Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment / Or the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad; Containing Rules of Etiquette for All Occasions, Including Calls; Invitations; Parties; Weddings; Receptions; Dinners and Teas; Etiquette of the Street; Public Places, Etc., Etc. Forming a Complete Guide to Self-Culture; the Art of Dressing Well; Conversation; Courtship; Etiquette for Children; Letter-Writing; Artistic Home and Interior Decorations, Etc.

by Maud C. Cooke

On Corset Wearing.

The wearing of corsets meets the strong disapproval of all Delsarteans, as “control of the breath underlies gesture, walk and voice,” and a tightened corset-lace necessarily cramps the breathing power. The tight, high collar is also objectionable for the same reason.

An English writer justly observes that “all the greater harmonies and higher courtesies of life must extend over the whole body.” Now, in great emotions the chest expands, and especially the lower part where the ribs are freest and intended to expand most, and this part it is that tight corsets most compress to attain the artificial waist. The figure, trying to accommodate itself to the new conditions becomes deteriorated in all directions. The back grows rounded, the ribs fall in, and the stomach obtrudes itself unduly; all this to the injury of health and of harmonious beauty of form.

Mr. Russell also asserts that a forced compression of the waist damages the power of the figure as an instrument for the expression of emotions, the result of all this being an unfavorable reaction upon the mind and character of the unfortunate victims. One of his maxims is: “A beautiful woman is at her lowest plane in a tight-fitting dress; an ugly woman on her highest in drapery!”