Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-05-01
MYSTERY UNVEILED.
IT is NOT A FAD AFTER ALL, THE
NEW CORSAGE.

It is Based Upon Close Study OF Anatomical
Conditions and Physical Requrements-The
Old.Style Corset Has Been Condemned Under
Patient and Painful Experience Of Its Wearers
Who are Able to Give Good Reasons Why II
Should Go-That the Explanation Was Nee
esaary Has Been Shown BY the Frosty Re-.
cepton Of Change by the Nerner Sex.
At the national convention of the
Dressmakers' Protective Union of
America" which was held recently in
the city OF New York, the main sub.
ject Of discussion during several days
was that interesting article of female
apparel, known as the corset, to gaze
on which is vigorously prohibited to
masculine eyes, and even the existence
of which the sterner sex is supposed to
be in condition OF primeval ignor-
ance. This, however, is eminently a
reading age, and, sooner or later, the
reporters and the newspapers lay bare
for US the secrets of De earth beneath,
and the heavens above. Beyond doubt
the dressmakers intended that their
deliberations on this article OF utility,
adornment or whatever else it may be,
should remain a profound secret so
far as the fathers, husbands and future
sons-in-law OF the republic are con-
cerned; but the dressmaking vow OF
secrecy has been broken, and the
corset has at last passed from the
realm of mystery into the cold. glar.
ing light Of universal publicity. No
more may it nestle and hide itself
away beneath wavy lines OF ruches
and furbelows, entrench itself behind
cores and gussets, hems and pleats
and other contrivances of feminine
sartorial equipment and embellish-
ment; it has been dragged into public
view, in word, found out, and we
now know all about it.
From many points OF view, the
revelation is shocking one. In the
house of its friends it has been as
sailed and denounced, as irate dress
makers only can denounce, and all
manner Of accusations preferred against
it-that is the old.fashioned contriv-
ance, which has clasped within its
folds both the fat and the fairy forms
of so many generations. One of the
counts in the dressmakers' indictment
is that the corset with "a curving
front" is an abomination, which should
be driven from the holy of holies of
female beauty forever. The sentence
OF excommunication is just if the &C.
cusations can be substantiated, as we
have no doubt they can. Here is one
of them: "The curving corsets just
clasp around the middle of the waists,
and the flesh has got to 60 somewhere.
The result is that the chest is pushed
up, and the stomach is pushed down" "
If this be true, it follows that the
stomach "A new discovery by the
way of the female form divine-is in
the wrong place from morning until
midnight, and, very often, long after
that witching hour. What field for
philosophic speculation this stom-
achic displacement opens up. Does it
account for the constant craving for
chocolates and creams on tho part of
all femininity between fifteen and
fiftyf Is it the secret of the soda.
water fascination? Does it explain
the garrulity of the female gossipf
Is it the impelling motive of the mad
struggle for social supremacy Is a
misplaced stomach the main factor in
the matrimonial marketf Is it it
that makes a woman say "no," when
she means Eyes," and vice rersa I
all this be 90, cursed, indeed, is the
curving corset; dire and dreadful are
its works.
The approved corset Of the future, is
to be, it seems, what is known as the
" straight 'front.'" whatever that may
mean. Inference is that it is machine
wonderful and intricate from the di.
rections which are given with respect
to getting into it. They are: "First,
you fasten it at the bottom-iust to