Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-11-06
TIE CORSET ORIGINATED IN TIE DARK AGES
AND IS NOT AN
Invention Of Modern Tm@-SOms Of The New
Things in GlOVss-SlOping Shoulders Are
NOW in Fashion-Inaresing
Information.

modern world feminine. Penelope the
faithful, Aspasia the wise, Iseult the
! loving, considered the Importance OF
waist curve and circumference. Brun-
( hid measured not the metres In her
| horsehair cestus to determine whether
they exceeded those which girdled the
other dark-eyed Valkuries, and Boadi-
cea 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 refinement OF the
Romans, and when those old barbaric
women grasped the thought and realized
the importance of their possession,
straightway they began doing just what
women have been doing ever since
trying to improve on the model design
ed by the Creator-and the germ OF the
corset was evolved. The barbaric idea
of the corset, however, was greatly
superior TO the more cultured concep-
tlon Of modern times, for II was only a
cOrselet OF thick stuff which moulded
the form, not an instrument OF torture
which entirely distorted its lines. And
the corset triumphs still, despite the
enemies arrayed against It, the vigorous
aud determined attacks Of physicians
/ aud reformers, the ridicule OF artists,
the remonstrances Of husbands, and the
disease and discomfort suffered BY It's
/ wearers.
The first trace we find Of the Susked
corset, "busQulue, is In the ample and
majestic dress of the period OF Francis
l., the day of splendid stuffs and wide
/ flowing sleeves hned with sable.
Catherine de Medicis, as might have
been expected, was instrumental In In
PRODUCING q corset OF steel aud velvet,
by means OF which her ladies achieved
an undesirable girth Of thirteen inches,
/ and this corset, Ia some Of its forms, was
worn by the men as well as the women
OF the court which followed hers. Still
little later the fashionable lady was
strapped up in a rigid corset strongly
armed with whalebone, which came
down in a deep point upon her skirt all
Of piece and without any indication OF
slope. 1t must be admitted that as In
demnity for this piece Of torture, the
ladies wore their bodices cut down to a
point so low the Pope threatened them
with accommodation for immodesty.
| And so the torture grew and increased
until the corset was of thin boards COW
erek with cloth laced down the back
| and pressing the flesh until it was
| bruised and sore. Even in the days OF
the Embraced cestus" Of the Regency,
where the fashionable gown hung
straight from the shoulder, with neither
girdle nor bodice, and the lady on the
promenade looked as il she had come
out in her dressing gown, the corset
! confined the waist beneath the towlng
Vatican garment.
During the years OF the Greek and
Roman renaissance in Paris, when Ia
thoughtlessness rather than immodesty,
the delirium Of pleasure after the delir-
ium Of blood, Josephine de Beauharnais
and her friends walked the Champs
Elysees In Athenian dress, with bare
arms and uncovered shoulders, defying
disease as they had defed the guillo-
tine, or bearing bravely the pleurisy
add pneumonia they contracted in their
thin fchus, the corset fell into
desuetude for a time, but was
speedily rescued, TO be more and more
| honored and beautified as the chief es-
sential OF fashionable dress. 1t has re-
NAMED for the modern woman to make
of the steel girdle an ornamental de-
vice, masking its misery in covering
of most exquisite bTocade or lustrous
satin, frilling its edges with fine and
beautiful laces, hand-wrought and ex-
ouisite, and claSping its cruel steels
| with gold and jewelled links OF dia-
monds and rubies. As high as S. or Sc
is paid for certain cut Of seam, shape
of gusset made up in plain gray cou-
title, and not only this, but a woman OF
any pretension to fastidinusuess must
have her corset made to order, and will
not wear a shop-made article any more
| than a man OF fashion will tolerate
store clothes and ready-made linen.
| The corset now must match the SILK
petticoat, as women wear no longer the
| little uuder-bodice of linen or cambria,
! lest il interfere with the fit Of
the gown or add hairs breadth TO
| the size of the waist. The laces
are of silken webbing, bright and beau
tiful in color, aud the materials include
all the brocades, the tartans, the
changeable taffetas, the shot silks and
satips in plain tints. The prices cover
the ground between SIS and $50. 1t re-
mains, too, for the modern man to dis
cover the TaisOn d'etre for the corset,
which have been ever mathematical as
the sign manual of feminine vanity and
frivolity. And the man has said, with
the brutal sarcasm OF his kind. THE
corset is charged with hurting women,
and at times with killing her. But is
this TO its discredit? Already there is
ans 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 wo-
r,ar -