Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-04-03
THE WOMAN OF THE FUTURE.


THE WOMAN OF THE FUTURE.
As we forecast the woman of the fu-
ture she viii be educated, self-reliant
self-sustaining, SAYS VOnG11'S Journal.
She will engage in any pursuit for
which she has capacity and inclination,
and will thereby deliver herself from
want and degrading bondage. She
will take n deep interest in and exert
powerful influence on the government
of the country without losing her puri-
ty, her womanly grace, or a single
really lovely quality. She will find
time to inform herself both as to candi-
dates and measures, and will discharge
her duties at the polls without the neg
lect of her domestic obligations. In
exceptional cases she will hold office
and devote herself to politics; some
times to the betterment aud sometimes
to the prejudice of society, as is the
case with man. But on the whole her
influence will be purifying the wisdom
of ages. To listen to male and female
sages one might suppose that some
hundreds of years ago women had sud-
denly been seized with a desire to emu
late the wasp in form, and had since
more or less successfully been, by the
aid of ligatures, endeavoring to merely
cut herself in two.
With all due Difference to the rational
and hygienic in dress, would suggest
that there is more method in the mad
ness of the tight-lacing women than
this. If anybody will take the trouble
to examine the corset of fashionable
Cto !
rate houses for the modest sum of 95,
the inquirer will find that, saving per-
haps a somewhat eXaggcratedly slender
waist, this article of dress follows
pretty closely the beautiful rounded
form of young woman of from 20
to %.
Now, it very frequently happens that
at the time when fashionable girl is
expected to make her debut in society
nature has for various reasons denied
her various items necessary to make up
that indispensable requisite for a ball
room success-a pretty figure. The
fashionable corset is, therefore, had re-
course to, and with this useful founda-
ton to build upon an artistic dress
maker can do wonders to supplement
nature.
Later on, when the delicate girl has
developed into the faded matron, with
fiaccid muscles and decided tendency
to indistinctness of outline, what so
useful as the Well-made corset into
which the somewhat dilapidated figure
is run as into mold? Torture it NAV
be, but she has her reward. Do not
her friends say to her, How wonder
fully Mrs. Smith keeps her figure?"
1t is useless to hope that the present
generation of society women will tear
off their cOrsets and exhibit themselves
to a wondering world. Our hope lies
in the future. While Lady Haberton
has been crying in the wilderness the
leading female lawn-tenniS players
have devised for themselves dress
pretty, feminine, graceful, and healthy. !
Those who have watched the free and |
graceful movements of young English !
girls on the tennis-ground may hope !
that the time may come when the best |
of them will no longer, like Meredith's
delightful little Garcia Grandson, sigh
I'm afraid Pm a girl. | used to keep
hoping | wasn't" but will be content
with their own happier lot in an age
when boating, swimming, and tennis
will have SO beautified and developed
their figures as to enable them to laugh
at and discard the aid Of Messrs.
Worth & Co. To quote once more from
Meredith: The subsequent immense
distinction be ween boys and girls is
less one of sex tAan education. They
are drilled INTO being hypocrites."