Lynchburg Daily Virginian

Hoops
-A New Invention.
The Paris correspondent of the N. Y. Times
thus describes a new invention which we take
pleasure in publishing for the information of
our readers. It must speedily have the steel spring,
as they will doubtless prove more durable than
the whalebone hoops and give a more perfect
form to the wearer.
From the common starched crinoline they passed to the crinoline with rings of whalebone, then to the rings of whalebone without crinoline, and
now within a month all our belles have adopted
the steel rings, the last new invention. Imagine
yourself a lady in her most intimate garment
alone, standing upright within the hoops of a
hogshead from which the staves have been removed and the hoops fixed in position, and you
will have a tolerable clear idea of the new invention. The steel rings are small, almost like the mainspring of a watch, and are wove with strong cloth. They commence small in diameter
at the waist and go on enlarging in regular proportion to the feet. In front they contain
spring, by which they can be enlarged or diminished to small extent at will. But they are
usually worn so enormously large that as the
wearer walks they do not touch the person at
all. They are thus very light, and as hygienic in
invention a worthy of all praise. As the wearer sits down they fold up with ease-that is,
from top to bottom, not in diameter. But they
present this inconvenience, that when they are
pressed on either side at the bottom, the opposite side is elevated into the air to an enormous distance for those who do not wish to show
the color of their garters. This the ladies declare to be the only inconvenience of the new
sous jupe. But in Paris this inconvenience is
not a great one.