Year: 1869

| From the London Examiner.


Men are not disposed, for variety of
reasons, to interfere rashly with the no.
tions of woman in the matter of dress.
The greatest latitude is allowed in shape,
an color, and material and 1t is only
when the male aesthetic sense Is too
openly outraged that we hear some faint
proles. against the current fashion.
This tolerance is extremely wise. In
the first place. women would not alter
their wavs even if we did complain.
Then again, il is only reasonable TO con-
clu, & that, as the women who set fashion
spend by far the larger portion OF their
lives N studying how to dress themselves,
they ought 20 understand more about 1t
than the exotic critic who hastily scans
his wife's costume as she comes down to
dinner. We are ofopiuion, further. that
the masculine mind is incapable of dis
passionately Judging women's dress.
There are men who look upon every
tolerably good-looking woman as an
angel; and such men, perceIving the
majority of their angelic acquaintances
dressing in a particular fashion. must
needs consider the fashion a remarkably
graceful and becoming one.


There are other men who, having been
rather hardly entreated by the sex. are





il not with some vague notion of q uni
verSal revenge; and these find each new
fashion only another phrase of feminine
at,sur,iity and vanity. 1t is highly de-
sirabIe. therefore, that woman should
he allowed 1.-THE phrase suggests possible
restriction which we fear, does not exist
to dress pretty much as they please, and
to adorn themselves with such combi-
nations of colors. and such forms of cos
tune. as they think most suited to their
various requirements.


In one direction, however. every man
who has any sort of influence over the
womankip of his family or circle is inn
peratively bound to interfere The
abomination of tight-lacing must not he
allowed to spread amongst US. We are
not quite sure that fashion contemplates
any Immediate return to the wasp waist.
but there are rumors abroad which rem
der it necessary that every precaution
should be used. 1t may be that the
fiinging open of the corrspon ,ience-ool-
umns of the newspapers in the dull sea-
son has had something to do with the
temperance of this bug-bear, but it is
not the less necessary that such inclpi-
ent tentatives should be checked at once.
Somewhere about two years ago maga-
zine which is chiefly addressed to girls
started, for its own purposes doubtless,
this subject, anu endeavOred to combat
the notion that tight-lacing was injuri-
Gus to the frame. 1t was suspected at
the time that this periodical was nothing
more or less than the organ of the stay
makers, who had been deprived of their
means of subsistence by the ex-
tinction of crinoline. This underhand
effort to resuscitate pernicious custom
provoked a good deal of indignation
and we fancy that it was then abandon
ed. However. our old foe appears in
new place; and in the sacred columns of
the Times, the spectre of tight-lacing Is
again paraded before us, by one or two
correspondents, whose method of logic
inclines us to believe that they belong
to the sex which is principally interested
in the matter The point on which
these correspondents insist is that
small waist is pleasing to the eye, ana
the second is that woman may "culti-
vate her figure"-such the gentle eu-
phemism which describes the squeezing
in of the ribs with impunity from phys
ical injury.


1t is true enough that small waist is
an additional grace to figure that is
otherwise symmetrical and graceful.
No one can deny this fact. But there is
no greater blunder than for the "cuitiva
tor" to imagine that small waist, which
Uetrays its artificial origin. can be re-
garded by men with anything else than
derision or compassion. Is it wonder,
or pity; or contempt that is the predomi-
mart feeling when one observes a wasp
like body tapering down to an abnorm-
ally small waist, the waist unnaturally
round. the dress obviously strained, the
whole body apparently blanched so as
to prevent the compressed figures from
breaking in halves? A more absurd
spectacle it is impossible to conceive
and it is one which suggests some other
reflections. not very hattering to the
owner of the insect-waist. We presume
that girls make fools Of themselves in
this way in order to convey to others the
notion that they are peculiarly sylph-
like and graceful. They wish to appear
in the eyes Of their male admirers as
light. ethereal. angelic creatures, who
are scarcely subject to the vulgar neces-
stiles of hunger. Unfortunately, the
impression conveyed is exactly the re-
verse. The lover cannot look at his mis-
tress's eyes for thinking of her waist,
and wondering how she can smile un-