The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1884-03-08
NUMBER u.


The extraordinary perversion OF taste
and sense, proved by the general opinion
of what is desirable in female form,
may go far to prove that the principal
of evolution is balanced by that of re-
PROGRESSION. The cave men have left
proofs of the possession of faculties not
possessed by savage people of the pre-
sent day, which may be taken as show
ing the case of those who, incapable Of
improvement, die out before the march
of civilization, that these latter are not
going over the same ground of progress,
but reiaDsing from superior condition.
The singular stlte of ideas respecting
beauty of form in all modern civilized
countries can hardly imply anything but
retrogression, in one of the senses at
least. Judging Oh the opinion of the
ancient Greeks as expressed in their
sculpture, a modern, ideal, welldressed
young lady, probably by natures inten-
tion as fine, or finer, than anything they
ever saw, would be to them, could they
revisit the earth, subject of amaze
ment. Tiny hands, white till they look
bloodless, and pointed nails; feet with
no more shape than spoon; but, above
all, waist like pipe, having scarcely
any natural reference to the form above
or below-in reality, hideousl The
deep-rooted preference for this deform-
lty must surely be mark of retrogres-
sion.
1t is common for deluded mothers,
looking at the grandly growing girl, to
say: "The child is becoming a monsterl
She must be Immediately put into
stays" a little girl of II, being for
the first time jammed into the abomina-
ton, complained that she could not
breathe. The answer of her mothers
French maid was: "Il faut souffrir pour
etre belle and so commenced the de-
formity Of the poor child's body and
mind. There ought to be no such
thing as waist as now understood. In
early youth flexible slimness is natural
Characteristic, later it does not common
ly exist, being replaced by beauty Of
greater dignity, and when small waist
is formed by art it is at the expense of
health and beauty. Every young lady
who congresses her waist out Of its
natural shape and size should be made
to understand that she does it at her
peril, whether she feels that pressure OF
not, for from habit she may not be at
all times conscious of it; she should
know that she will pay a fearful price
in loss of health and height and elasti-
city Of movement, without which there
can be no healthy pleasure and no real
beauty. The test of beauty of form is
the effect of the silhouet, and whether
it will go well into sculpture; in fact,
the effect of the lines bounding the
shape. Compression in one place must
produce corresponding expansion in an
other, excepting, indeed, in the disas-
trous crushing in of the ribs, which
give way internally sometimes entering
the lungs. The ampler tile form the
lie can good taste consent to compress
sion. The sudden bulges and violent
amplitudes, which are the consequences
of unnatural restrictions, are distressing
alike to the sense Of beauty and modes
ty-positively ugly.-Nature avenging
herself. General amplitude is, indeed,
far from ungracIous, but, on the con-
trary, carries dignity that is pleasant
to look upon; but short, violent curves
are eminently ugly.