American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-10-16
Small Waists.

There is no doubt but that "small
waist is admired of all men and of all
women. No matter how the psychologists
or the physicians may talk, women always
have compressed their waists and expand
ed their skirts, and they always will, until
public opinion pronounces for heavy
figure. 1t has never influenced fash
ionable woman yet to hear that the Venus
de Medici had large waist-she has been
told so ever since that faultless image of
female beauty was disinterred She mere
ly shrugs her shoulders and draws her
laces tighter.
She knows very we'll that if she went
to ball with that figure of Venus no
man W, uld ask her to dance. So impor-
tant matter is it to have a small waist
that it has become a matter of pride to
the Austrian people, and is often men
toned in the court journals that the EN-
press of Austria is celebrated for possess
ing waist which only measures sixteen
inches. This is a greater nobility than
even the possession of sixteen quarterings
on your Shield without which you can
not be admitted to the best society of
Vienna. Sixteen" therefore, is a magic
number at Vienna. There are many per
sons, to be sure, who have as small a
waist, but they have cot the height, and
contour, and becoming fullness which the
Empress has.
Nor is the "small-waist Juror" 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 describes the beau
ties of Java as eating a sort of clay called
Gmpo, by which they become very much
reduced in size. Itkills them finally, but
what of that?
nd 1x-f oil ha
ish mothers who make their daughters
sleep in their corsets, and many foolish
women who will always draw their laces
too tight; but the golden mean remains:
figure well but not too stiffiy supported, a
waist slender, round, but not too small for
the adjacent figure, is the grand desidera-
tum of female beauty.
Nothing is SO unbecoming as too tight
garment. A shoe which is too small
spoils pretty foot; a glove which
squeezes the hand ruins the effect, and
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
service, for it makes her look and feel at
her ease-no labored breathing, no un-
natural redness, no fear of suffocation;
she is simply large, beautiful object, in
stead of a pillow tied in the middle, with
general air of asphyxia.
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 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 Devonshire, 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 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
ment reappears in history. Within five
years the "peplum,' or overskirt, used,
undoubtedly, by Helen before the Trojan
war, has Leen worn by ladies in this coun-
try; the kirtle," spoken of by Chaucer,
has become the polonaise, the vercoat;
the bodice has always existed, almost, un-
der that name.-Appletons Journal.