The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-01-21
NEW CORSET FOR STOUT MEN.
1t Came Into Vogue ContempOrnne-
Ously and as IA Result of the
shirtyvnist.

II can truthfully say that I was
never so cool or so comfortable as L
have been since l wore a corset" said
the fat man, slipping a settler lemonade
through a straw, relates the New
York Sun. 81 always had an
idea that a man who wore a corset did
so through foolishness or a desire for
a small waist. Look at mel"
He was the last man in the world that
one would associate with corsets, be-
ing very stout, although well groomed
and with an erectness from the waist
up that is not always one of fat mans
characteristics.
The way 1 got to wear one of the
things" he said, twas when 1 noticed
Tonwate going round in his shirt
waist First / made fun of him and
then l began to notice that his shirt
didn't set in wrinkles, damp and I'M
pleasant looking, but that it had a
taut look, and that puzzled me, for
Tonwate weighs more than I.
Finally l asked him about 1t and
then he told me of a Twenty-third
street corset maker who had invented
a corset girdle for fat men just as soon
as the shirt-waist fad came out last
year. She reasoned right away that
fat men would be debarred from the
new idea, for the trouble with a fat
man is that his flesh creases and lay
ers about his waist, and this doesn't
look pretty in a shirt waist.
This woman got up a flexible light
weight belt with a few good, stiff bones
over the hips, and the result was a
n~eat-looking waist, the body not seem
ing to come in contact with the outer
linen. 1t was the greatest thing ever
invented, and l ordered several of
them, and 1 wouldn't be without one
now"
The inventive corset maker is sell
ing dozens of these girdles to stout
men, and is shipping them in guam
titles to the summer resorts where
men ride horseback and play golf with
out coats. II call them girdles," she
explained, because the idea Of a cor
set worn by a man is associated with
dudes and military dandies who some
times wear shape stays to give them a
graceful waist line.
my girdles are simply to hold in
the surplus flesh about the waist so
that it doesn't come in visible contact
with the outer garment. 1t is this
principle which causes a woman In a
shirt waist to look cool. But when
went in for the shirt waist in
their endeavor to look as cool as the
girl they forgot the fact
that a woman's body is carefully grid
ed in beneath her waist. For thin men
was not so difficult, but for fat men
the shirt waist was impossible.
81 thought it all out one day when
a very stout man in a shirt waist came
a car. He looked so very I'M
pleasant and warm that 1 began to
realize that a corset was in reality a
cool garment and then 1 quickly
evolved the notion of the girdle. 1t
took immediate hold when I displayed
one in my shop window with a pic
ture showing the use for which it was
intended.
While the shirt waist for men has
uot proved very popular In the cay,
It is the general rule in the country.
Men ride and row and drive and play
golf and tennis in the loose! waists of
silk and flannel and linen. The dining
room and the drawing-room are the
places that are forbidden the sum
.er man without a coat. And the
uses of the girdle have been appre-
The ~tailors advocate them
now, as their use does away with belts
suspenders. The trousers are cut
SO that they set over the girdle in mil
fashion"