The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-02
WOMAN'S WORST
FOE IS DRESS.
1t Kills Her in Spite of the Fact
That She DevOtes Her
Lie to 1t.

In spite of all the devotion of women
to dress, it is sad fact that this very
thing has become their worst enemy. Not
because the love of adornment is wrong,
nor because the wish to be admired is
other than natural, hut because women
cannot be got to discern the great differ
ence between defOrmity and adOrnment,
nor to perceive that truth and reality
must be the right and only foundation of
all true art.
Consequently their dress has become
mere tangled mass of materials. Elk
tremely artificial, and being in its first
conception not only hideous but also OPP
posed to every natural line. 1t requires
all sorts of extraneous decoration to
make it bearable.
1t seems absurd to have to remind peo-
pie what the actual form is which they
are seeking to clothe, but it is almost ne
cessary for the sake of argument. Be
ginning at the shoulders, it may be de-
scribed roughly as an upper part of
nearly straight, oblOng shape, supported
upon two comparatively slender legs, the
narrowest part being at the feet and
ankles
Can this resemble anything less than
an upper part with sudden construction
III the middle narrowing it to almost
second neck, and supported, not on two
legs at all, but on a long single barrel
with the widest part on the ground? For
that is the outline of the form which I'M
avoidably rises before the minds eye
at the thought of the appearance of any
woman.
1t rs perfectly certain that this COM
preston in the centre of the body, being
entirely unnatural and only achieved by
outside pressure begun in youth, does
incalculable harm, as nature has planned
the inside organs TO lit into the space
arranged without any tapering at the
waist line. The exaggerated corset-made
waist is therefore produced by compress
sion sufficient to displace these organs
to 4 certain extent.
If they remained firm and in their
places no alteration of shape could. be
attained for it is useless for people to
attempt to deny the displacement. Being
then more or less out of their right po-
sitions they are unable to fulfill their
functions properly and become more or
less congested, giving rise gradually to a
long string of ailments which constantly
tend to become chronic.
There is, however, no possibility of get
ting rid of this waist compression unless
some form of dress visibly two-legged is
to replace the skirt. Without it the
barrel shape would continue in an I'M
broken line dixie Noah's ark figure)
from the shoulder TO the ground, and
though this would be no whit more I'M
natural than the waist-compressed shape,
it would be more monotonous and clumsy
] looking. So the two things, skirts and
waist construction, being interdependent,
will forever stand or fall together.
1t is not too much to put this even
! more strongly, for if we picture to our
selves such figures as we daily and
hourly see among US with a nineteen OF
twenty inch waist and think of them
unclothed and with two legs, we cannot
think of them without a shudder as un-
natural monstrOsities.
Why women cling to this very strange
mode of dress is one of the most puz
zling things in the history of the race
No dress can well be more inconvenient
for all active occupations than a skirt
1t doubles the toll of all who have t.
work, making carrying anything about