File:TheFamilyDoctorFeb23 1889page406 407.png

CORRESPONDENCE

three miles when laced to 13 inches, but, of course, stooping was quite out of the question.

All the time (two years) that I was laced so exceedingly small, I never wore a scrap morere underclothing than was absolutely necessary. In summer a fineknitted silk vest, no drawers, one petticoat, and a thin chemise. In winter a warm, but thin, sl1k vest, chemise and tight-fitting riding drawers of chamois leather, buttoning closely on to the edge of my corset and one petticoat. I left school at seventeen, and for a year continued my smallest corsets. and then my mother said she thought my figure was sufficiently trained and I was allowed the comparative freedom of 16-inch stays, the size I wear now, except when I lace on special occasions to 15 Inches. These 16-inch corsets (after the extrenle compression through which I have passed) allow of an elegant carriage, and all freedom that a girl who values a good fiure could desire. I have very good health, complexion beauifuliy clear. All my sisters have been treated In the same way. with the best results; even the youngest has a splendidly-developed bust for her age.

Here on the Riviera is a paradise of small waists; one sees dozens of women with well-laced figures and tiny waists. In most young and fashionable girls, above 18 inches is considered of medium size; there are a score or so in Mentone, Roccabrune, and Nice under, and I know quite half a score who measure less than 17 inches. I have seen quite children with well drawn-in rounded figures, and I know several girls under fifteen years of age withlwaists of 18 inches or less.

There are three girls, sisters, staying in this hotel, all three of whom have waists as small as my own, and, notwithstanding this, they are great walkers and dancers.

I hope the information contained in this letter may be of service to ladies desiring to improve their own or daughters' figures.

My mother will be pleased to recommend a girls' school in the South of England where, although tight lacing is not the rule, the figure is strictly attended to if the parents desire it.-- Yours &c , F. L. M.

Roccabrune, Jan. 24, 1889.

-:0:

FIGURE TRAINING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FAMILY DOCTOR.

SIR -I have seen several numbers of your interesting paper, and have read the various letters upon the above subject, and thinking that my own and sisters' experiences might perhaps be of service to your numerous readers, I write you this letter.

I may as well state that I am the eldest (twentythree) of four sisters, and they have been subjected, at first unwillingly, to the most elaborate process of figure training. My three sisters are aged about twenty, eighteen, and fifteen respectively.

My mother is a most firm believer in the virtues of tightly-laced corsets, and says that no girl who intends baving a figure ought to remain without well-made corsets after the age of twelve.

I will write of my own experience first. I am, as I have said, twenty-three yeara of age, tall, and naturally slender--height 5 feet 7 1/4 inches, waist 16 inches, bust 34 1/4 inches, hips 35½ inches. You will see by these that my hips and bust are both well developed, and my waist. which is round and beautifully tapering. All four of us wear French coraets, which are always better cut, I fancy, than English ones, and last longer. My mother's four principal rules were--

1. . Half an inch per month reduction when practicable.
2. . Never to wear corsets that have begun to lose their shape.
3. . To have corsets well and firmly boned at waist and hips, lightly boned bosoms, and these latter gored, even for young girls, as it aids the early development of bust. The corsets should be low in front, but high in backs.
4. . To have as little underclothing as is consistent with warmth and health, and what is worn to l e thin and well fitting.

We have always had these rules strictly enforced, and with the addition of high-heeled boots coming midway to the knee; the result has been that both I and my sisters have small, well-formed feet and trim, slender waists. I give for your readers' information the accurate measurements of my three sisters:-- Edith, age twenty, waist 15 inches, bust 32 inches, hips 34½ inches, height 5 feet 5 1/4 inches. May, age eighteen, waist generally 14 1/4 inches, bust 33½ inches, hips 35 1/4, height 5 feet 6 inches. Rosetta, age fifteen years three months, waist (now) 16 3/4 inches, bust 31 Inches. hips 31 3/4 inches, height 5 feet 2 inches.

I myself wore stays when eight years old, but they were only very slightly boned, and were Intended more to restrain my figure than to compress it. At twelve my figure was very good for a young girl, my waist measuring 21 inches. Soon afterwards I was laced into a shapely, well-boned corset of 18 inches, but only drawn in to 20 inches, so that I hardly felt any discomfort, except from the steel busk. I was pulled in half an inch at a time till, the corsets met without difficulty from top to bottom. I wore these stays and others of the same size for a year, and never suffered from pain. All this time I was wearing short dresses, and mother said she should not reduce me till the summer came, when she should let me wear longer frocks and less underclothing. I was very proud of my trim little waist, and would have had it pulled in tighter.

