Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-03-04
GENTLEMEN WHO LACE,
Devices for Securing a Fine Figure,
Claims Of Benefits to be Derived.

Forncy's Progress.l
In 81 aud '62, while many Ameri-
cans were engaged in a discussion
down on the Potomac, there were
several serious questions agitating
England. They we're fought in news
papers, and have not, it is feared, been
satisfactorily settled to this day. Let
them be classed in the order Of their
Importance, as shown by the number
and length of the printed articles.
First, should young ladies over thir-
teen years of age be whipped at home
and in school? Second, should gentle
men wear corsets2 Third, should
ladies on horseback wear spurs? 1t
is to be presumed that the young lady
whipping, the male corset, and the
female spur wearing go on as they did
before, for while nothing is said about
them now, it is only fair to conclude
the agitation neither increased nor
decreased their practice. Like the
Sunday problem and the servant an
nOyance, these are matters which one
could talk about until doomsday with
out results. In this country a few
men wear corsets, and they seem TO
like them. Gottschalk, the pianist,
and equally celebrated as a beau, al
ways had on a corset. The male corset
wearers are those who take their coats
to the uptown tailor, whose advertise
ment maybe found almost any morning
in the Ledger. This ingenious fellow
has an arrangement which he puts
into coats, by which ones shoulders
are made to look as broad as a prize
fighters. With one of his inventions
and a perfectly constructed corset the
6gare Of man becomes irresistible. 1t
is a secret that the ladies know as we'll
as ourselves hat the shoulders of all
u coats are more or less padded, that
frequently u vests are ditto, so that
with the exception of the hair on our
heads, which is usually our own, there
is about the full. dressed mar almost
as much sham as surrounds the full
dressed woman. But our male corset
wearers will not talk. They hide
their corsets, iguratively as well as
actually, and would deny the whole
thing if they were asked about it. A
daily newspaper reporter is the au-
thOrity for saying that the tailor who
makes heavy shoulders out of slim
ones keeps quiet on the subject. Many
attempts have been made, but all in
vain to interview him. One must
turn to England to discover how a
mar feels to be tightly laced. Here is
a gentleman who wears ladies' shoes
because he thinks them more comfort
able, and goes for his corsets to a store
where there are lady attendants. as
Il find them much more obliging than
male assistants usually are" He is a
connoisseur in corsets for gentlemen.
Listen to him
II strongly advise to have the cor
set made to open up the back only, as
find it much more comfortable TO
wear and lighter than when made
open in front, In the now common
mode. | can truly affirm, from nv
own experience, that moderately tight
laeing (say three to four inches less
waist measure than the natural siRe)
is not only prejudicial, but, on the
contrary, is very beneficial to the
health My occupation is mostly of a
~sedcntary nature, and | used to suffer
much from pains in my side aud back,
and from indigestion, but about a year
and a half ago my sister persuaded me
to try and wear a corset, and she al
tered one Of her own TO suit mo. /
found it rather irksOms for the first
few days, hut that feeling soon passed
and on my next visit to London | had
a corset properly made 10 my own
measurement. Since then | have had
another ono made, smaller in the waist
and wider at the chest, which | am
now wearing. The pains have left mo
and my health is generally much bet.
ter than it used to ba. Besides this.
the feeling % being tolerably well
laced IS very comfortable. From my
own observation and inquiries, | find
the practice of orset-weaping by
young gentlemen is becoming muct
more Usual, but we don't make an,
display Of the fact"
In France and Germany very man,
more gentlemen affect corsets than il
England. Hero at home it is impos.
sible the custom will ever becom,
what our English friends cal
, gsoal." We haven't the time 70
the intricacies Of the corset. Eve,
the %suspender is getting beyond IN
J control Of the American man, and
= fellow-sutfeTep wrote to the New YorI
@ Graphic not long ago asking il TO re
quest of experimentation to hay
n pity on poor male humanity and ceas
adding novel machinery to this nsoes
! sqpy part of our attire, No.
: people who are frightened at SO simpl
A a thing as a pair Of ~suspenders wi.
never undertake the management {
r corsets, hedged about, as they are ru
I mored to be, with whalebones innum
cradle, strings by the yard and hole
by the dozen. 1t has not beon Il,
e purpose, in this paper, Ia do NOR
than mention-as has been done
Q about the whipping and the spur,
These are themes at which the Der
d taat did not falter at corsets for zen