The record-union., 1894-06-09

Looking simply at the physical devel-
opment, health, symmetry of form, beauty,
increase and perpetuity of the native
American people. it is perfectly safe to
say that tight dressing, as it is practiced
to-day among the women and girls OF our
country is the greatest evil that exists.
When the writer was boy, seventy
years ago. tight dressing among women
was principally confined to the waist and
the chest, but to-day it is carried down as
low as possible towards the hips OF
late years we have had advertised, by
the manufacturers or their agents, corsets
for contracting and elongating the
waist,u and we see the sad results Of
their use in the deformed women all
around US.
Kind reader, you who care for the well
fare of our race, please look at the dis
torted figures which are intended to rep
resent fashionable women to be seen in
our periodicals, and even in some of our
daily papers, and which are freely sent
TO and admitted into the homes where
dwell girls, young women and their
mothers. With such illustrations before
them what is more natural than that the
young girls should feel that their bodies
should be forced into the shape repre-
sented In the fashion plates before them,
and too many mothers are anxious that
their daughters should be dressed in a
fashionable style, and they know very
well that the natural human form can
only be thus distorted by the means of
corsets, tight dresses or bandages, ap-
piled to their girls while young, SO as to
forcibly restrain the natural develop
ment and growth of the waist, abdomen
and hinG faaahQnlpQllU the 4fhlnaqQ
fashionable mother prevents the growth
of the feet of her girls.
In the symmetrical, Well-formed woman
the hips are much broader in proportion
to the breadth Of the shoulders than they
are in men, but when the development
of the waist and the abdomen are me-
chanlcally prevented from expanding,
the muscles which extend from these
structures TO the bones OF the pelyis be-
ing thus bound down, they hold in and
prevent the full development of the pei
Wis. In many of our women the pelvis is
not broader in proportion to the shoul-
ders than it is in men. This deformity is
far-reaching in its consequen
Now, intelligent reader. just look at the
pelvis or hips and abdomen of our fash
ionable women as represented in the
fashion plates in our periodicals; with the
pelvis thus deformed, and the bowels
crowded down upon the organs within it,
judge for yourself, what possible chance
is there Tor an orderly development of the
unborn child in that freedom which the
Lord intended for it when He created
woman? W hat are the results all around?
Unnecessary suffering and danger attend
child bearing in vast number of cases,
and premature births are not infrequent.
Only think OF the displacements and dis
eases and functional arrangements which
so frequently result from tight dressing
all profitable to the doctors, but, alas, en-
failing suffering upon so many of our
women, especially wives and mothers.
Nor are the diseases and suffering caused
by Tight dressing confined to the lower
portion OF the body.
DR.. Mary Wood Allen in the Journal
Of Hygiene md Herald Of Health in an
excellent article on ''Round-Shouldered
Girls" says, in regard to the organs
within the trunk or chest and abdomen:
''They are packed by the hand OF Divine
Skill and 70 interfere with them is a mat
ter of vital import.n Deformity of the
shoulders is common, and a wonderful
lessening OF the capacity of the lungs for
breathing is an Inevitable result of this
evil habit.
DR.. Nathan Allen of Lowell who made
careful investigation into the facts, said in
the Popular Science Monthly that while
in 1850 it was the exception where an
American mother could not nurse her
GulIQICA4g IL " eto S40A A1OOOl III 41dSSdCuu-
sets q question whether one-half of
them could do so, and it is safe to say
that there has been no improvement
since the above date Why this inability
to nurse children? First, the waists of
the women of our country had never
been compressed and elongated to the ex-
tent they have been since 1850. The irri-
tation and compression caused by cor
sets, stays and tight dresses applied to
young ladies, sometimes cause indura-
tions of the breasts, which, when these
organs begin to secrete nourishment for
the child, inhame and abscesses result,
which interfere with nursing; and then
the compression of stays, corsets, etc.,
often causes retractlon of the organs
through which the child derives its nour-
ishment, which renders it difficult for
the child to nurse. Palpitation and other
arrangements of the hearts action often
result from tight dressing. Second, there
is often want Of lung capacity to prop
erly renovate and purify the blood, ow-
ing to tight dressing. and an inability to
digest the food required TO sustain the
vitality of the body, owing to the COM
pressed state Of the stomach and bowels.
Third, owing to the want Of an adequate
base Tor the due support of the head,
shoulders and arms. resulting from the
contraction of the waist and abdomen, it
is difficult for our women to take the
n
which are necessary to give the vitality
and strength required by mother OF
children. 1.-THE workers shall inherit
the earth"
Now, fellow countrymen, many Of the
women of our country are working earn
estly in behalf of Dress Reform" but
they are overshadowed by the ignorance,
needless or selfishness of fashion mong-
ers and have had only moderate success,
but the women have worked nobly and
well for the rescue Of the men from the
slavery resulting from the use of alco-
holic and fermented drinks and tobacco
and they have done and are doing asgood
work. Can we not respond and do some
thing to rescue the women and girls Of
our country from the most fearful temp
tations and slavery 70 fashions which are
so rapidly Impairing the vitality of the
natl We American race? Seventy years
sgo the average number OF children in
native New England families was not
less four or five, and the number of chill
dren in the families of French Canadians
who are settling in New England to-day
we are told is not less than four or five,
whereas the average numb IN native
American families is but one and half.
We well know that this decrease in the
number Of children in native families
does not depend upon this habit alone.
but tight dressing Is certainly one OF the
chief causes OF the increasing inability to
bear, nurse and care for and raise chill
dren.
kind-hearted readers, not only in New
England, but also in New York and
other States. please look around you
among your acquaintance who are de-
scendants Of the Puritans and other
early settlers of our country, and notice
the number OF married partners who
have been married within the last twenty
or thirty years who have no children.
and the number who have not more than
one or two children, and see how few
have more than three or four, aud YOU
will he surprised. Can we as man do