AS SEEN THROUGH WOMAN’S EYES

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue VIII, 22 February 1902, Page 377

AS SEEN THROUGH WOMAN’S EYES

“ Crimes of the Corset.” In the four hundred years that have elapsed since Catherine de Medicis introduced corsets into France, criticism of the article and of the women wearing it has not been lacking. Indeed, it was not long after the death of Catherine when a celebrated French savant gave a lecture in his dissecting room at the Hotel Dieu to demonstrate the “crimes” of which the corset was guilty. These lectures raised much discussion at the time, and they, perhaps, and not coquetry and the feminine love of change, were responsible for the loose, floating lines of the Watteau pleat, or, a centurv afterward, for, the costumes of the Directoire. Now another celebrated French doctor has returned to the charge, and, not content with lecturing and demonstrating the evils of corset ?.

has gone so far as to form a bill which it is his intention to present to the Chamber, and which, in the case of its becoming law, would most effectually put a stop to what this doctor terms “the crimes of womanhood.”

Dr. Marechai is a physician whose reputation would not lead one to accuse him of mere sensationalism, yet the charges that he brings against corsets in his recent lecture are perhaps more stringent than those ever uttered before by any member of the anti-corset brigade. Dr. Marechai makes the astonishing assertion, and pretends to back it up by statistics, that out of a hundred young women who wear corsets only thirty retain perfect nealth. The law that Dr. Marechai is endeavouring to have passed is divide I into three articles. Article 1 forbid - any women under thirty to wear a

corset of any description. Any woman convicted of doing so shall be punished by three months of imprisonment. tf the delinquent should be a minor, her parents or guardians as well shall be condemned to pay a fine of from 100 to 1000 francs. Article 2 permits any woman over thirty to wear any corsets she wishes. Article 3 provides for the most rigorous formalities surrounding the manufacturing and sale of corsets. Every one licensed to sell corsets shall be obliged to take the name, address and age of every buyer, and shall be subject to fine and c nfiseation of business in case of an illegal sale. Although Dr. Marechai asks that legislation shall only take cognizanc ■ of the evils of corsets at present, he is by no means to stop there in his desire for dress reform. He has a good deal to say on the subject ot

high heels and pointed toes, of tight gloves and long skirts. In short, h ■ claims that women's dress has caused a frightful physical deterioration in the human species. While the cranium of the Merovingian woman had a capacity of 1383 cubic centimetre . that of the modern French woman has a capacity of only 1337 cubic centimetres. and this loss, the doctor declares, is due to the habit of wearing heavy head-dresses. As to whether or no a modern French head weighing only 1337 cubi • centimetres is worth more than a Merovingian cranium weighing som< - what more is a subject on which the learned doctor does not care to enter. He is convinced that corsets, hats, veils and various other items of the feminine wardrobe are bad. and has come to the conclusion that if women will not be persuaded to discard them they should be forced to do so.

Dr. Marechai is an ardent supporter of the woman’s rights movement in France, and yet it is to men aa l the law that he appeals to bring about the reform which he has .-.o much at heart. He tacitly admits that the vanity of the average woman will not allow her to give up these coquetries, and that she must be brought to do so through the intervention of her old time “lord and master,” the man and husband. But it has been argued by people whose perspicuity has been brought to bear on the subject that the strongest objections to the uncorseted figure come from man —the ordinary average man. When he shall become convinced that a trig waist and confined hips are not necessary to a woman’s good appearance there is a possibility that the corset will be done away with. A Gentle Hint. Polish yourself up, madam; you had a pretty w't once, a pleasant laugh, a conversation that, was not confined exclusively to the shortcomings of servants, the wrongdoings of tradesmen. My dear madam, we do not live on spotless linen and crumbless carpets. Hunt out that bundle of old letters you keep tied up in failed ribbon at the back oi* vour bureau drawer a pity you don’t read them oftener! He did not. enthuse about your cuffs and collars, gush over the neatness of your darning. It was your tangled hair he raved about, your sunny smile we have not seen it for some years, madam—the fault of the cook and the butcher. I presume; your little hands, your rose-bud mou.h—it has lost its shape, madam, of late. Try a little less of scolding of Mary Ann. and practice a laugh once a day; you might get back the dainty curves. It would be worth trying It was a pretty mouth once. —Jerome K. Jerome.

Novel Methods of Getting Thin.

