St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-26
men WEAR C0RSETS.
What a Seventh Street Acct
dent Revealed in This
City.
A Young Mans Corset Dis
closed and He Tells
the Why.
1t Is Form, Not Effeminacy,
Which Induces the
Custom.
What Leading st. Paul Tail
ors Have to Say Of
the Style.

the coat and vest OF the
semi-unconsclous swell were removed.
The surprise of the medical man and
those who stood near may be imagined,
when it developed that the patient wore
corset. 1t was not exactly the same
sort of thing as that which COM
presses the dear little waist of the
girls, but still undeniably and unmis-
takably a corset. 1t was straight up
and down affair, made of channels
skin and Stiffened with steel braces oc-
curing perpendicularly at intervals of
about an inch. The combination was
laced tightly at the front and the effect
was not at all dissimilar as to coln-
preston of the waist, to that produced
by the corset affected by the other sex.
The strings having been cut
by the surgeon TO allow of free
respiration by the Wearer of the
stays, there at once occurred an eX-
parisOn of about two inches. With i'm
proved respiratory facilities there came
also return of consciousness, and the
supposedly injured youth was soon on
his feet. The corset had rendered him
one service at least-it had prevented
the sharp shaft of the cab from pene-
trating the skin. Among those who had
a
for the GLOBE, who. upon the recovery
of the patient. approached and ques-
toned him as to his reasons for wearing
an article of attire SO unusual to the
Sterner sex.
$50 tell the truth about it." he re-
piled, Il first began wearing the corset
at the request of Uncle Sam about four
years ago, and since that l have c0ntin-
ued to wear one for my own comfort.
Perhaps you won't credit j., but the
fact is that the corset-if the article 1
wear can be called Such-is
THE MOST COMFORTABLE,
besides being the most beneficial thing
to the formation of correct figure to be
found above ground. Now | am from
West Point. 1 told you that Uncle Sam
he didn't exactly do that, but
he did compel me to wear a
coat so tight that without first
lacing myself with band of
this sort. foundi it smpossible to but
ton it. All the cadets at West Point are
made to wear coats which do not meet
within two inches in front. This gap
has to be closed because the coat has
been made for you according to military
regulation, and button it you must.
The result is that all the fellows
Wear these corsets, as you call them,
and may add that once worn the cor
set will never be abandoned. Now in
the matter of getting clothes made. If
l want coat to fit me [ lace up my
girth, as | call it, pretty tight. Then |
go and get measured, and the result is
that | invariably have a well-fitting
coat. Some fellows will go and get
measured for clothes right after a
heavy lunch, sans corset OF any sort of
form regulator, and as result they get
clothes that fit them like Brazilian cof-
fee sacks. You refer to my wearing
this arrangement as unusual. Are you
not aware that at least two-thirds of the
society youths of this city wear a
similar device? At all events l
know it to be fact that they
do, and | want it understood distinctly
that the wearing Of corset is no indi-
cation of effeminacy of character, as
from your remarks l presume you i'm
agine. was born and brought up in
this city, and am here just on furlOugh
visiting my parents. l may
say that 1 know in st. Paul
about 200 Yale, Harvard and
Princeton men. won't say that all of
them wear the corset, because L don't
know. But will say that GO per cent
of them do. Now these very men l
speak of are fellows who can pull a
firSt-class oar, run mile without turn
ing hair, or make stiff fight with the
gloves, or for that matter without
them. They are
MEN WHOSE DEEDS
at foot ball and other athletic games are
recorded in the various colleges from
which they hail, and to accuse them Of
effeminacy OF dudishnesS would be
ridiculous, yet these men wear eorsets.
Now, it must be admitted that the de-
sire for support to the back and adbo-
men is an acquired one, but in my opin-
ion it is by no means injurious, and, in
fact, L have the statements of several
frSt-claSS physicians, among them that
of Surgeon j. r. Pitcher, of the acade-
my, that the reverse is til case. AS there
is more or less of a military style of dis
cipline at the colleges have mentioned.
l suppose the fellows drift into the way
of wearing a corset as much for the
style of figure it assures. and the CON-
fort it gives as for anything else: but,
anyway, If you interviewed your Soci-
ETY. men on the subject, and they chose
to give up, you would find that a large
percentage of them are devotees of the
corset"
Becoming interested in this new craze
of the bloods, the reporter visited
several of the principal tailoring eStab-
]ishmentS with view to discovering to
what extent the corset was worn by the
giddy adherents of the spiketail and
frilled shirt.
''0h. there's nothing new in that"
replied well-known Third street cater
er when he was questioned on the mat
ter. Men have worn corsets ever since
l have been in the business, and that's
raSv
of them wear simply wide waistband
the elderly men usually adopt
this sort of thing-but the young
men, most of them, wear reg
ular corset made for the purpose
by New York firm. No, l can't say
that the custom of wearing corsets is
general among men in st. Paul, but that
it has increased wonderfully in the past
few years is fact. No young fellow
| thinks he's in line now unless he has
| his measure for coats taken over a
corset, and there is no disputing that if
| adds wonderfully TO the effectiveness of
the garment when completed. Now
in London and Paris each tailoring es-
| tablishment is provided with corsets,
| and the customer is laced before his
measure is taken. 1 suppose the Gus
| tom is
AN IMPORTED ONE,
for it is well known that English army
officers wear the corset habitually,
which is said to be in great measure
responsible for the fine figures they
boast"
Another fashionable tailor on the
same street stated that the custom OF
corset-wearing among young men was
becoming general in this city. SAT Ole
time," he said, II got in stock OF
them, bnt it seems that the boys think
there is only one firm of corsetmakers in
the United States and that one is Allan
Crane d. Co., of New York. These
makers, believe, supply the entire
country with corSetS, and they make
every pattern-to suit the portly form
of the middie-aged man. or the supple
| frame of the young society swell
! Yes, there is no denying that