Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-08-07
THE NEWEST REFORM.


the starting there of movement from
which great things are expected. no less
thing than the total reformation of
womens dress. After a long quest a
leader has been fourd in the person of
Mrs. Frank Stuart Parker of Chicago,
who is described as lone of the most
charming of persons, and is the wife of
Col. Francis Parker, the principal of the
Chautauqua teachers retreat and presi-
dent of the Cook county normal school
in Chicago. She is an author, lecturer
and elocutionist; is very pretty. with
classic features and expressive eyes. and
is most engaging conversationalist
She was professor some years ago in
the Boston school of oratory."
The movement has substantial support,
if.a Chautauqua dispatch can be believed
1t says:
The new crusade is very sweeping,
and the curious thing about it all is that
Miss Frances Willard has wheeled the
whole National Temperance union into
line in support of the movement. In her
very bright address here on Saturday en-
title "A White Life for Two" she made
some very striking and suggestive /reI
marks. "When we heard what Mrs ./PM-
ker had been saying to the Chautauqua
ladies about dress reform, we gave three
cheers for her." said the great temper
ance apostle, Miss Willard, and she fol-
lowed this up by some startling state
ments, This death line" said she,
drawing in the air with her finger the
outline of woman's waist squeezed into
the same shape of an hour-glass-"I call
it the death line and her voice became
strong and resonant, her gestures ami
mated and her eyes flashing. "rhis line
has filled more graves than whlskey."
And the great audience in the amphithea-
ter applauded her to the echo. She then
told the story of the mandarn's wife,
who, when some Americans expressed
horror because she pinched her foot, ex-
claimed: 1--WE pinch the foot, but you
pinch the life"
The plan of campaign is elaborate and
can best be stated in the words of the
same writer:
The reformers will endeavor, by pho
tographs, statues and lectures from prom
inent artists, TO change the present ideal
of proportion in the human figure. They
recommend that each woman supply her
self with good photograph of the Ven
us of Milo. They also suggest the study
of such figures aS the Venus GenetriX,
Juno, the Flying Victory. Amazon. Thor
woldsen's Eve, Richter's Queen Louise
of Prussia coming down the stair. and
the ascending figure called the "Fates"
by Sherman-in fact, Il study of all the
most approved statues in order to get
the female eye accustomed as the artists
eyes are to the right position. The re-
formers will try to make American wo-
men understand that barbarians in every
age, with their limited ideas of real beau
ty, have deformed the body in various
ways-the Flathead Indians, who endeav-
or to change the shape of the head: the
tattooing of various artistic designs upon
the human body; the savages who put
rings through their noses and sticks
through the outer rim of their ears those
who hang heavy pieces of wood or ivory
on the lower lip, cut off the eyebrows,
slit the nOstrils, and file or backen the
teeth the Chinese who deform the foot,
or permit the Iinger nails to grow to the
length of yard; shaving the head or
training the hair into grotesque forms,
and last, but not least, the crowning de-
formlty of the compression of the waist !;
the sO-called civilized nations being the
only nations as yet who have attacked a
vital point.