Girls, I do not blame you for wishing to keep your stockings smooth.
Nothing looks more "shif'less" than stockings in wrinkles. How shall
they be kept smooth? The means usually employed, is to apply a
ligature just below the knee. If the calf of the leg be very large,
the knee small, and the circulation of the feet vigorous, I suppose
an elastic garter may be used, to keep the stocking smooth, without
serious injury. But, as most American girls have slender legs, as
there is but little enlargement at the calf, the pressure of the
garter required to keep the stocking in position, is very injurious.
It produces absorption of important muscles, and, therefore,
weakness of the legs; a lack of circulation, and, therefore,
coldness of the feet. The stocking must be drawn up and held. How
shall it be done?
Let me illustrate. In attaching a horse to a load, we never draw a
strap about its body and attach to that for draft purposes, but we
seek some part of the body where the draft may come at right angles,
or nearly so. That we find at the shoulder, and it is the only part
of the animal upon which, without great harm, a considerable draft
may be made.
When we wish to support the several pounds of skirts, the stockings,
or any other garment, we look over the woman's body, to determine at
what point such support, or draft, if you please, may be applied. To
apply it about her legs, or about her waist, is precisely the same
mistake that would be made if the draft were attached to the girth
of the harness. There is only one point of support, and that is her
shoulder.
In another part of this work I have discussed, in detail, the straps
applied to the shoulder in supporting the skirts.
In this place it is only necessary to say, that a strap should be
fastened to the skirt-band at the side, to run down over the hip,
and on the outside of the leg, above the knee to divide into two
straps, one of which is to be attached to the stocking on the front
of the knee, and the other on the back of the knee.
Somewhere in the course of the single strap, a buckle may be
introduced to regulate the tension of the support. This sort of
support has been very much used for children's stockings. It has now
been adopted by thousands of women, many of whom have spoken to me
very warmly of its value.
LARGE vs. SMALL WOMEN.
Petite, applied to a woman, is a very dear word to the fashionables.
Ah, the dear, delicate, petite creature! Ah, my darling, sweet
petite!
But oh, how dreadful and monstrous such words as--the great
creature!--She's as big as all out doors!--for mercy's sake, look at
that woman! why, she could lift an ox! Among fashionable simpletons
these words are applied to a woman who weighs, say, one hundred and
sixty pounds, who has a fine, noble physique, fully competent to the
labors and trials of motherhood and life.
By a large woman, I mean one who weighs one hundred and forty to one
hundred and sixty pounds. A small woman is one weighing from ninety
to one hundred and ten pounds.
The reason for this preference for little women, among men, is
simply this. Formerly, women were slaves to the passions of men. In
modern times they have, among our better classes, risen a little
above that, and have become the pets and toys of men. Now a pet or a
toy, say a black and tan, is valuable in proportion to its
diminutiveness. A man in selecting a wife that he intends to dress
in silks and laces, with trinkets hung in her ears, rings on her
fingers, and little ornaments stuck all over her, who is to sit in
his parlor while he is absent on business, to dress and redress
herself several times a day, to be ready to receive him, all
corseted, besilked, bejeweled and bescented, when he shall come from
his office,--a man who selects a wife as a pet, a toy, is very
likely to have the same sort of preference for a petite wife, that
he has for a petite black and tan.
This is the source of the preference for little women.
Whenever women shall rise to a true companionship with men, as their
equals, and not their toys, then a small woman will no more be
preferred than a small man.
When the great ideas of use, of citizenship, of a true womanhood, of
a dignified motherhood, shall come to prevail over this Turkish
notion of toy women, then women of noble bearing and commanding
presence will be the style; and the little woman will suffer the
same disadvantage, in the matrimonial market, that a little man
does.
I beg you will not misunderstand me. I am only speaking of the
source of a fashion, a prejudice, a false preference. Some of the
most lovely, delightful women, as well as the most useful women I
have ever met, were small.
However, I am bound in truth to say that, during many years, I have
been on the qui vive with reference to the differences between the
large and the small, among women, and that I have reached the
conclusion that the average large-sized woman is, like the average
large-sized man, superior intellectually and otherwise, to the
small-sized one.
Women of commanding height, average, so far as my observation has
been able to determine, a higher morale, a more dignified character,
and greater amiability than the petite ones. I think this statement
is true of both sexes. Little men are more irritable, nervous and
unreliable, as a class, than large ones.
Some one says, "I don't believe it; it's no such thing; there's that
little Mr. R., who is the brightest, smartest man in town." This is
not at all improbable.
But what do you think of this fact: At one time in the history of
our great Revolutionary War, about fifteen of the most prominent
actors in that memorable struggle happened to meet at West Point.
They were weighed, and a record made. I have that record. Of the
fifteen, only one weighed less than two hundred pounds.
A small man weighs one hundred and twenty five pounds. How many men
of that size, or near that size, can you recall, who have figured
among the solid, great men in the world's history? We can recall two
or three brilliant poets, perhaps as many celebrated orators, who
were small men; but when we look among the men who have illustrated
the great, grand, solid, enduring traits of human character, in any
of the important departments of life, we find that, almost without
exception, they are above the average size.
If women were prized for solidity of character, dignity of bearing,
strength and reliability of judgment and behavior,--if they were
prized as women and citizens, rather than as darlings and toys,
there cannot be a shadow of doubt, that women of good size would be
greatly preferred, as a class, to small ones.