Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-02
WOMAN'S DRESS.
ARE CORSETS DESIRABLE OR IN.
JURIuUS TO HEALTH.
Are They a Necessity, or Will the
Human Form Divine" Take
Care Of Itself.

In the natural figure there is no marked
waist line. Immediately below the bust
begins the outward curve of the abdomen,
and a line drawn from the arm-pits to the
hip bones finds little or no marked depres-
sion, as there are no shelves called hips in
the body as God madeit. They are wholly
manufactured articles.
If the Venus de Milo or the Venus de
Medici were to show such angular out
lines as are created by fashion, the artists
eye would see no beauty in them. The
Venus de Milo has waist that lacks bnt
a hairs breadth of being one-half her
hight. By that standard woman five feet
four inches tall should measure thirty-two
inches about the waist, and should have no
hips. The manufacture of hips begins
early in the girls life The little skirts,
unsupported by waists, must be drawn
tight enough to remain in place The ten
der muscles give under the pressure, and
being deprived of nourishment by lessened
circulation and lack of exercise, do not
develop normally, and the girl grows up
with a slender waist, which she considers
natural, and with protruding hips, which
she probably supposes were created by ma
ture for the support of petticoats Every
day | see upon our streets little girls who
are undergoing the process of hip manu-
facture. How much more confidence we
have in the dressmaker than in the Crea-
tor
"But if corsets are worn loose, are they
injurious" The steels of the corset are al
ways pressing upon the bowels, and must.
of necessity be harmful. Even flexible
whalebones do not allow of entire and nat
ural use of the muscles. A lady who had
never worn corsets was induced by her
friends to try pair, after removing the
steels. AT every movement she was made
conscious Of q hindrance to freedom of mo-
ton. She wore the corsets FIVE hours, and
assured me that for days her muscles were
sore from the unaccustomed pressure of
even the flexible whaiebones.
1t is often asserted that whilethe slender
woman may discard corsets, the Aeshy wo-
man cannot. A fashionable dressmaker.
speaking only from her standpoint, assures
me that superabundance of flesh is not so
stNoti VI iSGIt dS the
pushing the bust up under the chin, and
the causing an unnaturally large abdomen,
by the compression of the corset about the
waist. Dress reformers have taken into
consideration, however, the necessity of
having support for the bust, and a great
variety of waists and breakfast corsets and
bust supporters have been devised
Sometimes, in the excitement of dress
reform fever, the eager convert throws
aside her corset, without making other
changes in her clothing. The bands of
her skirts cut into her flesh, and in few
days she decides that dress reform is de-
fusion. Her motive was good, her method
injudicious. Had she arranged her cloth
ing to be wholly supported from the
shoulders, her corset would have been
more easily discarded. The combination
undergarments should be depended upon
for warmth. The light petticoat can have
its own waist, and the dress skirt be sup
ported by straps, or fastened to the dress
waist by fiat buttons sewed to the seams,
or buttoned to the lower end of strap,
the upper end of which is sewed in the
lower side of the armhole with the sleeve.
The fact that a woman feels, as she ex-
presses it, all gone, and not able to sit erect
without corset, is proof enough that the
corset has been injurious, and that the
muscles which were made to support the
body have lost their power by non-use.
The corset can be transformed into a
harmless underwaist by removing the
steels and whalebones, by putting straps
over the shoulders, and by wearing it so
loose as not to interfere with the deepest
inhalation. The ability to breathe is the
measure of the ability to do; and if women
ever accomplish anything worthy of the
highest commentator, they must make
their clothing so that they can Breathe
Nary IL. Allen, 81. d., IN Congregotionalist