St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-19

woman until l had prObed her all over with
a hat pin. But Minerals
INCREASE OF SIZE
came on gradually. and was distributed
evenly all over her skeleton, and none OF 1t
ever seemed to get temporarily displaced,
and so | began to think this was bona
fide case of plumpness. The other day L
walked for block down Fifth avenue be-
hind Minerva, and noticed that she looked
unusually stunning. She seemed to have
spread out in all directions, and to be held
in by main strength by her tightly-httlng
cloak. And her waist-what had the girl
done to make it look 80 well? 1t was out
lined by graceful curves-a straight line
had formerly descended from her shoulders
to her hips-and was descent size. True,
she had an immense hustle, but the biggest
hustle that was ever invented
couldn't make that much difference. For
the benefit of the entire masculine sex
who have passed over the problem of the
hustle ahd wondered why women will wear
the thing, ever since buStles were first
thought of, / want to say right here that
the philosophy of the bustles, the reason
why women will stick to that hump with
more loyalty than they show to their church.
their country or their lovers, is that 1t
makes their waist look smaller. The larger
and more sudden the swell the smaller the
waist will look, and that's the whole bust
ness. But TO return to Melinda. While L
was wondering what the girl could have
been doing to herself to have blOOmed out in
this unexpected way, she clapped her hand
to her side and wheeled suddenly around.
As L met her eyes saw in her face an ex-
preston of such agony that l thought she
had been struck down with heart disease or
pneumonia or repentance or something else.
EQUALLY DANGEROUS.
I called carriage and took her at once
to haven of refuge. and there found that
one of her false hips had come unfastened,
and had almost made her victim OF de-
formity. Well, that girl revealed to me,
as she repaired the damage, depth OF
depravity and padding which aStonished
even my sophisticated eyes. The wadding
in her sleeves and over her shoulders and
across her shoulder blades and down her
spinal column was an inch thick. Her
fiower-iIke bust was work OF art from
her neck down. l remembered, as looked
at her, that Minerva had always held
severely moral opinions on the subject OF
decoIlete dresses, and that she had
lately become more austerely virtuOus on
that question than ever before. The curv-
ing slope of her form from her arm-pits to
her waist was the result of pads. And the
swelling line of her hips was OccaSiOned by
more pads.
You seem to have reduced padding to a
SCIENCE" said to her,
mo. my dear-to an art. But l have
had to do it. You know l couldn't draw
my waist in, and so l have had to build on
above and below it to make it look small by
comparison. You know what l am with
out this immense rear eXtenSiOn"-and she
pointed to her bustle-''and without all this
pinned on stuffing-as fiat and as straight
from my shoulders to my hips as piece
of board; and now look at me-"
As she stood arrayed in her glOve-fitting
coat the young woman was triumph
of art-all plumpness and curves and
rounded outlines. To be sure, she had had
to build herself out so much that she was
somewhat on the massive order; but her
frame was large, and she carried it all so
well that l was forced to admit that she
had made a great success. have been
thinking since this adventure that fortune
awaits the man who will invent woven
wire outside for wOmen-a sort of frame
or form that will faSten securely over the
body under the clothes from neck to hips,
like a suit of armor. 1t would give the
desired outlines and supply everything that
nature had forgotten. while it would never
brighten the wearer out of her senses by
coming loose and threatening to slip around
where it wasn't wanted, or drop down
under her clothes to the sidewalk.
CLARA BELLE.