OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2562, 24 July 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.)

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children. The following communications have been received from one of our correspondents. We earnestly commend them to tho attention of mothers and those in charge of children and young girls. Wo shall .go further into the matter next week, but meantime it suffices to say tbit tlio course of muscular training which our correspondent hit on was the proper and natural means of making herself fit to stand alone unaided by artificial support. She has made her muscles effect what steel and whalebone could only clumsily imitate in the way of support, and that at tlio expense of movements of chest and ab-domen,-in addition to a diplacement of deep-seated internal structures. OUlt CORRESPONDENT’S' LETTTR. “Having been much interested in Dr Truby King’s lecture containing reference to the wearing of corsets, it has occurred to me, as it has often done, that a practical hint as to the best way of dressing without the customary firmness is needed. Many women are inclined to reform, but do not know how to set about it. If you can make any use of tlie enclosed paper (originally written for a girls’ club here) I shall be glad. Its publication in ‘Hygeia’s’ column might be of service. I should prefer that my name was not disclosed.” WOMAN AND THE CORSET. For years we have been warned against the corset. It lias been lectured against, harangued against, condemned in unstinted terms. Every book on physiology and hygiene devotes chapters to recounting its dangers. It has been proved to be the cause of an enormous amount of suffering to woi men and of weakness in their off-spring. 1 But w men still cling to it; will not i let it go. : THINK THEY CAN’T DO W-ITHOUT

And they canno.t. That is the rub. I 1 hoy have never been shown how to do without it. All their lives they have used tho corset as a support both for themselves and their clothes. Suddenly they are asked to do away with thh. support, this girdle of strength ana firmness on which they have unconsciously grown to place the most utter dependence; and nothing is given to take its place. No wonder that a few days’ trial convinces them that an aching floppiness is the only result of the desertion of the corset. They naturally argue that what is - unbearable for them can scarcely he bearable for their daughters. Hence the perpetuation of tTio corset and its evils. A GIRL’S EXPERIENCE.

And yet, iff one only receives tho necessary" hint, it is quite a simple matter to dress comfortably and delightfully without it. Perhaps the experience of a Non' Zealand girl who has thought the matter out may give enlightment to those who need it. As a baby, she .was subjected to the usual binding methods so favored by mothers and nurses of years ago, and still unfortunately, not extinct. As a little girl she wore a hot and uncomfortable strapped thing pf jean, whose only office seemed to he that of wrinkling into the most tiresome places. As a girl in her early toons she was instructed into the stiff mysteries of a real grown-up corset, with its steel bars that would insist on snapping till her muscles learnt to lie still and rigid behind them. It was tiresome not to he able to bend and twist as one felt inclined, and the whole thing was dreadfully uncomfortable, but, of course, it had to be worn! She soon grew accustomed to it, and ceased to rebel. ' -

When about twenty-three she read a book in which the absurdity, the unliealthfillness, and the positive danger of the corset were pointed out. For a few days the girls’ face wore a disturbed look. —R eb el 1 ion— Mi scry— Do fea t.

Next she announced, “I’m going to give up corsets.” “Nonsense!” said her mother.

oil’ll look a fright if you do.” “You’ll feel wretched,” said her sister. “I know. I tried it once.”

“I’m going to do it,” said the girl. And sho did—for two days. Those were two days of misery. The feeling of floppiness and weakness was discouraging; the weight of her skirts on her soft flesh was cruel. On the third day sho crept into her corsets again and thought hard. Sho arrived at two definite conclusions. First, that she must devise some way of taking the drag of her skirts off her hips; second, that the muscles of her body had become so weak and flabby from years of disuse that a few weeks of physical exercises were absolutely necessary before her freedom could, become enjoyment. Sho thought some more. Then sho wont out and bought a yard of two of wide elastic and some big safety pins. She brought these home and made suspenders of them, to go over her shoulders and bear all the weight of her clothes.

Then the corsets came off again, never to return. For three weeks she did physical exercises night and morning to tone up her muscles. Housework helped wonderfully, and then the tennis season came in, and the victory was won. • *, . For a month or more she looked undeniably floppy—she was a plump little girl at any time, —but after that she straightened up wonderfully. Tho freed muscles worked back into their right places, and hardened into a healthy firmness that gave her a most pleasing carriage. She looked actually smaller round the waist and hips than when in corsets. „ _ And then tho delightful feeling of it! Do you know tho joy of tennis and golf with no steel bar # to contend against in stooping and swinging? Do you know the refreshing coolness of a summer spent without corsets? “Girls,” she would say, “you don t know you’re alive with.those things op. I wouldn't wear them again for all the tea in China. ‘.‘l shall never, he fat and lumpy when I am old,” she would add merrily, “for every hit of flesh will ho in its natural place, not pushed into hideous halls and creases by corsets. Girls, take them off.” • ’

GIItLS, TAKE THEM OFF! The phrase is a good one. Pity it is that ; it cannot bo sent echoing, through the length, and breadth of bur country. Girls, take them off! Wo are a new people, beginning . where - older countries stop, not afraid, in our vigorous youth, to institute reforms where reform is needed. Would not this be one of the grandest reforms the world has ever heard of? Would it not be a fine thing for New Zealand if woman hero broke the bonds of her worst slavery, choosing health instead of suffering for herself and her posterity. A splendid race of men and women might be reared in these'beautiful islands if mothers would only, cast away for ever ancient and dangerous traditional customs.