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Otago Daily Times, Issue 852, 14 September 1864, Page 6

Ladies Waists in America. —The unnatural length and ridiculous smallness of their waists baffle description. A waist that conld be spanned is an English metaphorical expression used in a novel, but it; is an American tact; and so alarming does it appear to an Englishman, that my first sentiment on viewing the phenomenon was one of pity for the unfortunate being, who might possibly break off in thft middle, like flowers from a stalk, before the evening concluded. Not less «xtraordinary is the siz? of the ladies' arms* I saw many which were scarcely thicker than mo-dsrate-sizsd walking sticks. Yet, strange to say, when these ladies pass the age of forty, they frequently attain an enormous size. The whole ■economy of their structure is then reversed, their ■waists and arms becoming the thickest part of their body. Here is a subject worthy the consideration of the ethnologist. How comes it to pass that the English type—which I presume has not in every case been so affected by the admixture of others as to lose its own identity — liow comes it to poas, I say that the English type is so strangely altered in a few generations ? I Lave heard varions hypothesis—among others, the habits of the people; the dry climate. The effect of the latter on a Kuropeaa constitution would have appeared to be sufficient to account for thß singular conformation, if I bad not been pursuaded by natives of the country that the small waist is mainly owing to tight lacing. This practice, it is said, is persevered in to an alarming extent, and, if report be true, it is to be feared that the effects will bs felt by future generations to a greater degree than any at present. — Bennett. Cool, Vbkt. —It was only a few days since, says the Marlborough Press, that a prisoner lately relensed by the effluxion of time, stated in a public room of a public house ia Pictou, that the reason he had not Jeffc it before his sentence was expired, was the excellent treatment he received in gaol. His hard labor consisted of removing a few shovelfuls of earth during the day, while he was abundantly supplied with tha best of food, and had a warm bed at night to turn into.