The St. Johns herald., 1886-10-07
so,rr n1n1crrors cosrru-s. l.x

sozIE RIDICULOUS COSTUMES.
 The Venetian ladies of 1JG0 wore most exaggerated frills and rui.s. Tho stan- dard of beauty at that time appears to have been a slender waist. Tight lacinS and enlarging other portions of the dress were resorted to. to produce the effect.
 Queen Catharine de 3Iedici of Franco. contemp0rarv of Queen Elizabeth of England. insisted on thirteen-inch waist measurement as the standard or fashion. Henry III, of France. CatharineS son, wore tightly laced stays, and his wife. Margaret of Lorraine, had q wasp-like waist. produced by tho tOrturous steel corset then in use.
 From about the middle of Queen Eliza beths r,ign the upper classes of both sexes carried out the custom of tight laciug to an extreme which knew scarcely any bounds. The corsets were so thick ly quilted with whalebOne, 50 long and rigid when laced 10 the figure, that tho long-pointed stomacher5 then worn fitted faultiessly well without a wrinkle.
 The following lines by an author of the period will give some idea of the un- bending character of such corsets: (" Their privie coats by art made strong,
 With bones, with paste, with such like
 ware,
 Whsreoy their back and sides grow
 long,
 And now they harnest gallants arc;
 We're they for use against the foe
 Cur danes for Amazons might go."
 Queen Elizabeth indulged in most ex- travagant devices for heightening her personal attractions. She was the owner of eighty wigs of different hues. When dressed for a state occasion she must have been the most uncomfortable woman in the kingdom.
 On her head was thick wig, studded with jewels; an immense ruff encircled her neck, her body was incased in stiff stays, over which was a steel corset; the stomacher, which terminated in point, was as hard as the breast-plate of a mailed knight.
 The farthingale, from which the modern crinoline petticOat came, served to give the hips extraordinary width, which, ac- companied with the frill around tho stomacher, gave the waist the appear ance of remarkable slenderness as well as length. The great size of the frills or ruffs also lent their aid in producing tho same effects. Our fOremothers displayed great ingenuity in torturing and distort- ing themselves.
 DRESS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
 Awriter of 1853, speaking of the young ladies of his day, says:
 They strive all they possibly can by straight lacing themselves to attain unto wand-like smallness of waist, never thinking themselves fine enough until they can span their waists"
 Ladies must have suffered serious physical inconvenience from adherence to the prevailing fashion. Alarmists of those days had more caIse to lament the dangerous follies ct women than the most meddlesome of their represen- tatives in these times.A
 In the reign of Louis XIV. of France the style of dress was a modification of the congregations of the EliZabethan age, with the added enormity of immense hoops. The custom of girding woman, as barrel is girded, did not attain its maturity until somewhat later.
 HOOPS AND LOW DRESSES.
 The height of extravaganza in the use of hoops prevailed in England in the latter portion of Queen Annes reign. The gossipy journals of the day were filled with remonstrances against the building up of tho world beautiful she should not be neglected, nor should she DpcrIa Iapf hp-1elf