The well-made, corded and boneless waist, with shoulder straps, and supports for all the skirts, is the only reasonable thing; and this must be loose enough to allow the waist ample room for development. Think of sixty millions of corsets sold in a year in America,—one for nearly every man, woman and child in the land! Is it strange that our women are invalids, and the American race fast dying out? It is said that a French artist represented the devil in the dress and corset of a fashionable woman! A terrible commentary upon feminine folly. Mrs. Ecob, in her book, _The Well-dressed Woman_, which every young wife should read, says: “The corset curse among women is more insidious than the drink curse among men. Total abstinence from both sins is the only safe ground. A woman can no more be trusted with a corset, than a drunkard with a glass of whiskey.” To sum up the evils of dress and suggest lines of study, is all we have room for in our short space. 1. Insufficient underwear. 2. The corset—which compresses the vital organs, overheats the region it covers, displaces the pelvic contents, serves as an excuse for hanging the clothes upon the hips, impedes the circulation of the blood in the extremities, lungs and brain, and robs the wearer of freedom and grace of movement; while it brings in the long line of ills which have doomed our American women to invalidism, and robbed their children, if they have any, of their lawful inheritance, good health. 3. Heavy and trailing skirts, which burden the wearers, and impede their motion. 4. Inequality of clothing, which covers the waist and abdomen, which should not be overheated, with from ten to fifteen thicknesses, while the shoulders and limbs are often covered with but one thickness, and that of cotton. 5. The high-heeled shoes which throw the body out of the natural poise, and so displace the womb. 6. The general lack of thought of what dress should be in order to give health and comfort to its wearers. “Evil is wrought by want of thought As well as by want of heart.” Our young wives should know these evils, and institute a crusade against them, so strong and forcible, that intelligent common sense shall govern in dress, and health and happiness be the blessed results, in the home. CHAPTER III. HEALTH OF THE YOUNG WIFE. Health Insures Happiness.—Be Ambitious for Health.—The Scarcity of Perfectly Healthy Women.—Fashion to the Rescue.—The Boon of Health.—Necessity of Ventilation and Fresh Air.—Duties to the Home.—The Greatness of Woman’s Sphere.—In the Society Drift.—The Extreme of Wholly Avoiding Society.—Keeping in the Middle of the Road.—Pleasures and Recreations Taken Together.—Taking Time to Keep Young.—Mistakes Which Some Husbands Make.—Wrecks at the Beginning of Married Life.