Dear Sir,–I think it was Shakespeare who wrote of the seven ages of man. One can divide woman in her devotion to her corsets into seven ages also,
Age No. 1: Babyhood–when she makes her first acquaintance with her corsets in the form of a binder.
Age No. 2: Early childhood–when a buttoned bodice is assumed, and which is the forerunner of the corset proper.
Age No. 3: About the eleventh year–she is growing up, and mamma makes her a present, perhaps on her birthday, of her first “real” corsets, whereupon she assumes an air of superiority and boasts of her new acquisition to her friends, telling them she is done with baby bodices and that her new corsets clasp like mamma’s and have laves at the back. But mamma has taken care that these corsets are not boned in any ways as yet.
Age 4: At about fifteen, Mamma, now referred to as “Mum,” intrigues her by having her fitted with orthodox corsets which she soon learns to put on loosely and lace up at the back in the approved manner. Although both “Mum” and the corsetiere said they should be left an inch open at the back, she often has them quite close–at which “Mum” smiles to herself and thinks the girl has some pride.
Age No. 5: Say, two years later. Vanity is making her “smarten up,” as she puts it. She has been getting smaller corsets and tugging at the laces. Sometimes she asks “Mum” to do her up, and “Mum” smilingly obliges, with an admonition that she thinks the corsets seem rather tight, which is met by the retort that her friend has a waist two inches less, and that her next corsets will need to be smaller, as she looks dowdy in these.
Age No. 6: And now for few years she queens it. Her wasp-waisted corsets have a short, if strenuous, time, and she does not grudge any expense for new corsets. But as she becomes more buxom, Nature will no longer be denied, and now a half inch, and then an inch she “really must” let her waist out. It is grudgingly done, but done it must be; and although she has more inches to her credit she is as tight-laced as ever, and goes in, too for fainting.
Age No. 7: And last–Nature wins. She has had a good time, but “at my age” one should really strive for comfort. Her corsets are as ornate as ever. She, or rather her maid, still manipulates the laces; but this is merely a perfunctory affair, and at last they are merely a habit, almost the last article she discards ere she is done for ever with any sort of garment–tight or loose.
Faithfully yours,
“HOMUNICULUS.”