The herald., 1893-08-27

tcbCuor buOuiu u1ufP hCA PsoAo8@sAvo y
and take her daughter to task for wear
ing corsets. She has carried her caus'
into the newspapers. and wants Il
know whether school-marms have AM
right to interfere with the rights o
mothers in dressing their daughters
She believes in corsets. They are de-
signed to help nature in giving to thu
form a graceful set, to round ont and
bsautify the form, and to make the
woman in every way more attractive
than when loosely dressed in film. fam
Mother Hubbard.
On the other hand the teachers claim
that they have the right and 1t is theiI
duty to advise growing girls to eschew
corssts. They claim that the best gyne'
cologists agree as to the injurious effects
the corset has upon the female struc.
ture, especially when worn by girls
whose physique is in the formative stage.
They would be greatly to blame. they
insist, if. with the knowledge that a
pupil was laying the seeds of disease or
deformity by the use OF corsets at this
tender age, they were to withhold such
advice as might save her from such
calamities. The indignant mother car
ries her war into the newspapers, and
stigmatizss the school-marms, who have
interfered with her prerogative to dress
her child as she pieases, ss crsnks. The
Evening Post accepts this epithet az .
compliment, and says:
"Of course, the snti-corset people are
cranke. mother dear. All persons who
struggle against existing evils are cranks.
All enthusiasts who beat out their brains
against that stone wall which protects
conservatism from the inroads of pro-
gress are cranks. Christopher Column
bus, who insisted on discovering your
country; Padre Junipero Sierra who
laid the cornerstone of Californian edu-
cation, and the Master he served, who
died on cross that man might live after
him, were cranks. The progress OF civ
ilization has been carried forward on the
shoulders of cranks. And in such goodly
company az this you would not mind
being called a crank yourself, would
you, mother?"
The teachers will be sustained by all
sensible people in discouraging the cor
set in the public schools. But the COR
set, Notwithstanding all that may be
eaid against it. will hold its own in the
wardrobe OF young women. The fact is
that the corset of the present day Gas
we see it in the show windows) is q very
different thing from the corsets of our
fathers-rather our mothers. The old.
fashioned stays compared with the
shapely mould of form" OF the present
day, is as di fferent both in it's effects
and in its appearance as the ''boot" Of
the torture room of the 10th century
and the fashionable boot of the we'll
dressed man of the present time. The
modern corset is thing of symm etrical
grace and rounded beauty. It is con-
structed not only on artistic but on
h ygienic principles. and aids nature in
giving to the female bust a plump and
attractive shape. The old fashioned
stays was an instrument of torture, a
health-destroyer and moulder of de.
formity. 1t was at one time the mode
to contract the waist into the smallest
possible compass. and it WAS no un.
usual thing to zee in fashionably-
urerrrd lady 9tron5 IuIniaavI vr tno
ehspe of a wasp. Indeed tight lacing
became the fad, and the aforesaid
gynecologists used to inveigh against it
as the author of nearly all the maladies
to which woman's form divine-both
externally and internally-wss subject.
There is no danger, however, that the
graceful things we are now familiar with,
from seeing them in the chow windows
OF our haberdashery shops, should be
hurtful. They are constructed on true
scientific principles to meet the undula-
ting graces OF the female bust. keep them
in place. and lend their valuable aid
to the permanency Of the symmetrical
development. We have no doubt, how
ever, that they should not be worn by
girls whose physical proportions are in
the formative stage; nor do we doubt
result disastrously to them. Tight
lacing, however, should be avoided at
all ages. The corset should set easily.
like well-fitting cuirass, on the bust,
no matter at what age they are adopted.
As it is now worn, it will continue to
brave and defy the assaults of ill-natured
men. and of women whose physical de-
velopment nothing could beautify.
HENRY IRVING, the premier living
Rritish actor haa arrived on the coast