New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-17
AYzEcoRSET PHILOSOPHY AVID HISTORY.
From KnOwledye.

| From Knowedge.
One poison is no rule for another III such matters.
| The letters in HE English Mechanic. and little
book tull of Others selected from now extinct perl
| 0dical which l met with about ten years ago.
called Figure Training and others subsequently In
| the magazine, amply prove that. The great
majority of the writers-I may say all who wrote
| from their experence-said they ha1 found
the tghtest laciDg they could bear, especially IN
STAYS quite stiit in 'front.' both pleasant and bene
| fetal and among them was q surgeon. Some, how
ever find il expedient to remain under contraction
only q few hours in tue morning, aud the surgeon
| discarded his stays when taking strong exercise.
which seems natural but Others lace tghtest Tor
riding, aud LADIES' mostly IN tue evening, and some
enjoy and recommend confinement III stays all
night alsO-an Old practice which used to he en-
forced in families ald schools. Men generally
prefer belts, but not few wrote thai they found
regular lonz and stl stays much nicer and better
for their health Two or three said they could
stand aud walk much longer IN them than without,
and That their health relapsed whenever they gayo
it up. Many had begun 1t under some kind of com
pulsIOn, but had soon come To Ike II, even alter
Sc we're treatment AT FIRST. As | said before, tue
philosophers got much the worst OF 1t III those
Nv philosophy about 1t is that all those state
ments OF personal experience, with their variations
ia detail, are worth infinitely more for practical
purposes than all the talk about lungs and dIa-
phragus aud capacity of chests (Which vary great
deal naturally, nature and anatomy, Greek.v cmen
in flesh and marble, and the unquestioned bad
effect o. unduly tiaht-acing which proves nothing
but itself. Such multitude OF persons OF All ages
and kinds cannot possibly be either mistaken or
lying about the fact OF their own good health that
OF their children. pupils. schOOlfellOws, SISTERS
mothers aud friends, Notwithstanding, or ia conse-
uuence of their having been contracted into Tho
smallest circumference they could bear Tor many
years of their lives. 1t is very easy to be mistaken
in attrlbuting either good or bad health to par
tIcu lar cause but the fact of II cannot be doubtful
aud that, with sGDdry medical letters such as
have alluded to. is the summary of all those letters
containing any personal experience. mere were one
or two about ladies who had Obstnatcly persisted.
in the face of manifest warnings that they wero
injuring their health, and OF course dId So
1 ohar
from sore medical newspaper, tHink, that tno
Empress OF Austria was killing herself with tight
lacing for she happened 10 be Ill. and was famous
Tor the smaines5 oil her waIst-whioh seems 10 Do
specially cultivated there and 10 even enforced on
boys well az girls according to gentleman who
was at school in Vienna anu learned there to enjoy
being laced tight as possible IN long anu stir
stays, though ho was-~yery angry at IL at irst as
was the case with ulany others OF the aDOye-men-
tioneu writer's Well, she l. now q grandmother.
and told every Year that she is still conspic-
nous in our hunting fields tor her riding and her
figure. In one OF those letters au old lady OK
eighty-ive said that she used TO be oontr ted into
fifteen inches when she was young ana. indeed,
the compass Of their own span. or ir0n fourteen 10
fifteen inches was often spoken OIL up 10 ABOUT
forty years ago from very early times as The stand
ard to be aimed at by ladies', ald frequently
reached and occasionally even thirteen put moro
ia foreign counties than this, though there Was
one confession of ii in the BOOK on h2ure-trai-lng
OF course, / am not advocating those eXtremo ana
foolish and dangerous reductions, but only using
the fact that ladies lived long aud IN good health
under them. to provo tho mOnStrous exaggeratons
about the danger of waists which contain twice as
mach as those. You, at any rate. VIII see at onca
that a waist of twenty inches contains twice as
much as one of fourteen, aud eighteen nearly half
as much again aS fifteen.
/ cannot imagine what books Lady L. HaIberton
has been reaallng-or not reading-to write such
amazing Things ~ that twenty. olaht inches Is tho
dIoper size for young w0man's waist, when 1t Is o
ull size for % well-made yOuLg man.
1t Is just worth notice. ON the reiterated asser-
tions about Greek laXity, that the term, 4" wasp
wasted ia several forms Is as old Aristopha-
mes. And It IS certain that the Romans severely
laced and shoulder strapped their girls and oven
starved them, ii necessary. TO make them slcr der
aud upright. "Juvcuee ct gracles ct sc anan.
tur" Terence says; and Maeaulay, who had read
everything. said that the Roman ladies did still
worse things to preserve their forms. Whatever
are the reasons for it. il is quite clear from history
that corscts aud tight-llcing form or another
have been tho windmils of dress reforming Qui'
xotes for 900 years at least The vind has some
times lulled, aud they have battered themselse s
that they had stopped the sails; but IL mas always
risen again and knocked over the philosophers.
clerical, medical and general" and probably
always will SO they may as well save theig
preaching for something more amenable. or ut AM
| rate preach uore nationally than they do.