Fashions in Waists

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 27, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 33.

Fashions in Waists.

IN the April Magazine of Art, Richard Heath discourses on "Fashions in Waists," and among other things tells of the way the great naturalist, Cuvier, attempted to impress the evils of tight lacing upon a young lady who was a victim thereof. Walking with Cuvier one day in the Jardin des Plantes, she admired a plant whose elegant stem was adorned with a bloom of lovely color. Looking at her thin, pale face, he replied, "You were like this flower once; tomorrow it will be as you are now." Next day Cuvier led the young lady to the same spot, and bid her look at the flower. It was drooping and dying. She asked the cause. "This plant," said he, "is an image of yourself. I will show what is the matter with it;" and the great naturalist pointed out to her a cord which was bound tightly around the stem. "You are fading away exactly in the same manner, under the compression of your corset, and you are losing by degrees all your youthful charms just because you have not courage to resist this dangerous fashion."—Sel.