Rhode Island American And Providence Gazette

POLICE MANSION HOUSE—LONDON.

TIGHT STAYS.—The Lord Mayor received the following strange communication on the subject of the dangerous and ridiculous fashion of wearing tight stays. It was directed to Mr. Hobler, whose assistance was privately requested, and was read aloud in the justice room, there being a person present on the part of the complainant who waited the reply of his Lordship:

"Sir—I have rather an extraordinary, sort of complaint to make to the Chief Magistrate; but although there exists no legal mode of counteracting the evil to which, through you, I beg to call his Lordship's attention, the interference of a man of influence, from his station in life and his experience, may produce the mischief, I am the father of three daughters, over whose morals, as rigid in their conversation as any female in the world. What I have to object to simply refers to their dress, and to but a very narrow portion of that. It is with a deep sense of self-abasement I state to you, sir, that my wife encourages my children, by her example, to persist in following the hideous and perilous fashion of which I entreat your most serious condemnation—I mean the fashion of squeezing in the waist until the body resembles that of a wasp [A laugh] Of all the abominations that ever received the sanction of our aristocracy, this is the worst. The least injurious effect of it is, that it fixes a deformity upon the human shape; and yet this effect, instead of working in the way that might be expected upon the vanity of the sex seems to be the great charm and recommendation. The whole of the region upon which the stays press, becomes, if we believe Mr Lawrence, and other great authorities, diseased as well as distorted. The lungs and the liver, and other parts of the viscera, are all crowded up together; and the stomach is totally divested of its power in regulating the system. My daughters are as yet living instances (God knows how long they may continue so) of the baneful consequences of this dreadful fashion. Would you believe it? their stays are bound with steel in the holes through which the laces are drawn, so as to be able to bear the tremendous tugging which is intended to reduce so important a part of the human frame to one third of its natural proportions They are able to sit, walk, or stand, as women need to do. To expect one of them to stoop would be absurd; and to witness the attempt alarming— My daughter Margaret made the experiment the other day to satisfy me that she was quite loose —the effort was too much for the strength of the steel and whale bone vice with which she was enveloped; her stays gave way with a tremendous explosion, and down she fell upon the ground, and I almost thought she had snapped in two. [Laughter.] But this, ridiculous as it was, was not the least advance towards remedy, or abatement of the evil. My girls are always complaining of pains in the stomach and lassitude, and if something be not done to stop this wasp waist mania, rapid decay must follow. Hoping that the Lord Mayor, and you, Sir, may excuse this liberty, in consideration of the fatal nature of the grievance and that some advice and admonition may be given to both mother and daughter, I have the honor to remain your obedient humble servant,

"To F. Hobler, Esq."

The Lord Mayor said he wondered that the gentleman did not get a share of their censure.— He was sure that there was a fierce competition between the sexes, in the article of tight waists, and if ladies and gentlemen were to cut themselves in two in the conflict, it would be no fault of his.—(A laugh.) He did not see how it would be a breach of the peace.

Mr Hobler observed, that if the waiting maids of the contending parties did not take care they might get into a very serious scrape, for if a lady or gentleman were to expire under the operation, the law might give it the name of murder, and those who aided and assisted might come in for a share of the penalty. (Laughter.)

It was here represented to his Lordship, that the writer of the letter felt serious alarm for his children, who, whenever he remonstrated pointed to some other ladies whose figures were equally plundered of their fair proportions.

Mr. Hobler said it was impossible not to see that there was very strong ground of complaint, He had heard of ladies who used the bed post as a sort of purchase in screwing themselves up, and he believed that the poor creatures must suffer horribly when they attempted to satisfy the cravings of nature (A laugh) A person might see when a steel bound girl was taking a cup of tea she would slip her hand round and endeavor to ease off a little. and sometimes when the experiment was not made with great caution the whole apparatus would give way, (Loud laughter.)

It was mentioned that by a new invention bursting would be completely avoided. "Ought not the inventors of such engines of destruction to be punished?

The Lord Mayor said he was afraid that if he objected to the fashion, the ladies would more pertinaciously adhere to it.

Mr. Hobler observed, that the steel-bound tribes miscalculated very much, if they thought that they improved their figures by squeezing them till they looked like hour glasses." (loud laughter.) If they looked at the Venus de Medici, they would see no resemblance. Mr. Malthus had no further occasion to alarm himself about the growing population; here was a remedy.

The Lord Mayor was certainly of opinion, that if the fashion were persevered in, posterity would be reduced to a very low state. In another century, our descendants might upon finding our bones, call them the bones of an elephant, and not of a man. His Lordship concluded by stating, that if he had it in his power, he would interdict the use of Stays, except in peculiar cases, convinced as he was that neither beauty was improved by this egregious system.