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SIR,--I hope you will kindly allow me space in your valuable journal to answer the question your correspondent, "Raymond," asks me in his letter on " Corset Discipline" in your issue of November 30. My wife was no exception to the general rule of brides being nervous at their wedding, so she was afraid of being too tightly laced. Her waist measured nineteen inches, and it was with great difficulty that her dress was made to meet. She had eighteen inch C.B. corsets of the very best quality, large in the bust, and very fully boned. Her figure was greatly admired for its elegance. She was married in her travelling dress of a kind of buff cloth with thick ivory silk facings and pleats, and wove strap shoes of buff kid to match. They had heels of four inches and a quarter only, three inches being on the outside. The soles were rather narrow, and the toes pointed, but not very sharply so, and were very tight and shapely. As the time was the early part of June these dainty shoes were not changed after the ceremony, but worn till the evening, when they were changed for still higher heeled chaussure.

I am glad to find "Raymond" admires a tightly laced waist, and is not afraid to say so. It has a grace of form one never gets in a looser One, however small the waist may naturally be. If a correct census of opinion could be taken, I think it would be found that among women as well as men the great majority would be of the same opinion. And the same with high heels. But women are afraud to say so, as they are of all arts for improving upon nature ; even those who practise them will not admit it. It was only when chignons became universal and of an impossible size that their falseness was admitted. So only when tight lacing becomes universal among ladies, as it seems very likely soon to be, and the size of the waist becomes always quite unnaturally small, shall we have ladies talking-about it with candour--

"a consumation devoutly to be wished."--I.am, Sir, yours, faithfully,

"SCIENCE AND ART."

Kensington. Dec. It 1889. to "Raymond"; from "Science and Art."

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