Article - Womans World: "Getting a New Dress"

Abstract

An article about the process of having a dress made, written by Ethelwyn Wetherald under the pseudonym Bel Thistlethwaite. The final paragraph reads: "This is all that has to be endured on the first day. But you have a sad prevision of a future visit when the waist will be ready a future visit when the waist will be ready to try on. It will be a trying time. The long breath you would like to take to fortify you during the operation is strangled in its birth by the meeting of buttons and buttonholes; the rebellious words you would fain utter are choked off by the tight band beneath your ears; the strong right arm with which one brief moment since you could easily have laid your captor low, now hangs limp and nerveless in its sleeve; even the ignominous consolation of fight is denied you - there is no fleeing under a dead load of drapery. Alas, poor slave what will you do now? Better put a good face on it. Flaunt your fetters in the free air of heaven and pity the poor heathen who are not too civilised to dress as they please."