Dear sir, – I knew a young lady some years ago, who was an extreme tight-lacer. She was twenty-six years old when I first became acquainted with her, and she had been very tightly laced since she was ten years old. To create a severe figure, she cultivated a “pipe” waist, the stem of which was exactly the same size for nearly six inches, and she was constantly decreasing it in diameter by lacing until she was able on special occasions to present a marvellous pipe waist of fifteen inches, which did not vary a fraction from the top of the stem to the bottom.
I was present on several occasions when she was being laced into this severe shape which took nearly an hour to accomplish, as she had frequently to rest, during which periods her maid would constantly massage the waist with the flat of her hands on the outside of the corset, firmly pushing the flesh up from the waist and down from the waist, and then the lacing would commence again until the lacings finally met at the back for the entire length of the stem – six inches.
It must have been terrible torture as I have seen her faint many times during the process of lacing, and at a reception later.
Yours truly,
“E.B”
New York.