THE FOLLY AND WICKEDNESS OF TIGHTLACING.—II.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 13, 1 April 1893, Page 309

THE FOLLY AND WICKEDNESS OF TIGHTLACING.—II.

Under the heading of ‘The Sin and Scandal of TightLacing,’ the writer says :—Those women who have not been guilty of the folly and iniquity of tight-lacing, or, being free from it personally, have given no thought to the subject, will stand aghast at the widespread wickedness that is practised by girls and women who are addicted to this pernicious habit. By the time our readers have read, in the articles I am about to publish in this column, of the inhuman doings, even of parents and guardians, and the selfinflicted crimes, born of ignorance and folly, of which growing girls are guilty, they will be ready to side with us, and by every influence they possess help our crusade against this species of modern madness. I have been led to take this step because the hundreds of letters which have reached me from the young asking advice how to achieve a narrow waist, and from older foolish ones giving their experiences and describing their sufferings, all proved, what I had not previously imagined, that the tight-lacing habit had become A SIN AND A SCANDAL. I have been receiving these and similar letters for some time past, and even at the cost of being charged with betraying confidences, 1 give some of them in this first article (names and addresses omitted), because, did I not do so, my readers would probably imagine that I was romancing. A corset is a perfectly innocent and useful feminine requirement when not applied with that tension which strangulates. Women may continue to wear them and exhibit a waist, although when this desire first began to exert itself is hidden in the mist of antiquity. That she recognised the possibilities in the days of the Greeks is certain, for did she not encircle herself round the middle with golden zones ’ And this became a practice which one need not reprehend, for there was no harm therein, but it was a beginning of more serious things. Still, we have to come down to the time when Gaul became Romanised to find the introduction of the corset, in the form of ‘ a corselet of thick stuff* which moulded the form, rather than an instrument of torture which distorted its lines.’ So says M. Robida in his ‘ Ten Centuries of Toilette.’ We do not propose here to trace the various stages of folly through which the corset has been made to pass, to the detriment of woman’s offspring. It would be a long tale, not without interest, certainly, but beyond the scope of these articles, which are designed to show the unquestionable evils attendant upon tight lacing.’ We have only space for one or two of these foolish letters. NO. I. ‘ I want to ask your advice about the easiest way to reduce the size of my waist. I live with a relative who insists that I must reduce my waist to 17 inches, as she says, “ No man will marry a girl unless she looks smart.” What would be the best sort of corsets, or would it be a good thing to wear a leather belt strapped on underneath them ; or would it be better to sleep in a corset, and tighten it gradually day by day ?’ NO. 11. ‘ Will you be so kind as to te 1 me, when you have space in your interesting paper, if you have ever heard of anyone beginning tight lacing as early as this ’ A friend of mine has a wonderfully slender figure, which she says is the result of her mother putting a flannel band round her, when she was only a year old, to mould her soft bones. At six she wore a corded corset with whalebones, and at thirteen her mother had her tightly laced, making her waist only 15 inches.’ NO. til. ‘ My cousin wrote to you this week, but forgot to ask your opinion of this rigime for a family of girls—the eldest nineteen, the youngest thirteen. She has a great desire for them all to have slim, pretty figures, and has a fixed idea that girls eat too much, so they are made to take an immense amount of exercise. They get up at 7 ; at 8 they have breakfast of milk, toast, and eggs, but no butter; at 1 they have a small helping of meat, toast, and no vegetables ; and a good meal at 7 of soup, fish, and meat, but they have small appetites at night. As soon as they get up they are closely laced in beautifully-fitting stays that fit them like gloves, and for no consideration are they ever laced more loosely. At about 4.30 the three elder girls of seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen have to go upstairs to have their corsets tightened for the evening, which means that they come down in about half-an-hour with the trimmest and tinest of waists confined in evening corsets laced with no sparing hand. All three have quite taken to lacing, ard do not object to sleeping in well-laced corsets, about an inch larger than their day ones.’ •Is the following sensation usual amongst very tightly and continuously laced women 1 I feel very hungry before meal times, but at meals latterly I hardly care to swallow even the smallest quantity, as for hours after I have a horrid, bitter taste in my mouth, and sometimes even feel sick, unless laced in a very long, tight-fitting corset.’ — The Gentlewoman.