Evening star., 1909-08-29
Corset
Story
Told Each Week by One VINO
Knows
The Wrong People

~F YOU have ever rlooen Aooos
until YOU became its devoted slave.
Won will understand what l mean
in this short chapter Of the year
long corset story. Has 1t ever peeh
borne in upon YOU suddenly, after you
have been riding your hobby In the
intimate presence of your family or
your friends. that you were taking TO
the wrong people? That they did not
understand and. what was more. tnat
they did not even pretend to? It's just
a little bit embarrassing. isn't 1t? They
listened while, but they didn't warm
to the subject and they weren't Wild
to have you go on.
Now, l have talked corsets very oc-
casionally to some of my friends,
though only when they sorely needed
advice. and even the fact of their pres
ent necessity didn't make them any
more keen.
We rode our hobbies too fast. my
friend; our hearers were left behind.
1t is the fool who cannot adapt his
conversation to his hearers: and COM
mon polteness, too. demanded that in
this little matter of corsets | drop i'm
mediately from the mere mention of the
enlarged waist. which seemed to rub
them the wrong way.
Ny persistent readers. who have
reached this forty-eighth chapter, may
be glad TO know just which points do
not appeal. The up and down corset
dispelled all interest, because the pres
ent scheme for slightly enlarging the
waist measurement was like red rag to
angry bull; they could not see it.
Corsets. they said had always made
waists smaller. That was a point 1
wanted them TO see. but they saw in 1t
the final and accepted mission of the
corset
SOME PUZZLERS
Full breathing and room for the
abused diaphragm puzzled them, and an
actual demonstration of the breathing
process in a model corset seemed only
amusing. A spark of life was kindled
IN them by my reference to the abol-
ishing of the abdomen and the suppress
sion Of hips; they seemed more anxious
to dispense with anatomy than to gain
development, either physically or men
tally. There are other things they did
not know, the boneless Cor comparative
ly 6oneless) corset was a mystery they
did not care 10 solve. and the cut OF a
corset was as Greek TO them.
l have believed since that even they
could be made to listen by some one
with a very usual article to sell and a
noisy method-a suffragette with a hand
organ.
Now. far worse than their lack OF in
ha
set making is their ignorance of their
own feelings. They" stands in this
case for the ignorant. They do not
know that they are weary because their
present corsets press upon their abdo-
mems and pull them down. nor that this
pressure is removed when the corset fits
TO the point of an actual bandage over
the hips and holds the wearer in be-
low the abdomen as a support. Nor do
they understand that their i'll health Is
due to stiff and unyielding corset; to
them elasticity means rubber" and
does not convey the true impression of
a soft weave Of material SO cut as to
yield to every muscular movement.
Money is their last consideration. as 1t
is their first. They do not believe in
comfort at cost of actual dollars and
cents. They may realize that foot COM
fort cannot be had, because they have
tried to secure il often and long, with
out the requisite high price paid for
pliable feathers to surround the bones
of the foot. but the bones of their bodies
have become Injured to pressure and
the economy of low-priced corset
What they do not understand would
fill book. They are the wrong people
and | have written this for them. but
har
] usually direct my corset talks to the
right people.