The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1897-03-11
A WOMANS WAIST.
frreparabie Injury Done by Tight Lac
Ing,

ing.
1t is matter for ejoicing that fashion
is no longer TO decree slender waist n,
something Indispensable to propriety
and grace. The natural waist of the
woman of average height is about %
inches, and any less size is attaineo
only through arrested development. or
compression of means of whalcbone and
steel. The amount of room inside these
rs inches is absolutely needed for the
proper working of the machinery of
the internal economy. In spite of this
fact girls very often bind the yielding
ribs into such narrow compass that the
waist measures 30 or % inches only.
and you will now and then hear some
mother of a family, with n very differ
ent waist now, boast as if it were some.
thing to he proud of that when she was
10 her waist measure was 10 too. 1t is,
however, of no use TO talk to young PEG.
pie about the injurious effect of com.
preston on stomach, heart, lungs, liver
and the artcrial system. They are not
anatomiStS. and they do not compre.
bend the matter nor want to do so:
they observe that tlcy feel as well now
as they did before, and without weigh.
Ing the thought that it requires time
to work ruin, take ii for granted that
they always will feel as well. although
they have been told and taught that in
post-mortem examinations it has been
found that wherever tight lacing has
been the rule, every organ was out of
place and seriously injured. But al.
though it does move them trille To be
told that red noses and cruptive skins
and flat chests are to be laid to the ac-
count of the too slender waist. vet on
the whole neither common-scnse nor
auld-wife wisdom nor doctors have the
power of conviction that fashion does,
and when fashion says that there is no
beauty in wasp's waist, but that the
lines of nobility and health made by
deep breathing are the really lovely
lines, fragility being something rather
to he feared than loved, why then
fragility begins TO be avoided and the
lines of the Venus de Milo. of the Diana,
of the Pallas, begin to come in
The habit of tight lacing has already
done almost irretricvablc injury. If it
were continued there is no knowing
what shape it might eventually have
developed Even no sculptors declare
that a model with a natural waist,
sloping outward rather than inward,
is something not to be found, even the
most charming figures otherwise hav-
ing the hour-glaSs tendency, in how
ever slight u form sufficient to spoil
them for posing for anything de-
handing the freedom, the beauty and
grace OF the antique. The Greek
woman supported and stayed her
self with bands of linen. but there
was no compression in the swathe. and
her natural waist made her of perfect
beauty; and to-day the natural waist
of the CirCassan does not interfere with
the reputation of her loveliness. The
adoption of European dress by ladies
of the harem. and of Japan. showing,
as it does, either a want of the knowl-
edge of true beauty or willful aban-
donmcnt of its principles, will prob
ably lead to tight lacing in the orient
just as we are rciinquishing it here.
Why anyone should ever have mag
ined that n waist which looked as if it
were going to break in two could be
more attractive than waist which
looked capable of supporting its head
and arms and shoulders is mystery
so great n mystery that the effort to
solve it is to he given up in satisfac-
ton over the report that the foreign
creators of the mode have recently