bodice (in one) are very
useful and suitable. The principal advantage of the princess dress is
its continuity from the shoulders downwards, leaving the waist free of
bands and tapes. With spotless collars and cuffs, our girl will be both
suitably and well dressed. A good woollen combination under-garment for
warmth and protection from the cold, thicker in winter, thinner in
summer. One, or at the most two, woollen petticoats, made with sloping
bands, to prevent pressure at the waist, will form a very comfortable
and practical dress, and, moreover, one that will present a very fair
appearance.

No, we know we have said nothing about stays; we are no friend to them;
we dislike them heartily, and we shall never rest until we can release
our girls from their trammels. We know the difficulties that present
themselves on all sides, but these can be met and overcome. Once release
our girls from this bone and steel bondage, her health will rise to a
high state of excellence. But she has so accustomed herself to use her
stays as a prop upon which she leans, that not without great resolution
on her part will she consent to pass through the small discomfort of the
change.

Once she has done so, however, she will wonder that she never thought of
it before, so light, so free, so agile will she feel. These stays are
our girls' worst foes, and have as much to answer for the indigestion as
all else put together.

If our girls wish to be happy, merry workers, as well as hard,
responsible workers, they will have to learn to do without stays; they
will have to train their own muscles to supply them with the support
they now seek in the corset.

"How are we to do this?" we hear some exclaim, who have followed us so
far. "How are we, who work from morn till eve, to begin 'training our
muscles?' We have no time now for that sort of thing."

Get a little more patience, dear girls. Reforms go slowly, but steadily,
if willing hearts go together. We hope ere long to show you that this,
too, is possible.

Meantime, for an immediate step in the right direction, let us urge upon
those who have not the courage to throw aside the corset, to set about
rendering it less harmful. Let the working corset be soft, and denuded
of its bones, and let the front steel be exchanged for a very flexible
one, and let the stays, above all, be very loosely laced. We feel we are
weak in conceding thus much even, but we look upon it as the thin end of
the wedg