polonaise, the
overcoat the bodice has always existed,
almost under that nome.--APptcton'S
! journal.