In the summer my mother got still smaller stays, and my waist now (a quarter of an inch at a time) was gradually reduced to 16 inches, nmy longer dresses enahling me to discard drawers and all underclothing except one petticoat, wearing only a thin, closefitting silk yest and a short muslin chemise. When my waist was only 16 inches, for a time I must confess to pain and indigestion; but these soon passed off, and, except that my appetite was small and my complexion somewhat paler, but good, I was as well as ever, and took a strange delight in my slender, well-laced figure. A few months later I went to a school, which, although not positively what might be termed a tight-lacing one, was one where tight stays were the rule, and not the exception. Girls were not forced to tight lace unless their parents wished it, and then a mother could rely on her orders being carried out to the letter.

My own mother wished me to he reduced as small as was possible, so I was pulled in little by little, without suffering "the agonies of pain" which several of your correpondents allude to, until spanned but 15 inches at the end of my first term at that school. On my return home for the holidays lny mother was delighted, and I was not a little proud of nlY slinl waist. Of course I will not pretend that with so small a figure I suffered no pain or inconvenience ; for after meais my stays often felt horribly tight, although my appetite was very small for a girl of my age. My hips were almost always numb and devoid of feeling, my carriage was naturally stiff and awkward, and my complexion colourless, but of a creamy, transparent pallor, which, as I have good features, is not altogether a disadvantage. As, however, any pain I suffered was very inconsiderable, and my waist was the talk of my friends and the envy of my girl acquaintances, I was quite ready, upon my return to school, to submit to further reduction. Fraction by fraction, and indeed almost in perceptively, my Waist was reduced until the minimum in point of size was reached, and for the last eighteen months of my school life I rejoiced in the distinction of a waist of 13 inches. Of course exercise, except of the gentlest description, wben drawn in to such an extent was out of the question and the lady nrincipal showed a wise discretion by insisting that all the very tightly-laced girls should at least once a week loosen their corsets till they only fitted their figures closely and not tightly. By this means the girl's health was undoubtedly saved, and I commend the practice to all those who admire a dainty waist and wish for good health. I. however, have walked as much as two or

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE FAMILY DOCTOR. SIR, --I hope you can spare me space to enter my protest against the maudlin sentimentality and prudery of some of your correspondents on this subject. There is no reason to suppose that the nature of our youth of both sexes has changed of late years, or that the present rising generation is more amenable to restraint than were its predecessors. Nearly half a century ago I was one of 400 lads at a public school where the birch rod was in use, not as a stimulant to learning, but as a preservative of discipline and a punishment for- insubordination and offences against morals. It was applied by the head master only, and all cases. To the bare breech. During my stay there of eight years I had a pretty frequent experience of it, but I never felt any sense of degradation. Or ever heard the idea mooted that there was anything to be ashamed of in it, except to howl over it. In breaking school rules we knew the risk we ran, and took the consequences of detection in good part. The last flogging I had was the severest that had been known in my time. I was nearly seventeen and was senior in a lot of six detected in a breach of the rule against smoking and entering public houses. The usual extent of punishment had hitherto been twelve cuts but in this case I received double the number the second dozen being administered from the opposite side to the first. The birches used were exceptionally stout, and I was sore for weeks after, but it never for a moment struck me that I had been cruelly used or that I otherwise than deserved all I had got. As my school and college career ultimately resulted satisfactorily, I claim that the system of the first was good, and am bringing up my boys on that system, in fact I would not send them to a school conducted on -the non-corporal punishment regime. As regards the female sex, I have only to say that my wife is an advocate for the judicious use of the rod whether at school or at home, and except in isolated and peculiar casts, ridicules the idea of a girl of fourteen or fifteen being really shocked or debased in her feelings by having to disrobe for punishment, as she insists that such feeling about exposure is not general among girls, who, as a rule, prefer to take their baths in companies of two or more to doing so alone. In fact youth of either sex is not so ethereal or sensitive as some of your correspondents represent, and the majority of it is all the better for an occasional whipping, - Yours truly, METHUSELAH. Edinburgh, Jan. 20, 1889. TO THE EDITOR OF THE FAMILY DOCTOR. SIR -Your correspondent. " An Old Sufferer," has, I think, too sumnlarily condemned the system of corporal punishment for girls in toto, without seeing that much which she objects to could be eliminated and yet retain a valuable last resource for the maintenance of discipline. I heartily concur with her that nothing is more important than to instil and foster in every young girl a feeling of modesty and self respect, and that no other gain could compensate for the loss of this delicacy of mind. At the same time, I do not see that this in incompatible with the use of the birch rod if applied in a proper way. I refer only to the birch rod (twigs of from 2 to 3 feet long, cut from a birch tree, and tied together at one end to form a handle), and only advocate its use when all other means have been tried without effect. To the ruler or cane I have a great ohjection, having seen permanent bodily injury caused by them. Firstly. Then the birch should be reserved for from F. L. M.

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