Jan. 19, 1908 (Sunday)

ENGLISH GIRLS HAVE A HARD TIME SQUEEZING INTO FRENCH GOWNS: A problem has surfaced in the planning for a London and Paris Dress Exhibition that's scheduled to take place Saturday during the Franco-British Exhibition in London. Planners originally hoped to have an equal number of English and French girls model the latest outfits. Today's Times reports, via Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph, that "the problem of finding a considerable number of English girls capable of BEING POURED INTO SMART FRENCH GOWNS is much more difficult than generally imagined."
One problem, an expert says, is that many English girls "have never learned to wear corsets" (One version, from about 1900, is shown at right.) The unidentified speaker continues:
"The uncorseted brigade is growing larger in England all the time; moreover, it is condisdered a very smart fad to discard the corset.... The result is taht girls who have the most beautiful color imaginable and excellent helath have forms that -- hang it all! -- the least said about them the better. Suffice it to say that in many instances they outcurve where they should incurve, and incurve where they should outcurve."
Is it time for the king to paraphrase a Shakespearean utterance by Richard III and cry, "A corset, a corset, my kingdom for a corset"?

PUBLISHER TO SELL SPECIAL COPY OF MARX'S BOOK: Scholars in Germany are excited about the recent announcement that a special copy of "Zur Kritik der Politschen Oekonomie" will be sold soon by Max Perl, who is one of Berlin's top publishers. The book is the work of Karl Marx (left). A translation of the title is "A Criticism of Political Economy". This volume is an original copy that was owned by Ferdinand Lassalle, whom some consider the founder of socialism. Todays New York Times says, "The book is full of autograph comments by Lassalle."