SMALL WAISTS.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 409, 19 March 1879, Page 2

SMALL WAISTS.

If the truth bo fairly known, women have many excuses for their infatuation regarding small waists. The reason why a small waist is a. beauty, is because, when it is natural, it goes together with the peculiar litheness arid activity of-a slenderly-built figure All .the'bones are small, the' shoulders and arms petite, and the general look is dainty and youthful. .- In other words a small waist is only a beauty when it is in proportibn to the rest of the figure. The .common mistake lies in considering.it a beauty in a large Woman of massive propoirtionsvA' fey? ago women did not' take a' scientific view" of things, and’ fell into delusions which, in this age are a disgrace to the Tlmy kheW nothing • of;an'atomy r of tW law of, proportion, the curve of beautyf.and: they misunderstood the language of admiration. The latter 'I suspect to’ be the root': of the whole matter. Foots were everlastingly praising small waists, and woman fell into the error of-supposing that a sirtal 1 Waiet-was, in the abstract, a heatfty and.an..attraction. In view .ofthis/, js ,there,- any yro®der'.| that, it is hard Women that men do' ; noted mire “ Wasp” waists 7 How pre they i to know’ that the “ jimp-middle”" of the ballads was in its jimpness in proportion to the shoulders 7, ..The trouble is that the early rhimesleirshaye used up the only : side of the question’ capable of poetical ■ treatment.-Ohe cafftrof shig of the reverse / no poet could seriously lift up his voice hr praise. of-her ample waist” ior graceless pi V.'iness.” , In .order to. reach Wornfari’s ear modem writers must adopt a .different cbprse'j'rand.itjs cUripusto contrast their.* utterances'with those of the ball ad After showing how the liver,-longs,' heart,' stomach, arid spleen are packed by Hattrre,• one novelist asks: “ Is it a small thing-for the creature (who uses a corset) to say to her Creator/ ‘I cafn ( pacb.all .this egg china better than you can,’ and thereupon to jam all. those vital organs close by a powerful/ a very powerful, and ingenious machine?,’.’, Nothing is so ugly as a' pinched waist j-’it pot® the hipsafnd shoulder invari- " ably out of proportion arid- width. In deforming the waist almost all -the vital organs are affected by the pressttre, and the ribs are pushed out of their proper place: tightlacing is.ugly, because it distorts the natural lines of the figure, and gives an appeararice of uncerfanity and unsafeness/ Men seldom take to wife a girl who has. ' <v tbw/sni»li...a : '.tva!st, whether natural or artificial. In architecture,* a pillar or suppbrt of any kind is called : debased andhad : lh art; if what is supported be too heavy for the' thing - supporting, and if a •base be ahhprmally-heavy end large, for •.what it upholds.. The laws of proportion and balance must be understood. In a waist bf ffileen inches both are destroyed,-: and the corresponding effect is unpleasant

to the eye. The curve of the ttodst W coarse and immoderate, utterly opposed .to what Buskin has shown. tp be beaiity'.fti d fcurrfe. Beal or artificial, such a waist’ is al ways ugly; if real, it is a defornrity th&t shqtild be .disguised; if artificial, it -is Mtytizjme. - r- ■