New-York tribune., 1922-09-03

py TINS time tnreAdbare, that enough ard ia
spare had been already said and written abo,,+
corsets. But enough will never have been said
or written until the evil has been exercised
For at the present mornent the use Of corse4a
is more universal than has hitherto besn
known. The extravaganza of modern dress
an extravsgance never before reaehed~~is eys.
dence enough were evidence needed Of this.
Dress has been given to woman to conceal
her deficiencies, and 70 this end she enjoys h
beauty and dress assuming generally an tns
verse ratio, the orr to the other Our worrsn
to-day are frilIed and ehiffoned to the ewes.
are founced and fnrbelowed to the heels Their
toupees and Ioyelocks come home in hox
and are giorifed apotheoses Of tresses whjeh
lack the vitality 10 earl without the aid Of
pins or heated irons
"The use of rouge of powder and of to,.ot
accessories innumerable has AT no :imc been
so prevalent The flush Of their finger 4ipx
counteTfeiting health. is the art of the man.
lcure Our modisles arc taxed 10 the utmost
IN their necessity 10 simulate natural curves
and to conceal unnatural deficiencies by means
OF So!cs and friIllngs. no doubt the ysesr
ana tear of modern life, the pace at which
we i've has much TO do with such physical
decadence. but the deterioration is and has
been largely hastened by the use of stays.
Formerly the practice of tight iacine way
confined almost entirely to the fashionable
and leisure classes. Now it permeates the
humblest levels of society. You shall not find
shop girl a little slave of all work who
does not pinch her waist to morbid and in
delicate extent The thing has become na-
tional evil, for these wasp-waisted. chlorotic
bein IL.
One wonders if DR.. Arabella would have
been perfectly contented in an age when
women cut their hair short instead of having
loyelocks brought home in a boxl And stern
ly refused to be hampered by stays when
dancing
Thinking back to the days when Young
Lothario rode over from Jersey to do his
counting on "a bicycle built for two does
anybody remember how the parental soul bled
when young women first donned the divided
hiking skirt? And what an uproar there was
when some skittish little thing first took a
dislike to collars boned up behind the ears
until they looked like implements of torture?
This ancestress of the fapper barred her neck
way down to the collarbone and became an
lncipient Jezebel-44in the opinion of the older
generation, whichvigorously wagged its head
over the seasons crop of wild oats.
There was quite period, too, when sleeves
to the elbow and skirts which reached to the
ankle, but were slit to the knees. caused lot
of harsh things to be said about the rising
generation #
Perfect ladies" of the mid Victorian Pc
riod would have been shel-shocked at the an
tics of some of their up-to-date successors.
They always discreetly referred to piano legs
as limbs, and repeated '.prunes and prisms7
frequently to keep their lips and souls In
paths of moral rechtude.
In no other age did the young folks have
=
such shabby time
Montague Glass in an article in ''The Co.'S
mopoitsn' quotes from "The Athenaeum" of
1888 to show what seandazed the virtuous
ladies of that day:
"Mr. Abraham Hayward and Lord Lynd-
hurst were talking about Nine. de Genlis, who
at the end of the eighteenth century wrote