Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-19

of panniers to swell. They always did
ana novelty l. buI a stately procession
back to old things The panniers of Queen
Margot began as rats" or SUM rolls Mt
ting snugly over the hips to pun out the
skirt They swelled 10 wicker panniers
As elbow ranniers" in IT'S they lifted
the line of the hips as high the elbows
whence the name In his celebrates
journal, the Advocate. Barber describes
them as basketlike devices, that made IL
impossible for three ladies TO squeeze
into one opera box; ard when a man got
in among them he was submerged and
lost, One evening. the queen being seat
ed al the theeter between two princesses.
the skirts Of the latter so -hiked up as
10 completely hide the view of the stage
from he majesty The only remedy was
To reserve empty seats on each side.
Each century has seen these things ridi-
culed in advance as impossible Each has
had its periods OF slenderness in between
We may. Of course, be entering into one
of the lesser or half periods, as of the
hustle or puffed panniers above a narrow
skirt. After the pann:ers OF Marie An
toinette had been forgotten, and before
the crinoIine of Eugene was dreamed OF.
there We're epochs of pulled skirts above
packing-can petticoats called "cri-
ardes" or loud ones. The same hard.
cracking material came to be employed
under Louis Philippe to puff out extrava-
CANT leg mutton sleeves. that have
twice since returned to style and gone
out again. From sleeves it passed TO
skirts.
Do you reply that modern life would
not permit such swelling forms and in
numbering devices.
They said the same thing fifty years
ago-and introduced modern improve
ments.' Cracking canvas and wicker
baskets were replaced by system of the
lightest and most flexible metal springs
and the koopskirts of Cora Pearl and
Empress Eugene were invented, Spread
ing continuously down to near the hem.
they made skirts cover a greater floor
area than ever known before, The bas-
kets of Manon. the MarquiSe de Carahas
and the Countess dAlmaviva were sur
passed. And managers OF theaters trem-
bied to see more than two women enter
a box. lighted in those days by gas jets
Hundreds of balloons kirted beauties
caught fire in the days OF the last hoop
skirts. Yet they were modern" times.
the present writer remembering, as a
child, to have seen hoopskirts hanging
in closets. Two civilizations since the
days of the hiking" princesses with In
tervening periods Of slender forms.
The present panniers begin gently.
1n6y are IKE the Gamer that asked per-
mission to warm its nose in the shoe
makers window. Little by little, it got
its whole neck In.
And why nots ,iss;sl
Why not welcome panniers?
Let them swell on either side. and give
the girls chance to breathe.
Come panniers. come hustle, No price
is too great to be rid OF the recent COM
preston all along the line. In future
ages they will not believe that women
could ever have endured such Instruments
of torture as the long. straight corset and
the hip dssimulator. The stomach and
liver are crushed the lungs cannot dilate
enough to take in sufficient oxygen to re-
new the blood; the diaphragm and intes-
tines brutally pushed back, protest in
spasmodic contractions.
But you say, Queen Margot and Manou
wore corsets,
Net the same.
Take the worst sample-the heavy steel
fifteenth century corset in the Cluny Mu-
scum. 1t is an unyielding. metallic cage,
seemingly atrocious. Yet il followed the
feminine form.
STERLING HELLO