Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-07-30
CORSETS ARE CURSES.
SOMETHING CONCERNING HOW AND
WHEN THEY ORIGINATED.

Ovid Puts Them at the Head Of Remedies
Against Love-Oils and Unsuents in De-
veloping the Human Form Divine-A
Few Points Also About Foot Gear.
The small accessories Of toilets, wheth-
er they be necessities or only pretty adj
juncts, have made industries which have
employed many people in their manu-
facture, and have added largely to the
growth of that passion for dress which
has, in different centuries, broken out in
both man and woman. Alteration for
the human form has covered the feet,
bedecked the hands with jeweled triiles,
and incased the body feminine in stiff
whalebones until it has become of differ
ent shape than nature intended. No art
icle of apparel is SO much discussed ut
this time as the corset; in truth, there Is
an absolute war over it.
TO MAKE THEM GRACEFUL
Still, this same corset has held sway
long and firmly. Even in the days when
the Greek sculptors builded their ideal of
beauty on the Venus de Milo writers in
Weighed against large waists, Ovid put
ting them at the head of remedies against
love. They were an undoubted out
growth from the bandages worn by the
Greeks to restrain tendency to corpu-
lency, and were as much used by men as
by women. if we are to believe Aristo-
planes. History also relates that Marc
Antony had need to resort to such means
"to compress his swelling figure" The
bands were three in number-the stro-
phium, a bandage wound round the bust;
a iona, or the waist belt, and the tenta,
wound round and round below the waist
Nor were the banda9es worn alone for
COMPRISING undue rotundity of form.
They were made wider and longer and
wrapped in large folds about slight fig
ures to give them the grace of I'M
dulating lines. From the latter use, more
than the former, has descended the repre-
hensible habit of lacing, the cause of tho
outcry against the stiff, whaleboned cor
set of today.
In the ancient days a very thin, slender
figure attained to a much admired posi-
ton by being EMBODIED in large and
voluminous strophium and tenta. and
using only one thickness Of bandage as
the IONA. producing the first effect of an
unnaturally small waist. When this did
not prove effectual in Disgusting the lack
of cushioning 10 their bones they resorted
to oils and unguents for bathing the
body; goose fat mixed with warm milk
and the egg Of partridge, the conglom-
Grafton being highly scented. was deemed
the most productive of the desired en-
bonpoint. But great care was taken that
not drop should fall on the body near
the waist; in fact. while going through
the fattening process the zona was worn
day and night.
Since the days of incense burning in the
temples, record Of which Ia found In
the books of Moses, have perfumes been
used, and from the Egyptians, through
the Jewish people, has passed the art OF
making them. Of burning aromatics and
of carrying about richly wrought facons
of scent which have sometimes been
| made in the form of smelling bottles and
again as perfume sprinklers. The fash
ionable woman OF today wears her an
tique silver vinaigrette suspended from
her chatelaine or carries her scent about
In costly facon, rich with chasings or
carvings, filgree work or enamel Of
fragile Venetian glass. or OF metal thick
" studded with jewels, and none Of a
greater size than can be readily carried
| in the hand, which fashion Queen Eliza
| beth instituted IL carrying about her
| poInander. BY the way. IL was in her
| reign that perfumes and scents began &c
be ma ufactured generally by Euro
peans, although as early as the Four
| teenth century the Fenetians competed
| with the dweilers in the far east In the
| manufacture Of sweet odors.
Ingenuity today il not taxed to furnish
/ fresh designs for scent bottles, as ;h'
| gold and silversmiths have only 20 copy
| the relics Of other days preserved IL
/ families ard museums the demand De
ing only FOR antiques, and the supply i
| largely Of limitations. Some beautiful
patterns are devised In tie form Of 10
mos. grotes4ue Of COLLINS and dragons
wrought on. in gold and precious stones
Others are chased with scrolls and Sur
mounted with ooronets and coatz @
arms. suggesting German workmanship
/ others are carved Of wood OF souse one o
the semi-prsctous stones, as the onyx
| the bookstore, the c&rnehan and IN
like. These usually have q base or cui
Of gold or silver fiigree work, AID AZ
usually Of French manufacture. although
the carvings may be brought from India
Switzerland and Italy; yes another l. o
silver inlaid with grabesGues CT geld, an
Is evidently Moorish
Who would suppose that tbs oomnor
use Of shoes and all kinds OF foot cover
ingz was OF . much later date than IL
carrying of scent bottles, No one. / az
sure; and We, the people Of certain Ia
mn go ios-y ssfer thsw ~