Once she has done so, however, she will wonder that she never thought of it before, so light, so free, so agile will she feel. These stays are our girls' worst foes, and have as much to answer for the indigestion as all else put together.
If our girls wish to be happy, merry workers, as well as hard, responsible workers, they will have to learn to do without stays; they will have to train their own muscles to supply them with the support they now seek in the corset.
"How are we to do this?" we hear some exclaim, who have followed us so far. "How are we, who work from morn till eve, to begin 'training our muscles?' We have no time now for that sort of thing."
Get a little more patience, dear girls. Reforms go slowly, but steadily, if willing hearts go together. We hope ere long to show you that this, too, is possible.
Meantime, for an immediate step in the right direction, let us urge upon those who have not the courage to throw aside the corset, to set about rendering it less harmful. Let the working corset be soft, and denuded of its bones, and let the front steel be exchanged for a very flexible one, and let the stays, above all, be very loosely laced. We feel we are weak in conceding thus much even, but we look upon it as the thin end of the wedge, which represents the fulfilment of our aim.
We think we have now said enough to set our girls thinking, and though we have far from exhausted our subject, we hope that each reader will be able to deduce some hints which may be applicable to herself.
BOOKS FOR TIRED GIRLS.
Have not some readers of The Girl's Own Paper a few to spare?
A little reading-room and library for business girls is about to be opened in the new Y.W.C.A. Buildings, 316, Regent-street, now quickly nearing completion. Help is greatly needed in making it really attractive for those whose minds are hungry after the day's mechanical work, but who are too weary to take up a prosy volume.