Page:Science ofDress103.png

CHAP. VII.] fore, like that shown in Fig. 7, made of coloured cotton, may be worn. The illustration represents a very pretty one trimmed with Madeira work or Swiss embroidery.

In choosing materials for clothing, care must be taken to avoid weight while securing warmth; and, above all, they should be inexpensive and strong, so that the child may not suffer from being forbidden healthy play lest its clothes should be spoiled. It must be a poor sort of mother's love—and yet it is a very common one—which prefers the welfare of the clothes to that of the child. If a woman wants a block to set fine clothes on, let her get one made of wood or wax, but not turn her little boy or girl into one.

In a later chapter I shall have to refer to the question of reform in the matter of corsets and tight-lacing; but, as I have already urged, reform should begin with the infant. Let us then be sure from the child's earliest days that no external pressure of garments shall hinder its natural and healthy development; and if, combined with this negative advantage, there be the positive one of a liberal amount of physical exercise, we shall be the means