Rouse yourselves, ye unfortunate fat ones, for indeed I pity you! Labour till you bring the sweat to your brow. Be of some good in the world, for no one has the right to be useless. Reduce your good things in number; to-day have one dish the less, to-morrow another. You can send the unnecessary luxuries to some poor neighbour. You will thus be charitable to two people-to yourself, and to some miserable being who has to look at every crust of bread before eating it.
Take as your motto “Work and Frugality,” and by these means you will save yourself.
Take as your motto “Work and Frugality,” and by these means you will save yourself.
“How to Avoid Growing Stout,” from The Lady’s Dressing Room by Baroness Staff, 1893.
Doing research on Victorian-era etiquette, which has been totally fascinating.
Random aphorisms and commentary and things.