The Russellville Democrat., 1881-08-04
Tight Lacing.
London Telegraph.


 Those who in the interests of health symmetry, and good taste indignantly protest against the present monstrous mania of tight-lacing might be induced to despair of ever finding m attentive ear lent to their representations. did not history remind us that in more than one epoch of civilization the serpent of tight lacing, although only scorched, and not killed. has been for time satisfactorily beaten under foot.
 About a hundred years ago Bufon and Jean Jacques Rousseau lifted up, with tremendous emphasis, their voices against female "sour gandines" and "corps a baleines" of their nme-stays which may be tersely defined as "hour-glass" ones. The citizens of Geneva vigorously denounced the corrupted taste which maintained that the figure Is excellent in proportion to the narrowness of the waist; while his efforts and those of Buffon were vigorously seconded by an anonymous pamphlet with the alarming title: Degradation of the Human Race by the Use of Whalebone Stays, which are agalnst the laws of nature, are con- duciYe to the depopulation of the coun- try, and subject humanity from its earli- est years of existence to unspeakable tortures."
 'Gourgandines" "corps a baleines,' and other engines of torment of the corset species did not-in France at least long survive these bold onslaughtS; and among many other instances and impostures swept away by the French revolution were ughtly-laced stays. Europe enjoyed a surcease of these hid eous and painful devices for a space of nearly thirty years. With the pseudo- Gracian costume introduced by the painters Davld and Girodet de Roussy no stays at all were worn, but in their stead was borrowed from antiquity the ''mamlllare, ,"-the Greek "apodismos, ,"- the bust to support and moderately restrict the bosom To the Grecian style of feminine attire succeeded the era of very short waists, and. when those waists were just below the armpits, the stays were mere buskless jerkins. laced behind and terminating not far below the shoulder-blades. Unhappily, toward the close of the reign of George IN,- himself tight-laeed monarch, - hour glass" corsets resumed their baleful sway, and "wasp-waists" came into fashion. They lasted all through the reign of William ", but about lS4S a sudden reaction took place in favor of tree as against q confined bodice. IL was q year of revolution, the invention ofthe criaoline petticoat-afterwards wrongly ascribed 10 the Empress Engenie-- was beginning 10 make itself felt; or perhaps the remonstrance of Harrison, Winslow and other doctors, had borne good, albeit iariy, fruit. At all events, so long as crinoline and hoped skirts enjoyed their empire. tight-lacIng was under a cloud and ladies of independent liberal opinions would often beast that they wore no stays at all.
 At the present tune It may pc unhesi- tatingly maintained that tight-lacing of the most exaggerated and most bernie ious order is more prevalent than ever and that the only ladies whose corsages are sensible arc the unhappy asthetics, SO odious Co the souls of Mr, Burnand and Mir. Du Maurier. Costumes initiated from Sandro Botucello or Carlo Crivelli scarcely comprehend ''hour-giass" "corsets and wasp waists. How long the existing madness for tight-lacing will endure it is impossible to foretell. Meanwhile the ladies who indulge in the silly practice may derive what solAoe they can from the reminder that wasp" waists are not admired, bntare laughed at, by men of sense and taste, and the Dbdnrate persistence m tight-lacing bears a remarkably strong resemblance Co constructive suicide.