Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1882 — The Latest Novelty in Corsets. [ARTICLE]

The Latest Novelty in Corsets.

“One of the literary sensational novelties,” writes Clara Belle, “is the electric corset, of which rival manufacturers display a variety. All are made oi* the principle of substituting magnetized steel strips for the usual metal or bone. One enterprising exhibitor has his contrivance most neatly fitted on a pretty girl, and illustrates how completely she is lightning bound by touching her here and there with a piece of steel. A spark drops out at every contact. What would happen if a magnetic kind of chap hugged her, can only be conjectured. As she ie on exhibition in a dim room, the display of fire-works is excellent, considering it doesn’t cost anything. But it is for woman only, not that there is anything indelicate about it, either, for the girl is all covered but her arms and neck, and is far less bare than the average belle at a ball. Still, I suppose that men would jam that store, and fight like mad to get into the front row, if she were made visible to their sex, just because she is arrayed in her dimity. There seem to be a vast difference, to man’s eyes, between the tweedle-dee of an outer dress and the tweedle-dum of underclothing. I can’t understand why, but it is so. Nine men out of ten will rush wildly to a window to see a womaD in flowing white across the way, - and turn away disappointed when they find that the snowy garment is a wrapper instead Of a chemise.”