Show corset corse t a foe td health writer claims it Is nut not C assy unsanitary sanitary but disfiguring at bett best its constant wear produces an inartistic dad wd artificial shape OME time ago dr phillippe marechale at tempted to get a law into the french stat utes giving the gov eminent control of the sale of corsets he made it a misdemeanor for any woman under thirty years of age to ear one imposing a penalty of three months tn in prison or a fine of he planned to have the manufacturer and dealer submit reports to the au an thon ties of all persons purchasing them on lain of having their property confiscate 1 tr dr marechale evi dently was ful y aware of the tion this attempted reform would arouse among women and he framed the law so stringently that no one J riD edeMe acl Z could escape it did not pass how ater and women who are wedded to their corsets will not be divorced from them unless it should be decreed in paris by the makers of fashion that suppleness grace natural curves and health should be among the requisites of a fashionable woman in stead of the stilted artificial cramped deformities which the fashionable modiste now turns upon society boys are allowed to reach maturity without being made over but girls are not education in the line of physical culture however Is widening the horizon of american women and many are adopting a healthful mode of dress and many more would it if they could adjust their clothing properly discarding the corset is only halt half of the battle if the heavy skirts hang from tho the waist and the bands are tight the discomfort Is 13 greater than the corset and the injury nearly as great the muscles which have been weakened by the corset must be astren strengthened by systematic so that th they ey will beep keep the body erect and arm and per form the office of the steel and w whalebone hal ebone then with un der clothing and N dress made to correspond to am the law of beau ty and natural form the eman woman will grow strong happy and attractive the degree of lacing in every coun try Is like a barometer indicating the artistic and moral condition of the epoch the earliest mention of gird ing was made by that first dress reformer the prophet isaiah israel grown proud in prosperity was given over to idolatry social degradation and anarchy an artificial shape of the waist among the egyptian women accompanied an age ot of extravagance according to rousseau and others compression of the body was not practiced r I 1 if IW I W 4 74 F ario wo LA Q 0 k by the spartans women were considered part of the sta P and were placed andel tra ning sea ply ely less vigorous than the men nor i there evidence of waist stricture in IP p succeeding period that of the w v I 1 ship of the beautiful but in the days preceding the destruction of the greek republics when patriotism and morals were forgotten courtesans originating in this lowest order ot of society was adopted by wamen of rank the romans in their turn took up the fashion during the early middle ages the custom was not practiced but about the eleventh century the power ot of fashion began to be felt and gant dress and tight bandaging in creasing A portrait of henry 11 III son of catherine de medici shows that tight lacing was also practiced by men after napoleons elevation to tm im aerial power he adopted the most rigorous system of court etiquette an attempt to resurrect the medici corset was made by the ladles ladies of paris fashions but it was opposed by the empress napoleon said concerning the revival of tight lacing in 1810 this wear born of coquetry and bad taste which murders children tells of frivolous taste and warns me of approach ing decadence bouchand Bou chant a writer of that period says stays are not composed of whalebone or of hardened leather but of bars of steel from three to four inches broad and many of them not less than eighteen inches in length the corset was introduced into england in the twelfth century and at first was comparatively harmless its exclusive use characterized the reign of queen elizabeth the body was incased in a stiff armor and bo both th men and women squeezed in their waists and swelled out their heir gari gar i ments below this age of literature was the ifie dart age of morality nora allty lIty so tar far as the court was WU concerned the folly in dress was unlimited the ruffs tor for the were stiffened by metal wires and by colored starch these were so immense that a spoon two feet lone long all 0 was necessary to convey food safely to the mouth the hair was color colored 4 in divers hues or was shaved to a com wigs of various colors the puritans made bitter warfare on devilish fashions the puritan conscience banished these follies with the immoralities of the times and our puritan ancestors came to out shores without the stiff ruff and without the steel armour about the waist As in other countries the passing of simplicity and a vigorous industry marked the passing of sen seno sible dress and in 1829 a writer in boston describes the practice of 0 wearing the corset day and night tightening it when lying down and again in the morning the corset of the present day Is more flexible and less objectionable yet it is still a relic of barbarism writes mabel stillman in the kee sentinel the cheapness of it puts it within the reach of every class and the yearly output not in eluding those which are imported amounts to 60 |