To compel himself to take the distasteful exercise necessary to keep down his weight, a Sussex farmer adopted some years since a novel expedient. This was nothing less than to take such a start of a ferocious bull which he owned as would enable him, by running at his topmost speed to reach safety ere the animal came within tossing distance. This curious race, which took place daily, kept him in most excellent condition. A certain North Country publican, who bid fair to quality for a “fat man,” and whose natural sloth and love of good cheer rendered out of the question that regimen usually prescribed for persons of his habit of body, thought that abstention from sleep would bring about tne. desired result. He installed, therefore, two potmen as watchers, with stringent orders to allow him on no account more than three hours sleep in the twenty-four. So faithful were these to their trust that their master en<lio--(| agonies of discomfiture, which although for the time they lowered his weight, bred in him a determination to forswear Banting for the future. A native of Genoa named Lecondi. who was much overburdened with adipose tissue, conceived the idea that his state was due to the amount of oxygen prsent in fresh air. To obviate this he kept to his room, the door of which was only opened once on Sundays tn permit of provisionfor the following week being introduced. The result was only what might have been expected; Lecondi became dangerously ill, and but for the prompt interference of his family would have paid for his mistaken eccentricity with his life. A year back the inhabitants of Neodesha. Kansas, were noted for their extreme tenuity, not one scaling over seven stone. This came to the ears of certain sc.entists, who. after investigation, declared that the phenomenon was due to the vast amount of oil and natural gas that was stored beneath the town. Forthwith came a rush of fat folk desirous to undergo the cure, and the town now presents a strange appearance, half of the population being perfect skeletons, and the remainder Daniel Lamberts daily and visibly wasting. Tn the early forties a half-witted Mancunian, of Fatet.affian proportions. having heard that a fellow townsman had been worried almost, to a skeleton bv a nagging wife, conceived that a like treatment might serve his turn. He therefore proposed to a bitter-tongued spinster of uncertain years and. on the strength of a small competency that he possessed. was promptly accepted Whether his wife’s tongue relieved him of much solid flesh is not. recorded, though it certainly did of

what little sense he had b-ten originally gifted, for he ended his days in an asylum. Equally strange was the idea of a Mr Fuller, of Chicago, who lately summoned hypnotism to his aid. Alarmed at his increasing bulk, he placed himself under a local mesmerist of repute, who, having put him into a state of trance, communicated the very alarming fact that he was a ruined man. This “suggestion,” which was repeated daily, had, it is averred, the desired effect. A singular fancy took possession of the brain of a banker, named Hallmayr, who died at Berlin in 1813. Belonging to a family whereof all the members became with years excessively corpulent, he conceived the extraordinary notion that he could fend off his dreaded fate by wearing a -to ’t l?rther easing, whi' h. by fitting tightly to his body, would infallibly prevent its increasing in bulk. Such a suit, of torture then did he cause to be made, with the result that he worried and tormented himself into a decline. and died at a comparatively early age. o o o o o

Thoughts on Reading.

There is more potent influence in the average life than the books one reads. In youth the character must almost be said to be moulded by them and in later life their influence is inestimable. There never was a time when more books were read than at present. New books are appearing every day. and the effort to keep up with the newest in current literature is a perceptible strain, and the results do not always justify the expenditure of time and energy. If one could only

sift the accumulation, rejecting the inconsequential and retaining the of genuine worth, it might be worth while, but such a procedure is hardly practicable. Would it not be as well for the busy ones whose time for reading is limited to await the verdict of time as to tne merit of a book, rather than to reaa as indiscriminately as is now the rule. in the scramble to read the very latest publications, the stanaara literature, which has withstood the test of generations of readers and critics is neglected and the great poets especially have been crowded from the high positions they formerly Held with inose who read and think. Professor N orton’s recommendation to busy people, that they should read one worthy poem each day, is worthy of consideration, and one eoulu not put the time to better use. One should certainly, too, read the best books of the oay, wnen time enough has elapsed to prove that they are such. But by all means reau the masterpieces of literature. A writer in a current magazine laments that the literary quality is wanting in modern stage representation. We also need more of it in our daily reading. Whatever else one neglects, one should keep in touch with the progress of the day, and to that end newspapers and magazines are a necessity, but even with these discretion may be exercised. One’s mental diet should be varied, and there should be a due portion of substantiate. The physical organism would degenerate under an exclusive regimen of pastry and ice cream. A piece de resistance is necessary for the mental health as well.—Elizabeth Berry in “Household Companion.”