Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1914-07-24
THE CORSET.

hold on the female sex. For ABOUT
two years during the height of that
social orgy the garment was aban-
doned; then France relapsed once
more into civilization and the corset
The pulpit, the medical profession.
reformers of all sorts and descrip-
tons, have stormed and threatened,
argued and pleaded for the abandon
ment of the corset, but woman for
some reason (may 1t not be what we |
term instinct? has tenaciously |
chung to the device which, until very
recent years, with the invention of
the front lace, low bust corset, has
been a most injurious appliance and
one undoubtedly productive OF vast
harm to the human race.
There is a reason for everything
and we do not have to delve into
the mysteries of psychology or Of any
other "ologies" to locate the source Of
woman's fondness for the corset. 1t
is a matter of good sense, of me-
! chanics, of gravity and balance. What
we term instinct" is usually the me-
chanical following of the line of least
resistance, the line of ease and COM
fort. Woman is more comfortable IN
the corset, therefore she will wear IT.
And it is good for her to do so, too
provided it follows natural lines and
is so adjusted that it will not displace
the normal center of gravity.
There is something intensely abb
surd and incongruous In the fact that
our women go to art galleries and
there admire the perfect form. They
buy beautiful bronze and marble fig
ures to adorn the home, and invari-
ably the finest examples Of art and
of beauty unadorned will be found to
have a waist 46.7 per cent of the
height. But she herself will crowd
her own 40-inch bust and 5O-inch
hips into a 26-inch corset, not under
standing that the effect Is not only
grotesque but that harmony is the
good and the beautiful and should be
lived personally, continuously every
day. it is not to be bought in small
doses and admired from a distance.
i That is the message the artist Is
striving to convey to us, and this not
for arts sake but for posterity, for
IN these contradictions lie the root OF
, ill health and decay.
, The uncivilized individual may rest
) when weary but the civilized may not
> and hold his job. The very rapid
r change in Industrial conditions makes
e for an almost universal need for keep
e ing the trunk of the body constantly
erect, either standing or sitting in
l. chair, for about 16 out of the "a
k hours. These long erect hours, cou
t pied with confinement in poorly ventl
= lated buildings, insufficient nutrition
n worry and other depressing causes in
l. cident to modern commercialism al
J. most too numerous to mention, result
a in an enervated muscular system. INT
l. abdominal muscles relax, permitting
g. the abdominal contents to sag, result
l. ing in a condition known as enterop
is tosis, or Glenard's disease. Th1
y means that the stomach and mites
h tines, the Kidneys, liver and spleen
ID one or all sag down.
j. Constipation, melancholia, backache
debility, biliousness, appendicitis
n headache, early loss of complexion
o. and a long list of ailments commo
n to the majority of women and to man
e. men of all civilized countries are
We few of the results of this lack
u muscular tone against which woma
e. strives to defend herself with the co
of set. But like all good things 1t
At abused through our ignorance OF IN
so entire field that must be considere
h. The first step to secure correctl
m fitted corset Is to have the body
he natural balance, and this means a co
Ist rect shoe as a foundation. The she
nd and the corset acting together are u
doubtedly responsible for at least
let per cent of the ailments supposed
-ts be the particular heritage Of woma
1u- The average woman needs the ser
lie ices of a skilled mechanical engine
lty more than she does the services
pe- the gynecologist. Her troubles a
of fundamentally mechanical and ment
)0,- rather than physical, and that is wi
18th her case is always chronic" and WI
W.T. 1t will remain Chronic" until &
or cause of the trouble is corrected. II
es. backaches, headaches, rheumatism
of nervousness" and the entire train
,m- symptoms are due more to muscul
strains and exhaustion than to al
lily thing else.
II the trouble would cease with I
| a individual foolish enough to submit
in torture in the worship of tradition
co. might endure it, but unfortunately
for does not and can not.
n a Humanity is superior to the rest
of creation only in its ability to thii
ons to will and to do, and there is sor
ate thing curiously contradictory in
bit fact that man, the superior animal,
yer anxious to perpetuate his kind
ore gladly becomes responsible for 1t,
S91 stubbornly refuses its right to
in best that life has to give-ge
oxi- health.