The record-union., 1892-12-15
BEAUTY LIES IN CURVES.
Something About the Evolution Of
the Corset.
1t Originated in the Dark Ages,
and Is at Present Very
Popular.

Woman's waist, which may be classi
fed as variable quantity, marvellous in
its power Of manipulation, is really a
discovery OF medieval times, and not, as
popularity believed, a gift of the gods.
Sappho lived and died in happy igno-
rance Of the possession that Is sat once the
delight and despair Of the modern world
feminine. Penelope the faithful, Aspasia
the wise, Iseult the loving, considered not
the importance of waist curve and cir
cumference. BruuhiId measured not the
meters in her horse-hair cestus to deter
mine whether they exceeded those which
girdled the other dark-eyed Nalkuries,
and Boadicea rallied her Britons with no
thought as to the circumference of her
corselet Of skins. The idea of the waist
came III with the luxury and refinement
of the Romans, and when those old bar
barrie women grasped the thought and
realized the importance of their possess
sion, straightWay they began doing just
what women have been doing ever since
trying to improve on the model de-
signed by the CreatOr-and the germ of
the corset was evolved. The barbaric
idea Of the corset, however, was greatly
superior 10 Iu6 more CullGE6u COUceIJlOH
Of modern times, for IL was only GOrSe-
let OF thick stuff which nodded the form,
not an instrument OF torture which en-
tirely distorted its lines. And the corset
triumphs still, despite the enemies arrayed
against it, the vigorous and determined
attacks OF physicians and reiormers, the
ridicule OF artists, the remoEstrances Of
husbands and the disease and discomfort
suffered by its Wearers.
AN ABORIGINAL.
The first trace we find of the busked
corset, "busquine," is in the ample and
majestic dress OF the period of Francis l.,
the day OF splendid stuhs and wide flow
in. sleeves lined with sable.
Catherine de AiediciS, IS might have
been expected was instrumental in intro
ducing corset Of steel and velvet, by
means OF which her ladies achieved an
undesirable girth OF thirteen inches, and
this corset, in some OF its forms, was
worn by the men as well as the women OF
the court which followed hers. StIl a
little later the fashionable lady was
strapped up in a rigid corset strongly
armed with whaleOone, which came
down in 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 that the Pope threatened them with
eXcommunlcatlOn for immOdesty. And
so the torture grew and increased until
the corset was OF thin boards covered with
cloth laced down the back and pressing
the flesh until it was bruised and sore
! Even i'll the days of the Embraced ces-
tus" Of the Regency, where the fashion,
able gown hung straight from the
shoulder, with neither girdle nor bodice,
/ and the lady on the promenade looked as
| if she had come out in her dressing gown,
/ the corset confined the waist beneath the
! flowing Vatican garment.
GREEK AND ROMAN RENAISSANCE.
| During the years of the Greek and Ro-
man renaissance in Paris, when in
/ thOughuessness rather than immodestv.
/ the delirium of pleasure after the deliriuni
/ 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 defied the guillotine. or bearing
( bravely the pleurisy and pneumonia they
! contracted in their thin fichus, the corset
/ iell into desuetude for time, but was
| speedily rescued, to be more and more
/ honored and beautitied as the chief essen
tial of fashionable dress. 1t has remained
/ for the modern woman to make Of the
steel girdle an ornamental device, mask
ing its misery in a covering of most ex-
/ Quisite brOcade or lustrOus satin, trilling
| us eu9GS WIN me ana beautiful IaceS
hand wrought and exquisite, and clasp
ing its cruel steels with gold and ieweled
/ links Of diamonds and rubies. As high
as So and s. is paid for certain cut of
seam, shape of gusset made up in plain
gray coutille, and not only this. but a
woman of any pretension to fastidious-
ness must have her corse. made to Or
! der, and will not wear shopmade article.
any moro than a man Of fashion
viii tolerate store clothes and ready-made
linen. The corset now must match the
silk petticOat, as women wear no longer
4 the little under bodice oflinen or cambric.
! lest it interfere with the tit of the gown or
1 add hairs breadth to the size OF the
waist. The laces are of silken webbing
| bright and beautiful in color, and the ma
! terials include all the brocades, the tar
tans, the changeable tatIetas, the shot
silks and satins in plain tints. The prices
cover the ground between S5 and $50. 1t
! remains, toO|1or 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: 'The
corset is charged with hurting woman.
and at times with killing her. But is this
/ to it's discredit? Already there is an ex-
cess of uncorseted shes. War and travel
| keep the number of men within whole
some limits, and perhaps the great use of
| the corset is that it does, less effectually,
the same by women."-New y York Sun.