The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-04
UNJUST TO WOMEN
REPORT OF GIRL DYING FROM
TIGHT LAciNG NOT BELIEVED
Women No Longer Have Small Waists
Nor Small Feet-common Sense and
Athletics Have RevoIutionized Femi-
nine Dress, and Statements Like the
Above Are Not Justified.

One or two items which have gone
the rounds of the papers lately have
tended 10 do women an injustice. One
was an account-With scare head
that a girl somewhere had died from
tight corset lacing. Now every man,
father of girls or young husband, i'm
mediately said to himself; Shocking
thing, corsets; they ought to be abol-
ished," but the women who read the
item promptly refused to believe that
the girl was killed by lacing without
due proof being furnished. The rea-
son for this is because tight laeing
and small waists are so completely
out of fashion that the woman who
measures less than "a or 70 inches round
her waist looks odd. Not, of course,
because of health has this thing come
abOTI. except in so far thlt women arc
more sensible about their clothing than
ever before, but because since the ath-
letic girl has been the vogue the fem
mime waist has been steadily growing
larger. This combined with the style
of the dip in front has made a radical
change in the figures of women and
completely reVOluuoniZed corSets. The
straight front corset makes it almost
impossible for women to have the small
waists of yore. The girl whose waist
under the old regime might have been
10 inches, now measures 20 or "a and
so on in proportion. OF course, the
shoulders have broadened accordingly.
The WaSp-like waist which used to
worry the old ladies of both sexes has
gone out entirely You cannot play
golf if you are laced tightly, nor ten
MS or tramp all day in the fields In
the matter of women's shoes the same
thing has taken place, and common
sense shoes and heels are the order of
the day. Women may nave small feet,
but the fact remains that they wear
large shoes, and you can ask anv shoe
dealer if this is true. Number three
shoes are regarded as very small in
deed, and there are few shops that
keep smaller sizes.
In regard to corSetS, an immense
Improvement has been made in their
construction, and the modern corset
worn as 1t is can do small harm. The
girl who died from alleged tight lac
ing must have had on something
UNIQUE, and it must have been tied
up exceedingly tight. She was not in
the fashion at all events, and it may
be she discovered it and that killed
her instead of the tight corset.
Another thing which has reused the
indignation of this department is the
sport made of women's meetings by
many newspapers. One New York
paper has gone so far as to give gem
ceral orders to the staff that all femi-
nine organizations are 70 be written
up humorously and never taken seri-
ously The result, of course, is very
funny at times, and there are certain
feminine movements with which many
women themselves have but little sym
pathy and at which they can heartily
laugh, but on the other hand it is only
just that discrimination should be used
IN an age when many women are doing
good work. There is nothing in the
world so absolutely delightful to the
humorist as meeting of a woman's
club. 1t is what printers call fiat"
One instance of a never failing source of
eEiUsement is a woman's political club
Which meets very often in New York.
The Gotham papers each devote a col
urnn to this club, and if the accounts
are veracious the meetings must be
very funny indeed. But in many WAYS
and various directions women organ
lied and unorganized are doing good
work, and they should be given credit
Tor IT. Surely nothing could be fun
nler than many masculine meetings.
particular those at which members of
various boards become little excited.
women are not the funniest things in
the world.