feebleness are not beauty. A proper proportion should exist between
the size of the waist and the breadth of the shoulders and hips,
and if the waist is diminished below this proportion, it suggests
disproportion and invalidism rather than grace and beauty.

8. The perfect corset is one which possesses just that degree of
rigidity which will prevent it from wrinkling, but will at the same
time allow freedom in the bending and twisting of the body. Corsets
boned with whalebone, horn or steel are necessarily stiff, rigid and
uncomfortable. After a few days' wear the bones or steels become bent
and set in position, or, as more frequently happens, they break and
cause injury or discomfort to the wearer.

9. About seven years ago an article was discovered for the stiffening
of corsets, which has revolutionized the corset industry of the world.
This article is manufactured from the natural fibers of the Mexican
Ixtle plant, and is known as Coraline. It consists of straight, stiff
fibers like bristles bound together into a cord by being wound with
two strands of thread passing in opposite directions. This produces an
elastic fiber intermediate in stiffness between twine and whalebone.
It cannot break, but it possesses all the stiffness and flexibility
necessary to hold the corset in shape and prevent its wrinkling.

We congratulate the ladies of to-day upon the advantages they enjoy
over their sisters of two centuries ago, in the forms and the graceful
and easy curves of the corsets now made as compared with those of
former times.

[Illustration]