Then the
suspenders clutched the rims of the stockings with an arrangement of
nickel and rubber which no _man_ would have tolerated for its
inefficiency but would have thrown back in the face of the shopman
and have been charged with assault. In times of stress, at public
meetings the suspenders would release the stockings from their hold,
and the latter roll about the ankles of the embarrassed pleader for
Woman's Rights ("Who would be free, themselves must strike the
blow," and first of all throttle the modiste, thought Vivie).
Then there was the camisole that concealed the corset and had to be
"pinned" in with safety pins. The knickerbockers might not seek the
aid of braces; but they must be kept up by an elastic band. Over
the camisole, in 1910, came a blouse, pernickety and shiftless about
its waist fastening; and finally a hobble skirt, chiefly kept up by
safety pins, and so cut below as to hamper free movement of the
limbs as much as possible.
Day-boots often had as many as twenty-one buttons--and, mind you,
not _sham_, buttons, as I used to think, out of swagger; but every
button demanded entrance into a practicable button hole. Or the
boots themselves were mere shoes with many buttoned spats drawn over
them. All the boots had high heels and the woman walked so as to put
a severe strain on her arched instep in order that she might bring
on by degrees "flat foot" for surgical treatment.
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