BENEDICT addresses us on the subject of tight-lacing, and says – “I have read with much interest the correspondence on the above subject in ‘The Englishwoman’s Conversazione’ for several months past, having accidentally met one of the number of your Magazine in a friend’s house, and have since regularly taken it, although not previously a subscriber. As an ardent admirer of small waists in ladies, I wish to record, for the satisfaction of those who possess them, the fact (which is sometimes disputed) that the pains bestowed in attaining a slender figure are not in vain, so far as we gentlemen are concerned, and some of us are positively absurd in our excessive admiration of this particular female beauty. Poets and novelists are perpetually introducing heroines with ‘tiny waists’ and impossible feet, and if they are to portray female loveliness in all its attributes they could not well omit two such essential points, and I take it their ideal is not an unfair criterion of the taste of the public at large. I am delighted to learn, from the very clear evidence put forward by your many correspondents, that ‘small waists’ are attainable by most ladies a little or no inconvenience, and that those of clumsier build are wiling to suffer a certain amount of pain, if necessary, in reducing their bulky figures to graceful proportions, and, above all, that this can be done without injury to health, for, after all, it would be a dearly-purchased charm if health were sacrificed. Some fifteen or twenty years ago I recollect the word ‘stays’ was uttered as though a certain amount of disgrace attached to the wearer, and ‘tight-lacing’ was looked on as a crime; but I am glad to see that a reaction is setting in, and that ladies are not afraid to state openly that ‘they lace very tightly,’ and many of them declare the sensation of being ‘laced as tightly as possible’ is positively pleasurable one. I may say that personally I feel that every lady of my acquaintance or with whom I may come in contact who does so places me under a direct obligation. I will go further than your correspondent, A YOUNG BARONET, and say that whenever I meet a lady who possesses the charm of a small waist, and has the good taste to wear the tight-fitting dress now fashionable for promenade, I make it a point to see her ‘pretty figure’ more than once, and have often gone considerably out of my way to do so. Although married years and years ago, I am still a slave to a ‘little waist,’ and, I am proud to say, my wife humours my whim, and her waist is decidedly a small one. I will therefore add my experience to that of others (more competent to give an opinion, having experienced tight-lacing in their own proper persons), and state that she never enjoyed better health than when her waist was smallest, and I shall be much disappointed if her daughters, when they ‘come out,’ do not emulate their mother’s slender figure. By keeping your ‘Conversazione’ open to the advocates of tight-lacing, and thoroughly ventilating the subject, you will, in my opinion, confer a benefit on the rising generation of young ladies, whose mammas in too many instances are so prejudiced against the use of the corset that they permit their daughters to grow up into clumsy, awkward young women, to their own disgust and great detriment in the ‘matrimonial market.’ – I am, Madam, your obedient servant, BENEDICT.”