Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-12-30
OF THE CORSET
Woman's Waist Was Really . Discovery
of the Dark Ages.

Woman's Waist Was Really Discovery
of the Dark Ages.
Woman's waist, which may be CLASH
fed as a variable quantity, marvellous
in its power of manipulation, is real
~ discovery of medieval times, and
not, as popularity believed, gift of the
gods Sappho lived and died in happy
ignorance of the possession that is at
once the delight and the despair Of the
modern world feminine. Penelope the
faithful, Aspasia the wise, 1seult the
loving, considered not the Importance
of waist curve and circumference.
Brunhild measured not the meters in
her horsehair cestus to determine
whether they exceeded those which
girdled the other dark-eyed Valkuries,
and Boadicea rallied her Britons with
no thought as to the circumference of
her corselet of skins. The idea of the
waist came in with the luxury and re-
fnement of the Romans, and when
those old barbaric women grasped the
thought and realized the Importance of
their possession straightway they be-
gan doing just what women have been
doing ever since-trying to improve on
the model designed by the Creator-and
the germ of the corset was evolved.
corset, 'busquine," is in the ample and
majestic dress of the period of Fran
els l., the day of splendid stuffs and
wide flowing sleeves lined with sable.
Catherine de Medicis, as might have
been expected, was instrumental in in
PRODUCING a corset of steel and velvet,
by means of which her ladies achieved
an undesirable girth of thirteen inches,
nd ~ &c
was worn by the men as we'll as the
women of the court which followed
hers. Still little later the fashion
able lady was strapped up in rigid
corset strongly armed with whalebone,
which came down in deep point upon
her skirt all of piece and without any
indication of slope.
1t has remained for the modern wom-
an to make of the steel girdle an orna-
mental device, masking it's misery in a
covering of most exquisite brocade or
lustrous satin, frilling it's edges with
fine and beautiful laces, hand wrought
and exquisite, and clasping its cruel
steels with gold and jeweled links of
diamonds and rubies. AS high as five
and six dollars is paid for certain
cut of seam, shape of gusset made up
in plain gray coutille, and not only
| this, but woman with any pretensions
| to fastidiousness must have her corset
made to order, and will not wear a
| shop-made article any more than man
| of fashion will tolerate store clothes
and ready-made linen. The corset now
must match the silk petticoat, as wom-
en- wear no longer the little under bodice
| of linen or cambria, lest it interfere with
| the fit of the gown or add hairs
| breadth to the size of the waist The
laces are of sil<en webbing, bright and
beautiful in color, and the materials in
| clude all the brocades, the tartans, the
| changeable taffetas, the shot silks and
: satins in plain tints- The prices cover
| the ground between SIS and $50. 1t re-
\ mains, too, for the modern man to dis
| cover the raison d'etre for the corset,
| which has been ever mathematical as
the sign manual of feminine vanity and
frivolity. And the man has said, with
| the brutal sarcasm of his kind: 1.-THE
l corset is charged with hurting woman
| and at times with killing her. But is
this to its discredit? Already there is
an excess of uncorseted shes. War and
travel keep the number of men within
| wholesome limits, and perhaps the
| great use of the corset is that it does,
less effectually, the same by women"
I-ChicapO Tribune.