Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1892-10-18

the eyes of most of her critics it is al
five of these things at the same time ant
all the time.
If the future is to be judged by the
past there is small hope that poor, perse
cuted woman will ever have any res
from her clothes critics. | haven't the
least doubt but that when she gets t
heaven three-fourths of all the other
angels will insist that she ought to veal
goggles and green shade over her eyes
so that they won't be injured by the
brightness of her halo.
Now, life is worth living only because
it pays, only as it furnishes more hap
piness than unhappiness. And it is true
too, that the sum total of lifes happi
ness is made up mainly of little things
of inconsequent pleasures which one is
allowed to enjoy in peace without inter,
ference from other people.
And if woman enjoys pulling her
corset strings very tight and engineer.
ing train through crowded streets and
over muddy crossings, why shouldn't
she be left in quiet enjoyment of her
pleasure?
If she gets more happiness out of the
consciousness of possessing a 2O-inch
waist than she would out of the habit
of breathing from her diaphragm,
why surely that's her affair. And il
Jefferson and Adams and Hamilton and
Washington and all the rest of the IA
theirs of the republic knew anything
about it, she has a perfect right to
squeeze her diaphragm to the point of
sutfocation if she wants to. For didn't
they declare, on their honor and their
drawn swords, the right of every human
being to the pursuit of happiness?
If woman thinks that she catches
more happiness by chasing after it with
her skirts tied back, or in high heeled
shoes, or with a hump on her back,
the inalienable rights of mankind give
her perfect liberty to do so, and ordi-
nary human regard for the feelings of
other people ought to give her the privi-
lege of doing so without being followed
by "a crowd of scolding, ridiculing critics,
who think they know moro about what
will make her happy than she does her
self.
1t can be taken for granted too, that
woman does get more happiness out of
her clothes, no matter what the fashion,
than she does discomfort. For they are
a pleasure loving lot, are women, and
they are pretty sure to choose, both
in clothes and all the other things of
life, that which they will enjoy most.
Men may not always understand Just
where and how the enjoyment comes in
Bat that is because they are not women,
and do not have intuitive perceptions.
Besides, it is not at all necessary that
they should understand. They can
simply take it for granted, because it is
as true as geometry that when woman
wears shoes and gloves that are too
small for her, tight corset, sheath
skirt or a train ON the street, or any
thing else that they think is uncom-
Portable, she does it solely because she
is great deal happier in doing so than
she would be in doing otherwise.
And certainly in this free land of ours,
in as innocent matter as the fashion Of
her clothing, it would be no more than
ordinary cOnsideratencss TO stop worry
ing and lecturing and ridiculing her,
and allow her to choose her own happi-
ness in her own way.
1t is a mistake to suppose that women
wear any particular kind or cut of
clothing because fashion makes it neces-
sary.
Fashion has lost her grip in these lat,
ter days, and woman may wear, and
does wear, pretty much what she pleases.
And as for the corset and the slender
waist-those two everlasting texts of the
scolders and lecturers-they really are
not worth lecturing about any longer.
The corset has fallen into a state of in
nocuous desuetude, and the slender
waist is back number. The people who
rage and imagine vain things about
women COMPRISING their waists and
running the forms which nature gave
them, to say nothing of the injury to
livers and lungs and such things-such
people are behind the times.
Slender waists-that is, any slenderer
than lie bon Dieu meant them to be-are
mainly confined TO French and English
and a few American fashion plates,
where the publishers continue to use
them for the same reason that the scold-
ers about women's clothes continue to
scold-because they've got into the habit
of it. When those same styles Of dress
get transferred to the graceful bodies Of
American women they cease to look as
they do in the fashion plates. You
might search Broadway from end to end
on fine Saturday afternoon, or Fifth
avenue on Sunday noon, and not see a
solitary figure that does not look entire
ly human and healthy and vigorous.
You will look in vain for the dressmak-
er's dummy or the fashion plates coun.
terpart.
know more than one woman with
a waist either by nature or past grace
of the corset smaller than she thinks it
ought to be who wears habitually IA
towel folded about her body underneath
her corset in order that she may not
look wasplike.
The measurements and proportions of
fashionable American woman Of to-
day, of good hea III and good figure,
will come nearer 10 tho measurements
and proportions of the Venus de Medici
than will those of her masculine coun.
terpart to tho Greek ideals of mans
body.
II seems 10 me that woman's dress IN