Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-06-20
TIGHT.I.ACING.

The circumference Of the waist in a wo-
man of medium height and dimensions
measures, on an average-when not cramped
and distorted-about thirty inches, but in
those who have adopted tight-lacing it may
measure no more than twenty inches, and
sometimes even much less. Now, what be-
comes, in those latter cases, of the several
organs contained within the chest and abdo-
men? They are, of course, compressed and
pushed and squeezed out of their natural
shapes, and made to protrude in places
where they have no business, because never
meant to occupy such places 1t was in
tended by nature, as matter of course, that
the chest and abdomen should respectively
hold their various contents in their allotted
and relative positions, occupying certain
portions of space, and having ample room
for the due performance of their individual
duties, without that jostling and interfer-
ence with one another which necessarily
accompanies disorder and bad arrangement.
But, on the other hand, there is no vacuum
or empty space in either of the two cavities
there is no region without its own particu-
lar organ or part; and each organ or part,
though provided by nature with ample room
for the needful and unobstructed discharge
of its special function, has not vet much to
spare. When, then, any one particular or
gan is, by the system of tight-lacing, &C.,
unduly pressed upon and pushed and
squeezed, it must, like man in crowd
since it cannot get out of the way-be seri-
ously hampered in its movements, and its
important duties imperfectly discharged, to
the no small injury and suffering sooner or
later of the foolish self-torturer. And this
In proportion to the unnatural pressure and
squeezing to which the organ has had to
submit. The excessive crushing, however,
which results from this much -be-deplored
custom, as well as the consequences arising
from it, is not confined to one organ only,
but it is transmitted to those lying in its i'm
mediate mity-these having to bear the
pressure from the organs which are directly
implicated, though they themselves may be
entirely removed from the direct load TIE
practice of tight-lacing brings about this
crushing and displacement Of organs most
completely and efectually -hampering and
thwarting them in the performance of their
assigned and indispensable duties, and with
the consequent production of whole host
Of very serious troubles, and not a few real
and grave diseases. There are few natural
diseases, indeed, which SO thoroughly dis
place and jam and wedge together SO great
a number of the internal organs, and SO
generally disseminate among them incapacity
for the discharge of their multifarious du-
ties, as does this positively sinful practice
of tight-lacing. Shortness of breath, con-
gestion, and even Inflammation of the lungs,
congestion of the liver, of the kidneys, &C.,
palpitation and subsequent diseases of the
heart, Paintings, bronchitis, Indigestion
jaundice obstruction of the bowels, rupture,
&c., are few only of the many evils arising
from the custom which we are SO emphati-
cally condemning; q list, one would think,
quite formidable enough to cause the most
thoughtless and the most fashion eridden
subject to Immediately renounce all ale
glance to practice SO fraught with mis-
chief; and one, moreover, which has not a
single redeeming point, even in the occa-
sionally foolish eyes of the sterner sex, in its
favor Good Words.