readily observed all
free use of the lower limbs was out of the question during the reign
of the "tie-back."

[2] It was in the midst of the period of the tie-backs that
_Harper's Bazar_ published two striking cartoons
illustrating the poem given below. One represented a poor
man's wife, "The slave of toil," and was pathetically
powerful in its fidelity to truth; the other, drawn by the
powerful Nast, represented a society lady of the day attired
in the reigning tie-back, measuring at the hips a little
more than double the width a short distance below the knees.
This slave was chained to fashion's column.

SISTER SLAVES.

You think there is little of kinship between them?
Perhaps not in blood, yet there's likeness of soul;
And in bondage 'tis patent to all who have seen them
That both are fast held under iron control.
The simpering girl, with her airs and her graces,
Is sister at heart to the hard-working drudge;
Two types of to-day, as they stand in their places;
Whose lot is the sadder I leave you to judge.

One chained to the block is the victim of Fashion;
Her object in life to be perfectly dressed;
Too silly for reason, too shallow for passion,
She passes her days 'neath a tyrant's behest.
Thus pinioned and fettered, and warily moving,
Lest looping should fail her, or band come apart:
What room is there left her for thinking or loving?
What noble ambition can enter her heart?

And one, the worn wife of a grizzled old farmer;
She kneads the great loaves for the "men-folks" to eat.
In the wheat-fields the green blades are springing like armor;
Afar in the forests the flowers are sweet.
She lifts not her eyes. Within kitchen walls narrow
Her life is pent up. The most hopeless of slaves,
Though weary and jaded in sinew and marrow,
She never complains. Women _rest_ in their graves.

Twin victims, for which have we tenderest pity--
For mother and wife toiling on till she dies,
Or the frivolous butterfly child of the city,
All blind to the glory of earth and of skies?
Is it fate, or i