IN DEFENCE OF CORSETS.

Feilding Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 151, 25 January 1906, Page 4

IN DEFENCE OF CORSETS.

1 Age cannot wither nor custom stale tbe infinite variety of tbe in- ■ imitable Laboucbere. His latest is t a defence of corsets, tbe denunciation of Ihem by the Congress of Progres 1 sivo German Women giving him tbe opportunity. *• There is," he says, " a I great deal of futile nonsense talked about Etays. I believe that stays are * essentially a hygienic garment. Not j only do they give useful support t to tbe figure, but they protect all tbe vital organs against cold. i Look at tbe way women go about at night with bare chests 1 and shoulders. J'iook at tbe * pneumonia blousp,' which has never * caused a sneeze, so far as 1 know. j Look at the flimsy garments women go about in regardless of weather and r temperature, and then compare them with what men wear. Look at the way our grandmothers dressed in 9 their youth — from their chins to the soles of their feet. How is it that I women can do all these things with 5 impunity ? Becaa-e of their stays. I J have often thought of getting a pair 1 myself— not for appearances,, but in * order to enable me to dispense with . an overcoat, and possibly other gar- ) ments- If you had them lined with [ flannel, Ido not know that you need j wear anything else, except, of course, U for decency and ornament. I believe '*" tbe only place where a man or I .woman really wants clothing is tbe . .small of the back- the place where I you put a borse cloth when your ) animal is standing in tbe rain. With I -a few tbicknes-es of stuff round that I part of your anatomy you can defy I anything but propriety and conven tion. Fortified by stays, some women even manage to defy them."